Search results for: worship

Christmas Scriptures: Little Saints: Matthew 2 Sermon Notes

Gifts. Perhaps most of our concern, energy, financial resources at Christmas involve the selection, purchase, and giving of gifts. Often this concern...

Living the Will of God - The God Who is Into Everything: Matthew 6 Sermon Notes

Matthew 6:5-15 5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to...

Your Labor on Labor Day: August 30 Newsletter

As we enjoy the long Labor Day weekend, let’s not forget what the holiday celebrates: ordinary, everyday work. If you’re a pastor...

Seeing the Good Side of Work: Seeing the Good Side of Work (Colossians 3 Sermon Notes)

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord...

Monday Morning Faith: Going to Work for God (Sermon Notes)

Bill Peel lays out a sermon on making your work count for God.

Do You Ever Feel Like You’re Just Slogging Through? August 10 Newsletter

Sometimes work is exciting, engaging, and challenging. We make discoveries, help other people and build something worth...

Designed to Work: When Work Doesn’t Feel Like Worship

My dad chooses to see work as life-giving instead of soul-draining.

Best of Daily Reflections: How Does God Lift Up the Poor and Needy?

Psalm 113 celebrates the greatness of God. It calls us to praise the Lord because he is “high above the nations” (113:4).

Hosanna!

Throughout his ministry, Jesus had proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God. For first-century Jews, this implied that a divinely anointed royal figure would soon expel the Romans from Judea.

Shout to the Lord?!

I can still remember Mrs. Merrill calling the first-graders to worship in the Sunday School of Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Quoting from the King James version of prophet Habakkuk, Mrs. Merrill...

The Biblical Imperative We Love to Ignore

Psalm 96 begins with a simple imperative: “Sing a new song to the LORD!” If you look up all of the Hebrew...

Where Worship Leads

Where does worship lead? When we gather together as the people of God to offer praise, thanks, and worship to our Lord, where does this take us? What happens in us and to...

What Is God’s Majesty Really All About?

The LORD is king! He is robed in majesty. Indeed, the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength. The world...

The Church and the High Calling of Our Daily Work

Church leaders, rightly, have a primary thing on their mind: The mandate to see people come to salvation in Christ. Church programs...

Make a Joyful Symphony to Christ the King

Today is a special holiday in the Christian year (sometimes called the liturgical year or the church year). It is Christ the...

One Day in God’s Courts Might Be Better Than Thousands Elsewhere: What Does This Really...

Psalm 84 celebrates the temple of God in Jerusalem. It begins “How lovely is your dwelling place...

More Dazzling Than Mountains

Psalm 76 celebrates the justice and strength of God, who “breaks the pride of princes, and the kings of the earth fear him” (76:12). He is truly “glorious,” “even more majestic than the everlasting...

A Labor Day Prayer

God, help us to build a new world in the midst of the old, a world where all workers are valued. We pray for the coming of a world where all workers everywhere...

Discovering the Power of Singing to God

I am one of those peculiar people who wakes up with a song in my head. It happens almost every morning. And...

Transcending the Ordinary

I just paid the electric bill. This time was no different than any other time.

Why Do We Worship?

Every now and then, I need to be reminded of why I worship. Perhaps you do too.

Best of Daily Reflections: When Spiritual Boasting Is Good

I love hearing people boast about God.

Ash Wednesday and the Compassion of God

It was March 3, 1976. As I entered the freshman dining hall of my college, I noticed that the women who served...

My First Ash Wednesday

Editor's Note: Today begins the season of Lent. The editorial staff and readers of TheHighCalling.org bring to this space a diversity of experience with the traditions of this season. Some of us have...

Why We Praise the Lord

Each week, millions of Christians throughout the world gather together in order to offer praise to God.

What Is Your Church Doing for Labor Day Sunday?

Make Labor Day Sunday a special day in the life of your church!

How Do You Envision the Glory of God?

I've been a Christian for almost half a century. I've sat through hundreds of sermons and delivered hundreds of my own. I've...

Two Easy Ways a Pastor Can Encourage People That All Work Matters

Two weeks ago, I went running with my pastor during lunch. You can do that in a small town. Somewhere around our...

What Is God’s Glory? Part 2

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Ash Wednesday Reflection: What It Means to Be Human

In the Common English Bible, the Lord addresses Ezekiel as “Human one.” Most English translations prefer the traditional “Son of man.”

Clap and Shout!

Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! Psalm 47:1 In the past three decades, Christians throughout the world have learned to worship more expressively. Even in formerly staid mainline...

Best of Daily Reflections: Are You Striving for the Wrong Things?

He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. Luke 1:52 Luke 1:46-55 is Mary's song of praise to...

Best of Daily Reflections: When God Doesn’t Like Worship

I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me. Leviticus 26:31 When I was a...

Glory!

Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole community. Fire blazed forth...

God’s Favorite Smell

“When you present grain as an offering to the LORD, the offering must consist of choice flour. You are to pour olive oil on it, sprinkle it with frankincense, and bring it to...

Redeeming the Sermon

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My King and My God!

Sometimes we Christians have a tendency to make God too small. Not that we actually diminish God, of course. But our thoughts and images of God can be of a divine pal who...

Honoring the Body of Christ

As you may recall, the main problem in the Corinthian practice of the Lord's Supper was the failure of the members of the church to love and care for each other as they...

The Awesomeness of God

When have you been impressed, perhaps even overwhelmed, by the awesomeness of God?

Why Should We Praise the Lord?

Have you ever awakened on a Sunday morning and thought, “Why do I have to go to church today?”

How Can We Exalt God?

Psalm 99 opens by identifying God as king (99:1). He is not just any old king, however, but the “Mighty King” who is over all nations, and before whom all nations should “tremble” (99:1, 5). Thus...

Above All Gods

In 1977, as the praise and worship wave was just beginning to crash on the beaches of the American church, Pete Sanchez, Jr., took Psalm 97:9 in the King James version and wrote...

To God Be the Glory!

Today we finish what we began on January 1. This will be our final reflection on Paul’s letter to the Romans. Some Bibles indicate that the verses of Romans 16:25-27 do not appear...

Worship the Lord in the Splendor of His Holiness

Psalm 29:2 summons us to “worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” How do we do this? What does this...

From Theology to Worship

As we come to the end of the long theological section of Romans, including the often perplexing chapters 9 through 11, we are led to marvel at the mysteries of God, even though they exceed our...

Ultimate Satisfaction

Psalm 17 overflows with David’s prayers of asking: hear my plea, listen to my cry, pay attention to my prayer, declare me innocent, show me your unfailing love, guard me, protect me, rescue...

Ash Wednesday

Lent leaped over the traditional boundary between sacramental and evangelical churches. Where once you could only find Lent in Catholic, Episcopalian, and other high church traditions, now...

Worshiping God in Our Daily Lives

Psalm 15 begins with the question of who may worship in God’s sanctuary. The answer: “Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right” (v. 2). Then the psalm lists examples of...

Six Days Shall You Worship

Where do you worship? When I ask Christian businesspeople that question, I always get the same answer—the church they attend on Sundays. And no wonder. On Sunday mornings, we go to worship...

Best of Daily Reflections: Avoiding a Show of Religiosity

Earlier in this chapter, Jesus warned against giving alms and praying in public for the sake of human adulation.

Talking with J. I. Packer, Professor in Theology at Regent College

J. I. Packer is a Board of Governors' Professor in Theology at Regent College; Vancouver, BC. He is author of many books...

The Awesome Salad

An American businessman named Larry once spent six months in Britain, during which time he lunched with an English gentleman. “How is your salad?” his host inquired. Eager to appear...

“You Shall Not Make for Yourself an Idol” (Exodus 20:4)

The second commandment raises the issue of idolatry. Idols are gods of our own creation, gods that have nothing to them that...

The Dwelling of God in the Community (Leviticus 1-10)

The purpose of sacrifice was not merely to remedy occasional lapses of purity. The Hebrew verb for “offering” a sacrifice means literally...

What Is God’s Mission in the World?

First of all, God’s mission is to inspire people to work with the materials he provides to bring forth new and good...

How Does Human Work Connect to God’s Work?

When it comes to answering the question, ‘Does our work matter to God?’ most churches say yes. But they give different answers...

Equipping Churches Have a Vision of God at Work Where Their People Work

Equipping churches see their people’s daily work as part of the church’s ministry. These churches have begun to ask, ‘Where are our...

Equipping Churches Actively Hunt for Examples and Resources

Leaders and people together are attempting to learn what they can from the examples of other churches engaged in this process elsewhere...

Equipping Churches Connect Daily Work to Worship

These churches are changing their approaches to worship. The connections between work and worship are explored in the songs they sing, the...

Equipping Churches Address the Opportunities and Challenges Their People Face at Work

These churches are helping their people discover new ways of nourishing and living out their faith in...

Equipping Churches Release and Support Their People for Work Outside the Church

Equipping churches encourage their people to build relationships with both Christians and non-Christians in the marketplace. They...

Daily Offering: Praying for Others (Numbers 28 and 29)

Although people make individual and family offerings at appointed times, there is also a sacrifice on behalf of the entire nation every...

Wealth Gained Through Unjust Means Is Harmful

Some national leaders attain provision or wealth through unjust means such as exploitation, force, corruption, theft and others. Brutal dictators and regimes...

Legitimate Wealth Can Still Be Harmful

Not all accumulation of wealth is a result of injustice. However, even when wealth is gained through legitimate means, it still has...

Participating in God’s Work (Psalm 113)

Psalm 113 informs us “From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised”...

Psalm 146

God executes justice for the oppressed (Ps. 146:7a). So do we, when we work according to God’s commandments, by God’s grace. God gives food to the hungry (Ps 146:7b). So do we. God...

Psalm 148

Unlike Psalms 146, 147, and 149, Psalms 148 and 150 do not depict God at work, but skip directly to our response of praise for the work he has already done. Psalm 14...

Psalm 149

The Lord takes pleasure in song, dancing, and the music of instruments (Ps. 149:2-3), as do musicians, dancers, composers, songwriters, choreographers, film scorers, music librarians, teachers, arts organization workers and donors, choir members...

Worship and Work (Isaiah 1ff.)

Isaiah begins by insisting that religious rituals nauseate God when accompanied by sinful living: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt-offerings of...

Work and Worship (Micah 6:6-8; Amos 5:21-24; Hosea 4:1-10)

Justice is not merely a secular issue, as the prophets see it. Micah’s call for justice in Mic. 6:8 follows from an...

Work, Worship, and the Environment (Haggai 1:1-2:19; Zechariah 7:8-14)

Haggai connects the economic and social well-being of the people with the state of the environment. By means of a play on...

Babylon and the New Jerusalem: A Tale of Two Cities (Revelation 17-22)

A city that renounces God is condemned, but paradise bustles with meaningful work.

Working With God

Chapter 9 - Work as Worship: Serving Our Ultimate Boss

As we’ve talked with numerous people over the years, it seems to us that, broadly speaking, there are three main ways Christians...

Work in Worship

A Collection of Material for Those Compiling "Work Theme" Services From the book "Work in Worship," written by Cameron Butland, edited and compiled by Rev David Welbourn. Download the full Work in Worship...

A Theology of Work for a Post Industrial Age

By Rev’d Dr. Kenneth J. Barnes, Dean of the Marketplace Institute, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia In his collected papers entitled, Reflections on...

Ruth and Parables Curriculum

How can a church integrate workplace issues into a normal structure of weekly preaching and small groups? This integrated series can serve as a model. The Ruth series, piloted by Reservoir Church in...