Filed under: Essentials Red
For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt I am on week 1 of Essentials Red Online Worship History Course.
What a thought provoking week. The thing that really struck me this week is the concept of forgetting. From being in a place that I was in just recently, I know how true this is. I give thanks and praise to God that I am now back on track and things are so much better.
When thinking about this concept of fogetting I was draw back to the old testament, where there were times and places where events happened, whether it be with God or just people. But these places were names in memory of what took place there. This triggered the thought of ‘What do I see day to day that reminds me of God?’. As I was pondering this, it really came back to the little things. The sun shining through a tree, the beauty of our surroundings. Creation is amazing! There is just so much of it. On our first night gathered to start this course as a group, I was promped to say ‘Lord, thank you that you are so big that we can never get bored of you’.
May this be an encouragement to dive deeper and commune more with God.
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Hey Tim, so glad you included that last comment of the prayer you prayed when we got together this week…as the passion and the joy that exploded through when you prayed that was for me, ‘memorable’.
Comment by Di February 21, 2009 @ 8:59 amI wonder if it will become a ‘marker’ for this short journey we are all on with Essentials?
You are so spot on about “forgetting” Tim. I fondly remember my Grandma who constantly loved telling stories of days gone by and how good God had been to her. That came to mind as I read your comments. We don’t do that as much these days, I know I don’t. There is much to celebrate in the remembering.
Thanks for sharing – we look forward to more!
Comment by Sharee February 23, 2009 @ 9:21 amHey Tim, I also loved the quote about forgetting, and, for me it has started a whole new line of thinking and questioning within myself. “Biblical remembering makes the power and the saving effects of the event present to the worshipping community…. Forgetting brings death, and remembering brings life”.1
I am impacted by the way Dan talks about the fact that our worship tells a story, and if we tell the story of God’s redemption and utilize the Christian Story as God tells it, then in fact are bringing God’s life.
Webber writes “Through worship the world learns its own story. And how will others hear unless we do God’s story in worship”.1 What story do we want the world to learn – of course we want the world to learn God’s story.
In fact, I distinctly remember (and aparently that is hard to do, or have I forgotton already), my studies of the early days and times of the Israelites, when God through Moses led them out of Egypt, and God would do something miraculous for them, and the next moment, they would turn around and follow after the next
big thing. My immediate reaction to their plight and their wanderings was to say in my heart, that there was no way I would be like them. Now, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I was in fact just like them, and in fact there was no difference between the way I act and react to God, than any one of the Israelites.
Maybe, just maybe, there is a little pearl of wisdom in this quote, that will help all of us to make a difference in this world, and we can then help the world to learn God’s story. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”.2
1 Robert E.WEBBER, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids:Baker Books, 2008),43-44
Comment by Michael Craythorn February 23, 2009 @ 9:43 pm2 NIV – 2 Peter 3:8-9