Worship

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What is an Altar? (from the DG blog)

Submitted by Mike on July 30, 2008 - 8:57am
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From Desiring God:

"This is a guest post from a friend of ours who is a missionary doctor working with Muslims. It is a part of his guest series, "Day-to-day Observations from Asia."

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I was studying Psalm 43 with a friend in Urdu the other day. We came to where it says in English, "I will go to the altar of God."

As I read along in Urdu, I did not know the word for "altar," so I asked my friend what it was. He didn't know how to translate the word into English, but he gave the following English description: "It is God's bloody place, where the throats of the animals are slit for sacrifice."

Of course. It's an altar.

Sometimes I think of an altar as the carpeted stairs and dais at the front of the church meetinghouse. But it's not. It is a bloody place—a place of sacrifice and death.

I need to remember that."

Me too.

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Does God Need our Worship?

Submitted by Mike on March 22, 2007 - 2:24pm
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"We must believe, then, that God has no need, not only of cattle, or any other earthly and material thing, but even of man's righteousness, and that whatever right worship is paid to God profits not Him, but man. For no man would say he did a benefit to a fountain by drinking, or to the light by seeing." -Augustine, The City of God p.308

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Music that Kindles

Submitted by Mike on November 29, 2006 - 9:49am
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I think my favorite part of 'God is the Gospel' is the conclusion. There's probably no better way to kindle delight in Christ than to sing. Or maybe I just say that because I'm a musician. No, I think it's true. I thought I'd quote a portion of the final chapter, including a great hymn I had not read before.

"There is no part of the gospel that should not be sung. Every facet in the diamond is a spark that had ignited fire in the soul of Christian poets who have put their pen to paper for the sake of the church."

...

"Was frag' ich nach der Welt, [by Georg Michael Pfefferkorn] published in 1667, was translated into English in 1923 by August Crull as "What is the World to Me?" Though it is not well known, it does express the many ways that Christ surpasses all that the world can offer.

What is the world to me,

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