Comments for blog.limedaley.com/post/worship-the-right-way

Comment #105

2004-10-04T21:24:59Z

They will be in Pennsylvania shortly, I am thinking about getting a bunch of people together to go see/hear them. I wonder how loud their concerts are; if Heather and I find church to be too loud, it is quite possible that the concert would be louder. Someday, people will learn that 85dB (the current target level for our church) causes hearing loss over time.

A couple kids in our church were remarking a while ago about how they can't hear as well as their friends who don't go to our church...

Comment #104

2004-10-04T21:24:46Z

Yeah, that clarifies things. Yes, I agree about unemotional worship would result from a hard heart. And that emotions are a gift from God.

I guess why I was going against emotions was the typical high school/college group where emotions are held up as more important than giving God the glory. Also songs that people sometimes sing are not what they really mean at the time.

I think there is a place for singing spiritual truths, even if you don't particularly feel like it, but I think too often we sing things about what we desire, or how we are feeling, when we aren't feeling that way at all.

Now, there might be something to singing about something that you should feel, and perhaps by saying/singing it yourself might correct your thinking and feeling, but I am not as sure about that.

By the way, I now have all three Indelible Grace cds, and they are great!

Comment #103

2004-09-26T02:59:48Z

"I used to think it was important to be all caught up in emotions, but now I have realized that who God is, his deserved honor and glory, and our correct doctrinal thinking is what is important, and not my feelings of him."

Hmm. Well, I wouldn't quite say it that way (and maybe that's why I didn't say it that way). Getting caught up in emotions is not primary (or secondary, for that matter) in worship: giving God glory for who He is should be the focus. However, I do not divorce correct doctrinal thinking from our emotional response. Seeing God for who He is and seeing ourselves for who we are quite often is accompanied by strong emotions, but they are gifts from God, not something that we can somehow stir up within ourselves (which is what I believed in high school).

The prophet Isaiah is a great example of someone who encounters God and has a strong emotional response: "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." (Isaiah 6:5). Our worship of God should provoke emotional responses in people: mourning over sin, rejoicing over God's goodness, etc. If our hearts are hard, we respond with the emotion of apathy. I hope this clarifies my position, and thanks for reading my interview.