Spirit-filled Corporate Worship
This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost – one of the most poorly recognized exciting events of all human history! We celebrate the one Jesus said he would leave for us until his coming again – the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. We rejoice at the giving of the Spirit to a community of Jesus lovers.
Foster: There comes a divine melting of our separateness. In the power of the one Spirit we become “wrapped in a sense of unity and of Presence such as quiets all words and enfolds [us] within an unspeakable calm and interknittedness within a vaster life.” Such fellowship-in-worship makes vicarious worship via the media tasteless and flat.
At small groups this last week (quick plug for Tuesday morning men’s small group at the Metro 29 Diner at 6:30 a.m.), I was impressed with the number of men who said that one of the parts they loved most about singing was when their voices became one with the voices of everyone else. They spoke of an experiential unity – unity manifest through song. This is one powerful way that we can experience the unity of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This Sunday we will be singing “God the Spirit.” Check out some of these lyrics written by Samuel J. Stone in the late 1800s.
Holy fount of inspiration
By whose gift the great of old
Spoke the word of revelation
Marvelous and manifold
God the Spirit we adore Thee,
In the Triune Godhead One
One in love and power and glory
With the Father and the Son.
When we wander Lord direct us,
Keep us in the Master’s way
Let thy strong swift sword protect us
Warring in the evil day
Shall the church now faint or Fear
When the Comforter is near?
God the Spirt, we adore Thee…
Notice the plural pronouns “we” and “us.” Get familiar with the music so that we can actually mean the things we sing and sing it with gusto! Check out restorationmusic.wordpress.com to see the Scripture readings and “rough sketches” of the songs for this coming Sunday. We are the choir, we are the body of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
