Sunday, August 12, 2012
by Robert Dean
Passage: Colossians 3:16
Series: Colossians (2011)
Duration: 48 mins 15 secs
God commands corporate worship. It is valuable as an encouragement, a response to what God has done and a display of our joy. At the beginning of the 18th century Isaac Watts added a dimension to congregational singing. How was that change different than the changes brought about by contemporary church music today? Christians knew that all beauty existed in the mind of God and that to know beauty, we first had to know God. The Enlightenment shifted the idea of beauty to an internal, relative standard separate from the absolute standards of God. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Which idea reflects joy in worship which is all about God?
Sunday, September 02, 2012
by Robert Dean
Passage: Colossians 3:16-17 & Ephesians 5:18-20
Series: Colossians (2011)
Duration: 57 mins 8 secs
God tells us to sing. Why? To express the word of God that dwells in us richly, teaching and admonishing in wisdom. Our inspiration is God’s grace; our motivation is truth; our audience is God; and our conduit is excellence. Worship, expressed in this way, will transform our values in the midst of a culture that has no absolute values. Excellence is in the standard. Adhere to the standard, and real beauty will be expressed. Our question is not, “Is this good enough?” Our question should be, “Is this the absolute best means to glorify God, reflect who He is and echo the Truth He has given?”