Congratulations to Jackie, who will receive a free Framed Inspiration of her choice after commenting on Monday’s post!
Today, I feel alive with hope and anticipation. We had another snowstorm a couple of nights ago, but today the sun is brightly shining and the snow’s beginning to melt. Even though I know we probably have a few more weeks of winter, it’s starting to feel like spring.
While I appreciate the beauty of a snowfall, I have to admit I’m excited to spend some time outdoors with my family and be reminded of God’s creativity in a warmer context! What about you? Are you a warm weather person or do you love snow? How does God speak to you through His creation?
This weekend Inspired Faith released 15 new Framed Inspirations. If you’re not familiar with our Framed Inspirations, the idea behind it is this:
Every now and then, something concrete speaks to us and reminds us of whatever it is we need to hear from God in that particular season of our lives. For me, those concrete things have been creative and diverse. God has used song lyrics, books, words from a friend, Scripture, sermons, movies, nature, pictures, quotations, and more to direct my attention toward His voice. Aren’t you glad we serve a creative God who uses a variety of things to move us along in our journey with Him?
Our Framed Inspirations are 5″x7″ black frames with a picture and a quotation, saying, or verse to go along with the picture. We love that our Framed Inspirations give a simple visual reminder that can speak to us right where we’re at. Maybe we need a daily reminder to have hope, like the example of our Lighthouse Beams frame on the right. Maybe we need a reminder to have courage. Maybe we need a reminder to persevere. Maybe we need a reminder to just slow down and rest. Take a look at our frames and see if any of them speak to where you’re at right now. You can see the quote for each frame to the right of the picture in our online store.
Leave a comment with a quotation or verse that has encouraged you recently. It can be from one of our Framed Inspirations or it can be from somewhere else.
Since we haven’t done a giveaway in awhile, I’ll randomly select someone who comments to receive a free Framed Inspiration of your choice. I’ll use a random number generator to select the winner on Friday, February 26 so make sure to comment on this post before then.
We always enjoy hearing about what inspires our readers, so thanks in advance for your comments. Who knows? Maybe your favorite quote or verse will end up on a Framed Inspiration one day!
Dancing and flags are used in some churches as acts of worshipping God.
The other day, I was chatting with a friend about churches he had visited recently. He just moved to the area and is still trying to find a church to call home. That particular week, he had visited a church that he said he really didn’t like.
“What didn’t you like about it?” I asked. “Was it more traditional than you’re used to?” I knew the church he had visited. It was an Anglican church that mixed traditional liturgy with contemporary worship.
“No, I don’t mind the traditions,” he said. “It was the worship that bothered me. I don’t agree with churches using flags and stuff in worship. It makes worship too self-centered, like it’s all about the people dancing and not about God.”
“I could understand that,” I said. Then I changed the subject.
I changed the subject because I knew my friend and I disagreed on this subject, but I didn’t think it was worth arguing over. I really could understand his perspective. He didn’t grow up in a tradition that practiced expressive, emotional worship and to see people dancing, waving flags, and shouting in church could certainly come across to him as self-centered and prideful. I, on the other hand, have grown up attending churches that used flags, and I even helped to spear-head the use of flags in worship services at my college.
Even though I see a lot of benefit in using flags and expressively worshiping God, even though I see a scriptural basis for it, I didn’t press the issue with my friend because I see a lot more scriptural basis for acting in love. I could tell by my friend’s tone that he wasn’t open to discussing the merits of flags and dancing in worship. He felt strongly that it was wrong, and arguing with him about it wouldn’t change his mind or give him a better understanding of God’s love. Instead it would cause division between us and probably leave us both with a bad taste in our mouths.
There are times when you disagree with a brother or sister in Christ about something stylistic or cultural, about matters that our salvation doesn’t depend upon. We have to have discernment in those times to know whether to press the issue or not. We shouldn’t always shy away from talking about our disagreements. We need to know that there are safe places to have those disagreements. I can’t begin to tell you how much my life has been changed for the better by debates with fellow Christians who believed things that I didn’t. Even if I didn’t come to agree with them, I walked away with more understanding of another position and more love for people who aren’t exactly like me. God grows us through disagreements when both parties are ready and willing to speak in love.
I’ve also had arguments with fellow believers that ended in bitterness and pigheadedness. We were not arguing out of love and to seek mutual understanding; we were arguing because we couldn’t stand for the other person to go on thinking they were right. We were arguing for selfish reasons, and I never came away from those arguments feeling more like Jesus.
Whether we’re talking about flags, dancing, rubbing ashes on our heads, standing, sitting, kneeling, jumping, shouting, using drums, blowing trumpets, using an organ, remaining silent, hymns, gospel music, giving up something for Lent, or any other method of worship, we have to keep in mind the message behind the methods.
I can pull out scripture that supports the application of every single method of worship I just listed. (If you’d like to see some, leave a comment, but my purpose here is not to defend styles of worship tradition.) But even being able to prove a biblical basis for how you worship doesn’t mean that all believers HAVE to engage in all of those methods all of the time. We need to recognize that different people have had different experiences, and as long as we’re all in agreement that Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives, we’re called to live as one body. May we learn to live at peace in our differences (even when those differences bug us!) and build one another up in Christ.
Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters.Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. 1 Peter 3:8 (NLT)
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18 (NIV)
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, arein Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:20-1 (NKJV)
God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy. Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of His body. 1 Corinthians 12:24-7 (CEV)
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was raised in a church that didn’t observe most of the Church calendar. In high school, I remember seeing a friend at school with ashes on her forehead one Ash Wednesday. I thought it was weird that she had a dirty forehead. When other people asked her about it, she explained that at her church, ashes are put on people’s foreheads to commemorate the beginning of Lent.
I knew that people “give up things” for Lent, but I never really understood why. Most of the people I knew growing up who observed Lent didn’t really observe much else about Christianity. (I remember one year, a girl in my class announced to a small group around her that she was giving up wearing underwear for Lent.)
I attended an interdenominational Christian college, where I became friends with some Catholics and Anglicans. These friends passionately observed the Church calendar and everything else that comes along with following Christ. Through those friendships, I learned to respect other Christian traditions, like observing Ash Wednesday and Lent. But I still didn’t have a good grasp on why these traditions were observed.
To help combat our ignorance about the traditional Church calendar, my husband and I went to an Ash Wednesday service today at a church down the road from where we live. Before we went, I googled to make sure it was okay to receive the ashes if we weren’t a member of the church. (It was.) So as we approached the church, I felt nervous. What if you were supposed to do something upon receiving the ashes, and I made a fool of myself for not doing it? Should I wear the ashes all day – even to my very Protestant church later tonight? What would people think? Would everyone at work think I was a Catholic? Would people at my own church feel offended that I attended a *gasp* Catholic church?
As the questions popped into my mind, I decided that, in spite of my nervousness, I was going to go through with it. I would receive the ashes, and I would wear them for the entire day.
In college, the Lord laid it on my heart to work toward reconciliation between fractured denominations. As a Christian growing up in a contemporary Protestant church, I experienced judgmentalism on both sides of the table. Friends at my church spoke condescendingly about Christians who were “too traditional” to have an authentic relationship with God. On the other side of the divide, friends at school who came from traditional church backgrounds would speak condescendingly of Christians like me, who came from “weird, emotional, self-centered” backgrounds. They claimed that we turned worship of God into a frivolous party rather than a sacred reverence.
In college, God stretched me by bringing relationships into my life with Christians of all sorts of backgrounds. Through studying the Bible and theology, I felt convicted about my own attitude toward Christians who worshiped differently than I did. I started to think that maybe Christians on both sides of the table had something worthwhile to offer each other. Sometimes we, as human beings, can be too rigid in our worship of God. But sometimes we can be too frivolous, forgetting what a glorious, awesome God we serve. God is a friend to us, but He is also a holy fire. Reconciliation and fellowship between different denominations helps us all to hold that tension of worshiping God for who He really is, not for who we want Him to be.
Tonight when I attend my contemporary Protestant church with ashes on my forehead, my prayer is that this visual reminder would be received for what it is – a reminder that we are all sinners saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus. I pray that we would be more quick to love and embrace one another in Christ than we are to argue over traditions, calendar days, and styles of worship.
I may not understand or embrace all aspects of every denomination. But I want my heart to be soft enough that I can find the common points we agree on and build bridges of fellowship. May these ashes play a small part in bringing reconciliation, and may they be a reminder today of my need for Jesus.
What about you? Did you grow up in a traditional church or a contemporary church? Have you noticed judgmentalism between Christians of different denominations? Have you ever passed judgment on those who are different from you, like I did with my high school friend when she came to school with ashes? Will you observe Lent this year? If so, what does Lent mean to you?
