WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 12 (December 2025) Here is the third of the three keynote Bible lessons I gave at the conference. COMMISSION Introduction Jesus said to them again,“Peace be with you.As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21) We are the sent ones!God proclaims through Christ to us—we are sent to proclaim. Sing to the LORD, all the earth!Tell of His […]
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WORSHIP NOTESVolume 20, No. 11 (November 2025) Here is the second of the three keynote Bible lessons I gave at the conference. CELEBRATION Sing to the LORD, all the earth!Tell of his salvation from day to day. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;bring an offering and come before him!Worship the LORD in the
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WORSHIP NOTESVolume 20, No. 10 (October 2025) This remarkable event was sponsored by a remarkable ministry, Sacrifice InterChurch Trust, which celebrated its 25 years of ministry at the conference. This organization has gained a lot of respect across denominational lines and been a tremendous unifying force for the body of Christ in that country. They have also ministered to different people groups across Bangladesh. All of this was reflected in
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WORSHIP NOTESVolume 20, No. 9 (September 2025) When many of us think about worship in the Old Testament, our minds go first to the Tabernacle/Temple and its sacrifices, rituals, ceremonies, and festivals—the external trappings of worship under the Mosaic Covenant. However, these externals are actually of secondary importance when it comes to the worship that God desires from his people under the Old Covenant (and New Covenant!). He is looking
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WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 8 ( August 2025) Throughout the Bible, the indicatives of grace always precede the imperatives of law and obligation. (James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, 70) Divine indicatives give rise to divine imperatives. This is the Bible’s underlying grammar. Grace, in this sense, always gives rise to obligation, duty, and law. (Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ, 168) In the Bible, the form
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WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 7 ( July 2025) Silence and Freedom It is an amazing fact that the New Testament is virtually silent on the matter of form for the church’s worship. D. A. Carson writes: “There is no single passage in the New Testament that establishes a paradigm for corporate worship.” (“Worship under the Word,” in Worship by the Book, 40) (Of course, this is in marked contrast
WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 6 ( June 2025) The Downward Spiral The glory of God was at issue in the fall of man. In Romans 1 Paul explains the fall of Adam and Eve into sin: For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him (Romans 1:21a) Instead of taking their proper place in subjection to their Creator, Adam and Eve
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WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 5 ( May 2025) “The dust of the earth is on the throne of theMajesty on high.” (John Duncan) “Complementing the Incarnation in which the eternal God himself condescends to be one with us in our hurt and creaturely disintegration in order to redeem us from all evil and re-create us from within the ontological depths of our existence, and complementing the Passion and Resurrection
WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 4 ( April 2025) Easter is not a day—it’s a season! The Great Fifty Days “Easter” is the period of eight Sundays [until Pentecost], comprising fifty days, often called as a unit “the Great Fifty Days.” For the explosive force of the resurrection of the Lord is too vast to be contained within a celebration of one day. The recovery of Easter as “the
WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 3 ( March 2025) An Astounding Truth Jesus Christ, Paul tells us in Colossians 3:11, “is all, and in all.” And that extends to our worship. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have
