Confessions of Faith

Confessions of Faith (Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, etc. and many scriptural creeds, The Ten Commandments, as an example) are those wonderfully worded distillations of a lot of pages of scripture and a lot of history of God's people. They don't take the place of the whole Bible, but they do remind us of the bullet points, the high points, the main points we dare not forget.

Paul, our pastor, has been reminding us of some of the history of the more common creeds or Confessions of Faith that we often say together in worship. It is really cool to bring us back to the essentials and to connect us in some way to Christians of long ago, and right now around the world, for that matter.

Another Confession of Faith that we say as we live our lives today is...our very lives. Our lives "confess our faith" or they deny our faith. What confession have you made today by the thoughts you think, by the words you say or the way you say them? Is your life making a "good confession" today?

I welcome any comments on Confessions of Faith.

Blessings,
George Searcy

Amen

Amen or AAAAHHHHmen, depending on your preference is something that has been a part of worship since the early church. Actually the Hebrews practiced it before that. It means "so be it", or "I agree with that", or "Yes." Literally the word means firm. So the connotation is what you just said is something that is true and can be trusted. In addition, a connotation that I have come to think of is when something touches my spirit, yes it's true, but it is true in a personal way to me, so I say "Amen."

Spiritual truth deserves a response. We are called to partipate with God in His work in the world and in worship. We should respond when we agree, especially in prayer, and saying "amen" is a great way to do that. It engages us and helps us to keep our hearts and minds focused, at the very least.

Let's expand our thinking and think about this like we did in the first post. God is all the time at work in the world. Reminders of His truth and constant presence are with us everywhere. We could walk around saying "amen" all day long. Saying "amen" is one way to do that. What are some other ways of affirming God's truth in our daily lives?

Call To Worship

Bonjour Mates,

This is the first post on my new blog, Interactive Worship. Why interactive worship you ask? Well, that's because I want you to interact on the subject of worship. I'll get things going with an initial thought and you chime in with your thoughts and also with your thoughts about others' thoughts about my thoughts. Lotta heavy thinking gonna be going on here.

The first thought has to do with the Call to Worship. Our pastor, Paul has been going through the elements in our worship serivces Eastern Shore Presbyterian and has addressed the call to worship recently. The main point was that God is calling us to worship first. It is not us calling each other first. God is the initiator. Pretty cool that He is seeking us out.

Here's my question for you. In what ways does God call you to worship Him during your normal day? How has he called you to Himself lately? Give me some examples, like through a conversation with a friend, reading the Bible or a book, nature, watching a movie. Give me some details!

I love the hymn, "This Is My Father's World," especially the line that says, "This is my Father's world/He shines in all that's fair/In the rustling grass I hear Him pass/He speaks to me everywhere."

Post on, my friends. Let's stay on this subject please until my next post. Inspire each other.



Merci,

George