Jubal’s Jottings

I’ve been thinking about the “substance” of worship a lot lately. Substance is a hard word to define, but you know when it’s present. One of the assignments my students have right now is to write a weekly journal about the worship service they attend each week. One of the grids they are asked to pass the music through is the attributes of God grid. I guess I call the attributes of God to be rather substantive…agree? Anyway, they are finding that some songs don’t have much to say about God…much less TO Him. They are also finding that often whole sets of songs come up pretty thin when forced through the grid of God’s character. So, maybe I am defining at least a part of substance - the attributes of God.

Next time you go to church, take note of what the songs you sing are saying about God - His holiness, immutability, justice, mercy, righteousness…and on and on. If you aren’t finding much about God in the music in your service, then can you really call that a worship service? Don’t settle for anything less than Godly substance - something to hang onto. Anything less is not worth grasping for - it’s only air! It’s not a style issue - it’s a substance issue!

So, Jubal, how many attributes of God can you name?

One of the many issues of the journey of a disciple of Christ to wrestle with is the matter of preeminence. I have pondered this often. Col. 1:18 says “that in ALL things He might have the preeminence.” (caps are mine!) It seems that we often settle for just getting to predominance, and being satisfied there. What’s the big deal being preeminence and predominance, you say? The difference is HUGE! (caps are mine!) If you think about it, predominance is anything more than 50%. If the scales are even and you place anything on once side or the other, you end up with one side being predominant. So, does Col. 1 say that in all things that Christ should be 51%…and that’s OK? No, it says preeminence. Preeminence means absolutely nothing else above or ahead of Christ in our lives. 95% might be an “A” in the classroom, but it’s still only a good version of predominance…not preeminence. I don’t know it I’ll ever make it to preeminence, but that’s the goal!

Jubal, have you read Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart? That’ll give you some preeminence to shoot for!