Blessings Beyond Worship – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: The Forms and Elements of Worship (6)

Blessings Beyond Worship

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: The Forms and Elements of Worship (6)

The blessings of God’s presence go with us in our daily lives.

“The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in all his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.” Deuteronomy 28:9-11

The blessings of God’s Covenant, which He bestows upon us as we are faithful in worship, are not exhausted in worship. Many people come away from a service of worship filled with delight and feeling very much like they have been in the presence of the Lord. But their lives throughout the rest of the week scarcely reflect any awareness of their calling to be the salt of the earth and to live out the Covenant mandates unto holiness.

We can know that we have worshiped God in a way that pleases Him when the blessings of His Covenant are flowing to us not just during our time of worship, but throughout all aspects of our daily lives. We are truly renewed in God’s Covenant when we go forth from worship to be the salt of the earth, guarding the world against the corrupting power of sin and savoring the world with the winsome flavor of Jesus Christ. If our worship does not thus renew us in God’s Covenant, then our worship is falling short of what God intends for it.

God is working to sanctify us, to set us apart for all to see as a people holy unto Him. He sends us forth from worship to bear witness to the lost world, to do the works of His Law in the power of His Spirit so that we might touch others with the Kingdom reality of the risen Christ, and to prosper in all our ways as agents of grace and truth in the world. We will know that our worship is doing what God intends—and, thus, that we have brought our worship to God as we ought—when witness, service, and the glory of God are visible in everything we say and do

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.