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Entries by rebecca (4149)

Thursday
Mar122026

Theological Term of the Week: Worship

DateThursday, March 12, 2026 at 3:30AM

worship
Honoring the triune God for who he is and what he has done by valuing, respecting, praising, thanking, obeying, and serving him; also used more narrowly to refer to a church’s public activity of glorifying God together by means of instruction, confession, prayer, singing, and participation in the Lord’s Supper.         
  • From scripture:

    But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24 ESV).

    I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Roman 12:1-2 ESV).

  • From the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689:
    Chapter 22: Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
      1._____ The light of nature shews that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is just, good and doth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart and all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. 

      2._____ Religious worship is to be given to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creatures; and since the fall, not without a mediator, nor in the mediation of any other but Christ alone. 

      3._____ Prayer, with thanksgiving, being one part of natural worship, is by God required of all men. But that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, according to his will; with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance; and when with others, in a known tongue. 

      5._____ The reading of the Scriptures, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord; as also the administration of baptism, and the Lord’s supper, are all parts of religious worship of God, to be performed in obedience to him, with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear; moreover, solemn humiliation, with fastings, and thanksgivings, upon special occasions, ought to be used in an holy and religious manner. 

      6._____ Neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship, is now under the gospel, tied unto, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed; but God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth; as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself; so more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly nor wilfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God by his word or providence calleth thereunto.

 

Learn more:

  1. Got Questions: What is true worship?
  2. Ligonier Ministries: Worship
  3. The Gospel Coalition: What Is Worship?
  4. Kevin DeYoung: A Theology of Worship
  5. Derek Thomas: What Misconceptions Can Christians Have About Worship? (video)
  6. John Piper: What Is Worship?
  7. R. C. Sproul: How Should We Then Worship?

Filed under Christian Life and Ecclesiology

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Sunday
Mar082026

Sunday Hymn: A Charge to Keep I Have

DateSunday, March 8, 2026 at 7:53AM

 

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glo­ri­fy,
A nev­er-dy­ing soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the pre­sent age,
My call­ing to ful­fill:
O may it all my pow­ers en­gage
To do my mas­ter’s will!

Arm me with jea­lous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy serv­ant, Lord, pre­pare
A strict ac­count to give!

Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thy­self rely,
Assured, if I my trust be­tray,
I shall for ev­er die.

—Charles Wesley

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Thursday
Mar052026

Theological Term of the Week: Spiritual Gift

DateThursday, March 5, 2026 at 2:30AM

spiritual gift
A God-given empowerment to minister to others within the church. 
  • From scripture:

    And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ… (Ephesians 4:11-12 ESV).

    For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. [4] For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, [5] so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. [6] Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; [7] if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; [8] the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12:3-8 ESV).

    Nowhere does Paul or any other New Testament writer define a spiritual gift for us, but Paul’s assertion that the use of gifts edifies (“builds up,” 1 Corinthians 143-5, 12, 26, see also 17; Ephesians 4:12, 16) shows what his idea of a gift was. For Paul, it is only through Christ, in Christ, by learning Christ and responding to Christ that anyone is ever edified. Our latter-day secular use of this word is far wider and looser than Paul’s; for him, edification is precisely a matter of growing in the depth and fullness of one’s understanding of Christ and all else in relation to him and in the quality of one’s personal relationship with him, and it is not anything else. So spiritual gifts must be defined in terms of Christ, as actualized powers of expressing, celebrating, displaying and so communicating Christ in one way or another, either by word or by deed. They would not be edifying otherwise.
    The word gift (charisma in the Greek) is a flexible term. We see this throughout the New Testament (Rom. 1:11; 5:15-16; 6:23; 2 Cor. 1:11; Heb. 2:4), and we see it most obviously in 1 Corinthians 12. Notice the Trinitarian structure. Paul says there are varieties of gifts from the same Spirit, varieties of service from the same Lord, and varieties of activities from the same God. A gift is virtually synonymous with service and activity. Charisma is no more than no less than what the triune God does in the church.

Related terms:

Filed under Christian Life

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

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