The silence of Saturday gave way to the victory of Sunday, a new dawn rising over a world that believed the story had ended. After the suffering and sorrow of Good Friday, the next day arrived quietly. The crowds were gone. The shouting had stopped. The cross stood empty, and the tomb was sealed. To those who loved Jesus, hope felt buried and the future uncertain. From a human perspective, death had won. Scripture tells us very little about that day, and perhaps that quietnes

In our study of James, we don’t get very far before we are given cause to stop and take a deeper look into the truths and treasures we encounter in this letter. In the opening verses, James, the author, introduces himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is commonly accepted that the author of this book is the half-brother of Jesus. This realization might cause someone to reflect on why James chose to introduce himself as a servant of Christ, rather than n

James 1:2-4: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of...

James 1:5-8: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. In the very first paragraph of James, we see a quick succession from trials (V.

To worship is “to honor or revere as a divine being or supernatural power” and “to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.”[1] A.W. Tozer uses the ideas of awe, wonder, and humility in his definition of worship. Worship, he states, is “a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder.”[2] He continues, “man who has not been humbled in the presence of God will never be a worshiper of God at all.”[3] Harold Best, dean of the Conservato

“To be human is to worship.”[1] This statement is supported in the Scriptures; it is declared in our creeds and is evident throughout history. Worship, in fact, has been the primary purpose of all humanity as made clear from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation.[2] Above all, we worship God because God created us to worship Him. Worship is at the center of our existence and at the heart of our reason for being. “God created us to be His image—an image that would

According to John 4:24, “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” We cannot simply approach worship on our own terms. Both individual and corporate worship must be biblical and should conform to the will of God rather than to the whims of fallen humanity. Scripture makes evident that acceptable worship means approaching God on His terms and in the manner that He makes possible.[1] “Even if every aspect of our worship is as close to the bibli

Worship involves the assembling of God’s people. In fact, believers are commanded, through Scripture, to “not give up meeting together” (Heb. 10:25). There is a direct correlation between how a congregation understands itself to be a church and how they worship as a church. When churches gather corporately through a biblical understanding of worship, it transforms how they engage in the process and with each other. Corporate worship involves communion with Christ by His Spiri

The Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther amid his protests against abuses within the church. Being fundamentally conservative, he felt the need for the church to revisit and refurbish genuine Christian beginnings. He was unwilling to and disputed any notion to disturb the faithful with new radical innovations.[1] Luther himself composed a liturgy, German Mass and Order of Divine Service, that broke with the practice of using Latin. He altered the canon to exclude a

Certain theological words gain such defined meaning in the history of theology that to affirm that one holds to them is equal to affirming their historical meaning. The Regulative Principle holds to this standard, so affirming the Regulative Principle of worship and yet holding different views is simply misleading to one’s theological convictions. The foundational premise of the Regulative Principle is the idea of sola scriptura. Once the Reformation churches affirmed sola