Why has this become a pattern? I suggest two reasons.

First, the calling of Lisa and Clark Crebar has garnered a lot of interest and momentum but mark my words – “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!” Our Pastoral Search Committee was instantly attracted to the Crebars because of their past ministry in Sacramento. We felt the regional impact of their past ministry would result in instant name recognition. This alone should bring many new people to CBC especially in the ages of 35-45 with young children.

A second reason is the fruit which has been borne from the service swap. Back in September the leadership of this church felt it was time to implement this change. (My understanding was the decision had already been made a couple of years ago but it was never implemented). We knew that it would upset some. We knew that it would be painful for some. We also knew that it was only a matter of time before it needed to be done and we did not want a new Lead Pastor to labor under that kind of pressure.

The results have been very evident with quite a bit of the growth occurring in the second service in addition to a very consistent and steady first service attendance. We are thankful for the cooperation.

The fact that a couple of the highly attended Sundays were “holy” days doesn’t accurately explain the increases. These same days occur every year. Why haven’t we seen the large attendance before this season.

Let me remind all of us that the service swap wasn’t just about switching times. The primary reason was to extend the services 15 minutes more in length. One of the benefits has also been the larger attendance in our adult classes which meet right after the first service.

We also made it a point to create services which offer distinct worship music. Not everyone worships alike. We thank our worship teams for their contributions. Their teamwork is a good example of the unity which should characterize the church as a whole.

But why not just do “blended” services in which hymns and traditional music alternate with praise choruses and contemporary music?

How about reading the next blog and I will do my best to give an answer that question?

a) Lyre – 33:2 (strings made of the intestines of sheep; similar to a guitar)

b) Harp – 33:2 (cf. Ps. 71:22) (more strings and larger than a lyre)

c) Ten-stringed lute – cf. Ps. 92:3 (could be a reference to the “zither”, a rectangular instrument with 10 parallel strings)

d) Flute – cf. Ps. 87:7

e) Trumpets/Horns – cf. Pss. 98:6; 150:3

f) Timbrel – cf. Ps. 81:2 (probably a portable drum)

g) Pipe – cf. Ps. 150:4 (oboe?)

h) Stringed instruments – cf. Ps. 150:4 (not one instrument but an entire family)

i) Cymbals – cf. Ps. 150:5 (two types (1) the smaller type, struck horizontally, and (2) the larger type, struck vertically).

j) Tambourine – cf. Ps. 68:24-25.

On more than one occasion I’ve been asked: “Sam, why do you lift your hands when you worship?” My answer is two-fold. …

The second answer I give to the question, “Why do you lift your hands when you worship?” is: “Because I’m not a Gnostic!” Gnosticism, both in its ancient and modern forms, disparages the body. Among other things, it endorses a hyper-spirituality that minimizes the goodness of physical reality. Gnostics focus almost exclusively on the non-material or “spiritual” dimensions of human existence and experience. The body is evil and corrupt, little more than a temporary prison for the soul that longs to escape into a pure, ethereal, altogether spiritual mode of being.

But biblical Christianity celebrates God’s creation of physical reality (after all, he did pronounce it “good” in Genesis 1). We are more than immaterial creatures. We are embodied souls, and are to worship God with our whole being. Paul couldn’t have been more to the point when he exhorted us to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” which is our “spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

By all means, we must worship with understanding. We must think rightly of God and love him with our heart and soul and mind (see Mt. 22:37). But we are not, for that reason, any less physical beings. We will have glorified bodies forever in which to honor and adore our great God. If we are commanded to dance, kneel, sing and speak when we worship, what possible reason could there be for not engaging our hands as well?

Ronald Allen is spot on in his portrayal of the significance of the human hand:

“It is the human hand which beautifully typifies the human spirit. It is distinct from the hands of the lower animals in appearance and dexterity. Observe the hands of a skilled person; no matter the field, it is an amazing exhibition of the genius of our creative Lord. Think of the fingers of the typist, the seamstress, the potter, the painter, the violinist, the mechanic, the builder; the list could be endless. The hand allows the creative to be expressive; it can do so much good or evil. The hand can be firm, as a parent’s spank or firm grasp; it can be gentle, stroking the hair or face of a child or lover” (122).

In addition, the human hand gives visible expression to so many of our beliefs, feelings, and intentions. When I taught homiletics, one of the most difficult tasks was getting young preachers to use their hands properly. Either from embarrassment or fear, they would keep them stuffed in their pockets, hidden from sight behind their backs, or nervously twiddle them in a variety of annoying ways.

Our hands speak loudly. When angry, we clinch our fists, threatening harm to others. When guilty, we hide our hands or hold incriminating evidence from view. When uneasy, we sit on them to obscure our inner selves. When worried, we wring them. When afraid, we use them to cover our face or hold tightly to someone for protection. When desperate or frustrated, we throw them wildly in the air, perhaps also in resignation or dismay. When confused, we extend them in bewilderment, as if asking for advice and direction. When hospitable, we use them to warmly receive those in our presence. When suspicious, we use them to keep someone at bay, or perhaps point an accusing finger in their direction.

Does it not seem wholly appropriate, therefore, to raise them to God when we seek him in prayer or celebrate him with praise? So again, why do I worship with hands raised?

Because like one who surrenders to a higher authority, I yield to God’s will and ways and submit to his guidance and power and purpose in my life. It is my way of saying, “God, I am yours to do with as you please.”

Because like one who expresses utter vulnerability, I say to the Lord: “I have nothing to hide. I come to you open handed, concealing nothing. My life is yours to search and sanctify. I’m holding nothing back. My heart, soul, spirit, body and will are an open book to you.”

Because like one who needs help, I confess my utter dependency on God for everything. I cry out: “O God, I entrust my life to you. If you don’t take hold and uplift me, I will surely sink into the abyss of sin and death. I rely on your strength alone. Preserve me. Sustain me. Deliver me.”

Because like one who happily and expectantly receives a gift from another, I declare to the Lord: “Father, I gratefully embrace all you want to give. I’m a spiritual beggar. I have nothing to offer other than my need of all that you are for me in Jesus. So glorify yourself by satisfying me wholly with you alone.”

Because like one who aspires to direct attention away from self to the Savior, I say: “O God, yours is the glory; yours is the power; yours is the majesty alone!”

Because as the beloved of God, I say tenderly and intimately to the Lover of my soul: “Abba, hold me. Protect me. Reveal your heart to me. I am yours! You are mine! Draw near and enable me to know and feel the affection in your heart for this one sinful soul.”

For those many years when I kept my hands rigidly at my side or safely tucked away in the pockets of my pants, I knew that none would take notice of my praise of God or my prayers of desperation. No one would dare mistake me for a fanatic! I felt in control, dignified, sophisticated, and above all else, safe. These matter no more to me.

Please understand: these are not words of condemnation but confession. I know no one’s heart but my own. I judge no one’s motives but mine. I’m not telling you how to worship, but simply sharing how I do and why. I’m at that point in life where I honestly couldn’t care less what the immovable evangelical is thinking or the crazy charismatic is feeling. What matters to me is that God have my all: my mind, will, feet, eyes, ears, tongue, heart, affections, and yes, my hands.

No, you need not raise your hands to worship God. But why wouldn’t you want to?

On more than one occasion I’ve been asked: “Sam, why do you lift your hands when you worship?” My answer is two-fold.

First, I raise my hands when I pray and praise because I have explicit biblical precedent for doing so. I don’t know if I’ve found all biblical instances of it, but consider this smattering of texts.

“So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:4).

“To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary” (Psalm 28:1).

“Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you” (Psalm 88:9).

“I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:48).

“Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!” (Psalm 134:2).

“O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:1-2).

“I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (Psalm 143:6).

“Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven” (2 Chronicles 6:12-13).

“And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God” (Ezra 9:5).

“And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered,‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground” (Nehemiah 8:6).

“Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven” (Lamentations 3:41).

“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” (1 Timothy 2:8).

If someone should object and say that few of these texts speak of worship (see Pss. 63:4; 134:2), but only of prayer (as if a rigid distinction can even be made between the two; indeed, I can’t recall ever worshiping God without praying to him!), my question is simply this: Why do you assume that the appropriate place for your hands is at your side and you need an explicit biblical warrant for raising them? Wouldn’t it be just as reasonable to assume that the appropriate place for one’s hands is raised toward heaven, calling for an explicit biblical warrant (other than gravity or physical exhaustion) to keep them low?

Said Spurgeon:

“Let the clash of the loudest music be the Lord’s; let the joyful clang of the loftiest notes be all for him. Praise has beaten the timbrel, swept the harp, and sounded the trumpet, and now for a last effort, awakening the most heavy of slumberers, and startling the most indifferent of onlookers, she dashes together the disks of brass, and with sounds both loud and high proclaims the glories of the Lord”.

However, I was too intimidated to bring it up and so I just let it go. That is, until I read a book by C.S. Lewis called Reflections on the Psalms and I soon realized that Lewis had experienced the same struggle.

The following passage is taken from that book.

“When I first began to draw near to belief in God and even for some time after it had been given to me, I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand. Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God and His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind. The Psalms were especially troublesome in this way —’Praise the Lord,’ ‘O praise the Lord with me,’ ‘Praise Him.’ . . . Worse still was the statement put into God’s own mouth, ‘whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoureth me’ (50:23). It was hideously like saying, ‘What I most want is to be told that I am good and great.’ . . . [Furthermore], more than once the Psalmists seemed to be saying, ‘You like praise. Do this for me, and you shall have some.’ Thus in [Ps.] 54 the poet begins ‘save me’ (1), and in verse 6 adds an inducement, ‘An offering of a free heart will I give thee, and praise thy Name.’ Again and again the speaker asks to be saved from death on the ground that if God lets His suppliants die He will get no more praise from them, for the ghosts in Sheol cannot praise ([Pss.] 30:10; 88:10; 119:175). And mere quantity of praise seemed to count; ‘seven times a day do I praise thee’ (119:164). It was extremely distressing. It made one think what one least wanted to think. Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy. . . .

[Part of my initial problem is that] I did not see that it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the ‘fair beauty of the Lord’ is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer — there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive. The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard him, is implicitly answered by the words, ‘If I be hungry I will not tell thee‘ (50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books[!].

But the most obvious fact about praise — whether of God or anything — strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless . . . shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. . . . Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. . . . I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . .

If it were possible for a created soul fully . . . to ‘appreciate’, that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude. . . . To see what the doctrine really means, we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God — drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression, our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds. The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him” (pp. 90-98).

About 42 years ago almost to the day, I found Him (actually He found me to be more theologically accurate). I couldn’t stop talking about it. Some of it fell on good soil but most of it didn’t. One of my friends became so disgusted with me that I was warned never to talk about God, Jesus Christ, salvation and the Bible again without ending our friendship. (I was too naïve to know boundaries but what can you say to someone who experienced freedom and peace like never before).

Today, I received a text from the same person. Here is what it said.

“Please pray for my family. Lots of not good things happening right now. Thanks. I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Forty two years ago I would not have thought he would be at this point in his spiritual journey. My friend doesn’t issue threats but pleas. He requests supplication and not separation. If our friends and family are lost, eternally dead in their human tents, separated from God, we should not rest until we have given our last full measure in an attempt to show them Jesus. How can we do this? By living in hope of things we cannot yet see, but yearn for with all of our sacred being.

Hope truly does reign eternal.

As first reported by Dallas Fort Worth network WFAA, Rockwall (Texas) Heritage Christian Academy volleyball coach and science teacher Cathy Samford was fired during the fall semester after she became pregnant out of wedlock. Samford had led the volleyball program for three years and had been named the school’s coach of the year once during that span.

Still, that couldn’t help save her job when she first admitted her pregnancy during the fall semester, with the school terminating her based on a violation of her contract’s morals clause because it was determined her pregnancy meant she could not serve as “a Christian role model.”

“I looked it up and thought, ‘They can’t do this,’” the 29-year-old Samford told WFAA. “We all have different views and interpretations. It’s not necessarily the Christian thing to do to throw somebody aside because of those.”

While Samford and her lawyer, Colin Walsh, are working toward filing a discrimination suit against the school, their case may be complicated by the fact that Heritage Christian Academy is a private school, and recent Supreme Court decisions have defended the right of Christian schools to exert more influence on their hirings and firings because they consider teachers to be “ministers in the classroom.”

“The Supreme Court, as a matter of fact in the last month, has ruled 9-to-0 that a Christian school does have that right, because this is a ministry, so we have the right to have standards of conduct,” Heritage Christian Academy headmaster Dr. Ron Taylor, who acknowledged that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had contacted the school, told WFAA. “How’s it going to look to a little fourth-grade girl that sees she’s pregnant and she’s not married?”

While the two parties attempted mediation, those efforts failed quickly because the school refused to consider a settlement for the case.

That has left Samford uninsured and in financial distress as she heads towards giving birth, a situation she never considered possible when she was a proud member of Heritage Christian Academy’s faculty.

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27 ESV)

“The Jews historically have broken the Old Testament down into 3 parts – first, came the books of Moses (the “Fab Five”) or the Torah; second, came what they called the Writings (such as the Psalms, the Chronicles, the Kings, etc) or the Ketuvim; third came the Prophets or the Nevi’im. Jesus made it a point to teach them from at least 2 of the 3 but most teachers of the Bible are in agreement that all 3 were in His words that day. In any case, what a discussion that must have been! Of course, we have no way of knowing exactly what He said, but from what the apostles wrote, as well as what Jesus had said earlier, we have a pretty good idea of what would have been mentioned.

I strongly suggest that He began with the beginning of the Fall of the race into sin, showing how God rescued the sinners and promised ultimate victory through the Seed of the woman who would bruise the Serpent’s head. He probably also told of the sacrifice of the animal that gave clothing to the first sinners. He more than likely spoke much of the Seed that was promised to Abram, through Whom the families of the earth would be blessed.

This would have led to his discussion the sacrifice of that seed, Isaac, on Mount Moriah, the very Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the father sacrificed the beloved son, and laid the theological basis for all subsequent sacrifices, culminating with the death of the Son of God. But Jesus would have also pointed out that the scepter was to remain in the family of Judah until Shiloh came, the One to whom it would belong, the Messiah.

I am sure that Jesus spent some time discussing the Passover from Exodus, how the blood was applied to save the people from the death of the first-born in Egypt. Cleopas and his friend had just celebrated the Passover with Jesus, but had missed the point that He was the lamb. Jesus also explained how He was the Bread of Life, the true Manna that came down from heaven, providing life to his people. And, as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent, so the Messiah was to be lifted up to draw all people to himself. Likewise Jesus could remind them of how Moses brought water from the Rock that he smote, how he purified with the ashes of the Red heifer, all as symbols of sacrificial atonement. But He could also point out how the pagan diviner Balaam foresaw that a Star would march forth in Israel, and rule the world.

Most assuredly Jesus talked about the sacrifices of the Jewish people. Sacrifices would have been made to atone for sin, to make restitution, to provide acceptance with God, and to celebrate peace with God. All these were to prepare for the one perfect sacrifice, Jesus. The Day of Atonement would have occupied their discussion as well; the sins of the people were placed on the Scapegoat, who was led outside the camp to die. The High Priest would then take the blood into the presence of God to make atonement.

But these were all part of the covenant with Levi which brought life and peace, and so He would have mentioned how the blessing of the priest would declare that reality. And as a sign of resurrection, Jesus would have talked about the Feast of First fruits and Aaron’s rod that budded. God was fully able to make alive again, so that a great Day of Jubilee could begin.

I am sure he spent time taking about the Tabernacle itself, how the tent, like his own flesh, veiled the Glory that dwelt among men. Likewise the heavy veil itself that separated people from God, also representing his flesh, was torn asunder to make the way through to the throne of God. The throne, with the ark of the covenant being its footstool, was the heavenly presence. And as the blood was applied to the lid, the mercy seat, a place of propitiation was forever established so that all redemption could one day be accomplished through the blood of the eternal covenant made by Jesus, the Messiah.

But the redemptive plan was victorious. And so Jesus would have reminded them of the promises of His living ministry. He would be the Prophet like Moses, raised up to give the full revelation of God. He had been on the mountain with Moses, the great I AM; He gave the old Law; He led them through the wilderness; and it was His glory that filled the temple. He was the Captain of the LORD’s army appearing to Joshua. He appeared to Abraham, to Jacob, and to countless others, and if He, the Messiah, was pre-existent, then surely a death in Jerusalem did not interrupt His eternal plan.

Jesus likely reminded them of the covenant made with David, that some day there would be a descendant of David who would rule forever. He could recall how in the Psalms the Messiah’s coronation was predicted with the phrase, “You are my son, this day have I begotten you.” But before this grand exaltation, Jesus would have reminded them, came the suffering. He must have spent some time with the psalms of the suffering servant: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And he would have pointed out that the death was part of the plan, but not the end of it: “You will not abandon your Holy One to Sheol.”

I am sure that Jesus spent a good deal of time in the prophets, for there is so much there that speaks of Him. He was the virgin born wonder king, Immanuel, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, who would bring everlasting peace and righteousness to earth. But first He would come as a shepherd, gently leading His people. And in His mission in which He was anointed by the Spirit of God to make all things right, He would redeem His people. But that redemption would be through His intense suffering, so that all who looked to Him would confess that they like sheep had gone astray, but the LORD laid the iniquity on Him. Nevertheless, people will be amazed to see Him exalted after His death as a sacrifice for sin.

Jeremiah’s New Covenant would have been the focus of much discussion. Messiah the Branch would come and remove the sins of the world in one day, making the new covenant to be known as “Yahweh our Righteousness”. In the process of this one day of redemption, Jesus could remind them of Zechariah’s words about His humble entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey–as their king, and how through that the shepherd would be struck and the sheep–including Cleopas and his friend–would be scattered. Nevertheless, one day they would all look on Him whom they had pierced, for they would know that a fountain had been opened for their cleansing.

Surely He reminded them of Malachi’s words of the messenger, John, coming before the Lord, who would come to His temple, and then one day come to make all things new.

Jesus probably reminded them how Daniel prophesied the exact time that Messiah would be cut off as the means of propitiation for sin; but that in the future that same Son of Man would enter into the presence of the Ancient of Days to receive dominion, and power, and glory, forever.

Here’s the point: Whenever you are in doubt about what the Old Testament is saying always look for the cross and the resurrection of our Lord. It’s all about Jesus. Jesus only and only Jesus.

S. Storms