1 Corinthians 14:26
[ Orderly Worship ] What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.
Diary Entry | A Follower of Christ
(Part of the series: ‘Ministering Through Songs’)
Today I was singing: “I wanna be a follower of Christ.” Then I started to analyse the song. Below are my thoughts:
When people come to the house of God, they are singing this song in their own way. Children, in some ways, may not have a choice coming to church but adults do. So when teens and grown-ups come to our fellowships, of their own accord, they are saying:
“Tell me what to do…what to say…how to walk…what do I have to do to follow the cross?”
They get the answer through the:
n Sermons;
n Testimonies;
n Exhortations;
n Songs we sing; and
n Scriptures we read but most of all by the way we ACT.
As believers in Christ we have to represent Him in the way we do things: what we say and how we conduct our lives each and every day. The new converts have made up their minds to follow the cross whether or not it is a rough road to trod, but they are saying to us:
“Show me how… I just want to be a follower of Christ.”
They’re not saying:
“If it’s great I’ll go.” Or “If it’s rough I won’t bother.”
What they are saying is:
“We wanna follow Him but we need you to show us how.”
If we listen with our eyes, we can hear many children saying:
“When you testify, tell me what sin God saved you from. What has He forgiven you of? How did you overcome that situation? How does He keep you from going back to your old way of life? What is it about Him that now keeps you satisfied and not craving for your old sinful ways?”
Therefore, today I’m standing in the gap and saying to all, that, it is not only about shouting, ‘Praise the Lord!’ It’s about the life you live. It’s about sharing His love with others—testifying of His love and His grace. Someone is going through the same troubles you have gone through and they are waiting for you to share with them what you did to come out of that mess so that they too can have some hope. They are waiting for that something to help them understand that they too can overcome.
It is time to start representing Christ. He commands us to love Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls. Next, we are commanded to love one another. If we love one another then everyone will be loved, no one will feel lonely or rejected.
It is time for us to start worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. We need to be honest about our relationship with Christ when we come to testify. We sometimes try to paint a picture of perfection, fearing others may see who we really are. But only when we are true to ourselves and God can our healing begin. If we continue to deceive others then God will not get the glory. This is why we find that certain sermons are repeated quite regularly. We’ve not yet heard what God is saying to us. We crowd Him out with the different things in our lives. The time has come for us to un-clutter our minds and our lives—getting our 'house in order'.
God wants to use us as vessels of honour but we must be submissive; serving Him in spirit and in truth before we can be effective and efficient in ministry.