Praise, Worship, Singing, and the Silence of God:

                     Making Joyful Sounds to the Lord
                                  We love to sing!

                                           Singing:
Our services generally begin with and are filled with congregational songs from one of our three hymnals, usually followed by audible praise and by choruses or parts of songs sung from memory.

                                        Musical Praise:
While there are many forms of audible praise, the words of our praises are usually sung using the same musical quality as we would have when singing songs. For instance, we might sing, using our own musical notation,  “Hallelujah,” “Jesus,” “Praise the Lord,” “Jesus, You are Wonderful,” “Thank you Jesus, We Love you Lord,” and other such praises that come from our hearts.
                                       Joy in Praise
In our praise, worship and adoration of our Savior, we strive to allow the Lord to fill us with His Joy, as He works in us to soothe the cares of our lives and bind us together as members of the body of Christ. When we are worshipping as “One in Christ,” the singing of praises often results in a wonderful blend of voices which seems to fill our little church even more with the Presence of God.

              Music as a Doorway to His Presence
As the Lord has given music as a way to reach into the deep recesses of our hearts, we musically sing His Praises to open a passageway for His Love to permeate the depths of our souls and flood our needy hearts with His love. As we look to the Lord in singing and praise, “With open face beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into His image, from glory to glory.” 

                    Scriptural Admonition to Praise
We praise in this manner because of the many admonitions in the Bible to give praise to the Lord, such as, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1); and, “I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.” We feel that as we praise him, the Lord can immerse us in His Presence and change us into being what he wants us to be.

                   Silence and “Waiting on the Lord”:
Another prominent aspect of our services would be times of silence. Times of enthusiastic or worshipful praise may lead directly to times of absolute silence, as we allow his presence to permeate our being, often working in a more personal way than the more corporate joy of singing and praising. While such times may go for a few minutes in a regular service, we encourage seekers to practice such “waiting on the Lord” more extensively in their own private devotions.

    Reversing the Flow: His love displacing our thoughts.
While meditation on the Word or the wonderful things that the Lord has done is very helpful in our spiritual development, it is often in silence that the outflow of our thoughts and feelings can be reversed to allow the Lord’s love to flow into us in a deeper and more personal way than mere words or inspiring thoughts.

        Silent Meditation as Communication with the Creator
Some religious traditions practice meditation as a way to create a general and impersonal sense of calm, more focused on the blanking out of one’s mind -  isolation of one’s mind from the world and the people in it. However, Christian meditation and “The Practice of the Presence of God” instead focuses on direct communication with the person of Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Universe, whose love and presence can change us and enable us to reach out to and change the world as well, as we show others the love that He has shown us.

Therefore, our times of silence are the times in a service where we feel we are personally and individually closest to God, as he pours out his love upon us.

 

Bowling Green Chapel
            -Bowling Green, VA-

“The Practice of the Presence of God”