Hand Waving in Worship

by Wayne Goforth
www.cvillechurch.com

In recent years, there has been a push in many otherwise conservative churches to do things differently. Now, I don't mean different because they found the changes expedient, but different to be different (a sort of "iconoclasm" if you would) at least from appearances and conversations I have had with such proponents. Added to this list of changes has recently come the raising and or waving of hands in worship and prayer. I suppose most of us have seen the commercials on TV for some community church or charismatic group programs waving their hands. Until recent years, I had never heard of this among brethren (except raising of a hand to ask a question) but is becoming more discussed and practiced.

Certainly there were times in the Bible when people prayed with extended arms, even as we might beg something of someone with arms outstretched. For example, we find in 1 Kings 8:22-23; "Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. And he said, ' O Lord, the God of Israel..."
But that was not a consistent manner even for the Jews. In 1 Samuel 1:12-13, we find Hannah praying to herself with her lips moving. Eli assumes she is drunk. Now, had she had hands outstretched, then surely he would have realized that she was in prayer rather than to assume drunkenness.

Apparently it was customary to pray with outstretched hands and arms at times, but with all of the specific regulations of the Old Testament laws of worship, there was nothing that required such posture. I am reminded of the story told by a preacher who once held a meeting at a "kneeling church" when that issue had become debated. A brother led the prayer and everyone knelt except the meeting preacher. He did not realize until he opened his eyes that others were kneeling. After services, one brother approached the preacher and said "brother so-in-so, you sinned by not kneeling for prayer." To which the preacher retorted, "Well, you sinned by peeking during prayer!"

Now, in our society, it has at least been the custom in some places and in some times to kneel. But when has it ever been our custom to raise arms except in the emotional display of the charismatics? I have to wonder if the hand waving will soon be accompanied by the swaying which typically goes with it among those groups. Now, may one pray in that manner? Certainly! But, my question is, why? It was neither Bible command nor our culture that establishes this practice. Some have said "Well you cannot regulate or know the heart of one stretching out their arms in prayer. They may be humbly entreating the Lord." That is true, and frankly I would not say anything to one who did. My question is reserved for those who encourages others to do so, or who claim the Bible teaches we should do so, or in at least one church which announces "Will you raise your arms with me in prayer."

It is true that 1 Timothy 2:8 says; "I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;" But is this literal lifting of hands? Barnes states "The idea is, that when men approach God they should do it in a pure and holy manner." Similarly Johnson says "Lifting up holy hands. This seems to indicate an attitude in prayer. The hands lifted up must be sanctified to holy deeds." Too, others have stated that it is the "holy hands" that is figurative, but the "lifting up" is literal. How then does one literally hold up a figure? If this is literal, why not apply this to other passages as well. We will take Romans 12:1 as an example where Paul says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Must we literally sacrifice our bodies?

The pulpit commentary states that Chrysostom condemned those who were praying against their enemies asking the Lord to "smite him" or "recompense him." To this, Chrysostom wrote; "Do you pray against your brother? Your prayer is not against him, but against yourself." I saw some glass candle holders a few years back with various prayers on each. One holder said "Oh Lord, may my enemies eyes become stuck with mesquite thorns." This seems to be the type of background of our passage.

Also consider that 1 Timothy 2 is setting a contrast to the roles of men and women. Only the men are told to pray with the outstretched hands. Yet, both men and women do so in the charismatic churches which practice such so freely today, as well as some of the advocates of this practice among us. Does this then mean that women cannot pray? No, this is more evidence that we have under consideration the qualification of the one leading the worship in prayer. Vincent agrees in his Word Studies by offering "The point here is that only men should lead in public prayer who can lift up "clean hands" (morally and spiritually clean)."

In the past, I have assumed that these various "change the church" advocates were just seeking change because they were tired of tradition (before you accuse me here of reading minds, I have talked with many such), but more and more it seems that it is an effort to mimic the community church type movements. By all means, change when it is a scriptural, expedient practice that helps the local work and builds up rather than offends. But to change for the sake of change or to get more like the denominations will only create a desire to move away from scriptural practice and will create a hunger for the new. These preachers may soon find themselves putting out fires which they themselves helped to spark. Will it next be accompanied by the emotional swaying and gyrating also common to these same people? Clapping and shouting out? Paul said, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40), and that, "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Cor. 14:33).

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Good Days and Bad Days

by Dee Bowman
www.cvillechurch.com

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Life's like that. Just about the time you think you have it all figured out, some new adventure disrupts your confidence and flies in the face of your conclusions. Nobody has life figured out.

I wrote in my journal recently: "I don't suppose it's possible to have any length of time where you are right with the world. I had 15 minutes one day where it just seemed everything was just right. Then the phone rang. Pfsst! Right out the window. But then I've had times when everything was all messed up, tangled, distorted, and disheveled. And right in the middle of my pity party the mail comes and there's a nice note-unexpected and joyful-and for the next 15 minutes things are right with the world again. That is, until the phone rang. Pfsst! Oh well, the mail comes again tomorrow. Maybe…" Trying to figure life out is a futile enterprise; one destined for sure failure.

Here are some suggestions for making life-all of it-more pleasurable and more useable:

Don't run from trouble.

You can't go fast enough. Trouble will find you. Face it head-on and with determinate faith. There is no temptation bigger than you can bear if you put your confidence in God (1 Cor. 10:13). And there's no problem that can't be solved if you keep in touch with your spirituality. Even the fear of death is conquerable if you have sufficient trust in your Master (Heb. 2:14-16, 1 Cor. 15:51-58).

Don't let discouragement rob you.

Discouragement is one of the Devil's most functional tools. It wrestles a man down by robbing him of his faith, and in doing so, saps his energy to keep on. It strikes every age, every spiritual level. It causes faith to flag and determination to become impotent. It's a power-grabber, discouragement is. But faith is still the answer. Trusting confidence in God will triumph over discouragement. But you have to engage it. You have to shove your faith in front of the discouragement before it can conquer it. Listen to what God said: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5). Do you believe it?

Remember, down doesn't have to mean out.

Just because you lose a battle now and then doesn't mean you've lost the war. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back into the fracas again. There's work to be done, people to see, prayers to make, lessons to learn. Activity is the key to winning. Don't every quit. Only the weak quit. "Brethren, I count no myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Paul, in Phil. 3:13-14). "I press," said Paul. You must do so too, for he closes the admonition with "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." Are you?

And remember, most of all, that you and God make a majority.

There is no force on earth strong enough to separate you from His love and to keep you out of His kingdom. Not even death itself can do it. Certainly, we may boldly say, "…the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me." Paul said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." Stay with God and you can't lose, folks.

And finally, remember that Solomon said, "In the day of prosperity rejoice; in the day of adversity consider, for God hath set the one over against the other…" (Eccles. 7:14). Don't try to second-guess Providence, or ask "why me?" Relax and let it happen. Don't ask, "Why has God allowed this?" Rather, ask, "What does He want me to do with this?" Allow the good days to cause rejoicing. Allow the bad ones to increase your learning.

Life is happy for those who love God and are keeping His commandments, no matter what comes along. After all, life is constructed of two things: good days and bad days.

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A People Acceptable to God

by Larry Rouse
www.cvillechurch.com

Worldly men have always sought to turn their attention away from God to pursue their own lusts. One of the most obvious examples of this is found in the kinds of man-made religion that are centered upon the praise of men with no view of God and His pleasure. Men can be caught up in this kind of thinking to the point where they have a great confidence that God will be with them in anything they may do, just because they want to do it. The scriptures give us several examples of the tragedy that this approach will bring.

Aaron was one of the great men of the Old Testament, being the first High Priest of God and a close partner with Moses in his work. Aaron knew the character of the living God and was well prepared to stand before Him as the High priest. Unfortunately Aaron failed to teach two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, about the nature of the one true God, and as a consequence, these “2nd generation” children thought they could treat God and His ways lightly. This attitude was reflected in their rejection of “traditional” worship which, in fact, was God’s instructions on how they were to approach Him. They were sure, that because of their position and familiarity in the service of God, that these past rules were flexible to this new generation. God intervened in a way so that their generation and every succeeding generation might learn a valuable lesson.

“Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord (Leviticus 10:1-2).”

What message was God communicating in this event? On the surface we can understand that the “strange fire” which was used by these young men in their version of “contemporary worship” directly violated God’s specific choice of having the fire for their censers come from the altar (Leviticus 16:12).” These young men had not just committed a single transgression; they had approached a living God that they never knew. When Aaron came upon this tragic scene and observed the dead bodies of his two sons, Moses gave a brief, but pointed, explanation of why this had occurred: "And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.’” So Aaron held his peace (Leviticus 10:3).

Do you understand how this truth applies to us today?

If you are a Christian, you are a priest who is to offer spiritual sacrifices to the same living God (1 Peter 2:5). When we approach Him, we must approach Him as a holy God with our sole motive being that of giving Him the glory. Do you really know God and how to approach Him?

When we seek to teach, to worship or to even think about God, we must limit ourselves to what God has revealed. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God (1 Peter 4:11a). Christians have rightly quoted this verse to show how we should handle the Bible and how we should not assume to speak for God when He is silent. We would do well, however, to quote the rest of the verse and learn of the fruits of such an approach. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:11a)”.

We live in a time where a generation has arisen that does not know God. Those who point to staying within the authority of God by giving “book, chapter, and verse” for all that we do and teach (Colossians 3:17), are being labeled as “legalist,” “divisive,” and “dead” simply because they ask for Bible authority for all practices. The spirit of Nadab and Abihu lives on and abounds in this age.

As we try to serve God in this generation there are several questions we might ask. Should we use mechanical instruments of music in worship? Should worship become a performance for the talented and be centered upon the desires of men? Should local churches use the collection taken in the assembly and spend it for social meals, recreation, secular schools and even business arrangements? Does it really matter if we use speakers from various religious backgrounds to fill our pulpits?

The questions we might ask will vary from generation to generation, and from congregation to congregation, but the approach God wants us to take in finding these answers is the same for all. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).”

What does God see when He looks into our hearts? There are many who will apply God’s standards to outward matters but refuse to let the thoughts of their hearts be examined. How do you respond to one who has wronged you? ”Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled (Hebrews 12:14-15).

There is a service that is acceptable to God and a service that is not. Are you renewing your mind each day by testing your heart and your practices by proving the will of God? Is the local church of which you are a part glorifying God in this way, or do they close the Bible to examination by calling others names and appealing to outward things such as numbers and the things money can buy?

One day you and I will stand face to face with the God of heaven. It is my prayer that we together will stand in joy because through the grace of God bestowed upon us through the sacrifice of Christ, that we have, in turn, lived a life with the glory of God being our sole purpose. That is the sacrifice that alone will be acceptable to God.

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