Many women gathered in Bethersden on May 18 for a day conference led by Ann Benton on ‘Designer Worship’.
The three sessions covered: The significance of worship, 2 Corinthians 3.7-18; The heart of worship, Psalm 66; and Worship in everyday clothes, Romans 12.1-8.
We were created to reflect God’s glory. Ann said what we worship shapes what and who we are. So, what and who are we worshipping? Is it self, our appearance, things, our own goals, etc.?
If we are believers, we are saved and changed, so we are to bear Christ’s image. We are to reflect God’s glory through prayer, worship, reading God’s word and to set our affections on God. Ann said that, when we meet for public worship, we should sing with joy, heartily and zealously. God has made us a singing people; it doesn’t matter how we think we may sound, but just sing!! We were warned not to make singing a performance; it isn’t a job only for professionals, but for us all, praising our God with joy.
Great love and mercy
In the last session, Ann spoke of God’s great love and mercy to believers, and asked what our response to such love is? Are we cheerful and do we delight in duty, do we have a willingness to please? The warning was given not to live for this present age, with the love of stuff, pleasing self, making non-biblical choices, but to live lives for the coming age, to resist the world’s view and replace it with a biblical view: to please God, not self, and to use our bodies in God’s service.
It was a challenging, yet encouraging day.
