Doing Things Correctly (Bulletin Article for October 8)

How many times have we told our young people, “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing correctly”? While they might get tired of hearing that, it is so true. Sadly, we don’t think about it being true often enough in our worship of God.

For example, how often have we sung the song “The Lord’s Army”? Our children often sing that song at devotionals and VBS. Many adults also love that song. If you would, take a moment and sing it to yourself. (Go ahead…I’ll wait.)

Here is probably what you sang:

I may never march in the infantry;
Ride in the calvary;
Shoot the artillery;
I may never fly over the enemy,
But I’m in the Lord’s army.

Have you ever noticed that we nearly always sing one line of that song incorrectly? How can one “ride in the calvary”? Calvary is the name of the place where our Lord was crucified for our sins. A cavalry is what one can ride in if he/she is serving in the army.

Now, I’m not saying that one will lose his/her soul if he/she sings “Calvary” in that song, but it does illustrate a point quite well. We sing that song over and over and probably never even think about the fact that we are singing something that is impossible to do!

We must be careful. We are quick to jump on any other religious body that does certain things simply out of habit or tradition. There is nothing wrong with things being traditional, but we never need to put traditions before the commands of God.

I remember once leading singing here at 9th Avenue and, simply as a mistake, I “scheduled” the prayer and then the Scripture reading. After the services, more than one person came up to me and asked, “We’re not changing our services, are we?” A couple of them seemed almost fearful! Friends, so long as we worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), and so long as we participate in all the avenues of worship, the order does not matter. These are things that are traditional.

When we worship, we need to make sure we understand what we are doing. We must keep our minds involved. For example, when we sing the following phrases, do we have any idea what we are talking about?

• “Night with ebon pinion brooded o’er the vale”
• In “Soldiers of Christ, Arise,” we sing about putting on the “panoply of God.”
• We often sing of going to “Beulah Land.”
• “O Thou Fount of Every Blessing” contains the phrase: “Here I raise my Ebenezer.”

You see, if we are not careful, we can just go through the motions of worship and never really engage our minds. Worship is more than “punching a time clock.” It is more than mere formality. It is an action, and it requires a great deal of mental work!

We need to work at putting forth our very best when we assemble before God. When we don’t, we could allow certain things to be taught that are not Biblical. It is up to us to make sure all that is being done is correct.

Let’s arm ourselves with truth and work hard when we worship. After all, we “may never ride in the cavalry, but [we’re] in the Lord’s army!”