Blended Worship

Many of us are not sure what blended worship is and what it is all about. Blended worship is an attempt to make believers in the body of Christ happy. It is the blending of two different styles of worship contemporary praise songs and traditional hymns and when done correctly it is veryeffective. Churches who have a wide range of ages should at least consider this blending style. The reason I support a blended approach is because it helps bring two very different generations together for the solitary purpose of worshiping the Lord. Those who are older need to be willing to sing praise songs that they may not enjoy and those who are younger need to do the same with hymns. If both segments can begin to respect different forms of musical worship the body of Christ can live in unity and in essence a life of worship. "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) Blended worship can make this verse possible for some churches if the members of the body are willing to compromise. The key word is compromise. There is value to both forms of worship when each worship a God who is more then worthy of our praise.

Walk in Grace... Walk in Victory

To walk in grace and the understanding of grace is to walk in victory. Grace is the un-merited favor and undeserved act of kindness that God freely gives us. The Bible says we are saved by grace through faith... but how many of us truly walk in grace? If we truly drew on the benefits and blessings of grace, which is a free gift, would we then walk in victory over our current temptations? If we did walk in grace it is my belief that we would stop doing the same sins over and over. Our prayer should be: God help me to understand your gift of grace and not devalue your perfect grace.
An example of grace that I heard the other day helped me understand this concept better. Say a police officer pulls you over for going 75 in a 45 zone and you’re sure that you will get a ticket. The officer comes to the car and asks for your license and takes it back to his car and lets you sweat it out for 10 minutes. As he comes back to your car to your surprise he lets you off the hook with a warning. Not only does he decide to let you off the hook he hands you a thousand dollars. The fact that he did not give you a ticket is not really grace however him giving you the money is total grace.
As Christians we have accepted the money and the gift of grace however we never spend it... So we continue to fall into the same sin and cheapen His good and perfect gift of grace as we choose to not use the money... in so doing we miss out on the blessings of grace.
I need to remember when the trials and temptations come to put into action the grace that God has extended to me.