{"id":8865,"date":"2022-03-14T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/?p=8865"},"modified":"2022-02-18T11:15:41","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T17:15:41","slug":"worshiping-in-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/2022\/03\/14\/worshiping-in-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"Worshiping in Unity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The language of Christianity is the language of relationships: Father, Son, Daughter, Child, Brother, Sister, Friend.\u00a0 We know that the Christian life is not intended to be lived in a vacuum.\u00a0 We need each other in order to be fully whole in Christian community.\u00a0 Why is it, then, that someone might say, \u201cI love everything about the ministry except for the people!\u201d?\u00a0 While this is a rather outlandish statement, it reveals a stark truth.\u00a0 People being together, working together, \u201cdoing life\u201d together is not always easy.\u00a0 Personalities clash; agendas conflict; pride and ego get in the way\u2026and the enemy exploits it all in every way possible in order to be disruptive and to cause disunity.<\/p>\n

But Jesus prayed that we might be one even as He and the Father are one (John 17).\u00a0 How is that to be achieved?\u00a0 Paul exhorts the Ephesians to endeavor<\/em> to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:2-3 NKJV).\u00a0 Why endeavor<\/em>?\u00a0 Because it does not come naturally\u2026We have to work at it by the grace of God.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\"why endeavor?\"<\/em><\/h6>\n
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It begins by recognizing the importance of our relationships and being willing to take the necessary steps to be the answer to Jesus\u2019 prayer.\u00a0 How important is it?\u00a0 Consider that the state of our human relationships can affect our worship relationship with God.\u00a0 For example, Jesus said \u201c\u2026 if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.\u201d \u00a0(Matthew 5:23-24 ESV)\u00a0 His instruction is that before we offer worship, we should be in right relationship with our brother.\u00a0 Then we can enter worship in a spirit of unity.<\/p>\n

My father is a piano tuner.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard the \u201cplunk and thunk\u201d of 4ths and 5ths being straightened out all my life.\u00a0 There is truly a sense of peace and calm that occurs when the intervals are true and the unisons are pure.\u00a0 With that in mind, note these words from A.W. Tozer:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same [tuning] fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become \"unity\" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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It is Christ Who ultimately enables us to speak a common language; a new language of love for each other rooted in our relationship with Him.\u00a0 We can ask the Lord to tune the unisons of our hearts together.\u00a0 That would surely be beautiful music to His ears.<\/p>\n

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace<\/em> \u2013 Robert Robinson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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[1] A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God <\/em>(Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1948), 97.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Dr. Wes Tuttle is an accomplished worship leader, musician, and songwriter. Dr. Tuttle\u2019s songs have been recorded by influential worship leaders like Don Moen, Paul Wilbur, Bob Fitts, John Chisum, Aline Barros, Robin Mark, Juanita Bynum and Judy Jacobs. Wes is an ordained minister and holds an A.A. in Music and a B.A. in Religion from Emmanuel College.\u00a0 He holds an M.A. in Counseling from Liberty University and a M.A.R. with a concentration in Cross-cultural studies from Liberty Theological Seminary. He received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Liberty Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[1458,1404,16,1031,1457,1357,1311],"class_list":{"0":"post-8865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-discipleship-ministries","8":"category-general","9":"tag-1458","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-discipleship","12":"tag-discipleship-ministries","13":"tag-q1","14":"tag-wes-tuttle","15":"tag-worship-emphasis","16":"entry"},"title_es":"","content_es":"","author_name":"Wes Tuttle","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/02\/DM-WE-2022-Q1-Article-Graphic.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T9u2-2iZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}