Christian Spiritual Discipline For Madagascar

ZURCHER ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY

THEOLOGY DEPARTMENT

CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE FOR MADAGASCAR

A Dissertation Project Submitted to Zurcher Adventist University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

BACHELOR of ART

By Prisque Haingo RAZAF-MAHAROLALY

Sambaina, Antsirabe

June 2016

CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

When jesus was tempted he said : It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luk 4:4 KJV) this means that man is not only physical but there is over dimension: spiritual or intelectual and social. Perfect growing is not in one side only. It was written that « And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luk 2:52 NIV). Food helps man to grow physicaly, communication, relationship in social dimension, religion in spiritual dimension. Eating and social interaction makes the two dimmensions grow(physical and social), church ensure spriritual growing,. Yes it’s not only him but it’s the most familiar when we talk about religion or spiritual.

“Church”: it’s a big word that everyone have their definition, their conception. Erickson said about it like this:

“The church is at once a very familiar and a very misunderstood topic. It is one of the few aspects of Christian theology that can be observed. For many persons, it is the first point, and perhaps the only point, where Christianity is encountered. There are concrete evidences that the church exists, or at least that it has existed. Church structures, even though sometimes very few persons gather within them, are proof of the reality of what we call the church. The church is mentioned in the media, but without much specification as to what is meant. Legislative documents refer to it.” (Erickson, 1998,)

Here Erickson tells us that people thinks that chuch is just a gathering of people but Ryrie added that the Church is concerned first of all with individuals and their preparation for life eternal. (Ryrie, 1994). so the task of the church is so hurge. It’s not only gathering people but preparing them for the eternal life. Erickson said above that the existance of the church is misunderstantood. we need church because it hepl us to grow spiritualy and also prepare us to the future life: the eternal life.

the statement of the problem

One of the agent for spiritual growing is the church. Chrurch attendance is important. Most of people go to church because of their parents or their friends. When I asked member about why they come to church? They gave some answers:

They are invited.

They want to be saved.

They want to worship God because they said that they was already save by Jesus in the cross

I’d like to not talk about the first answer but for the second and third. The second answer suggests that by following Church activity, they hope that they will be save. This kind of member follow the saying of Martin Luther: “out of church, no salvation”. Even they didn’t understand why the church do something, they follow. The third one who talk about worship, is a kind of member who had experiences with God. This two point of view talks one things, more precisely, it coincide in one things: the activity at the church, worship. As we see before, does our worship, church activity prepare our member for the eternal life. There is no wrong in our program at the church. Even Stillman answered the question: Why are rituals important to spirituality? He argues : “Rituals are important to spirituality because the repetition of enacting each ritual provides a focal point from distraction; a level of comfort and familiarity; and an opportunity to demonstrate reverence for being in the moment, moment to moment.” (Stillman, ). We need to know their meanings. The problem of most of our member is that they just follow rituals, they just assist, and more they run to accomplish the program. The big problem, if we do not be careful, is that God will say to us: “ Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” (Isa 29:13 KJV) God had said to us that it’s not everyone who pronounce Lord! Lord will be in heaven. (Mat 7:21)

So this research helps member to understand why they worship God. It doesn’t create a new kind of worship but tries to balance ritual and spirituality, it tries to understand and know the essence, principle of ritual for our spirituality. So the member of the church of God should not perish as Hosea said: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hos 4:6 NAS)

The porpose

As we said before that church attendance is important so the goal of this research is to hepl church leader how to make chuch program to be benefic to the member Not to change the ritual in the church but to help member to understand why they practice church rituals.

The statement of limitation

First of all this research is dedicated for a adventist member , especialy in Madagasikara. It will talk more about church program wich need to be understood and brought profit to the member. Spurgeon and Carter said that: “All places are places of worship to a Christian. Wherever he is, he ought to be in a worshiping frame of mind. (Spurgeon C. H., 1995) ; let talk about ritual worship in church and personal activity in worship as christian requirement in spiritual life. We will talk especialy Seventh Day Adventist Church in Madagascar.we wil not discuss about the origin or the history of the entering of rituals in the church.

The biblical and theological basis

There was a time, when Jesus crossed the city of Samaria, he met one women and he have discussion with her. Before Jesus said to the women that he is the Messiah, He declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:21-24 NIV). Jesus want to tell to us that in worship, we should find spirituality.

When the Apostle Paul visited the city of Athens, he said that as he walked around and looked carefully at the people objects of worship, he even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD… (Act 17:23 NIV) he said to them that they worship to something unknown. Till know many member go to church without knowing who God is. So their worship is just a routine, no meaning.

Sometimes we force member to follow rituals even they didn’t understand them nevertheless God’s said through the Prophet Hosea : For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (Hos 6:6 KJV)

We need to avoid formalism as the Apostle Paul recommends us: “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2Ti 3:5 KJV)

The statement of methodology

To answer to the problematic that I have said before , I’ve do some interview by asking Pastor, church member. I ve also road some books and articles. Observation also helps me to do this research.

Statement of the plan

This dissertation will be accomplished through the following. First, Chapter two will talk about God’s Character as He is spirit, Love, Right and Powerful.

Second, As worship is a manifestation of our communication, the Chapter three of this research will describe Christian communication by giving the some kind of communication and talking about what is Christian communication.

Third, Chapter four will discuss about the rituals in the church, the tool that we can use to make spiritual life grow like some church program during worship time.

CHAPTER TOW : GOD’S CHARACTER

When we talk about worship the idea of God is in our mind, so we need to know Him: Who He is? Yes, The bible says that the secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV). And as God is spirit (John 4:24 NIV) .Maybe it seems difficult to us understand Him very well. But it’s sure that we can know Him because Jesus said: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3 NIV). Through bible we can know God as Jesus encourage as study the Scriptures because we think that by them we possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Him, (John 5:39 NIV)

First of all, I’d like to separate God’s Character or attributes and God’s action. When we speak of the attributes of God, we are referring his qualities as God, the characteristics of his nature. We are not referring to his acts, such as creating, guiding, and preserving.

There is many misconception about God in human mind. Some people think God badly, they think God as a kind of celestial policeman who looks for opportunities to pounce upon erring and straying persons. And some have an opposite view as God is grandfatherly, a kindly old gentleman, indulgent who would never want to detract from humans enjoyment of life. (Erickson, 1998)

There is many attributes about God but let’s see only four of them.

GOD IS SPIRIT

The bible says “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth”‘(john 4:24). The word “spirit” here is the same as Jesus used after his resurrection: "See My hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. (Luke 24:39 NAS). It is from the Greek” pneuma”. Jesus explain to us what a spirit is. God is without form, no body. Sometimes we see God’s manifestation like man (when He reveal to Moses, Exodus 32.) God’s take human form that we can understand Him .we call it “Anthropomorphism”. But when reveal temporary like fire, cloud, angel; we call it “theophany”.

The character of God as a Spirit have effect in our worship to Him. As Jesus said to the Women at the well, what does it mean to worship in spirit? To worship in spirit means to worship with the right heart or the inner man.

In the context, Christ was trying to teach a Samaritan woman that worship is not a matter of being in Jerusalem at the temple or being in Samaria. It is not a matter of where you are at or what you are doing, because worship is a matter of the heart. God is spirit, so we must worship him in spirit. It is not so much about location or activity. You can sing a song and not worship, give an offering and not worship. It is a matter of the inner man; it is a matter of having the right heart.

We see this in the New Testament with the Pharisees. Jesus said: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain” (Matthew 15:8). Christ warned his disciples to not worship in the same way the Pharisees did. He said: “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). When the Pharisees worshiped, their hearts were not in the right place. They gave to be seen by men, they prayed and fasted to be seen by others, and therefore, that was their reward. They did not approach God properly in the inner man. God is spirit, and he must be worshiped with our spirit. (Brown, 2014)

Certainly, it’s the same for us. Consider what Paul said about giving in 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Giving weekly or monthly is not the most important aspect; it is the manner of the heart.

It must not be unwilling or under obligation, because out of a joyful heart, worshiping means nothing. As God is spirit, we cann’t lie before him because He can read what we have in heart.

THE POWER OF GOD

The right conception of God is impossible if we don’t think Him as a powerful being. Humanity have the habit to depend to something that he think stronger than him. We can’t measure the largest of the power of God. We can have just little idea about it through bible reading.

Let see some God’s power manifestation in the bible. David said: “Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God; (Psalm 62:11 NAS).

The power of God is from anyone. God’s power is in Himself, self-existent, self-sustained.

In creation

If we want to create something we need tool and raw-material. But when God create he just spoke. The psalmist said: “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. (Psa 33:9 NIV). The book of Genesis told us: “God said, Let there be … and it was so” (Gen. 1:7).God can create something from anything. Its God only have this faculty, this power. We call it creation “ex-nihilo”. (Jacques, 2015).

In our salvation

Jesus was born like us, lived among us and he was died. But he didn’t stay in the tomb forever. He was raised by God. It’s prove that God is powerful. Ellen White talk about it: The Savior continued: "What things so ever He [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. . . . As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." The Sadducees held that there would be no resurrection of the body; but Jesus tells them that one of the greatest works of His Father is raising the dead, and that He Himself has power to do the same work. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. Christ declares that even now the power which gives life to the dead is among them, and they are to behold its manifestation. This same resurrection power is that which gives life to the soul "dead in trespasses and sins." Ephesians 2:1. That spirit of life in Christ Jesus, "the power of His resurrection," sets men "free from the law of sin and death. (White, The desire of age, 1898)

The fact that we know God’s power , push us to worship Him and to trust Him. The power of God wasn’t shown only in the creation but also during our salvation plan. We worship not a weak God but a powerful God. He can make every thing that the men seems impossible.It’s written : “Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mar 10:27 NIV)

GOD IS LOVE

The most famous character of God is “love”. The bible talks directly this: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1Jo 4:8 NIV). Christ's death proves God's great love for man. (White, 1911)

Since love is a difficult concept to define, Grudem’s comments are helpful. He says: “God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.’’ This definition understands love as self-giving for the benefit of others. This attribute of God shows that it is part of his nature to give of himself in order to bring about blessing or good for others.” (A.Gruden, 2004)

It is practical love:

For the youth, Love is so simple : just tell “ I LOVE YOU” But the Apostle John said : “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

Love is not just words, and it certainly is not just feelings. It is an act of the will. The proverb said: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. (Pro 17:17 NIV). Maybe it’s difficult to us to feel God’s love when we look at the creation but for our salvation we see it evidently. The Scripture says that for God so love the world that he gave his only son (john 3:16).

Love Is Sacrificial

God’s love is sacrificial. It cost him something. You can tell how much somebody loves you by how much they sacrifice for you. Is he or she willing to sacrifice time, money, hobbies, career, dreams, or friends for you? That is love. God so loved the world, he sacrificed himself. He sacrificed his Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16). The plan of salvation cost the God’s standing for. The sacrifice of Jesus threat God’s entity. (Payet, 2016). The death of Jesus is not a simple death, it’s the second death that why the bible says: Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Heb 2:14 NAS). The love of God is unthinkable. Our worship should base in love even to show respect and recognize what God had done for us.

God’s Love Is Unconditional

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

God loved us while we were still sinners. He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up and to ask for forgiveness before he loved us. No, it was an unconditional love. Human love is conditional as the book of proverb says: I love those who love me. (Pro 8:17 NIV). We can draw a picture to illustrate it

Human’s love

But Go’s Love is unconditional as the book of Mathew states: that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Mat 5:45 NIV)

God’s love

We need to worship God because of this unthinkable love. In other word , if we thank’s God or not, it doesn’t change his love because it’s not only his carracter but it is He.But we thank’s hil, worship Him because we are thinker beeing.As an proverb Malagasy said: « Ny vato ary ,hono, raha nanao soa hosora-menaka» wich means that even a stone who helps need to be anointed by oil; so God who loves us need also to be thanked,worshiped.

GOD IS RIGHT OR JUSTICE

Some people have a hard time reconciling God’s love and justice. But justice is an outworking of love. Listen to Hebrews 12:6; “Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

Everybody he loves, he disciplines. For the believer, God will allow trials to happen in their lives to discipline them in order to make them more holy and righteous. Proverbs 13:24 says the same thing about parents: “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”

God is not only good; God is severe. Romans 11:22 tells us about the severity of God: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.” And it says that because Israel turned away from God, God was severe with Israel and temporarily broke her off from the good olive tree and grafted in the Gentiles instead. And so behold the goodness and severity of God. (Rom 11:20-25)

God is very clear: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Gal 6:7 NIV). If he said that he will punish he does. There is no iniquity in God, no corruption as the Apostle James said: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (Jam 1:17 KJV).

God’s severity toward all who continue in moral revolt against the throne of God and in rebellion against the virtuous laws of God. ( Tozer, 2003)

Tozer and Fresseden explain more about this justice of God.

“to say that God is just or that the justice of God is a fact is to say that there is uprightness and rectitude in God. Psalm 89:14 says, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.” Psalm 97:2 says, “Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.” Justice and righteousness are indistinguishable from each other.

To say that God is just is to say that God is equitable, that He is morally equal. If you go to Ezekiel 18:25 you will find God scolding Israel there. He says, “Yet ye say, the way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; is not my way equal? Are not your ways unequal?” That word “unequal” simply means inequity. Do you know that the word inequity and the word iniquity are the same word? The iniquitous person is not morally equal, not symmetrical morally, unequal to himself.

The word “judgment” as used in the texts above is the application of justice to a moral situation, favorable or unfavorable. When God judges a man He brings justice to that man’s life. He applies justice to the moral situation which that man’s life created. And if the man’s ways are equal, then justice favors the man. If man’s ways are unequal then, of course, God sentences the man.

Justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is. A grammarian might say it should be phrased, “Just is something that God is.” But I say, “No, justice is something that God is.” God is love and just as God is love, God is justice.

Theologians, both Jewish and Christian, speak of justice as one of God’s attributes. God is justice, and God will always act justly—not by compulsion from the outside but because that’s the way He is Himself. Justice must always prevail because God is the sovereign.God who will always prevail( Tozer,2003)

The justice of God is serious , we cann’t joke about it.tis give us the idea that all promises of God are sure. We need to praise him about this.

Througth this second chapter, we have seen that all the character of God will affect our mind when we worship God. we need to know that the idea that each person have about God affect their way of worship. knowing this very important because we need to avoid fragmentation in worship as Webber explains in his book,Ancient-future worship : proclaiming and enacting God’s narrative (p. 41) : « Fragmentation in worship is expressed in a worship that emphasizes one or another aspect of God’s story but neglects the story as a whole. For example, some Christian fellowships concentrate on only one person of the Trinity.» So it’s not amazed to see many church now.

CHAPTER THREE: CHRISTIAN COMMUNICATION

By worship, we can communicate with God. The high will of God to us is to have relationship with us, to connect with us. God is a God of relation that’s why he create us. Christian communication is easy to explain in Christ method by making disciple: Discipleship. So in this chapter we will discuss more about discipleship.

Pentecost state a strong statement like this: “There is a vast difference between being saved and being a disciple. Not all men who are saved are disciples although all who are disciples are saved.” (Pentecost, 1996). When we talk about discipleship, we need to have in mind the idea of disciple . Etymologycaly , discipleship is from two word “disciple” and “ ship” which means “the state of learning” or “following a teacher.” So a disciple of Christ can be defined as “a learner of Jesus who accepts the teaching of his Master, not only in belief but in lifestyle.” It involves acceptance of the views and practices of the Teacher and obedience to His commands. (Sanders, 2007)

Bill Hull and Bobby Harrington define discipleship like this : “We suggest a definition for discipleship (and disciple making) based on Matt. 28:18-20 and Jesus’ example: “Discipleship as trusting God’s presence as we intentionally enter into the lives of others to guide them to trust and follow Jesus and obey all his teachings. Some people like to refer discipleship as “apprenticeship”.” (Harrington, 2015).

We see that this definition focus more in the relation between the learner and the teacher( believer and Jesus) but let’s see an other definition who is more extended.

“Discipleship means intentionally partnering with another Christian in order to help that person obey Jesus and grow in relationship with Him—so that he or she can then help others do the same. Jesus taught His disciples to follow Him and obey His commands so that they could lead others to do the same after His death, resurrection and ascension.” (2015)

This second definition is more oriented in believer-believer relationship.So Discipleship is the relation of an believer whith Christ and his relation whith other believer. The two definitions are complementary: Before you have relation whith other you need to have relation whith Jesus. We have also see that discipleship is like apprenticeship, it’s mean that in discipleship there is a formation, a training. This training is about how to connect with jesus continuously during our life. Dallas Willard said: “As Jesus’ disciple, I am his apprentice in kingdom living. I am learning from him how to lead my life in the Kingdom of the Heavens as he would lead my life if he were I. It is my faith in him that led me to become his disciple. My confidence in him simply means that I believe that he is right about everything: that all that he is and says shows what life is at its best, what it was intended by God to be. “In him was life and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4 NAS)(…) Living as Jesus’ disciple, I am learning from him how to lead my life in the Kingdom of the Heavens everywhere I am, in every activity I engage in.” (Willard, 2015)

Christ discipleship is totally different as the discipleship of this word. If the goal of the students is to be like their teacher and after to have theire own students, Christ discipleship is not like this. Webber explained that Jesus’s goal was that his disciples would make disciples not of themselves but that they would go forth to make disciples of Jesus. (Webber, 2003)

We can see an triangle of relation in discipleship : one believer with Christ and with other believer.we can say that discipleship is an internal relationship: in side of the christianity believer-believer.

Christian communication

GOD

NEW-CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN

Discipleship include all aspect of an Christian life :worship(God), behavior (me), relationship(other). It’s a training trough our life. It’s a “process that takes place within accountable relationships over a period of time for the purpose of bringing believers to spiritual maturity in Christ. Biblical examples suggest that discipleship is both relational and intentional, both a position and a process,” said Webber . He continuous that there is a consensus that the making of a disciple is a process. Discipleship can be defined, then, as the process of making disciples. Discipleship is a lifelong process, and the church must attend to keeping and forming disciples throughout life. We evangelicals have been concerned to fill our churches with new converts, but many of us have neglected the task of discipleship. (Webber, 2003) If we compare this like our life as before, Discipleship beginng till the birth till the maturity as Webber said. Discipleship help new member to grow, to live till the maturity . the Apostle Paul state : “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. “ (Eph 4:13 NAS). We cann’t be mature without discipleship. So it’s very indispensable to our spiritual growing. Discipleship is about relationship. Pentecost said: “In discussing the question of discipleship, we are not dealing with a man’s salvation. We are dealing with a man’s relationship to Jesus Christ as his Teacher, his Master, and his Lord.” (Pentecost, 1996). It affect our way to worship. Because during worship time we recognize who God is: the master of our life or what. We don’t know what realy inside of someone but his way of worship give us a glimpse of what he or she have in mind.

To be a disciple of Christ means that we need to empty or self, deny our self , so we will be like the apostle Paul as he stated in Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. “ Pentecost explain more about it: “ Discipleship to Jesus Christ means that Jesus Christ has an absolute right to one’s life, to do with it as He sees fit; and, while we have given Him certain rights and allowed Him to control in certain phases, we have retained rights to certain areas ourselves. We are not disciples. Discipleship means that Jesus Christ possesses every material thing that I have, it is His. It isn’t a question of what I am willing to give to Him; it is a question of what I hold back from Him that is rightfully His; and until I can recognize that everything I have belongs to Jesus Christ, I am not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has the right to be the one object of my affection; and until Jesus Christ is paramount and preeminent in my affections, I am not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has the right to fill my mind with the knowledge and the truth of Himself, and as long as I let my intellect rule and trust it, I am not a disciple of Jesus Christ. (Pentecost, 1996)

Through this chapter we have seen that be a disciple is important for our spiritual grow, the church need to practice discipleship. As it’s a relation between God and us, it have effect in our way of worship. True worship is offered by a real disciple. We said that the lain task of the church is to preach the Gospel to the world as Mathew 28 said. Through our worship wich is our communication with God, we can know where and who the other are; we will know how to relate with them. So our relation , our communication with God is very important to accoplish our task as a church. This communication is realised throug worship. Our big job is to have this relation with God as He is waiting for us. That’s why discipleship is so more important. We can evangelize , accoplish Jesus recomandation through worship.

CHAPTER FOUR : RITUAL IN THE CHURCH

May be we ask: why we talk about ritual in the church in this chapter? As we know that the ritual in the church is a kind of worship so we will talk about it. Let’s talk firts about the true whorship and after we will talk about ritual wich is the manifestation of worship

Worship

God had create us to worship him. That’s why after creating us, He gave us the Sabbath day, day that we can worship him. Foster said about it in his book, Celebration of Discipline:The Path to Spiritual Growth (p. 161) : « The divine priority is worship first, service second.» Crabb tells : « We all long for what God designed us to enjoy: tension-free relationships filled with deep, loving acceptance and with opportunities to make a diffference to someone else ( p. 58) . This three elements are seen in worship time: our relation with God, God’s acceptance and our and His personality.So we have seen before that God is love , He want us to be joyfull. Through worship we can experience this joy as Crabb said.

As we have discussed before that God is Spirit, during our worship, He enter in our heart not to judge us but to correct us if something is wrong as Delesslyn said: « when we worship our God, he will inspect our hearts first; the other benefits that we tend to expect because we lift up our feeble hands and shout with our weak voices are worthless if our hearts are not right with God. My sisters and brothers, when we offer God our true worship, we are inviting him to inspect our hearts for anything that is not like him. This is the promise of worship—we can be transformed into God's likeness because he will reveal the truth about the condition of our hearts as we worship him.» it’s clear that when God enter in our heart, He arrage if something is wrong. Wordshiping God gives benefits.

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

The primary Hebrew word for worship is «Shachah» wich means to depress, to prostrate : in homage to royalty or God, to bow down, to fall down,humbly beseech, do(make) obeissance, do reverence, make to stoop . The Greek word translated worship is « proskuneo» wich means to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand. It originally carried with it the idea of subjects falling down to kiss the ground before a king or kiss their feet.( Delesslyn A. Kennebrew , 2012). Through the meaning of worship, we can say that in worship their is acceptance of the greatness of God, a willing of perfect obediance. During our worship, we recognize that God is our master.

Content of worship

We know now that the center of worship is God. We have seen his carracter, we have also seen that God want to communicate with us, and worship is one way for this communication. We have tree principle in worshiping: we need to remember God’s past actionthat we can recognize Him, we anticipate the future by worshiping and lastly, we meet God through worship. So in this part we will see one by one this three element of the worship.

So first about remembering, one of the paramount of our worship is about God’s intervention in the past .By worship , we remember God’s action . We see it through the worship time in bible.Webber said that worship remembers God’s story through historical recitation and dramatic reenactment. We sing, preach, recite, and enact the story of God’s great deeds of salvation. This theme is found repeatedly in Scripture from the very beginnings of worship in the time of Noah, in all of Israel’s worship, in the church’s worship, and in the eternal worship of the heavens. (webber )For example, when the son israel have passed the red see ( exodus 15). They praised the Lords of what he have done for them : God had cast into the sea the Egyptian’s Army, made them to walk in a dry land. This act of remembering is recommended by God when his people appear in front of Him as it’s recorded in Deuternony 26 :5-9.It’ s talk about who God intervain in their life

« Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; (Deu 26: 5-9 NIV)

Yes we have it in our sabbath worship time like the missionary repport , the five minuts special ( 2nd and 4th sabbath) during the sabbath school program and also during the time when the class review the lesson of the week: the moment of sharing , witnessing . But it’s not enough. If I calculate the time that we spent for sharing , hearing about what God had done in our life , it’s less than the time of listening sermons, formations. May be we say that even in the time that we have now ,anyone participate ,because we have cultivate this practice. I ‘d like to remark that even in our predication during worship time we like to talk about our doctrines. In addition to this even our program of sabath afternoon not allow us to share about God’s intervention in our past life. The program is full of formation. I ‘m not againts of formation, member need it, but we need to make balance. Most of the time, we spent time to encourage member to participate in evangelisation ( we consecrate ten minutes each sabbath for this). But if we change this time to tell how God works with us by remembering ,narrating our experiences with God in His work

Secondly, We have said that worship is not only about remembering but about anticipation also. Webber continues saying that yes Worship remembers the past.But it always connects the past with the future. God acts in history in order to restore his kingdom. Worship makes this connection between past and present because worship celebrates God’s saving deeds in the past that culminate in the future. (webber) So worship don’t stop only on remembering the past ation of God but it foretell also the future action of God. Let’s take an example: during the Lord Super Jesus said: « For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." (Luk 22:16 NIV) and the Apostle Paul emphasized it by telling : «For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.» (1Co 11:26 NIV) so the worship of communion service tells us the existance of the life after this, the second comming of Jesus. If I think about our worship in sabbath day, I can say that almost of the time we anticipate in worship by our predication who talk about the new earth , new heaven, the second comming ( may be because we are seventh day adventist) but we need to know that this form of anticipation in worship should give hope to the member , encourage them, make them strong. I ask a question : are our programs during worship encourage, are benefic to our member.why I ask this ? Because I affraid of what Webber said: Worship followed the curvature of culture, and worship leaders became program designers. Some worship leaders have ignored content in favor of technical programming.( webber ,2008)

We need to be aware about the content of our worship to avoid just program following. We need to be sure that the member feel God’s presence and can have relation with Him. I’m here not try to change our program during our worship time in the sabbath day but just want to open our eye obout the essential things that we need to focus. Member need to feel the impact of God’s action in their life so when we reconfort them about the future , they will be sure about the veracity of the things that we tell them. As a leader we need to look for how to reach the goal of together worship. Foster said that together worship is a continuation and an intensification of the member had done during the week.. (P.170 Celebration of Discipline The Path to Spiritual Growth 20th Anniversary Edition Richard J. Foster). Inversely, I see that we think,as a leader, that together worship is the begining that’s why we force to do many things during sabbath day,. It seems that we try to catch the personal worship that we need to do during the week , in sabbath day.

The thrird content of worship is meeting with God .the «Memento du Pasteur» is very clear about the goal of the worship: to meet God. It says: «Ne suivez pas un programme uniquement parce qu'il faut qu'il en soit ainsi, mais parce qu'il conduit votre communauté à une rencontre particulière avec Dieu. Le culte d'adoration est une rencontre.» we don’t need just to follow worship program because it must followed but we follow it that we can meet God. When we organize a program about worship, the main question that we need to ask is we want to meet with what kind of God? Love, rigth, powerfull, spirit , or what? This meeting needs preparation as the prophet Amos recomanded : "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel." (Amo 4:12 NIV)

This preparation to meet God is emphasize by Surgeon that we need to prapare our mind , our heart. He said:

There should be some preparation of the heart in coming to the worship of God. Consider who he is in whose name we gather, and surely we cannot rush together without thought. Consider whom we profess to worship, and we shall not hurry into his presence as men run to a fire. Moses, the man of God, was warned to put off his shoes from his feet when God only revealed himself in a bush. How should we prepare ourselves when we come to him who reveals himself in Christ Jesus, his dear Son? There should be no stumbling into the place of worship half asleep, no roaming here as if it were no more than going to a playhouse. We cannot expect to profit much if we bring with us a swarm of idle thoughts and a heart crammed with vanity. If we are full of folly, we may shut out the truth of God from our minds. (Spurgeon C. H., 1995)

RITUALS

Ritual is manifestation of our worship. William said that rituals are important to our spirituality. ( william , https://www.sharecare.com ) and Rebekah emphasize it by saying: « Spiritual rituals help to strengthen and support your soul and to clear and open your mind to higher guidance. The aim of spiritual rituals is to bring your body and mind into a deeper connection with your spirit every moment of every day. Just as regular practice of physical activities can strengthen your body, regular connection to your spirit through daily rituals can give you spiritual strength. The more time you spend interacting with your spirit, the stronger your relationship with your highest self will be.( Posted on August 15, 2013 by Aimee Rebekah Shea  in Spiritual and Intuitive Development http://indigointernational.org/ ).» So it’s important to talk about it. The ritual that we want to talk here is the ritual in the church during sabbath worship time. The book Compilation Statemets, Guidelines and Other Documents, publish by the communication departement of the General Conference of Seventh Day Adventist Church ( 2000) said that Sabbath observance includes both worship and fellowship (p.159). It’s means that when we talk about worship in sabbath it’s not only the morning but all the Day.

Sometimes there is a member who think that going in church waste their time, they said that it ‘s a routine: they know already what will happen . It’ s depend on the program presented in the church. But Dr Mehmet Oz said that we need this weekly rituals because it reinforce our sens of community (e;g the idea of being individual and connected to others) and also we can experience highs spiritual by attending church meeting.( Mehmet Oz ,https://www.sharecare.com )

May be we ask why we need rituals in worshiping God. There is three approche who try to explain end answer this question:

– ORIGIN APPROCH: For W. Robertson Smith, a British biblical scholar who first published his theory in the ninth edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1875–89), « sacrifice was motivated by the desire for communion between members of a primitive group and their god.» For this approch our desire to be with God push us to create rituals. The bible said in Ecclesiastes  3:11 that God  has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (NIV) wich means that this desire that Robertson said , is normal. So there is no wrong with following rituals . ( http://www.britannica.com by Hans H. Penner)

– FONCTIONALISM : for them, ritual is thus viewed as an adaptive and adjustive response to the social and physical environment. Many leading authorities on religion and ritual have taken this approach as the most adequate way to explain rituals.( Hans Panner) So ritual for this approch help us to integrate in the society. It related with the idea that our worship in God push us to communicate with other as we see in the christian communication section.

– HISTORIANS OF RELIGION: Most historians of religions, such as Gerardus van der Leeuw in the Netherlands, Rudolf Otto in Germany, Joachim Wach and Mircea Eliade in the United States, and E.O. James in England, have held the view that ritual behaviour signifies or expresses the sacred (the realm of transcendent or ultimate reality).through rituals we recopgnize who God is. It build our relation with God.

Kinds of rituals

We have many rituals in the church,we are not going to discuss all of it here but only some of them.In this section we will try to classify our rituals worship by their content ( remembering, anticipating, meeting). Some rituals will express these directly but some will stimulate member to this three things.

– Prayer: we can say that prayer is one of the heart of the worship. Through it , there is a relation, a communication between God and Humanity. By prayer we can express what we have in our heart. Foster said that it’s the central of our relation with God. He said:

Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father. Meditation introduces us to the inner life, fasting is an accompanying means, study transforms our minds, but it is the Discipline of prayer that brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit. Real prayer is life creating and life changing. “Prayer—secret, fervent, believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness,”1 writes William Carey. To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ. William Blake tells us that our task in life is to learn to bear God’s “beams of love.” How often we fashion cloaks of evasion—beam-proof shelters—in order to elude our Eternal Lover. But when we pray, God slowly and graciously reveals to us our evasive actions and sets us free from them.. (Richard Foster)

Through prayer we can meet God. God who loves us because he listen us.

– storytelling

History, values, and cultures are often preserved through storytelling. In addition, it makes communication more stronger , improves education, inspires creativity, , builds self-esteem and rapport, and helps a person to understand and explain his or her unique view of the meaning of life

Barbara Leonard, and David Carlson, said that storytelling promotes spiritual as well as physical well-being. They suggest some idea about story telling(Spiritual Rituals by Barbara Leonard, Ph.D. and David Carlson, M.Div, touro institute):

– Create an environment that is conducive to storytelling by providing a
comfortable area for the participants.

– Plan group size according to the amount of time allowed for the story so
participants can share and reflect on the story and its message..
– Provide oral or written directions to participants.
– Help participants to connect the story to the present context.
– Ask participants to use their best listening skills and attentiveness.

Storytelling is a part of our worship especialy during the time for the child so we need to prepare it carefully because sometime we neglect it. We need to be aware that the child also is a member. We thanks Lord because our church is one of the church who give value to the child. Thanks to the Center Conferences of Madagascar to consecrate the 5th sabath of he month to the child. The existance of storytelling for the child proove that our God is love , no discrimination in Him.The storytelling can help us to introduce the the idea of the worship: remember and anticipate God’s action. It will help Child to know who God is and stimulate in them the need to have relation with Him.

– gratitude:

Barbara Leonard, and David Carlson continue to say:

The spiritual practice of gratitude is a powerful force and can be a state of mind as well as a way of life. Being grateful for what one has, instead of worrying about what one lacks, enables the individual to let go of negative thoughts and attitudes and reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Burkhardt and Nagai-Jacobson (2002) describe the origin of gratitude this way: “Our experience of grace as a blessing that comes into our lives unearned, without merit, calls forth the response of gratitude” (p. 71). One way to practice gratitude is to focus on the positive aspects of life. This can be accomplished by keeping a gratitude journal—an inventory of all the positive things that occur each day, week, and month. Keeping such a journal can set the stage for living a life that is more connected to Spirit. (Spiritual Rituals by Barbara Leonard, Ph.D. and David Carlson, M.Div, touro institute)

Grateful acts create opportunities to help other and make us aware that life is a gift from God. This gratitude act is shown during the offring time. Through offring we have the opportunity to help the others.and by tithe we recognize that life is gift from God. The worship through offring and tithe show who God is for us. We classify it in the class of rememberance. In other side, maybe a parson who do not do grateful act didn’t remember God’s action in his or her life. So our task is to open the eyes of member what God had done in their life.It’s wrong to think that by returning tithe and giving offring will modify our future our life or that we can be blessed in te future.

– singing

The psalmist said that he will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to him. (Psa 13:6 NIV). Song is one of the necessary element of worship. Through it, we can narrate what God have done for us; we can have hope of the future ( by singing the promise in the bible.) And also we can pray through our song. So by singing we can remember, anticipate and meet God. That’s why we need to be carefull about what we sing, not only in the content but the melody , the music that use with . Dr Payet said in his course music liturgy that the music is neutral. ( Payet,2016) It’s means that music can be use badly or in good way. Choosing what music , what song we will use or sing need mush attention.

CHAPTER FIVE : CONCLUSION

Througth this reasearch we have seen the character of God which affect our worship: God is love, right, powerfull, spirit. Our conception about Him express our way of worship. He is spirit: we can hide anything in front of Him, He can penetrate inside of us. He is powerfull: he can create from nothing , Even we have sinned we can be save. He is so stronger, death , sin can’t block Him , he can help, bring, protect us through His power. He is love ; love that is not verbaly but practicaly tthat’s why he send his only beloved son. Their is no discrimination in His love , He loves everyone. He don’t wait anything to love us, it’s inconditional love. God is right, he is just . He is impartial,. Thare is no iniquity in Him . He is faithull .

All this carracters of God push us to have relation with Him. That’s why we have spoken about christian communication. Worshiping is about communicating, raleting whith God. This relation , this communication push us automaticaly to have ralation with other. God were communicating with other and it’s aour task to make them this desire of God. We never know it without having relation with God .this relation is seen in our worhip. We call this relation between us -God and other christian communication which is the basis of the discipleship.

We have told also the three main content of worship: rembering God’s past action and anticipating the future , and meeting God.. All most of our worship act remember about what God have done for us till the creation, during our salvation through Jesus. Worship anticipate God’s future action when we talk about the second comming of Jesus, about heaven place.it’ antsicipate the furure as it brings us hope to face the future. By worship we meet God; we will know who he is. These three component should be see in worship time. In the last part we have seen somme rituals during the worship time?. But before that we have spoken that ritual is indispensable in our worship, it’s forify our relation with God. In the rituzls part, we have said about prayer wich is one of the essential thing in worship, it’s the way that we meet God. We’ve also told about storytelling ,wich allmost of the time dedicated to the child, that it a way to remembering , telling, teaching about God. We have discussed also about the grateful act wich is manifested during the worship of tithe and offring time. This kind of rituals show our rememberance of God’s action in our life. Lastly we have seen tha the ritual of singing is a full worship . We see in it the act of remembering ; anticipating and meeting with God.

To con,clude we can say that as we are created to worship God , we need to take pay attention in our worship time, not just do it because the organization ask it.

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