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And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,. (ESV) Ephesians 5:18-20 Paul encourages believers to be filled with the  Spirit. One of the results of being Spirit filled is worship. Paul points out the following aspects of a Spirit filled worship: 1. “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”: Spirit filled singing is an important aspect of worship. It is not just singing but Spirit inspired and filled singing is part of New Testament congregational worship. “Addressing one another” indicates the cooperate worship. Church has to worship Christ. 2. “Singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart”: God pleasing worship comes from a joyful involvement of our heart. Just singing is not worship but si

1 My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being! 2 Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! 3 I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. (ESV) Psalms 108:1-3 We are created to worship God. Heavenly beings worship God continuously without a break. These beings have direct access to the majesty, beauty, and power of God. Worship starts with our revelation about God. In Ps.108, God reveals some aspects of worship. 1. Sing to God with all our being. Our body, soul and spirit should involve in worship. It means that our thoughts, emotions and physical expressions should be directed to God in worship. God expects a very active involvement of our entire being in worship. We are not spectators of worship, but we are worshippers. 2.Singing to God with musical instruments. One of the beautiful and wonderful gifts that God has given to us is music. There is a misunderstanding that

Introduction Church and its liturgy were born in a cultural context. Further, religion and culture always have interactions and interconnectedness, though they have certain divergence in several aspects. Culture is the symbolic-expressive dimension of the social life. Christian worship is expressed through language, symbols, rituals and customs. To meet the pastoral need of the community, early church often depended on the local cultural elements. Consequently, in this expression of the worship, early church often borrowed from or was influenced by the local cultural context. This paper deals with such influences and borrowings of the early church up to the fourth century. Early Christian Worship and Culture Early Christian worship was mainly influenced by the Jewish and Greco-Roman cultural and religious elements. Following discussion may explore this aspect. Though the paper discusses it in different headings such as language, rituals, symbols and custom, they are often int

A. Theological  Aspects of  Worship  1.       What is Worship? The best definition of worship seems to be revealed in Revelation 4:9: “And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever.” In this verse three words - glory, honour, and thanksgiving - give key aspect of the definition of worship. Glory If one considers the meaning of the root word of glory and its Hebrew equivalent along with the context of Revelation 4, the word glory implies that worship is nothing but paying respect for the beauty and greatness of God. One can have an orientation to the beauty and greatness of God in Revelation 4. Honor If one analyzes, the root word and its Hebrew correspondents in the setting of Revelation 4, it would be suggested that honor means paying or ascribing the great or highest respect to the value and worthiness of God. Thanksgiving           Saying Thanks to God for all his Good thi