Worship God 08 - Day 1

Kelly and I are at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg with Ron Scruggs, Diane Strang and Bob Mayhugh. The conference (WG08) is being led by Bob Kauflin ("Worship Matters") and sponsored by Sovereign Grace Ministries. Kauflin opened the first session this evening by setting the theme of the next three days, simply 'The Psalms'. We will be taking a close look at corporate worship through the eyes and hearts of the Psalmists. In his opening remarks, Bob said, "The Psalms are the canonized notes of the ancient worship leaders."

After a great time of worship led by Kauflin, our first speaker, Craig Cabaniss, senior pastor of Grace Church in Frisco, Texas spoke on "Knowing God With The Psalmist".

Using Psalm 33 as his text, Craig asked, "Where do we get our idea about God? How do we perceive Him?" His premise was that our perception of God will shape our response to Him, particularly in corporate worship. Our thoughts about God need to be Biblically accurate if our response to Him is to be appropriate. He maintains that the Psalms will reveal who God is . They will instruct us on how to respond to Him and help us to understand how to respond to Him appropriately.

Psalm 33 does that. Verses 1-3 are a call to worship. Verses 4-20 provide reasons to praise him based on who He is; Creator of all, Ruler of all, our Lord and King, the One who has chosen us, the One who has saved us. Verses 21 and following are an exhortation to respond to Him and to place our trust in Him.

It as a great start to the conference. There was a lot of humor, great worship and we're having great fellowship. Tomorrow promises to be a full day. I'll have some pictures of the conference and this beautiful facility as well.

Blessings and good night!