I currently co-lead a night dedicated to worship & prayer over the Arts & Entertainment area of society at Gateway House of Prayer. Right now, one of my roles is to come up with the themes/focuses for each month. I honestly don’t remember the exact “lightbulb” moment, but at some point towards the end of April’s theme (which was intercession), I made the connection between the Creation account in Genesis 1 and living a lifestyle of prayer & worship.
There was a Bible Project podcast episode that heavily influenced me; it was on the significance of the number 7. It was a whole series on 7, but the episode focused on the Creation account. There was the painstaking intentionality of how it was written in Hebrew, and also how each day of Creation week actually corresponds to the 7 major feasts on the Jewish calendar. (One day = one feast.)
What we don’t always talk about–at least, in the Western church–is how celebration* is an act of worship. My Asian-American heritage gives me a framework for what that looks like, as parties and gatherings are SO core to everyday life in the Filipino-American culture. (I’ve grown up going to big family & friend gatherings with excessive amounts of food, dancing, and karaoke!) So when the podcasters talked about the connection between Creation Days and the Jewish feasts, I saw it immediately: Genesis 1 shows us HOW to worship God–not just with music, dance, art, and other individual expressions, but as a lifestyle. I myself experience celebration as a lifestyle!
*(To “worship” someone is to “assign worth” to them. E.g., when you throw someone a birthday party, you’re saying that this person is worthy of effort, joy, gifts, and celebration. So why don’t we see celebration as worship in the Church? Or our worship services as celebrations of the most worthy One?)
So after thinking and praying about it, (and seeing how it would be the logical next step after a focus on intercession), I pitched this theme to my co-leader: integrating prayer & worship as outlined in the Creation account. It’s a 7-month deep dive into each day of Creation, that day’s corresponding Jewish feast, and what principles we could apply to form a lifestyle of prayer & worship.
What I’ve loved about this deep dive so far is that Creation gives us a holistic vision for that lifestyle. It shows us how prayer & worship aren’t simply limited to Sunday mornings, mid-week worship services and Bible studies, or even our personal devotional times. It permeates EVERYTHING, from beach days with friends, to our vocation, to how we manage our time. And yes, it’s all in Genesis 1 (when understood in its Jewish cultural context!).
We kicked off the series with Day 1, in which God created light from darkness. Day 1 corresponds to the Passover Seder meal, which is about the nation of Israel remembering how they were spared from the spirit of death in the 10th plague. I’ll be posting a recap of each day/feast as they roll out. Get started with Day 1 here!
0 comments