SONG OF ENDLESS YEARS
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The Song of Endless Years

Continuous Outpouring

2/19/2015

1 Comment

 
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There have been an astonishing number of good books on worship written in the last 15 years, but if I have to choose a favorite it would be Harold Best's Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts. His work is the most comprehensive and holistic approach to worship I have seen.

The core of the book is Best's concept of “continuous outpouring.” Best states that if from eternity the triune God “cannot but give of himself, reveal himself, pour himself out,” and if humans were created in God's image
, then humans also bear his image as outpourers. We began to pour ourselves out towards God from the instant of our creation.  We were not created to worship, implying God needed to be worshiped. We were not created for worship, with that being one element which can be separated. We were “created continuously outpouring”… and all that we “pour out” is intended as worship. Worship is “human outpouring” in response to the divine “outpouring of lordship” (p. 24). 

While worship before the Fall consisted of mutual outpouring between God and imago Dei, Best stresses that the Fall did not end worship or continuous outpouring. When Adam and Eve fell, “Our outpouring was falsified. But it continued, with one telling difference: we exchanged gods” (p. 25). This is the heart of idolatry and why it is at the root of all sins. When we sin, we do not cease to worship, our worship changes direction - from the Creator to something created.
1 Comment
Greeley Latinas link
6/15/2025 11:40:25 pm

I appreciate how this blog post explains continuous outpouring as a fundamental aspect of human nature.

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    Anthony is the Director of Worship and Communications at Arden Presbyterian Church in NC.  


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  • Blog
  • Song of Endless Years CD
  • Anthony's Music
    • Congregational Song >
      • All the Way My Savior Leads Me
      • Awake, Awake O Heart of Mine
      • Clothe Yourselves with Humility
      • He Giveth More Grace
      • He is Immanuel
      • I Believe, Help My Unbelief
      • Jesus, My All
      • May the Mind of Christ, My Savior
      • O Taste and See
      • Our Only Hope
      • Praise the Savior Now and Ever
      • The Lord Is King
      • There's a Wideness in God's Mercy
      • We Cry Abba, Father
    • Choral Music for Worship >
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      • Holy Week / Easter
      • General
    • Instrumental Music for Worship
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