Worship Renewal

I can’t pinpoint the day or the month or even the year when it happened, but I am so glad it did. That time when worship went from being about me to being about Him. The obligation to worship was instilled in me as a child. We were at church at least three times a week and more if there were special services. I began leading singing when I was a teenager and remember being praised for my talent. I enjoyed singing. I have always loved four part harmony done well. But back then it was more about me than it was about Him. Many in my tribe today decry the changes in types of songs we sing, the hand clapping, raising hands in worship. It is interesting that the same types of things were said when the songs used by many today were introduced many years ago. I believe that worship should be expressed in the language of the century in which you live. When worship becomes mundane and ritual, it is no longer about Him, it is about us. The Apostle John opens the book of Revelation with his introduction to a message he has from the Lord for the seven churches of Asia. While he was an Apostle, and could have introduced himself that way, he simple refers to himself as the bond-servant of Jesus, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and the kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus. (Rev. 1:1,9) John opens the book telling of a past encounter with Christ. He describes the image of Jesus in such majestic language. John is awe struck! “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man.” (Rev. 1:17a) Think about that reaction with me for a moment. This is John, the favorite disciple of Jesus. John didn’t run away as the others did. John was at the foot of the cross with Mary. This is the John to whom Jesus commits the future care of His mother. This is the John who walked and served this same Jesus for well over half a century. If anyone knew Jesus and had a close, close relationship with Him, it was John. Yet, when he sees Jesus he falls lifeless before Him. When worship becomes stale as week old bread, or fizzles as an unfinished can of coke. When we can sing from memory and never think about the meaning behind the words or the One to whom they are directed. This is not worship, it is ritual and God despises ritual. “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalms 51:16,17) God had commanded those sacrifices to be offered, but the heart of the people was not being brought with their sacrifices. May we never become so “familiar” with God that we fail to honor and worship Him. When we are in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day may our vision of The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit always cause us to fall before Him, our audience of ONE. John did and so should we.