The "Right" Worship Song

(As you read this, don’t over think it. I have some other blog posts that go into the depth of and talk about the deeper theology of worship. This is a starter to just reflect on, as I was today and just wrote down some thoughts)

I was thinking today about worship music. I was thinking about what worship music seems to tug at my heart the most toward God and seems to help me understand my role as a worshiper. The first song I was taken to was “Revelation Song”. Most of us know it. It is a song that comes right out of scripture. It is a song that comes right out of an experience being in the presence of God (before Gods throne in Heaven). It is a song calls us to sing songs that we will sing (or like them) for eternity.

All those pre cursers stand out to me for what is Worship:

1)   Right Out of Scripture (or very close paraphrasing)

2)   Comes out of an experience of being in the presence of God (as seen many time in scripture) or describes or takes us into an encounter with the Presence of God (John 4:23 – that word worship means to “encounter” or have a “moment of” worship.)

3)   It is calling us to sing the words we were created to sing (What we would sing before the fall of man and after Christ returns and we are again in the presence of God forever)

These are song that exalt God’s holiness, His worthiness, is beauty, is power, and Glory. Songs that echo the songs of heaven!

So much discussion is gone into what make something a “worship song” and what makes it not one. There is so much depth to this but today I am thinking simple. I am thinking worship is “recognizing God (the one we worship) is greater then myself (the worshiper)”. If the song does that, if the lyrics point us to that, if the melody drives us to that moment of truth, then the simple purpose of worship is complete. We have made God greater. We have worshiped the creator. We have done what we where created to do!

On a side note here is what I think worship is NOT based on this same simple approach and scripture. Worship songs are not:

1)   A sermon (it is not meant to preach to us the singer) –

2)   It is not prep for a sermon. (Worship is for God a sermon is for us, let us not confuse the two and rob God of what is for just him)

I am saddened many times how our churches and worship times our focused more on the words of a preacher making us feel good about God and ourselves more then they are actually about the worship of God. If you doubt me on this, do the math. How much time is devoted to just worshiping God with the language and values of worship we see declared in heaven and on earth verses how much is for us to hear stuff to make us “better” Christians? How much of what we call “worship” on Sunday is actually theologically backed as what the Bible calls “worship”?

Before you answer, I challenge each of us to really know what the Bible says about Worship and please do not misquote Romans 12 as you process this (The word is not translated correctly if you see “worship” in there). Start with John 4 and see were it leads. Go to Revelation and see what you see. Go to the Psalms and see what you find. What is the worship that “God seeks” (John 4:23) and how much do we actually do it as believers? How many of our songs and times are the “right worship” songs.

My Response To The Election

This is a letter I wrote to respond to a letter a friend had sent me. He was and is very discouraged by the election and the moral state of our nation and the failing of conservative politics. My response is  something that has been on my heart for a while and I have been struggling to express. Although I think there is much more to talk about and think through, it is something my heart is feeling and seeing right now and it is something that is changing me:

One thought that I have continually had up to the election and now even more after is that, although I agree the nation is turning its back on God I also see it is the church’s fault. The church that has turned its attempts to bring change in our country by creating legislating and forcing rules on a culture that is rejecting the premise for these rules, The Bible and God. I don't discount a Christians place in politics but I have been saddened by how it appears the church has chosen government, conservatism and legislation as a means of changing or saving culture in lieu of actually living out the Gospel through being the church of Jesus Christ to a lost world. Legislation does not change lives, laws don’t change lives. As we have seen, a culture can change laws when they no longer believe in them (i.e. abortion and same sex marriage). However what does change lives is the message of Jesus Christ being living out through the Church into the local communities we are called to and seeing that spread up and out from there into our city, our state, our nation, and our world.

Basically we are doing this backwards. We see a lost world. We think "our America" has turned it’s back on God and we work to fix that with legislation, protesting, and attacks. We want to force others to accept the gospel as their way of living by the laws we create, but the Apostle Paul spoke against that in 1 Corinth 5 when he challenged the church by saying they are not to judge those outside the faith, how can one expect someone outside to act like a Christian, instead focus inward and actually start living the call of the Church.

Our country was never a "Christian nation" due to its laws. It was the people that made it great by choosing values and a way of life guided by biblical principals because they embraced the Gospel. So when we try to make a nation “Christian” by creating laws and forcing political agendas we have already lost, it is not how it is done, it is not how Jesus or the early church did it. We have to start over. We have to start living the church, living the gospel. When people encounter God that is where change comes from, not from creating laws.

I think this is a primary reason conservative politics and Christianity is failing. Let the politics be about politics, but church, lets let our lives be about Christ and lets live in this world to see change through Jesus Christ, doing what Jesus did. Encountering the sinner with love and mercy, going to the sinner where they are at, getting rid of religious laws that create “white washed tombs” that look good on the outside but still have hearts far from God.

If we want to protect the sanctity of marriage lets not have the same divorce rate as the rest of the world. If we want to stop abortions, instead of holding signs calling them murders, lets start to love on the woman that feels so desperate they see that as the only way out. If we want to see envy and selfishness end as motivation for a “entitlement society” then lets help people encounter the gospel that turns us from takers to givers. (However we first have become a people that are known for being givers like James talks about)

Are we known for what Jesus was known for? Do they see Jesus in us and in how we live? If not then we have only ourselves to blame when the world does not see Jesus.