iWorship

For years now, churches have been fighting what many have deemed "worship wars". Many say that the Bible never mentions this concept, but the first homicide in the Bible was over how to approach God in worship. Perhaps that should have been a clue to us that this would be an issue!

Most debates about worship are really just indirect ways of talking about ourselves and our preferences in music, not God. Our discussions usually devolve into little more than spiritually camouflaged lists of preferences on how we'd like our worship service served up to us every week. It's worship as consumption rather than offering. It's more about human tastes than a longing to reflect the glory of the Almighty God. That's why I call it iWorship.

The iPod has forever changed the way people listen to music. No longer do you have to buy an entire CD for the one song your after. All you have to do is purchase the individual song that you like and download it in seconds. Wherever you are you can just pop in your earbuds and punch your personalized playlist, never having to hear something that is not your favorite.

I'm afraid that is how many of us approach worship today. We want to hear our personal playlist of worship tunes. It's almost like we've convinced ourselves that God likes what we like and He doesn't like what we don't like. It just so turns out that God's tastes are exactly the same as mine! Wow! How convenient!

In Revelation 4:1, John is invited to step through a "door standing open to heaven." What does he see there? A worship celebration like no other. God is clearly the object and focus of worship and He alone is receiving praise and honor.

Worship isn't about serving self. Worship is about seeing God and responding. The ultimate experience for us is being in His presence and expressing hearts of adoration, praise, allegiance, and gratitude for who He is and what He has done. And when we finally see Him in all His glory, we will gladly lay down whatever we have treasured in honor of a greater treasure...being with Him!