Worth Repeating - May 2, 2017

Revelation 4: 8 Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” (NIV)

We meet God, not in the hyperemotional experiences . . . but in the common, everyday stuff of life.*

I confess: I can be disdainful of Christians who quantify every experience based on how they felt. “I felt the Spirit.” “I felt that God was telling me to . . .” Feelings are unreliable. Knowing trumps feeling. I agree with a wise sister in Christ who was critical of songs which are clearly designed to elicit emotions from us. I hate it when someone tries to manipulate me. And don’t get me started on repetitious songs – are you really a songwriter if you can only come up with one line to sing over and over?

Oops! Let’s read this verse again. Get your Bible and read the whole verse, not just the portion I quoted. Go ahead. Read the whole chapter to get the context. These “living creatures” stand around the throne of God and repeat, day and night forever: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. How’s that for repetitious? FOREVER!

How about emotionally manipulative? In a chapel service when I was in Bible college, the worship leader had us repeat these same words over and over for a lengthy period of time (although we probably quoted it in the King James Version!). It was one of the most moving worship services I have ever experienced. I definitely felt something that day and I’m pretty sure that was the intended goal.

So, what should we take away from this discussion? 1) Let’s not be so quick to be critical of how others worship; 2) we don’t know all there is to know about what heaven will feel like; and 3) give some thought to how you will worship God as you stand around his throne forever and start practicing today!

As Americans, we tend to seek a customized worship, a package of preaching, singing, services, and sacraments that perfectly suits our felt needs. But this is a kind of hedonism, the idolatry of self that masks itself as religious preference.*