Muse Devotions

Sometimes worship leaders talk about the stages of a worship service as moving from Celebration to Adoration to Revelation. Our music is often structured around this idea. We use upbeat celebratory songs at the beginning, more worshipful songs toward the middle and we end with songs that are thematically focused on who the character and nature of God Himself. For example, last week we did in order, Take It All, You Deserve, Our God Saves, Maker of Heaven, The Stand and Your Name. You can see how the first three songs might be rightly thought of as "celebration", the next 2 as "adoration" and the last one (Your Name) as revelation. It doesn't always fit so neatly together, but this basic progression is often seen in our worship services.

In fact, a marker of powerful, annointed worship is that point where we cross from awareness of how God has cared for us to awareness (revelation) of who He is. That is the point where nothing else seems to matter except for Him. I think that true "revelation moments" should be one of the main goals of our worship. I also believe they are rarer than we think. We sometimes mistake an outpouring of emotion or celebration for revelation. I believe that at least one reason "revelation moments" are rare is that in our hearts we fear the consequences when God Himself descends to be with his people. God's presence is not comfortable. He's not like a pet or an old pair of shoes. He is a holy fire burning us, refining us, drawing us to repentance and changing us. When Isaiah had his vision of God in Isaiah 6 he was immediately aware of his own lack of holiness. He cried out "Woe to me!" His attitude was a visceral reaction to the holiness of God. When God revealed Himself with a display of thunder and lightning on the mountain, the children of Israel told Moses point blank, "You go talk with God … we'll stay here".

So the revelation of "who God is" is not a blithe ceremonial exercise. It is scary business. I think that sometimes when we worship we sense that "next level" where God will breakthrough, and we shy away. We settle for an exciting worship service that feeds us and uplifts us but does not transform us. Going further into his court means coming face to face with who He is - and by contrast recognizing who we are as well. Thinking of it reminded me of my youth. Young people are risk takers and I was no exception. If my mother only knew...

I've been thinking a great deal about truth and deception of late. In my heart I know I still have many pre-conceived ideas about God and what he wants to do in me and in us. As we start our new season of choir I would like for us to begin to think about approaching Jesus and our worship of him with a heart that is completely unfettered by notions of what he is going to do in and through us. We want him to have His way, and we don't want to dictate to him what "His way" might look like. We want to be totally yielded to him. To that end, I offer up this short story that I hope you will enjoy.

Sam was two years old when his father went to war. His father had been captured behind enemy lines and held prisoner for 5 years. Now, at age 7, Sam was about to see his father again for the first time since his release from captivity. Images of his dad, never more than vague impressions, had faded over time. By now, what Sam knew about his Father he had gathered into his inner world from a faded picture album his mom kept on the piano, and fond stories she would tell him as he drifted off to sleep.

A few weeks ago, while picking up their belongings in the choir room, a couple of choir members were expressing satisfaction over the worship service. "It seemed like Angels were singing right along with us" was one comment. I remarked in a somewhat off-handed way that nowhere in the Bible do angels ever actually sing. I have made this surprising statement since Bible school more than 20 years ago - where I looked up every reference to cherubim, seraphim, satan, lucifer and angels in my giant Strongs Concordance (which I would often lug to the cafateria in a sort of Bible school homage to my future geekiness). I did it to prove a point to my circle of egg-headed aspiring theologian friends. We often argued about such silly things. Because it is a point of interest to people involved in worship music I decided to unpack the idea in a blog post.

Before I do that here is a disclaimer. I have no problem with people believing that angels sing, dance, play the piano, form bands and choirs and host their own angelic "heavenly idol" (although I'm not sure how that title would go over in heaven). My point is not to disuade you from your ideas about angels, nor am I trying to lecture anyone on how to read scripture. Instead, I think that music as we understand it is a gift from God to humanity for the express purpose of Glorifying God and helping us reach out to him. I believe that how we use music and respond to music is unique in a way that angels cannot ever understand. So if this post makes you queasy by destroying your favorite Christmas songs, please don't feel like I am disrespecting the idea of heavenly "choirs of angels". I suspect that angels probably do sing even though it is not mentioned in scripture, and they probably rock the house. But they will never be able to sing like you can sing - and here's why.

Please note: The story I'm about to tell you is fictional. I'm using some creative license to prove a point. If you keep reading I will tie it together so be patient.

An amazing ancient document was unearthed in Peoria last month. It contained the account in ancient writing of a man who lived before the time of the wheel and running water. This man - let's call him Grog - had a vision of something in the future and he described it in great detail. It starts with a vast hall...

A significant part of worship is how we experience God’s love. I believe that our view of his love in our life is related to our own sense of gratitude for his grace and forgiveness. In Luke 7 we find the story of a woman who anointed Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair. The Pharisees were upset because the woman was known to be sinful. Jesus says this remarkable thing:

Is Jesus saying that people with a sordid past have an “inside track” to loving God? Is it necessary to fall into the depths of depravity in order to fully appreciate His love?