EDEN: 15 - Day Devotional by The Belonging Co预览

All Fall Down - Henry Seeley

I grew up in Australia going to church with my parents from a very young age. My parents were committed leaders in our church, so I was in and around the church a lot.

When I was around 12 years old, my friend and I had some passionate views about the style of worship songs that were part of the Sunday worship experience. Most of what was sung in our church were traditional hymns, interspersed with the occasional “contemporary” worship song. Fueled by the naivety of our adolescence, we had strong opinions about the fact that these hymns were not relevant to our generation – after all, they were filled with language that nobody used in present society, and lacked in our opinion any sense of personal relatability.

So… our response was to start a fictional organization – somewhat of a rebellious disruption to the religious status quo – something we facetiously dubbed the “Anti-Hymns Association of Australia” - aka “A-HAA”

I remember being called in by the Pastor after he caught wind of our self-proclaimed “revolution”, and he was gracious enough to hear us out. After we were done with our spiel, he paused; and then politely began to challenge our understanding of what worship was all about – that worship was not about our preference, but a response to God’s holiness. And while we had some legitimate - although immature - understanding of the power of music and how it connects with a person, we had missed the essence of worship – it was not about the style of the music, but the posture of our heart that truly made a worship experience meaningful.

In our contemporary Christian expression, it is easy to think that our “worship experience” is somehow about us… what did I get out of this? I don’t like this song… That’s not my style… But we need to understand – as Pastor Darrell Johnson so eloquently puts it – “Worship does not start when the music begins! The question is not ‘what did I get out of it?’, but ‘did I enter in to the worship that has been going on for all of eternity?’”

The passage in Revelation 4 that the song “All Fall Down” was inspired by is a beautiful reminder that we are not the center of our ‘worship experience’ – Jesus is! Every time we enter into worship, we are joining with all of heaven in a song that has been resonating in the heavenly realms since before man was created, and will continue long after we have left this earth! And as much as we long for that day when Jesus returns and we are welcomed into eternity, we don’t have to wait until that moment to join in the “alleluia” chorus.

We can experience a glimpse of heaven as we take the posture of worship – bowing down before our king and giving Him our all… not just the physical act, but the internal posture of humility – reminding ourselves that we have nothing if not for Jesus… that He is worthy of our worship and our surrender… that a “worship experience” is not about our preference of songs, or lighting, or how good the sound is or how comfortable the chairs are – but a posture that says “no matter what I am walking through I will bow low and worship You because You will always be holy holy holy”