Joining A Service Already In Progress

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.

Revelation 4:11

What’s the most exciting worship service you’ve attended? Perhaps it was at your church or at a rally in an arena or stadium. Perhaps you’re thinking of the service in a small country church the night Christ came into your life, or the service in which you were baptized.

If you could ask the apostle John, he’d likely talk about the service he witnessed and then recorded in Revelation 4 and 5. Millions of angels surrounded the rainbow-canopied throne in heaven. The whole triumphant church was there, symbolized by the twenty-four elders. Lightning bolts and thunder booms served as pyrotechnics and percussion. Cherubim and seraphim attended the scene. A heavenly antiphonal choir sang, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8).

Whenever we gather for worship, whether in a catacomb or a cathedral, we’re simply tuning in to the perpetual worship occurring in heaven. Let’s not take worship casually or complain if everything isn’t to our liking. It’s not for us, but for Him who is worthy to receive our praise.

I’ll praise my Maker with my breath, and, when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler pow’rs.

ISAAC WATTS