"Opening Acts"

 

“Opening Acts”

 

In boxing and wrestling venues there are usually preliminary bouts preceding what’s billed as “The Main Event”. In basketball tournaments a “consolation game” is played before the top two teams meet for the championship. And in the entertainment field an “opening act” often performs before the headliner takes the stage. In each case lesser known people prepare the audience for who or what they really came to see. Years ago Karen. Kristie and I attended a concert in which the noted Christian musician Carmen was featured. The “opening act” was a Christian country and western women’s trio that was well received and enjoyable but it’s likely that few present that night (including yours truly) remember the group’s or individuals’ names.

Worship and praise through music, prayer and meditation is part of experiencing God’s presence when His people gather. An anonymous psalmist writes, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker….” (Psalm 95:6). Paul reminds his readers and us today to “…sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16). And Hebrews 13:15 admonishes us to “…continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise….” But at times we’re prone to see these practices as the “opening act” before the “main event” of the preaching and teaching of God’s truth as revealed through His Word. To my shame, it took many years for my pastoral mind to realize that music, prayer and giving were more than preliminaries to the message—all these factors and more make up what we know as worship, which I see as our giving adoration to God because of who He is. And only He is worthy of it (“You shall have no other gods before me,”—Exodus 20:3, emphasis added).

Our worship here on earth, flawed as it is because we as flawed people are rendering it, is but preparation, or an “opening act”, to our heavenly worship. In the magnificent scene detailing worship in Heaven (remember human terms are inadequate to describe this divine spectacle) the Apostle John writes, “…I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever!’ The four living creatures said, ‘Amen’, and the elders fell down and worshiped.” (Revelation 5:13-14). Through our faith in Christ we’ll participate in this eternal, perfect worship—let’s prepare ourselves now for what’s to come.

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan