Much of today's church has...
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Much of today's church has been affected one way or another with worship wars. Perhaps
it is time to listen again to the words found in Isaiah 1. A people on the edge of exile
needed a proper understanding of worship. God was tired of their sacrifices, their burnt
offerings, their appointed feasts, and their long prayers. True worship, Isaiah reminded
them, was to: "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless,
plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1:17). Real worship, then was not something said, it was
something done. Real worship touched life raw and hurting and needy. Without a
worship that flowed out of the temple into the streets and hearts of people it meant little
or nothing. Those that find worship connected to the world will have little time for
worship wars. The service really does begin when the worship ends.
