The Air I Breathe

I read this book a couple years ago. It’s written by Louie Giglio who started the Passion Worship Conferences. My son, who is our church worship leader, is going to teach a class on it beginning next week. He encouraged me to read the book in one sitting. I did that today. It is a smaller book and took maybe two hours to read.

I’m really glad I took his advice. It was good to reread the book and the one-sitting approach helped me to grasp the books message in a much better way.

If you want to understand worship in a whole new way, this is the book to take you there. The reality is that we are all worshippers and we worship all day long. The question is, what or who do we worship. A point of the book is that worship is our response to what we value most.

So how do you know where and what you worship? It's easy. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your allegiance. At the end of that trail you'll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what's of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.

Whatever you worship, you imitate; whatever you imitate, you become.

Do you want to see intense worship? Go to a rock concert or sporting event!

God wants me to know Him. Augustine said: “you have made us for thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless, until they find rest in thee.” How much time do we spend trying to fill the God shaped hole?

God is seeking true worshippers. It’s not the songs we sing but people who have responded to His drawing, who respond to His revelation of Himself, who respond to what He has done for us, who respond to who He IS! It’s people who are living the songs.

We get to know God through the Bible. There is a great suggestion of keeping a journal for a month. The idea is to read in Psalms each day until you find an attribute of God that grabs you. Then you meditate on it, write about it and carry it with you through that day.

Once we are worshipping God individually, we can join together as the church.

Most of my life, I thought that you went to church to worship. But now I see that the better approach is to go worshiping to church.

Trust me, church is a lot better when our meetings are filled with people who have been pursuing God for six days before they get there. Church as a "refill" or a "tank-up" is a disaster. Corporate worship works best when we arrive with something to offer God, as opposed to coming only to get something for us.

I’m thankful for this book and I’m looking forward to the class. I want to grow in this area and it will be good to grow together with other believers.

Philip

The Air I Breathe on Amazon