Today, in the car, I was listening to my new praise and worship CD, when a familiar song came on: "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship". I suddenly really listened to the lyrics:

Come, now is the time to worship!
Come, now is the time to give your heart!
Come, now is the time to worship!
Come, now is the time to give your heart!
Come ...

One day every tongue will confess You are God!
One day every knee will bow!
Still, the greates treasure remains for those
Who glady choose You now!

But that's not true ... is it?

His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!" And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found." - Luke 15:28-32

The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. "These men who were hired last worked only one hour," they said, "and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day." But he answered one of them, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" - Matthew 20:9-

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. - Luke 15:7

Thinking I had discovered some glaring works-righteous error, I went to talk with my pastor about my "discovery". He knew what I was going to ask before I was done speaking and said that he had seen Brian Doerksen, the writer of the song, speak about these lyrics at Breakforth. Apparently, Brian Doerksen is constantly asked that question (and, my pastor said, is a bit bitter about it!).

For more about the actual meaning behind "Come, Now is the Time to Worship", see below:

Worship leader Brian Doerksen's signature song was birthed out of the darkest season of his life
By Lindsay Terry

Brian Doerksen was born into a Christian family in a very musical home, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. At first, he wasn't interested in living for God. But when he was 15, he says, "I heard the Lord saying, 'Give Me your whole life.' And I said yes."

Soon he developed "this incredible hunger to serve God through music." He became the full-time music minister at a Vineyard Church, in British Columbia, and discovered a gift for songwriting. His most famous composition to date came in the summer of 1997, during a time that he describes as "the darkest and lowest season of my life."

When Brian and a team of investors lost more than $1 million in a failed ministry project, Brian and his wife, Joyce, lost their house. And Brian fell into a deep depression. Hoping to regroup, Brian moved his family to England and became the worship pastor of South-west London Vineyard, but life dealt another blow when he and Joyce discovered that three of their six children had a condition called Fragile X Syndrome, a form of mental retardation.

"One morning, I went for a prayer walk, to pour out my heart to God," he says. "As I was walking, I heard as clear as a bell, 'Come, now is the time to worship … ' I thought, Wow! The call of worship is being sounded all of the time and in all kinds of ways. I was sweating, and walking, and singing that line over and over again, just sensing God's nearness." Back at home, he ran upstairs and sat down at the piano. "I took a pad and began to write everything I could think of concerning the call to worship. Suddenly, I realized that God's call to worship doesn't come only to those who have it 'all together.' It comes to all of us." That epiphany gave birth to "Come, Now Is the Time to Worship," a song that Brian says "became like wings to lift me up from those shadows that had almost engulfed me."

Within weeks of teaching the song to his congregation, he began hearing reports of other churches singing it. Purely by word of mouth, the song made its way to churches around the world. Brian recorded the song in 1998, and it has since become one of the most popular modern praise songs.

Now back at home in Canada, Brian says: "I believe God wants us to come and worship just the way we are, though when true worship happens we don't stay the way we are."

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine