Recording artist and worship leader Matt Papa was once busy full-time, doing the work of God—going on mission trips, leading Bible studies and the like—and yet he was depressed, driven by the need for approval and addicted to pornography.

Then he gained a deeper understanding of the glory of God and everything changed.

Papa explains his transformation in Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ (9780764212512, $15.99). His goal for the book, which releases this month from Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group, is to “revive a glory-hungry giant and then point it to its proper and necessary Object. To point it away from the empty wells that cannot satisfy and toward the Fountain of infinite Satisfaction.”

Papa’s change did not come through working or striving. Nor did it happen overnight. In a three-year period, he changed by setting his gaze on Christ and starting each day lingering over God’s Word, praying and meditating.

“Beauty began coming into view,” he writes. “I began to feel something I had never felt before. A satisfaction, an incomparable thrill, and a displacing of all lesser ones.”
Papa begins his book by defining glory and worship. Everyone is a worshipper, he asserts. He calls worship “the truest condition of our souls,” and even says, “We are worship machines.”

The problem, he adds, is that we often worship things that cannot withstand the weight of our worship.

“The triune God is the only thing large enough and interesting enough to bear the weight of glory, and ultimately worship,” he writes.

Papa uses the phrase “cultural A.D.D.,” saying that because we have a wealth of information and options at our fingertips, focusing is difficult. Yet he calls readers to rise to the task.

“The most important thing for you to do is to fight to get a real vision of God,” he writes.

Now a minister at The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, Papa says that although the fight continues, he is living in victory.

“Make your life one unflinching gaze at the glory of God,” he writes. “This is the only addiction that can finally set you free. Look and live!”

To order or learn more, visit Baker’s website at bakerpublishinggroup.com.

• Prev
• Next