Saturday, July 28, 2007

Worship God Tonight

Tonight we went to worship with our Christian family at Concord UMC for Saturday Celebration. Usually Corben is up front and pearl and I are in the pews with me trying to keep her quiet and there and Pearl wanting to either get up front with her dad or to the nursery to play. Not tonight. Tonight during the beginning of worship, a time of singing praises to God, Pearl wanted her Dad to hold her while we praised God. Corben was holding Pearl with one hand and raised his other hand while he sang praises to God. Pearl was looking at him and than the next thing I knew she put her hand in the air and was singing. I do not know what she was saying, but I am sure God knows. Pearl than went to the nursery to play, which is staffed, at Bridgewater if Pearl has to go to the nursery than so do I. So I got to actually sit and listen to the sermon. Which was great. The title of the sermon was "I did it my way---and still got to heaven! Why Mike is not a Christian." A few of the things that I want to remember from the sermon tonight are: 1)Know that Jesus is the ONLY way. 2) Know the truth and be concerned that others know the truth. 3) Be ready to give reason for my belief in a respectful way. It was a great evening and a truly needed worship time.

1 comment:

Corben said...

I am now more sure then ever that any persons working either in the limelight or behind the scenes on Sundays MUST experience worship regularly outside of their own context in a non-participatory way. This not to say they are not to participate as people worshiping God during a service or celebration, but rather they are to just revel in the majesty of God and be able to take time to focus on God and praise him without thinking about a sermon, what hymn is next, if a power point has the right slide up, etc..

God designed us to have a day of rest and God designed us to have regular times to worship Him in a way that keeps Him as the focus and allows people to not be distracted.

This sounds unreasonable for some. This sounds dumb and ridiculous to others. However if you look at the United Methodist Church overall there is much brokenness. Maybe, just maybe, if we strive to keep our personal lives in tune with God and our focus on Jesus especially in worship outside of the context we normally serve, then we will automatically be able to refreshed, filled, healed, injected with creativity, and better discern what God is showing us so that maybe He does not have to slap us with a 2x4 for us to be able to see it.

What would God's church look like if everyone serving in any capacity took time each week to worship in a totally separate capacity.

I know there were tears of joy as I felt God's presence move through the worship service especially when I was raising my free hand to God, my arms tingled (instead of burning as they should since I was holding my 40lb daughter) and I looked over and saw her lift her one had up as I was doing at the same time.

God is awesome. And we must take time to allow ourselves to be Mary's as well as Martha's.