"Because I love you"

Have you ever been so surprised by a gift from someone, that you really couldn't believe that it was for you? I'm not talking about a gift for your birthday, anniversary, graduation, or Christmas; I'm talking about the gift that you receive unexpectantly......the gift that catches you off-guard; a total surprise......a gift that you feel you don't deserve, or should even except. Well, I have recently been presented one of those gifts. And, I can honestly say that was completely surprised. I found myself saying, " I can't accept that.", " That's really nice of you, but", and "Are you sure you want me to have that?". Finally, after listening to all the reasons for this gift being offered to me......"You have encouraged and inspired me", "I believe that God is using you and there are more things that He will do through you", and "I wanted you to have this". Then the most amazing reason for the gift was expressed, and there was no way to say "no". My dear friend said....."I am giving this as a gift to you 'because I love you'." When someone offers us a gift out of love, it no longer seems unbelievable. It becomes real. So real you can touch it, hug it, and enjoy it. I'm not talking about the gift......I'm talking about love. A love that is real. Not the kind we hear about, or read about, but a love that we can actually see and feel. Do you know that love?.... I'm sure you do......It's the love of God that is offered to us everyday, whether we deserve it or not (and we don't). It's the love of His Son dying on the cross for us. That same love that we find so hard to accept. It is offered to us everyday, and the amazing reason why is......."because I love you." God, thank you for Your gift of love.

P.S. To my dear friend.......thank you for your gift of love.

Does worship connect us to God?

Does worship connect us to God? Sounds like a no-brainer, right? I have to admit that if I were asked that same question a few years ago, I would jump at the chance to blurt out, "Yes". But, over the the past few years, and after hearing that question asked in several different ways by a lot of leaders, pastors, and worship leaders, I now lean more toward the answer of, "Well, kind of". I have come to the conclusion that worship, true worship, doesn't really connect us to God as much as we would like to think it does. In reality, not until we are connected to God, can worship begin.
I see it working like this; we sit down and open our Bibles to spend time with God. Now this is not a time-limited encounter with the Word. This is time that we set aside for God to reveal to us what He wrote for us to read. After careful study (reading and listening), we begin to want to know more. We begin to get hungry. We become desperate for more. There must be more. And, there is. We not only read the words there in the Bible, but we go back over the same words and listen to them this time. They speak to us. They inspire us. They encourage, comfort, direct, calm, excite, and engage us in a conversation with God; prayer. We are now connected to God. We find ourselves talking to Him, asking Him questions, laughing with Him, crying with Him by our side, reaching for Him to hold us, and blessing His name. Sound familiar? We connect with God, and we enter into a worship of Him so real that we can't wait to get to a place where we can share that same worship with other believers. So, when you show up at a service this week-end, don't plan on just listening to the Praise Team play and sing the Worship songs to you; share your worship with us. It is what we all need to hear, and what our Heavenly Father longs to hear.

When the music fades

One of my all-time favorite songs, "The Heart Of Worship", written by Matt Redman, starts with the line...."When the music fades..". To think about it lightly, that sounds like a contradiction. I mean, this is a worship song, right? And a song is composed of music, right? If it fades....what happens then?.........Most of us would probably look for another song where the music doesn't fade. And the reason we might do that, is because we have this idea that we need the music so that we can worship God. The sad part of this process is, we have it backwards. We don't need the music to worship God, we just need to worship God. Our worship of God will generate a song in our hearts. Therein lies "The Heart Of Worship".