This is a copy of the post I put on my church's worship website this morning. Thought it might be good to put it on my blog for others to read.
This morning, the devotional that my wife and I read each day had a scripture that I had gone over a long time ago at a worship seminar. It is 1 Cor.14:40:"But all things should be done with regard to decency and propriety and in a orderly fashion." Amplified version. This scripture is a part of the section in the chapter that is intitle in some versions as:"A call to orderly worship". Now, there is a lot of stuff in the section but what I want to draw your attention to is what God was speaking to us about our worship time.
Lets look at the word "decently"--Greek, means to do something honestly or to walk honestly; to do something properly, with good intentions. How does this fit into our worship? Without getting into the types and styles of worship, lets begin with the heart of worship. I am talking from a position of a musician stand point but this goes for all of us. "God is more interested in the condition of our heart then the style of worship we use at chuch". In other words, what is our intent or motivation for being a part of leading the congregation in worship when we get together? I am reminded of someone asking me, "Have you ever sat down and read the words of a song that you like to sing all the time?". I said, " of course I know the words!" but he said, " I know that but do you really know what the words are speaking to you?". That kinda hit me like someone dropped a brick on my head!! How much thought goes into selection of a song? How much prayer? Have we really sat down and read the words and prayed through the song? What is the condition of our spiritual heart? Has it been a bad or busy week that we grab the songs we know and just go for it? Or do we take the time /invest in the time, and spend it with the One who is the center of our worship and allow our hearts to be ministered to by the Holy Spirit?
These are the questions I sometimes forget to ask myself when I am preparing songs for worship. God wants us to worship Him from a pure heart and with our entire being! That is the call for all of us to have weither it is during our own worship times or with other believers!!
God Bless!!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
REFLECTIONS IN THE MIRROR
Wow!! I haven't posted anything on this site in quite a while!!! So, lets begin with what is going on right now!
We are in the Lent season before Easter. Our church has been having some great teachings in regards to a lifestyle of abundant living according to Godly principles. During this time, my wife and I have experianced such a great time of prayer and revelation of the Word. I would like to share with you what God was showing me last night. I seem to get so much out of my quiet time in the evening than any other time!! So here it is.
During this season of Lent, we want to take away the things that would keep us from a closer walk with the Lord. It might mean going without chocolate, tv, facebook, twitter, etc. There is a lot of stuff in our lives that we can choose from and it doesn't have to be only one thing either!
What ever we decide to take out, we want to make sure we keep our prime objective, which is to draw closer to the Lord. By taking some of the stuff out of our lives, we can replace it with more prayer, worship, reading the Word, fasting, serving others, etc. It can be a time of refreshment and joy in our lives if we don't focus on what we are missing and but focus on what we are gaining....and that is a stronger fellowship with God. To be able to progressively grow in the spiritual awakening that we so long to have.
It takes effort on our part to be able to look into the mirror and see for ourselves the sometimes hideous and dark secrets that can polute or has poluted already our lives.
By casting out those things and surrender our inner most being to our God, our journey can develope into a oneness with God that can far surpass all our expectations!
To humbley come before Him and let go of those things. It is a daily chore. I don't know anyone who is perfect and has everything all together. That's why we need Him in our lives. For when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He fills us up with that life giving water that we so desperately need. Our thoughts are no longer filled with the desires of the world but we see more of what God wants us to see.
That's what we have been focusing on this season of Lent. But we need to continue it past Easter and onward every day. God desires three main things from us: repentence, obediance, and love. With those things we can overcome the daily distractions and difficulties that want to overtake us and drive a wedge between our relationship with Him.
Let us all begin to look into the eyes that reflect back at us in the mirror desire to see what God can see.
God Bless.
Paul
We are in the Lent season before Easter. Our church has been having some great teachings in regards to a lifestyle of abundant living according to Godly principles. During this time, my wife and I have experianced such a great time of prayer and revelation of the Word. I would like to share with you what God was showing me last night. I seem to get so much out of my quiet time in the evening than any other time!! So here it is.
During this season of Lent, we want to take away the things that would keep us from a closer walk with the Lord. It might mean going without chocolate, tv, facebook, twitter, etc. There is a lot of stuff in our lives that we can choose from and it doesn't have to be only one thing either!
What ever we decide to take out, we want to make sure we keep our prime objective, which is to draw closer to the Lord. By taking some of the stuff out of our lives, we can replace it with more prayer, worship, reading the Word, fasting, serving others, etc. It can be a time of refreshment and joy in our lives if we don't focus on what we are missing and but focus on what we are gaining....and that is a stronger fellowship with God. To be able to progressively grow in the spiritual awakening that we so long to have.
It takes effort on our part to be able to look into the mirror and see for ourselves the sometimes hideous and dark secrets that can polute or has poluted already our lives.
By casting out those things and surrender our inner most being to our God, our journey can develope into a oneness with God that can far surpass all our expectations!
To humbley come before Him and let go of those things. It is a daily chore. I don't know anyone who is perfect and has everything all together. That's why we need Him in our lives. For when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He fills us up with that life giving water that we so desperately need. Our thoughts are no longer filled with the desires of the world but we see more of what God wants us to see.
That's what we have been focusing on this season of Lent. But we need to continue it past Easter and onward every day. God desires three main things from us: repentence, obediance, and love. With those things we can overcome the daily distractions and difficulties that want to overtake us and drive a wedge between our relationship with Him.
Let us all begin to look into the eyes that reflect back at us in the mirror desire to see what God can see.
God Bless.
Paul
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