Good morning!  I hope you are having a great day!  Hopefully you have recovered by now from our wonderful Chili Cook-off on Sunday evening.  What a great time of fellowship.  In fact, Sunday was a great day.  I sensed God’s presence in a powerful way in our morning service (in spite of our projector problems)!  I believe God is doing an Extreme Makeover in many of our hearts.

We are now beginning the 2nd week of our 40 day emphasis on Holiness leading up to Easter.  I hope you are using the Extreme Makeover: Holiness Edition Devotional Guides.

In our “Growing Closer to God” class this week I was encouraging my class members to try reading scriptures from different translation to perhaps gain a new perspective on a familiar passage.  That very thing happened to me in my reading this past week as I read I Corinthians 14 from the New Living Translation.  Especially notice the last verse which talks about unbelievers (guests) who came into our worship services.  Paul says, (As they listen, their secret thoughts will be laid bare, and they will fall down on their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is really here among you.” (verse 25)].

David cites the evangelistic power of heartfelt worship in Psalm 40: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many people will see this and worship Him.  Then they will trust the Lord.”  (Psalm 40:3 New Century Version)

Those two verses got me to thinking.  Do outsiders sense the presence of God when they watch us worship?  Do they see joy in our faces?  Do they hear passion in our voices as we sing praises to our King?  Do they see us close our eyes and lift our hands in reverent worship of the One who gave His life to redeem us?  Or do they see us standing arms folded, with a scowl on our face, looking bored?  Do they observe our non-participation and our glances at our wrist watch every two or three minutes?  As long as I’m getting personal, parents what are your children learning from your worship?  Do they see the same excitement as when you go to a basketball game?  Do they ever observe tears of joy streaming down your face or notice you going to the altar to pray?  Believe me, they are watching!

My point is we need to come to church with a worship-hungry heart.  We need to come expecting to meet with God.  We need to come anticipating that God will speak to us through the Holy Spirit and that we will leave different than we came.  Let’s come to church expecting to be changed as we give ourselves to worship.

I would remind all the guys that we will be on our own this weekend with so many of our ladies at the retreat.  (Let’s plan on doing lunch on Sunday … I may be tired of left-overs and hot dogs by then).  Hope you have a great week!

In Christ,
Pastor Barry