Back to the Heart

While I am here in North Carolina for the summer, I have been blessed with the opportunity to be on a praise music team for a local church. Just being able to spend time with these people has opened my eyes to a lot more than I thought it would.

I have been in 2 church services so far in this church. The atmosphere is very non-traditional. Loud music with electric guitars, drums, no hymnals, different modern translations of the Bible...etc... Being on the praise team we have really decided as of tonight that we need to take a step back and rethink the approach. We need to get back to the heart of worship. The services that I have been in did have good music, yes, but it didn't seem like anyone really got into it. It didn't seem like people were truly in their hearts praising God. That's what worship is all about anyway, taking time to meditate on the mercies of God through song. It's not about a well placed guitar riff, or a fast beat, or harmonized vocals. All of those things are nice, but it is so much more than that. It involves a lot of preparation and prayer and it involves a heartfelt desire to seek God's majesty. This coming Saturday we are going to make a few changes to the normal worship...so this coming week I expect to spend more time alone with God, seeking Him and letting Him use me for his music.

This makes me so happy! :) I am 100% glad that I can use my talents to lead people to praise God, there is nothing more fulfilling than that. My life is one huge shortcoming. I come short of the GLORY of God, just like everyone else. To myself though, it is painfully obvious every day. I lose more battles than I win. This is something that I can give back to God. It's small, but I want to bring something to Him. I want to give Him something in return for the purpose that He gave me.