Hugs, Responsibility and Concerts - Jesus is Better!

After our Sunday gathering, I am awestruck that God would once again speak into such specific spaces in my life!  Once again, I am floored that God would include me in His plan!  He calls each one of us into His redeeming love, and within that call is a call to share this with others as well.  The 'each of us' includes me!  Really, truly!

Ok, so what did that look like this morning, you ask?  It actually started several months ago when a couple concerts were announced in my area that brought back memories.  I am not a concert-goer, mostly because it is an expense that I cannot currently afford.  In fact the last 'concert' I went to was as a guest of a guest of one of the artist.  I say 'concert' because it was more of a gathering of many people in worship, all worshiping the God of all creation, with leaders who happen to be musicians who do concerts.

Well, the concerts that happened this weekend were definitely more about the performers, I am sure.  I would have loved going to see them, but it would have been a very different experience.  I did not go for two main reasons.  1) As mentioned above, the cost.  2) I would not have gone alone.  While there were others there I knew, if I wasn't at least going to be sitting with someone I knew, I would not have wanted to be there.  I don't like large crowds, especially filled with strangers.  Still, I would have gone if each of those concerns were addressed.

But God did something EVEN BETTER about this!  You'll have to read to the end to see the answer He provided...

But why did I start that way?  Because I'm a chronological thinker, and that was the way processing this morning started for me.

 Part of our gathering time on Sunday mornings is a time of prayer for the church beforehand.  It is always a time of syncing our hearts to the Father's heart, and leaning into what He might say to us before the main gathering.  It is also a time to lift up those around us who are hurting into the throne of grace for God to minister to them, often through us.  This morning was no different, and God is always at work!

After we finish, we head into the gathering space and prepare to enter the sanctuary.  This morning I was greeted by a friend I'd just recently met.  Last weekend we chatted some at the birthday celebration (our church celebrates in June with a BBQ), and then again at the movies the following night.  She was seemingly waiting for me as I came upstairs!  (Small aside, but big for my heart, while she and I talked another friend came up and gave me a hug!  God knows how much I need more hugs!!!  Thanks CR!)

Anyway, this new friend and I talked some about the movie from last weekend, and about our weeks.  Then we headed into the sanctuary.  I didn't know until later how much her heart was hurting.  But I did know that God had placed her into my path to pray for her this morning.

During the singing portion of our worship gathering, we sang a line that poked me in the heart.  It was about our future hope, and beckoning others to come along as well.  I pray for this for some who are close to my heart, and I often weep for them as I pray this.  The was simple, an invitation filled with hope. 

My heart once again focused on prayer, and in that moment, God broke a stranglehold I had on responsibility.  You see, as Christians some of us struggle to remember that it is not us who save others, but God alone.  We take a responsibility for something that is not our job.  And while I don't think I have been living as if I'm responsible for a friend's salvation, I have been living and thinking as if I am responsible for their rejection.  God has asked me to be faithful, and at times I fear rejection for living out loud what I believe.  So I hold back.  I'm afraid I will mess it up.  I'm afraid it will come out wrong, and I'll have messed up that person's chance of coming into God's gracious salvation through Christ because I got in the way.

IT IS NOT ABOUT ME!!!  I release this!  And I release this publicly right now!!!  If there is rejection, it is not a rejection of me.  And salvation?  God does that!  This is even bigger when I think about how I've been praying.  Often my prayer is for this person or that person to come to God, to turn from their rejection of Him.  But this morning my prayer is for God to save my friends.  This is God's action, not mine, not my friends', but God's alone!  Huge relief and redirection of my prayers!  I need God to remind me of this every time I pray for my friends.

As the music time wrapped up, I learned why my new friend was hurting, and I continued throughout the rest of our gathering to pray for her.  I will continue to do so this week, and I let her know that tears were accepted in this.  Gosh!  My heart breaks for her pain.

Oh, and here's another example of God's work:  Lots of hugs for her, AND my friendly hugger from earlier?  Yeah, her husband even gave me a hug this morning!  God is meeting my needs, even when they are unspoken!!!

By this time I am already enthralled by God's grace and love poured out!  He is speaking to my heart, and in all of this, I know He is at work.  Then our pastor spoke.  The sermon this morning was centered on Christ's redeeming work, motivated by love, to save us.  And get this, the message was about how it's not our work, but His alone!  HA!  God sure has worked already to soften my heart to hear this message!

As the gathering drew to a close, we celebrated communion as we do every week.  I had the honor of serving communion this morning, and while we were serving and receiving communion, we were singing a song of worship that also drew my heart in.  This song was one of the songs we sang together at that worship gathering I attended that I described above!  It is a passionate heartfelt deep examination of Jesus' person, compassion, and glory!  Oh, how my heart melted (and it felt like my eyeballs as well) as we sang that.  With the wine and juice in my hands, serving and speaking the words of the Gospel over those who came to celebrate, I was reminded that Jesus is better.  Those concerts I really wanted to see this weekend?  They are nothing in comparison to the glory of being in the presence of the King of kinds and Lord of lords!  Jesus is better, and HE IS WORTHY!!!

What a morning!

Sunday Morning Musings, June 2

This morning at church, I was blessed to once again be surrounded by amazing people, people who have been called into the family of God through Christ! What an amazing family to be part of!  As we continue to focus on laying the foundation for what we believe through studying different parts of our doctrine each week, this week we were reminded of how the Gospel transforms every part of our lives.

During our gathering this morning, God spoke to my heart in a number of ways, drawing me closer to His heart and deepening my love for Him.

1) He gave us the gifts of music and dancing. I've thought about how these are tools we use for worship, but this morning it HIT me! We are created in God's image, and what He requires of us in worship is not foreign to Him. He created it, and made it good! It is meant to declare His glory! This made my singing (and some dancing) even more joyous this morning. This is not just something that we give to Him. This is something we reflect back to Him!

 

This is HUGE!  Singing and making music before the Lord is not an exercise we do because God delights in something that we create on our own.  He created it Himself, for His Glory, and we have the privilege to offer it back to Him in praise!  What a picture, and what a delight, to be singing and dancing WITH God!

 

2) A couple at church surrounded my experience of the gathering time with hugs.  At the greeting time (which some of us introverts don't always like), the wife gave me a hug.  Then she told me that I give the best hugs.  (What she doesn't know is that hugs are something I have felt recently are  lacking in my life.  Physical affection isn't something that is a regular part of my life as a single person without biological family nearby.)  After the worship gathering, her husband encircled me in a hug.  Then he remarked that he wasn't sure if he had any more free hugs coming, but if not, just to put that one on his tab.  Again, I am the one walking away feeling loved and surrounded.

3) An interaction that will lack detail for now reminded me that I am wanted and pursued, desired even!  This was not in a romantic way (some of you might be trying to figure that out, and you would be misdirected this time), but in comparison to others who might be sought for a particular thing, I was the one chosen for this!

4) I learned that an acquaintance/friend is a self-proclaimed extreme introvert.  This makes me feel even more treasured, as he initiated conversation with me this morning, and he honestly listens when he asks how I am.  To know that he will hold a conversation with me when he'd rather not talk to anyone, this means a LOT!  When I told him I am honored that he talks to me, he said, "You started it, so it's your fault."  We introverts know how much energy it takes to form meaningful friendships, and I am thankful for that!

5) Playfulness ensued!  There was mention of me holding a yardstick during the church birthday party yesterday, and concern about who might have been the target (no one, I was just using it to reach something that had gone over a fence).  Then there was conversation about how to keep one's self awake later at night, and a number of other things.

I am so blessed to be surrounded by these deep, loving people, and I look forward to continuing to see God at work within our midst.  I look forward to worshiping Him with all that I am.  And I look forward to knowing that He has plans for each of us, the foundation of which is a deeper love for Him because of His sacrifice for use!