True Worship 04-08-2013

From the desk of Pastor John Johnston: 04-08-13

 How do you define true worship? For me it is not just going to church or hearing good music or just singing. Even though all of those are pathways to worship it has to be something deeper…

Some years ago something happened. It wasn’t an earth shattering event; it was not something that made national news; it wasn’t even anything that made the local news. This event was a major change and it does affect a lot of people and can change the lives of those around those that this event happens too.  I am not talking of the change of life although it is a life changing event. I know what you’re thinking… John is talking about accepting Christ!!! Well although that is the most important event that you will experience in your life I am not talking about that.

Although this event will happen to a lot of people it does not happen to everyone, even Christians. Not that 50 has anything to do with it this event happened for me just before that. One day God looked down on me and said, “John is now ready to experience True Worship”. Even though I went through the motions I had to be broken down to a point.

 I have been in ministry for a long time and I have always thought that I knew what worship was all about. Even when I was a music minister I thought that worship was in my blood. But honestly I always thought that there was something still missing. Something that I could not put my finger on… I set out to find what was missing. Ok, here is the check list: Go to church, check: read my Bible, check: accepted Christ, check: worked hard to treat others as I wanted to be treated, check: did the best I could at raising two boys, check: sang in the choir, check: became a teacher of God’s word, check. So what is missing?

In Psalm 95:6-7 it says “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7) For He is our God, and we, are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”

What was missing was True Worship… We had First Baptist Church of Benton’s Choir and Orchestra to come and to fill the evening with music and praise. It was an hour of pure worship for me. I found myself in tears thru most of the night as I truly felt the presence of God and His awesome power as our church was filled to the max with music. I wanted to fall on my knees and lift my face and hands to the sky. If this is even a little bit of what heaven is going to be like then I am ready to go now.

In the verse above I finally and truly found what it means to kneel before God. And since then I have become so much more passionate towards His word and to stand before Him in service.

How about you… have you truly accepted that “He is our Maker and we are His sheep”?

 

“The Greatest Adventure in Life is seen Through the Love of Christ”

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