…how phenomenal worship is. We get to do this! We are free to worship. Consider certain parts of the world where worshiping God might literally get you killed. Horrifically. It is sad that people in our country couldn’t care less. Take it or leave it. “When I get my act together, maybe I’ll come back to church.” That one punches me in the gut. How absolutely  backwards that is! You come to the house of the Lord precisely because you’re a hot mess! A sinner in need of saving grace. Where else can we go? To whom else can we go?

We are not always in the right frame of mind in church; we know this first-hand. We might think we’re over the fact that our spouse made us later than usual and we can’t have our usual seats. We might tell ourselves that we’re fine with the fact that our friends are having a ball doing whatever they invited us to do instead of worship. Maybe we take a look at the hymns to be sung and say to ourselves, “I should have skipped. I don’t know any of these.” An endless list of detractors that keep our souls from being fed. But when we focus even on one verse, one hymn stanza, one take-away from the sermon, our souls express a sated sigh. We don’t get how phenomenal it is!

I encourage you all, if you can remember this in five days, to really savor and ponder even a verse, a hymn stanza, when you worship this Sunday. Don’t go through the motions, hoping that the service will let out in time for you to not have to wait too long at your favorite restaurant. Try not to let your mind wander too much. Don’t speak the words you know by heart by rote. Ponder nothing earthly minded. One hour of the week. And that’s not even the minimum membership requirement for a church such as ours. What a gift coming to God’s house is! We don’t have a clue, because a part of God will always be shrouded in mystery, beyond our understanding – for now. The love that is unconditional understands, even when we fail to grasp how phenomenal He is.

Pastor Art