Worship is about celebrating God’s love for us.
My hubby and I visited a church for the first time last week. We didn’t know a soul there which was part of the reason why we chose it. It was housed in an old warehouse with exposed brick. As we waited for the service to begin, I marveled at how the congregation elected to redeem something old and fairly dilapidated for a brand new purpose.
As we sang a worship song about coming to Jesus as you are and about no one being too far past redemption, we got to the chorus about earth having no sorrow that heaven can’t heal. A little boy around three or four went dancing up the aisle and across the front. I smiled at him thinking about how the hearts of little ones are always the ones who seem to find it easiest to worship without reserve and how the truth in that song was worth dancing about.
In modern day church, we simply don’t do that kind of thing. Although the Bible tells us that King David freely danced before God, not caring what anyone thought.
The young often have more to teach than we think.
The sermon was on Nehemiah, interestingly enough, an Old Testament book about rebuilding a wall and consecrating it to God, looking at the walls around me, these people appeared to have done the same.
The focus was on why Christians come together to worship.
It’s a legitimate question. Some of us have gone to church every Sunday since birth. I suppose each of us could list a dozen reasons why we go, some of them better than others.
The speaker gave a single reason. He said we worship together to celebrate, to celebrate who God is and what He has done for us. That alone he said, was why we come together, because whatever may be going on with us on a personal level, we have still been redeemed and saved and because of who God is, we are destined for a glorious future and that is worth celebrating.
For the people among us who are struggling, our celebration should remind them of hope and encourage them to hope for something better.
At the closing songs he had everyone in the room come together in the middle of the room as a people of God. He said he knew some of us would be uncomfortable, but to do it anyway. Everyone complied and the college student that I ended up touching shoulders with just smiled at me as we lifted our voices together.
I left that service with a light heart and a new perspective. I was reminded that the Church is truly universal and when we come together with other people of faith to worship, the where is of no consequence, but the why is. In the end it’s really only about the Who we worship. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do too.
Have an awesome day! 🙂
Wendy