Simple blessings

This morning I had some daddy and son time while sister was at school and mommy was out at garage sales. Micah was playing outside and came running inside. He had something in his hands. At first I didn't know what it was, but then he opened his hand and much to my amazement it was a caterpillar. Now I will say that his big sister has been teaching him what they are, so it doesn't surprise me that he was willing to pick it up when he saw it. :)

He wanted daddy to see what he found. It made me smile to have him excited about such a simple and innocent thing. It made me think back to the times I hunted bugs as a young boy and that made me smile as well. Wow, time flies and where did those days gone by disappear to? Now its all about bills, work, chores and adult matters. It made me realize how fast our lives our on this earth that God has given us. We are not to concern ourselves of the things of this world, but the things of God. I got more of a blessing today with my son than I did at church on Sunday. Don't get me wrong...I love my church and I love God, but its not all about being in a church service. I have a ministry at home too. (That was for you mom) I am blessed to have had a loving, Godly mom who ministered to us kids every day. Today made me realize that my children are indeed my main ministry regardless of what else I have going on. My daughter is 7 now and too much time has slipped away with her and I regret not spending more time with her. I am not going to let any more time go by. I will be the first to admit that I am addicted to my laptop and the Internet and I need to put it away and spend time with my children. Those memories will last a life time for both of us. I don't want my children growing up saying all I ever did was spend time on my computer and not play with them.

God has such a way of speaking to me. It doesn't have to be an audible voice, or a sermon...but through the eyes of a child. Thank you Lord for opening my eyes to the beauty and days gone by that I have missed since "growing" up. Not to mention Micah and the caterpillar he brought inside, but he also discovered a white moth that he thought was a butterfly and was very intrigued by the bees that were collecting nectar on the dandelions. I can't help but mention that it is an absolutely beautiful day today. Thank you Lord for all your many blessings and that my eyes would continuously be opened to what you have in store for me. Thank you for the simple blessings that are all around me and thank you for my beautiful blessings; my children.

Rejoice in the Lord always!

I started off my day today listening to some fabulous worship music and just began to sing to the Lord and just let it play. There isn't anything better to starting your day off than with prayer and worship. I will talk about prayer on a different day, but I wanted to focus on worship today. Worship charges the atmosphere with God's presence. Worship sets things in motion. Worship allows us, carnal man, the opportunity to enter into the throne room of God Almighty Himself. It allows us to enter into a dimension that is not just physical, but spiritual. Worship sets the tone for God's presence. Worship stirs up the spirit of God. Worship makes demons and Satan tremble. Worship makes the angels in heaven rejoice! Worship is very important and is necessary.

This morning I decided to venture over to the burning ones prayer and worship time. To set the tone this is just a time designated every morning and evening for an hour and a half for several believers to get together, pray, intercede and worship God. Some days there are more than others, but one important note is that God always shows up regardless of the numbers. Today we were having some good conversation and the individual who was supposed to lead worship today didn't really feel like it so she asked me to do it. Now I was not prepared for such a request. But as I learned in the Boy Scouts, we must always be prepared and that is a good attitude to have with God too. Always be prepared! You never know when God will call you to do something. So before I knew it, a guitar was in my hand and I didn't even know where to start or what to play, but I began to play and pray and decided to just let the Holy Spirit lead me.

I began with one of my favorite worship songs and maintained it for several minutes and just sang out to God. God has been testing me a lot lately and I felt the test was on again. Lately during worship with my guitar and leading I have not felt anything and wondered if something was wrong with me, but I feel in my spirit that God is testing me. A good friend and mentor said that God will test us and see if we will worship Him even when we don't feel His presence...That is so true, besides, it is not about us anyways, but I like to feel things when I am leading worship...it just helps me flow better. Who doesn't like to feel God's tangible presence all over us?

I continued to sing and worship God even though I wasn't really feeling anything. I kept pushing. I kept worshipping. Eventually I had to play something else and allowed God to just lead me in what I should play. I began to play some simple chords with some very simple words...nothing complicated....something along the lines of Jesus come...Jesus come...Jesus come we pray...Grace come...grace come...grace come down on us. I don't really remember all that I sang, but I know that God began to move in a mighty way. Those that were present were beginning to worship God intimately and I began to feel God's presence decend upon us.

The physical atmosphere in the room changed as if someone had turned the room into sauna and God's presence began to saturate us and cover us. My friend David felt God was wanting to know if there was anyone in the city that was willing to contend for Him this morning and He spoke out and said we were there for Him this morning. He then shared that he felt we all needed an "instrument" of some kind to play before the Lord. He handed out pots and pans, containers with beans and other miscellaneous items along with the piano and drums. As we began to worship God, the intimacy grew deeper. We were all worshipping God with our hearts, voices and instruments. We were releasing a new song to God and worshipping Him without a song written on paper or something a popular Christian artist sings, but we were singing something that was coming out of our hearts and spirits. We were rejoicing in the Lord and it felt wonderful. You could definitely feel a shifting in the atmosphere as we worshipped and when we concluded it was obvious that God was pleased with what He had heard this morning. We had worshipped Him with all of our hearts and had left nothing to be questioned. There was a definite freedom that was amongst us after worshipping today and it was one that I have rarely felt.

Why am I writing on this today? I wanted to share my heart and to give God glory. I wanted to share the importance of worship and that regardless of how we worship, God wants it to be from our heart and with all of our heart. He wants it all and we should give Him all. When we worship with a pure heart and spirit, it brings pleasure to Him and is a sweet sound in His ears. It doesn't matter when we worship, how we worship, where we worship as long as we worship Him. Worship is not meant for man to receive any glory. It is my prayer and desire that my worship is always from my heart to Him. That my worship would be vertical between me and the father and that I don't seek any glory for what He deserves.

Until next time please remember to rejoice in the Lord always and give Him all of your worship!