Perfect worship

I had one of those days of perfect worship yesterday.  Do you know what I mean?  I spent the morning at church and my whole day was transformed for the better because of it.

Let me explain.  I am on the worship team at church.  Call it the worship band if you will.  I am one of the vocalists.  I have found being on the worship team can be a very frustrating experience.  Yes I am a bit of a perfectionist and I have pretty huge hopes and expectations and I know that plays a part in my feelings of frustration.  Our western world of perfect recorded music does not help in this area either.  I think it raises my expectations even further.

To make matters worse, I forgot about practice this past week.  So, I was behind in my work to get to know all the music well.  This was a bit humbling because, I have been bugging the music director to have more practices so we can get better, then I don’t show up.  What a schmuck!

So I showed up for practice with the band Saturday morning and I threw myself into the music.  The music director did a great job of selecting fantastic worshipful music (Go Patrick).  I worked with the music with my wife on Saturday afternoon and it was really starting to click.  Thanks for the help honey!

Sunday morning arrives, the sun is out, the temperature is perfect and I feel totally energized.  It was one of those experiences that you can say "This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it" and you know it is true, you feel it.  It was like the Holy Spirit was there powerfully and he was directing the whole morning.

The sound people were running around getting everything in place.  The musicians were getting all tuned up and ready.  The vocalists were there and energized ready to "worship our Lord with all their heart and mind and strength." 

The first service was almost a bit of a warm-up for our worship and at 8:30 my expectation for response is not overly high.   

Then came the second service.  It was like the Holy Spirit showed up in all His majesty.  Or maybe like we were indeed before the throne of God worshiping him with all his angels and saints.  The place literally exploded with worship.  From a technical perspective, everything seemed to work!  (That almost never seems to happen…lol)  There were no distractions and all hearts and minds were on Christ.

And then our pastor served up an awesome sermon continuing on his series on 2nd Peter.  Now if you want to talk about conviction, just go through 2nd Peter with Warren.  And our pastor was holding no punches (Keep up the good work Warren).  After a time of real heartfelt God worshiping, this kind of strait ahead preaching goes strait to the heart.  The heart has been well prepared to accept the truth of his words.  It was truly a morning to remember.

I found myself excited all day long.  I think the excitement stems from both a direct encounter with the living God, but also from a job well done.  Or maybe from service done unto the Lord.  Either way, I was encouraged more than I had been encourage in a long time.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.   

AAAAAAAAMMMMEEEEEENNNNNNN