Worship and Praise!
Tonight we had special music at Junction First United Methodist Church with Rocky Ivy and his band “Change of Venue.” He is the music minister at Pedernales Fellowship in Austin, Texas!
It was truly awesome. There was such a sense of the presence of the Lord, of excitement the minute you walked into the sanctuary. It was truly amazing. There is such healing in worship and praise of the Lord. It works deep within your heart and your spirit and helps you to become focused on the Lord.
It was really neat to see so many people from various churches joined together for praise and worship of the Lord, of praising our Father and giving thanks for His awesomeness, for His presence in our midst.
Rocky sang a song that really touched my heart which basically says it is easy to sing in the choir but what about it when your in the fire. It is out of those fires, those times of trials, of dealings, of pruning that we go through, that we are shaped and molded in the character of the Lord. That the best is brought forth and the dross and that which is not of the Lord is removed.
So in the midst of the fire is the time for that sacrifice of praise, of worship, of lifting up the name of the Most High and in that time release is brought to us and we move closer to the Lord.
Rocky also shared another point at the beginning that it is good to get into the deep things of the Lord but that He is also calling us to come up higher, into His presence into fellowship with Him.
Let our hearts be set on the Lord. Let us look into the heart of God by lifting Him up and honoring Him with our lips. Let us sing praises, as David of old did, let us sing praises to the Most High, to Honor our Father daily with the first fruits of our lips, let the first thing that comes forth in the morning, and the last thing we say at night, be praises to Him!
Let us learn to dwell in His presence!
Till later,
Paul