Extravagant Worship May 10, 2010

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, I was blessed to attend a worship service with my dear friend here in England.  As we have still not found a church home, she invited me to come along to her church.  Those of you who know me well know my tendency to stay away from places I do not find necessarily line up with my own beliefs doctrinally.  Now, I am by no means looking to compromise, I however also realize that there is no such thing as a “perfect church” and we never know where God would have us to serve until we try them all.  With that said, there were some doctrinal-theological differences and they were some that I can not back down on.  However, God was still in our midst and I wanted to share with you something that did touch me.
At the end of the service, the preacher broke us up into smaller groups around the building.  She had us take a LARGE sheet of paper and write as many description names of God and Jesus that we could think of.  Randomly throughout the paper we just wrote down the names of our God.  After about 5 minutes or so, she asked the worship minister to begin playing softly and as he did, she asked for the congregation to begin saying aloud all the names we had written on the papers.  Immediately, I had a vision of what Heaven will be like.  For ten minutes across the entire building you heard instruments and the Body of Christ saying.. “Lord you are…. Wonderful, Counselor, The Almighty, Prince of Peace, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, The Way the Truth and The Light, I AM, the Everlasting Father, The Great Shepherd, Jehovah… and on and on….  How amazing it was!
I wondered to myself if this may be a taste of what heaven will be like.  Against the popular belief of my childhood denomination, I do not believe the focus of heaven will be streets of gold and pearly gates.. The focus of heaven will be the lifelong ability to sing and shout words of Praise and Adoration to our King!  Can you imagine it?

It was a very teachable moment for me as well.  Too many times, I focus too much on the doctrine and theology part of finding a church and God used that moment as a gentle reminder of the common ground we do share.  He reminded me that we will be hand and hand with people that may not line up where we do doctrinally.  And while there are still some issues too major for me to join a church on, I do believe that we have a DUTY to love and fellowship across denominational lines.  After all, when we see our Savior face to face, all those earthly doctrinal issues will fade away, and we will stand, with hearts of devotion, bound by the Blood of Calvary and spend eternity in worship of our REDEEMER!  Oh what a day it will be!