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RE: [Worship] God Showed Up!
Personally, I'll take the edifying stories of God's work over the
theological debates every time. Thank you, Joel, for your story. In
fact, it makes a great theological point... God is, and God does.
I was just thinking before I logged on about how it must have been to be
a Pharisee. They weren't all bad, you know. They just wanted to be
sure about things and I think their good intentions somehow got them
into a place where they discussed every minute detail of the law to the
point that when Grace personified was in their midst... they missed it.
I contrast that to my heart and today's church and often don't see much
difference.
I love to hear the stories of God's grace... Keep 'em coming!
Grace to you;
John Ausmus
jausmus@apu.edu
VCF Glendora, CA
>----------
>From: KIncorvaia@aol.com[SMTP:KIncorvaia@aol.com]
>Sent: Monday, June 29, 1998 7:06 PM
>To: worship@praise.net
>Subject: [Worship] God Showed Up!
>
>I had an interesting experience last night. Our church (Presbyterian) has
>started a Sunday evening service devoted to worship, prayer, and teaching on
>the work of the Holy Spirit. I regularly play rhythm guitar on our worship
>team, and my my wife and I lead worship for the Sunday night service. We are
>a small start up church and we usually have 10 to 15 people attend the
>evening
>service. We try to worship at least for 30 to 40 minutes before moving into
>teaching and ministry.
>
>My wife got home from shopping right before we were supposed to leave home
>and
>set up for the service. She was already in a bad mood because our worship
>team had struggled musically during the morning service. She was also
>frustrated because we were going to miss a concert being put on by Vineyard
>worship leader Brent Helming that evening at a nearby church.
>We then had a little argument about our priorities, whether God really wanted
>us to continue doing Sunday evening worship, the effect it was having on our
>kids, etc, and whether we would be better off receiving ministry at the Brent
>Helming concert or putting out for our little band of Sunday night attendees
>at our church. Of course, I was not in a good mood when I got to church and
>set up.
>
>We set up quickly, had little time for prayer, and then launched into our 7
>song worship set. I felt totally un-anointed, messed up on some guitar
>chords and even had a hard time tuning my guitar (even with an electronic
>tuner) since I had changed the strings the night before. By the end of the
>set I figured God must be calling someone else to this ministry because I
>just
>didn't have it. Then I looked up and noticed that many of the people in
>attendance were crying. This included my wife. It seems that during a short
>prayer I gave about Jesus' atonement for our sins on the cross before doing a
>new Vineyard song called "This is Love" the Holy Spirit really moved on her
>and showed her the depths of God's love for her; a love so strong that he was
>willing to sacrifice his own Son on the cross for our sins. Others had been
>similarly touched during various parts of the worship.
>Even our teacher need some kleenex before beginning his teaching. Of course,
>I was totally oblivious to God's move, being so fixated on my mistakes and
>inadequacies.
>
>The Lord showed me something last night. He comes when he wants to come;
>even
>when we don't "feel" the anointing; even when we don't believe we played
>well;
>even when leading the worship is done out of duty rather than out of the pure
>joy of leading others into the presence of God. It has everything to do about
>Him and nothing to do with ourselves. We only have to be available to be
>used
>by Him. Sometimes this means dragging ourselves to church in a bad mood and
>leading what we think is uninspired worship, only to see the Holy Spirit fall
>on people with power.
>
>Praise God for his all sufficient Grace, power and mercy!
>
>Joel Incorvaia
>Discovery Church
>San Marcos CA
>
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