created to love Him...

 This week my family is on vacation with all of my husband, Michael's, family. We're staying in a giant, million dollar house that all of my children keep getting lost in! It sits on 16 acres - has a fishing pond, a heated pool and hot tub, a theatre room, more tv's than Best Buy (my children are astounded by that!) wooded trails, deer everywhere and so many spots to hide and find seclusion! YES! YES! YES! My heart needs seclusion. People assume that I'm an extrovert, but really, my heart feeds on silence so that I can joyfully be with people! There's something about being stuck in the middle of nowhere that pulls me to listen more carefully to God calling me, drawing me. It's one of my favorite truths about Him. Song of Songs 1:4 says, "Draw me after You; let us run!" God loves to draw us out, to beckon us, to call us. He loves to see us listen, answer and eagerly run after Him. My 1-year old, Evelyn, does this. When I call her name, or she sees me en...

 1 Peter 2:9-12 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."  you are CHOSEN. you are ROYAL.  you are HOLY.  you are HIS.   This is YOU. God's Word says so. This is you and this is the Jesus follower next to you. This is you and this is the Jesus follower in that other church, or the Jesus follower that you disagree with theologically. This is you and the Jesus follower you know who may b...

  "The future of worship does not belong to the most brilliant song writers, musical virtuosos, or gifted vocalists. IT BELONGS TO LOVERS." ~ Jeremy Riddle from, "The Reset."   I read this quote over the weekend and it hasn't left me. I know this is true. I know this is true from my own relationship with Jesus. I'm a pretty task-oriented person. I can get caught up very easily in the business of creating, composing, doing, accomplishing. Those verbs are all very comfortable and set my heart at ease. I want to handle life well and my personal, fleshly litmus test is how well I can do at keeping order in my life and keeping up with the never-ending check list. I know in some ways God made me to be this kind of person and I know in other ways I've been raised to be this kind of person. But there are times I feel tired with this. I just want to...BE and not...DO. I want to love and be loved. I want to see and be seen, hear and be heard. I am learning this p...

I love to learn about worship. I love to listen to the latest worship music and hear about the creative ways that churches use to incorporate worship into their identity. I've read many books on worship leading, listened to teachings & sermons on worship, traveled to different churches to watch what they do. I've studied the history of worship in churches and denominations around the world. I love talking with people about worship, because talking out what I think helps me solidify my beliefs. Living in our wealthy culture, there are resources upon resources available to me to enhance my understanding of worship. There are more than enough viewpoints and orders of service out there for me to think about and get my hands on. But all of those things I just mentioned are mere supplements to the true knowledge of worship. In reality, there is one thing I need to learn about worship...and I need to learn it well. Interestingly though, many of the supplements I listed above do no...

I've been involved in worship ministry for 28 years. Just writing that makes me sound really old! HAHA!  I've been asked many times questions like, "Why do we sing songs for so long on Sundays?" or, "Why does God care if I sing or dance? I can't do either of those things!" or, "Why does worship involve music?" There are many verses in the Bible that say things like, "I will sing praise to Your name (Psalm 9)," and, "Sing to Him a new song (Psalm 33)," and, "Speaking to each other with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19)" or, "I will declare Your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing Your praises (Hebrews 2:12)."   Why does God command or ask us to sing to Him? Imagine if we did that all the time to every person we met...one lifelong musical!! It's socially funny and weird, but God wants us to give Him musical worship. I can think of two answers to this question......

Where are the priests today? Not the pious men holding a position of power in a religious establishment. Where are the priests that are talked about in Numbers 1:49-53? The people, set apart by God, who are "appointed over the tabernacle of testimony (verse 50)." The PEOPLE...not the hierachical PERSON. God set apart an entire tribe of Israel to have one mission - to care for the tabernacle or the tent of meeting.  The tent of meeting was the place where a person could meet God. The Levites were entrusted with the care of this tabernacle, this tent, this housing place for the presence of God.  They were instructed to carry this tent of meeting on their shoulders wherever God led them. When the cloud moved, the tent of meeting moved with it and all of Israel followed. When the cloud stopped, the tent of meeting stopped and all of Israel camped around it. The tabernacle was the intersection between humanity and God and the priests were the guarders of this intersection.  Wh...

 I am in a constant state of being challenged by thankfulness. I'm challenged by my lack of it and I'm challenged by the raw power of it. I'm challenged by how quickly thankfulness humbles me and slaughters my pride and stubborn heart. I'm challenged by how God's love language is a thankful heart. It must be. Thankfulness is the only thing I find in Scripture that is the doorway to His presence, His nearness. Thankfulness makes RIGHT NOW a sanctuary for God. It's an invitation to the Almighty One to enter this present moment...wait for it...and now this present moment. It's a glorious intrigue that pulls Him to invade my very thoughts, circumstances, failures, blue skies and dreams. Thankfulness is powerful enough to stop despair in its tracks and replace it with peace and joy and newness. Too often I spend my thought-life thinking and chasing after the future. I'm driven to experience the next best thing or even at times to wish this season away for the...

 I find purpose in many of the roles my life holds but sometimes those roles also make me a feel a loss of identity. This week has felt like that. There are so many demands on my life as a wife, a mother, a friend, someone working in church ministry. I love all of these roles. I'm passionate about them. And yet I also at times find myself wondering if all of those roles were removed, would I still hold value if I wasn't producing or accomplishing? I know when my head goes down this rabbit trail of lies that I need more time in the face of the Father to be reminded of my truest identity. I need a reminder of the importance of worship.  It's too easy to think of ourselves as tools either for other people, or also in God's Kingdom. I've even prayed this at times: Lord, use me as a tool to ________________.  But today I was reading a book (posted below) that really challenged my heart and my mindset. The author asked these questions:  "Do you want to be used by you...

  (Taken from, "How to Worship a King," by Zach Neese) What is worship? The word itself - worship - is a smaller form of the Old English word, worthship , and it literally means to give something worth or value, especially to a deity or god. That's easy enough to remember. We " worthship " God by communicating and demonstrating His value.  Demonstrating value costs something. To value something, we have to put a price on it. That is why worship is so often partnered with sacrifice. We make a sacrifice only for something or someone that is important to us, something valuable.  Worship is sacrifice. The first mention of the worship in the Bible is in Genesis 22:5 when Abraham is bringing his son Isaac up to the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice to God. Abraham told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship and then return to you."  WORSHIP??? What he really means is, "I will offer God the greatest sacr...

  Praise will be my breakthrough. My song will be my triumph. Worship is my warfare. My victory is in You, Jesus, my victory is in You.   This week I heard some news about a loved one that is really hard and has an unknown outcome. My mind feels wobbly, going back and forth between faith and fear. I've learned that right in the middle of the unknown, that uneasy, uncomfortable place is the best moment to worship. It's so simple and easy to worship when all is sunny. This is no sacrifice on my part. It's when my moments feel unsure, unsafe, disappointing, painful, etc. that worship becomes a sacrifice of praise.  I've been thinking about King David this morning. When he was a young boy, Samuel the prophet came to him and anointed him to be king of Israel. In between this moment and the actual coronation was the unknown process God used to prepare David for the palace. Many years passed before David was crowned. In fact, so many circumstances during this time of waiting l...