I feel like starting every post with "It's been a while...", but I do not apologize for my span between posts anymore. I love the ministry; and quite frankly, I will do ministry over blogging any day. As some may argue that "blogging is ministry", I would agree that by sharing a Christ-centered, Gospel-focused voice - by any means, anytime - can be a ministry. However, when needs arise or opportunities to meet with someone personally are given, I will choose a personal interaction every time.
But with that said, as a minister the Sunday morning worship hour does not allow enough time to paint a Gospel picture for all of life. Although God is not confined to time, we are. One way a minister is able to convey more information when time does not allow is to blog. But then, who has time to regularly blog? Hopefully time will allow me the opportunity to blog more in the near future - since I have now graduated seminary :-) - and share a Christ-centered, Gospel-focused view on current events.
So, now that I have your attention, what would I like to share with you. Worship has been a big topic for many years in our church. We previously looked at worship during a fourteen week sermon series, and in this blog I would like to share some reminders of the importance and the ways to prepare ourselves for worship before arriving at corporate worship.
I recently read a blog post that reminded me of our need to prepare for worship. And during the sermon series we looked at preparing ourselves for worship by saying, "We need to spend a personal time with God on Sunday, just like any other day. It's not that the worship service can't lead you into worship, but the point of personal time with God is that you get alone time with God. That should excite the soul every day!"
One of the other things that was discussed during our previous sermon series was how the the family - before leaving the house for worship - should pray together, and ask God to speak to them through Sunday school, fellowship, song, and worship.
If you know me at all, you know that there was much more to be said on the subject, but the point is that we need to prepare ourselves for worship prior to gathering corporately. I recommend the blog post (the highlighted "blog post" above) I had mentioned, while encouraging everyone to wake up a few minutes earlier and begin preparing themselves to gather with other believers in worshiping before the throne of God.
