Monday Morning Musings ...

What an encouraging day yesterday was, as I posted last night it was great. It wasn't the attendance, that was okay for a Sunday in July but it wasn't great. It was the obvious presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our worship yesterday morning. Our whole worship band and team were back from their vacation time away and they sounded good. The congregation seemed to really be into singing and listening to the words and meanings of the songs that were sung. There was a little more of a sense of expectation in the air. Maybe it was just that we haven't had a "normal" Sunday for a few weeks. Maybe it was that I was really into the message and felt it as deeply as any I have preached for quite a while. This one had been marinating in my heart for quite a while and especially so in the past 2 weeks. I had many tearful, heartfelt times as I prepared for this message. The Lord really ministered to me as I went through the message in our worship center early yesterday long before anyone else was in the building.

The message title was "What If ...?" The scripture was Acts 2:42-47 and Ephesians 3:20. The premise was asking what if we believed, prayed, shared, gave, worked and expected God to do what He has done before. What if we really believed that God is able? What if we prayed as if we believed that He is able? What if we shared and gave like we believed that He is able? What if worked as if we believed that He is able? What if we lived expecting God to do His part in our lives and church today?

God was really working on people's hearts and minds, including mine. I invited people to come and pray about the what ifs as we sang "Lord, I give you my heart". It didn't happen immediately, but then a person came forward, then my wife left the worship team and knelt to pray, then several more people came forward and then our worship leaders left the platform to pray. I prayed to close the service, after I commented that I didn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't believe that God was mainly speaking to the women in attendance. There was a great time of continuing to pray and share around the altar and all around the worship center.

In the evening we continued our study and discussion on being better shepherds. The attendance was good for July and the discussion was encouraging.

It was a great day.

What is your "What If ..." for your life or church? What will you do to see this come true? Do you believe that God will do His part?

Here's hoping you sense God's presence and live in that knowledge this week while letting a couple of other people around know that they are loved.