finding satisfaction in the beauty of holiness

To consider an experience with God as wonderful is an understatement to say the least. But to not experience a moment with God is tragic nonetheless. Today’s church service, though not life altering, was a wonderful experience with my God. So what happened that I may boast in a blog to others? It’s quite simple really.

We had communion. But what made this communion different from any other time we had communion? Nothing if you were to look at the setting of the service and the composure of the people. But if you were to look at the softness of my heart from the massage God had previously administered, things would look a bit different.

My wife whose the prayer minister at our church (this entails a long story in and of itself I should tell ya bout sometime) has been leading prayer before service for almost a year now. This gives the church an opportunity to pray over EVERYTHING that is about to take place during Sunday School and worship service. Before prayer, I notice the communion table was prepared and so I asked God to prepare my heart as well. (I tend to forget we have communion the first Sunday of each month)

So needless to say, my spirit was sensitive to the truth of the life and death of Jesus Christ as told in the communion story. Pastor Philip has started a tradition at our church where when we eat of the bread, we are to break the cracker before the partaking. If you have never heard this happen over a sanctuary big enough for 300 crackers being broken at once, it’s a sound to behold. This sound is supposed to resemble the sound of the breaking of Jesus’ body on the cross. It is a very humiliating sound.

After the communion portion, we had a baby dedication. I’m very scared of having a baby myself out of fear that a baby is a very HUGE responsibility (please don’t give me the fear is not from God speech) . One that I’m concerned I will never be ready for. Nonetheless, every time we have a baby dedication, I feel a small desire to raise a child so that I may take part in the beauty of growth in a child of my own. To say this is what my wife and I through the power of God  have created and now I have the privilege to raise them up in the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit and watch them become a follower of Jesus Christ.

Baby dedications are special and they are three part. The first part is for the parents to make a covenant with God to raise the child in the right manner. The second part is for the Grandparents and family to make a covenant twith God to help raise that child in the right manner. The third part is for the church to make a covenant with God to hold the parents and the family accountable  in raising the child in the right manner.

What nailed me today was when Pastor Rocky said a prayer over Canaan Lake Bennett. He said while anointing him with oil, “May you grow up to be a mighty servant of God, brother.” Notice, Pastor Rocky called a four month old baby, brother. That got to me. I thought it was great that Brother Rocky talked to this baby as if Canaan understood every word he said.

Now, I could speak on the sermon but I think that’s for another blog. The one thing I will mention is that Pastor Richard made a great point. He talked about the spirit of God being removed from us. You know how you can have a wonderful time at church, enjoying the message and getting those Holy Ghost bumps until your hair stands on end. Then you leave and go home and Monday morning you go back into the world you live in behaving like you always have.

He said if you want to continue communion with the Holy Spirit, you have to have two things. Time and place. You have to make time to spend with God and you have to have a place to do it. Without these, a person will easily slide back to doing things like the world and God’s Spirit will not dwell with them no longer.

Now there is more to it than that but that’s it in a nutshell.

Yes, it was a wonderful experience with God today. I hope if you went to church today, you had a wonderful experience too.