Gettin' Right...Loving God

Excerpt from Keep The Pigs Out written by Don Dickerman:
If you are in the midst of a problem, bring God into the problem. Bring Him in by repentance (change of mind..change of heart...change of direction) and praise....not that lip service "Oh you are so wonderful"...but the deep down inside heart cry of O' God! You are greater than what I am going through. Bottom line.....get right with God, and praise Him in the problem. It matters not one bit as to why you are in the problem.

Churches differ for a number of reasons. Denomination models foster certain ways that are acceptable to worship. Some are what I call "high" church in that they are very liturgical in their practices. Very formal...very ritualistic. Some churches are built along the lines of hyper emotionalism. The services are extremely upbeat and high energy. Some churches are very family oriented...not blood family...but those who gather to worship are very close and in touch with who God is and what He is desiring to do in their midst.

You've got mega churches....
And You've got store front churches..
Home churches are growing in popularity. Groups of people (usually 20 less) gather in living rooms to worship, study, pray and minster to each other.
So the idea of what a church is or what it looks like has changed over the years.

The funny part in all of this church description, is that God can fit into any of them.
The type of church does not determine the amount of the presence of God that may be found there when they meet.
One group's model does not garner favor with God more than another.
The lightning rod that attracts God to any meeting is the hearts of those who gather together.
God is attracted to honesty among the people.
People that admit they are a broken mess, even though, on the outside, they seem to have life all together in a neat little bundle. People that understand that it is God, and Him alone, that hauled their butt's (can I say "butt"?) out of the ditch. Bottom line....God is attracted to hearts that are hungry for His presence.

Each week, my prayer is very simple.
"Come meet with us this weekend, Lord".
Within that cry is the reality that it is God who has sustained us this past week.
It is God who has brought us through all the destruction and mess we created in our sin-choice lifestyle. 
Each week, as we move toward Saturday night, I am always clueless as to what God is going to do. Oh, He will direct me to certain verses and application of those verses, but that doesn't tell me how people will react. That is why I keep coming back....What is God going to do, and how will I, and others present, react. Case in point. Last weekend we were in the middle of worship....the song had kind of gone off the rails, in that the worship team had begun to sing what was in their hearts rather than the words on the screen.  The air grew thick with God's presence. You just knew that you knew that God was there in that room in a real, tangible way. There was such a presence during this song that a woman slipped out of her chair, laid face down on the floor and worshiped.  That is real! To this woman, everyone else in the room disappeared and it was just her and God. That is why I love Saturday night. We aren't trying to hype anything, or stir up any emotional frenzy among those present. At the same time we aren't trying to stop anything that God is doing in our midst either. 

I opened last Saturday's meeting by welcoming everyone into "my living room". I told them to feel free to kick off their shoes and put their feet up. In other words, when we gather on Saturday, I want people to be free to experience God in ways they never have before. To kick off the shoes of religion and walk freely and unbound into worship of a God they may never have truly met before. Oh, they may have read about Him....may have even sang a song about Him. But it is a whole other ballgame when you actually are under His presence. 

We make no bones about our meeting being geared to people with a sin-specific problem. Which is kind of ironic if you think about it....all our problems are sin-specific. We want to be a place where you can come and be shown how to be free from the destruction of your past. Where you can find a group of folks who will love you for who you are...and love God for who He is. Debbie Handy, one of our worship leaders, made a statement many years ago that I have never forgotten. "God loves you just the way you are today....But He loves you so much, He doesn't want to leave you this way (or in your current condition).

So at Vineyard ReCovery Church, we are learning how to praise God in the middle of the mess. We are learning that He alone can undo our messes, and at the same time grow us in our character and love for Him. 

This weekend, Seth Barber will be speaking at VRC.
The one thing I have come to love about Seth, is that his messages are timely and straight from the hip. He doesn't sugar coat anything God gives him to share.
Seth always brings an encouraging message that points us to hope.
He can do that because his own life-journey has been one from the darkness 

into the light of God's mercy, love and grace.
Come on out and join us at VRC.
Service starts at 7 p.m.

and we do stamp court cards if you need it.

God on you...

mb