Church

This comes from my journal. I wrote it last week. I have felt compelled to share it on the blog. Some people might not like it or even get mad, but it is how I feel. I hope it helps someone.


June 15, 2008

This morning I enjoyed church so much! I had such a presence of God come over me during praise and worship that I could hardly stand it. It felt so good. I am so thankful to have a good church to attend.

I know I always have God’s presence with me. And I can worship Him or praise Him any time I want to. I speak to Him all day long and I could not make it though one day without that. But it is different when I go to church.

Sometimes it is so easy to feel God at church—or there is a bigger presence there. Because it is supposed to be His house, because there are so many other people gathered together to worship Him. I am so thankful to have a church where I can feel that. I am thankful to feel God the way I do—at church or home or anywhere. Today I felt so much. I felt God’s presence, peace, comfort, optimism, hope, strength, joy, and such a love for others.

Maybe going to church IS like filling your spiritual gas tank. I hate that it starts to drain right out pretty quickly and it is so long until I can get back to the station! All of my own personal worship and bible reading and praying at home help get me to the next service—but it can’t always fill me up the same way.

I truly don’t know how some people only show up on Sunday mornings and that’s all. I would be so dead that I wouldn’t care if I came back the next week or not. Truthfully, that is the way I use to be. I am glad God showed me how not to be that way anymore. I am glad I learned how much I need Him and how much better life can be when He is so much more than just a Sunday morning God, when He is the center of your life.

I have heard people say “seeking the face of God”. And I have had my bible for a LONG time, but until a week or so ago I had never read this note in my bible about the face of God. It says that in Psalms they mention seeing His face and they say “it is a goal that is valuable only to someone who deeply loves God. To see God’s face is see and know Him personally, deeply, and without the clouds of mystery that often make faith difficult.” I am so glad I finally learned what it meant to know God personally. When I learned that, I changed. I always wondered what made people different—more religious is what I thought. But that is the difference—knowing Him personally. It is something more than just being saved.

I wonder if those who only show up on Sunday mornings really do know Him. I hope so. If not, I hope they figure it out. And the people who don’t go to church at all, I really don’t understand. How can you believe and not want everything else? How can you not want all God has for you? Most want salvation, but they still quit church. I know that if they felt the rest of it—like I did this morning, they couldn’t stay away. God’s surrounding presence is too good to stay away from. No, He is not JUST at church. But, personally, I have felt Him there unlike any place else.

I am blessed. So very blessed.