I Found What I Was Looking For!

Experiencing God in Worship

Early in our marriage, we began to be gripped by worship- especially Brian.   There were very few worship tapes out back then.  Do you remember Maranatha cassette tapes?  Those are the ones we found.  (If younger, you may have to Google what a cassette tape is… it is almost an antique now.)

We wanted to worship.  We bought all the worship tapes we could find, and we played them all the time. Worship transformed us.

On Sundays, however, we would watch to see which guy in the choir would fall asleep first.  We didn’t expect much.  This was the 80’s.

We were starting to realize that often in church we would sing songs and yet, we never actually worshipped – except when we accidentally stumbled onto certain songs where we actually were kind of singing to God.

Through these worship tapes, Brian and I began to experience the Presence of God!  It was amazing and we couldn’t get enough of it!

We had been reading our Bibles more and more.  We were falling more and more in love with Jesus.

The next thing you know, Brian starts raising his hands in Sunday worship services… and he was the ONLY one doing that in the entire church and I’m kind of a people pleaser and even I’m thinking…  “Ok.  So, you can do this at home, alone, you can even kneel if you want at home… but what do you think you’re doing?!  We don’t raise our hands or kneel at church for crying out loud!”  People are looking over at you….  What are you thinking?  Worshipping God and raising your hands at church??!!  It’s just not the place! (Seriously.  How ridiculous is that!)

Soon, we were exposed to a church here in Phoenix called, “The Vineyard.”  They had this band, and they were playing contemporary style music.  They weren’t singing out of hymn books

We were singing songs to God and not just about God.  This is what we had been longing for.  We were experiencing God deeply.  Sometimes we would sing songs personally and intimately to Jesus, with lyrics like:

“Change my heart, O God.  Make it ever true.  Change my heart, O God.  May I be like You.”

To make a long story short, that church folded and after a year of searching, we planted Vineyard North Phoenix.

It has been a wild ride.

Sometimes I can take for granted the amazing worship we have here every week at the Vineyard, and sometimes I’m amazed at all He has done.Once again, I say, “Change my heart O God.  May I be like You.”

Spend some time as soon as you can with God in worship.  You’ll be glad you did!

Blessings,

Thora