PREPARING THE HEART FOR WORSHIP

Worship doesn’t begin when the first hymn or praise song starts on Sunday morning. It begins in the quiet, intentional preparation of the heart. When we ready ourselves for worship, we’re not performing a ritual -- we’re opening space for God to speak, move, and transform. These five simple practices help us enter Sunday not as spectators, but as participants in the presence of God.

1. Pray for an Open Heart
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.”  (Psalm 119:18)

Before we hear God’s Word, we ask Him to make us receptive. An open heart is soft, teachable, and ready to be shaped. This prayer is a way of saying, “Lord, I’m listening.”

2. Pray for Your Pastor and Worship Team
“…that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.”  (Ephesians 6:19)

Your pastor doesn’t preach in their own strength, and your worship team doesn’t lead in their own ability. Pray that God fills your pastor with wisdom, power, and anointing -- and fills the worship team with joy, unity, and spiritual sensitivity. Their ministry becomes a conduit for God’s voice.

3. Put Away Distractions
"Therefore consider carefully how you listen…”  (Luke 8:18)

Worship requires attention. When we quiet the noise -- mental clutter, digital overload, anxious thoughts -- we make room for God’s peace. Stillness is not inactivity; it is receptivity.

4. Come Expecting God to Work
“He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”  (Hebrews 11:6)

Expectation is an act of faith. When you come believing God will speak, bless, convict, comfort, or guide -- you posture your heart to receive. Worship becomes a meeting place between your longing and God’s faithfulness.

5. Attend to Participate
“Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing.”  (Psalm 100:2)

Worship is not a performance to watch -- it is a response to give. Sing wholeheartedly. Pray sincerely. Listen attentively. Engage fully. God delights in worship that is active, joyful, and genuine.

Preparing for worship is preparing for encounter. When we pray, quiet our hearts, expect God’s movement, and engage fully, Sunday becomes more than a service -- it becomes sacred space where God meets His people. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™

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LOVE IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION

“Walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…”  (Ephesians 5:2)

We often think, at least unconsciously, that when we finally fall in love and decide to share our lives with another person, everything in our lives will fall into place. We'll "settle down," as we say, and, the implication is, we'll stay settled until "death do us part."

I call this the Shoe Box Notion of love. In this view, a relationship is like a shoe box… in which you keep something precious like your wedding bouquet. You wrap the flowers in tissue paper, put them in the box, … and hope the contents will stay just as they are forever and a day.

Unfortunately, this is precisely how many of us think about relationships. We put our love in a shoe box, stash it, and imagine we can retrieve it unchanged anytime we want. We think we don't have to do anything to make sure it doesn't get moldy or moth-eaten.

In truth, however, a relationship is a journey and not a destination. It begins with a love that captures our attention and ignites our passion, and goes through the innumerable and unending undulations and permutations that give it texture, character, and spice, and which, without our necessarily liking or expecting it, shape and reshape the two people who created it…

A relationship is about movement, growth; it is a holy interpersonal environment for the transformation of two souls.

-- Daphne Rose Kingma in “True Love”

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THE WORLD’S A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE…

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”  (Philippians 2:13 NIV)

Great historical events might never have “happened” if people’s spirits were not in touch with the Spirit’s movement in their lives:

The world’s a better place because Michelangelo didn’t say, “I don’t do ceilings.”

The world’s a better place because a German monk named Martin Luther didn’t say, “I don’t do doors.”

The world’s a better place because an Oxford don named John Wesley didn’t say, “I don’t do fields.”

The world’s a better place because Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do Pharaohs.”

The world’s a better place because Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks and animals.”

The world’s a better place because Ruth didn’t say, “I don’t do mothers-in-law.”

The world’s a better place because Mary didn’t say, “I don’t do virgin births.”

The world’s a better place because Mary Magdalene didn’t say, “I don’t do feet.”

The world’s a better place because Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

Get in touch with the greatness of your spiritual heritage. Look to the future, and feel God’s Spirit stirring your own. Then watch in wonder as God transforms your life… and makes the world a better place.

-- Adapted from Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soulcafe”

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BEYOND THE CHURCH WALLS

Jesus said to His disciples, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV)

The church is never true to itself when it is living for itself, for if it is chiefly concerned with saving its own life, it will lose it. The nature of the church is such that it must always be engaged in finding new ways by which to transcend itself. Its main responsibility is always outside its own walls in the redemption of common life. That is why we call it a redemptive society.

The outgoing character of the Christian movement is of such crucial importance that when it is understood, many of our religious presuppositions are thereby altered or rejected. Christians may indeed come in [to the church] but they do so only that they may, in consequence, go out, and furthermore, that they may go out with greater effectiveness.

The presupposition used in describing Christ’s own strategy is highly significant. “He called to Him the Twelve, and began to send them out” (Mark 6:7). The point is almost equally clear in the dispatch of the Seventy, whom He sent “on ahead of Him” (Luke 10). Though it is discouraging to find how few of the millions of [church goers] have even a slight comprehension of this, it is heartening to find it understood in some places. 

-- Elton Trueblood in “The Company of the Committed” (1961)

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THE EMPOWERING SPIRIT – Part 1

In the history of human endeavors, there is a natural progression from “man” to “movement” to “monument.” A charismatic individual typically comes on the scene, mobilizes others to join him, and achieves great things. When the leader dies or leaves, his followers continue for a while in his spirit. But the movement generally lacks the founder’s dynamism and eventually loses momentum. Subsequently, it either fails outright or becomes only a monument to its former, departed glory. Man, movement, monument.

Christianity did not follow the “man-movement-monument” scenario. Jesus’ charisma cannot be denied. But when He died, He died alone. And after He rose from the dead, He had to appear to His disciples repeatedly to convince them that He was truly risen from the dead (Acts 1:3). He had to explain to them again that His kingdom was far different from the one they imagined. Even when He made His dramatic exit to heaven they stood staring into the sky (Acts 1:11)…

Prior to His departure Jesus told His disciples, “In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit… you will receive power and will tell people about Me everywhere” (Acts 1:5,8). This power of the “Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead” (Romans 8:11) imparted to them supernatural power that made them compelling witnesses for Christ. 

-- Stuart Briscoe in the “Daily Study Bible for Men”

#5610

A JOURNEY TOWARD GOD

“Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’”  (Luke 19:8-9 NIV)

When the Word became human, Jesus Christ lived the same relationship in a human mode and it is in this relationship that we are called to share. Like the Word, like Jesus in the flesh, we are invited to live our life here on earth as a journey toward God.

Throughout the Gospels there are two salient aspects of the identity of Jesus. He is from the Father, sent by God to accomplish a task. Secondly, the human journey of Jesus is one that leads back toward God. It is this movement back toward God that is opened to believers of all generations. In following Jesus, we are shown the way that leads toward the Father. Our life is not aimless; it has destination. We have not been left to wander in the desert; the Shepherd has come to seek what is lost and bring us home. 

-- Michael Casey in “Toward God” 

#5564

PROGRESSING TOWARD THE FINISH LINE

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful."  (2 Timothy 4:7 NLT)

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress. 

-- Alfred A. Montapert


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