Now is the time to worship

Tammy was gone this weekened to a Hearts at Home or We Women Love Ourselves or whatever in the world it was called. Seriously, it was a Hearts at Home conference, and it was very good, from what I heard. However, this left the boys & me to fend for ourselves this weekend. We had a great time Saturday...Buffalo Wild Wings was excellent on Saturday (you had to know we'd go there sometime while Tammy was gone), and a friend of ours did a fantastic job in a play she was in Saturday night at the college; she stole the show.

But, the highlight - for me, at least - ended up being today. For those who may not know, we recently joined Calvary Baptist Church in Hannibal. And, well, wow. Tammy wrote some time back about her worship experience that left her in tears right after we left our previous church. Today was my turn.

Just as we started singing How Great Thou Art, I just felt - and that's a dangerous term...felt...but it was truly accurate - with a spirit of worship I haven't had in a long, long time. By the time we got to the last verse, I was squeezing Jonathan's shoulders so hard he turned around and told me I was hurting him. Then as we transitioned into How Great is Our God, I just started to cry...amazed at His love for me, amazed at how even now, as we don't know where we'll be or what we're doing next year, He still provides for us a home for worship, a home for fellowship, and a home for a new church family, even with many members of our former church part of our extended families forever. He is our great provider, providing even a bridge to Him through His Son.

I really can't explain it other than to say - and I'm really not trying to be mean or cruel here, seriously - this was the most moving time I've had in worship in a long, long time. Bro. Jeff has said time & again we should be just as spent as he is after a worship service; it's (supposed to be) a shared time of worship to our Father. Today, it truly, truly was, though in addition to being spent, I was rejuvenated for the future. I feel Him drawing me closer to Him than I've been in a long time, and I'm truly joyous and thrilled. We've each had those times when we feel distanced from God, as though our prayers aren't even escaping our room. Yet today, I felt His presence with more clarity, more density, than I've felt in some time. I told Tammy - while not meaning to be blasphemous - that His presence has always felt "thick" at Calvary, other churches we've visited, and many times in the past at our previous church as well. Yet today it literally overwhelmed me...and yes, that's a valid use of the term - His spirit swept over me.

How Great is our God!