“I got to hear Valarie Peery sing "Take My
Hand Precious Lord" while accompanying herself on the piano this morning
at church. I was beside myself. Not many things I enjoy more than hearing
Valarie sing and play!”
These words were written after my cousin Valarie Peery sang and played piano recently at First Baptist Church, in Clinton, Kentucky.
Here is my comment about a service I
attended here in Southwest Michigan on the same day:
“That really was a marvelous worship service
and the sermon was equal to it—one of the best services ever. Pastors David
Colp and Chad Harlan were both marvelous and it was obvious the Holy Spirit was
leading it all—and what an awesome choir to sing in.”
This past Sunday we joined our
daughter Kathy, her husband Mike, and their family at Tabor Church near Muncie,
Indiana for a great worship service.
The amazing thing is not really these
three marvelous worship experiences scattered over five hundred miles, but that
on any given weekend there are probably a billion people who worship God in
churches throughout all our communities and around the world. They worship in a multitude of
languages, in every skin color, all economic and educational levels, and by people
of just about every conceivable variety.
More than two billion people scattered
over the earth profess to be Christians and I’m guessing maybe half attend
church on any given Sunday. This makes a wonderful unity in the Holy Spirit, as
we lift up the Lord Jesus that binds all these believers together in worship to
God.
Sometimes people criticize the church
and talk about “how bad things are” but things are wonderful in God’s church!
And will continue to get better as more and more people are born into the
family of God and give him first place in our lives. When I say God’s church I
don’t refer to a denomination, but to the entire family of God scattered around
planet earth. We don’t all agree theologically, we’re not all at the same level
of understanding or spiritual maturity but we all worship God—Father, Son and
Holy Spirit—so we are all family.
In the combined worship sites of both
my Mom and Dad’s families and both of my wife’s parents’ families you find
worshippers in all kinds of churches from Pentecostal to Catholic and
everything in between, so we love all kinds of churches! They all help those we
love to live better both here and in eternity.
Whatever the name is over the door, it
is God’s house and these are all God’s children and when we worship, in a very
real sense we all worship together. Quite often in a Sunday morning worship
service I become aware of the multitude of saints I “worship with” on a given
weekend. I’m guessing that to God it’s just one glorious worship service with
all his children on the planet. We pour out our worship and he pours out his
love, instruction, admonition and guidance.
Often as I pray I follow St. Paul’s
encouragement in Ephesians 6:18 to “always keep on praying for all the saints”.
God knows when I pray I leave it up to him as to who are the saints. I never
try to tell him. Jesus said, “Other sheep have I which are not of this fold” so
God may have some saints out there that will catch me by surprise when I see
them in heaven, but I won’t mind at all. Jesus came to save us all and I’m
firmly convinced some people who do not look like saints down here will be with
us up there, and dressed in the white robe of His righteousness.
I like Bill Gaither’s way of saying
it…”I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God!”
I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .
and that's My View from Tanner Creek.
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