​Last week I had the honor of leading our church in a worship song that called us to stop and consider how great and awesome our God is and worship Him with appropriate reverence and awe. It is so easy to lose sight of how big, majestic, and wholly other God is. While God does desire intimate relationship with us and wants us to feel comfortable approaching Him with anything and everything, we must be careful not to minimize who He is and become so familiar with Him that He becomes ordinary.

​Over the past year and half, I have virtually attended Passion City Church’s Sunday morning services and been richly blessed and encouraged by the worship and teaching each week. Over the last few weeks, they’ve been singing a new song called “Son of Suffering” that is a beautiful exultation of Jesus’ suffering and reminder of the great sacrifice that was made for our freedom. Now, I’d like to share this song with you.

​Worship is an integral part of who we are as created beings.  We were made to worship.  It’s woven into the fabric of our DNA.  And we were created to worship our Creator.  However, in the brokenness of sin we no longer automatically worship the One who gave us life and breath.  Instead, we direct our worship towards other things and often forget God, the only One worthy of our praise.  Therefore, today let’s focus our minds and hearts back to the One from whom are all things and in whom all things exist.

​Life can be a difficult and lonely journey.  As the recent pandemic has highlighted for everyone, fear can cripple and isolation can dishearten.  However, God often uses these places to reveal the holes in our hearts and the deepest longing of our souls that only He can fill.  And while trials and difficult times often accentuate this truth, we need God and the companionship and fulfillment that only He can give on a daily basis.

Worship can serve many functions in the life of the Christian; however, one of the main purposes it should accomplish is magnify and exalt God.  Magnify means to make large, bring into focus, and showcase, and exalt involves lifting up above all else in priority and assigned value.  Therefore, worship should stir our hearts and re-orientate our lives and thinking to make God larger and of greater priority in our lives.  It should help bring who God is into greater focus, highlighting the details of His awesome nature and perfect holiness and helping us make Him supreme in our estimation of value and worth.

​“Here I Am to Worship” has had a bit of a hiatus over the past six months; however, I have some more worship songs to share with you and am excited to return to fostering and inspiring a lifestyle of continually worshiping our Savior and King who is worthy of it all! 
 
Two Sundays ago, God really struck my heart with a song that has been on repeat in my mind and heart, becoming an anthem for my week.  While I had heard and sung this song before, it hit me in a new, fresh, and powerful way.  While it is a short song with basic lyrics and a simple melody, most of it is taken straight from Scripture and invites us into the worship of heaven that is constantly taking place around the throne of God.

​I hope you have been blessed and encouraged by our worship set on God’s power and namely Jesus’s victory over darkness.  Truly, our Savior is high above all things, has conquered the enemy, and at His name the darkness must tremble and flee.  Praise the Lord!  To close out this set, I want to focus on a beautiful new song that was recently released.  It is a simple, hymn-like song that covers the gospel message and gives us a powerful opportunity to respond to Jesus’s grace with a chorus of worship.  

​Fall is in the air!  Kids are back to school and everyone is starting to get COVID fatigue. With the reality of a new season approaching and another semester of distance learning, many are feeling despair about how long this pandemic will alter their lives.  Add to this natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes and the pressure becomes too much.  Uncertainty and ambivalence is high along with feelings of anxiety and stress.  And Christians are not immune to these feelings.  We also are trying to plan for the future in a world that is changing on an almost daily basis.  So how can we navigate this season?  How can we refocus our attention on truth?  How can we ease the loneliness, stress, anxiety, and fear that we feel? 

​As we close out the month of July, I would like to give you a gentle call to worship.  Sometimes life gets so busy and overwhelming that we forget how much God has given us, done for us, and won for us and so we forget to just stop and worship.  Worship Him for who He is, what He’s done, and His great faithfulness.  So today, would you take a moment to quiet your heart and mind and let the words of this song flood your soul and become a song in your heart?

​Once in a while, I like to highlight a song I would use for communion in a service.  These songs are special to me because they exalt Jesus, remind us of His great sacrifice, and fill our hearts with gratitude.  Therefore, today’s song feature will be one of these “communion” songs.