Throughout all the chapters we had to read this week there was the constant reminder that it is all through Jesus. "Worship is a meeting between God and human beings" (pg 88) This can only happen because Jesus made a way for us to communicate and have relationship. It is so cool to know that we are experiencing the work of Jesus in motion. We worship in excitement and anticipation for when Jesus returns. I needed to read these chapters to reevaluate my worship times and if i am really focusing on what worship is or if I am focusing on what I want it to be. Finally it was a great reminder of how important the church is as a body of believers. We do not all get every gift but it is worship when we all help each other by offering our gifts as an act of service. "Worship brings believers together and arranges them according to their functions." (pg 69)

While reading through the second part of this book for class I was feeling tired and like I wanted to be done, but then He mentioned Galatians 5 and at first I just kind of skimmed over it. I kept reading but I kept thinking about Galatians 5 and how I want to look up the whole chapter and read it again and I am so glad I did.  At the end of verse six it says "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love". If I challenged myself to living out this chapter everyday my life would look drastically different in a good way. Then the chapter ends by saying "Since we live by the Spirit. let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." I don't even realize when these qualities slip into my everyday life but I want to be careful of this. I am the kind of person who feels things very deeply and am affected by however I start my day so If I challenged myself with these couple verses in the morning I think I would see a great change in my life. Hopefully This encouraged you to do the same. REMEMBER!! "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" :)

Chapters 1&2 Joyfully persue a relationship with our Creator

Alrightyyyyyy! well, I just started reading the book Worship Old and New by Robert E. Weber for my worship lesson and I have already been challenged by it. One of the things that really hit me while reading the first chapter is that he talks about worship being a joyful act. I have been so challenged by the idea of being joyful this month. In 1 Peter 1:8 Is says "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious JOY, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." I love this verse because it basically tells us that if we are a believer we have no choice but to be filled with the joy that is hard to express. This is one key thing that sets us apart in this world. People can see we are different because of our joy. It's challenging isn't it? Our worship should come out of a place of joy.
The thing I loved about chapter 2 is that it was a great reminder of how God is constantly pursuing a relationship with his people. We talked about this in class last week but it made me examine my own thinking when Josh said something like its not that we should be asking for more revelation but we should be asking God to open our eyes to the revelation of him that is all around us. He is available... we usually are not.