Letters of Love

I love starting these little posts like we are in the middle of an on-going conversation.  Because in a real way we are!  It's like drinking one deep cup of coffee (with Hazelnut creamer of course :)) with your best girlfriend talking about your favorite things.  I don't know about you but those conversations usually last well into the early morning hours, and I feel the same with you!  So re-heat that cup of coffee and let's do some more worshipping!

I cannot deny an unquenchable thirst for good worship music!  Actually last night on the way home from Walmart I was rocking out in the car to some of my favorite worship, Kari Jobe You Are For Me to be exact ...which the car is totally my place to live out my dream of being a rockin' worship leader..LOL!  Well, anywho while I am in "full heart pour out" to my steering wheel two girls from church pull up beside me and had to of been watching me rock out for a good minute before I noticed!!!  LOL! 

All that to say I love music.  It is our form of exhuberant worship to the King.  I love music because what I can't say in words a song can hit the nail right on the head.  Nothing beats hearing an entire church with every voice raised in adoration to the Lord.  I love when they cut the instruments and it's just the purity of the voices in the room.  Toby and I will usually both stop singing and just listen.  It's Heavenly to hear that kind of connected worship.  Happened this past week while we had revival at our church.  But while I love to worship the King with music and obviously rock out in my car :) it isn't my favorite form of worship.

Nothing gets me geared up like the Word.  Seriously.  When God starts connecting the dots on something I have been studying for a long time and praying over and then researching and then it finally all comes together I'm pumped up!!  I love it when I can be at such a loss for words or expression and open my Bible and BOOM my heart is expressed through the pen of Paul, or David, or Peter, or John.  And ultimately it is expressed through Christ. 

"The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word.  The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one." (The Message)

I love to worship God through the Word because IT IS GOD.  This side of Eternity the Word, the Bible, The Old Book, the Scriptures...whatever you want to call it is what God left us as a tangible, touchable, at times for me literally hugable expression of Himself.  I have pages in my Bible (which we affectionately refer to as "The Old Man" because of the long road we have walked together :)) that have black smears from the mascara that was running down my cheeks while I smashed my face into my Bible begging God for answers.  I have written every good and wonderful gift God has given me within the pages of that Precious Book...when I met Toby, my wedding day, prayers of scriptures over my family and friends, milestones my kids have made, revelations from God's heart to mine, I have written down places where I have met up with incredible weaknesses and then places where I have been made strong in Christ, there are appointed dreams and vibrant visions of God's call over my life written in those Letters.  The Bible is more than a book to me...it is Jesus.

The Word is alive, just as Christ is and desires to be alive in your heart!  Don't shrink away from digging into The Letters.  They were written for you!!

So today I want to encourage you to find a scripture that is meaningful to you.  Think about where the state of your heart is at and what circumstances you are currently finding yourself in.  Flip through your Bible and see what you find.  If you just have a word, but don't know where to find that scripture go to the back of your Bible and look up all the scriptures that have that word in it.  That's what I do sometimes.  Or go to Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com/) that is an excellent source to find quick scripture references.  You can go to keyword search and it will give you a whole list of possiblities.  Or flip through a devotional you might have, re-read a day you loved and look up the scripture that went with it.  That is a great place to start.  And then let God's Spirit lead you through His Word.  It's His love letter to you sweet princess.  He wants you to know all about Him and worshipping Him through His Word is a PERFECT place to start because it is Him!!!! 

I want to encourage you to view reading the Word as a form of worship. As you read the scripture that God wants to lead you to today worship Him once you get there.  And then I also want you to read it like you were reading a perfectly penned love letter written only to your heart.  Because that is how He intended us to read it.

I'll share one of my favorites that I have been clinging to all week....

"I love you, God - you make me strong.  God is a bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight.  My God - the high crag where I run for dear life, hiding behind the boulders, safe in the granite hideout.  I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty, and find myself safe and saved." 

Psalm 18:1-3 The Message

xoxo