(August 9, 2009)

Come as you are, but leave changed. Too many people are getting tired of going to church just to do church. Our students who are heading to college are living like who they are and have become changed. They aren't just going to do life.

Passion determines the temperature of the church. The heat generated by the excitement and enthusiasm for God shows where that church is. God wants us to be about being in worship and in intimacy with Him. We have been created to be worshipers. Worship is worthship.

We want to look ahead to what can be. In Isaiah 6, we see how intense God wants us to be. He wants us to be rocked during our worship. Worship is noisy, it is loud, it is passionate. You can see a lot of things on Sunday, but we need to see the Lord.

There are times when we research. We read everything we can get our hands on about God. We watch Christian TV. However, until we decide to make a connection with God and He reveals Himself, we won't really see Him. But, when we see Him, things move over us and our agenda becomes secondary to the Holiness revealed to us by God at that moment.

Also, when God reveals His Holiness to us, we see just how sinful we have been. We have good intentions, but we still fall short. We are sinners from the time we start our lives on earth; we fall short. People who haven't had God reveal Himself to them don't know exactly how sinful they are. We become humble and confess when we know the Lord has shown Himself to us. We have to confess--we have to be broken--to be able to experience what God has in store for us. But, we, as human beings, want to resist pain and brokenness, so our nature makes us sinful, thus it's a stretch for us to leave that sin and seek Him. We must look up to become purified. He doesn't Love us anymore if we do. He doesn't Love us anymore if we don't. But, at some point in life you'll get broken. Life will break you or God will break you. Wouldn't you rather be broken by God and broken in all the right places?

Brokenness doesn't ruin us, they restore us and make us travel farther. Think about a golf ball. If it were smooth it wouldn't travel as far. The dimples--the brokenness--allows farther travel. The restoration allows farther travel to experience more: more holiness, more perspective, more change, more overcoming.

Restoration leads to a response. The response is obedience. The restoration allows us to see in a new way, yielding us to obedience to Him and allowing us the ability to truly live.

There is no formula, but we need to create an environment so God can move. We don't want to feel inhibited in our worship. We need to worship everyday. We need to create time to humble ourselves in His presence. God can move at anytime and we need to be prepared for that. We need to be open to His word at all times. It's not the pastor's job or a how-to book's job to make you open to Him.

Invest in your worship. Take time every week to focus on an aspect of God's attributes and character. Watch how it changes you life. Commit to obedience. When God calls you to do something, do it. Be ready to say Here I am, Lord...Send me.

- Jon Bruney