Flying Sports Cars and Nifty Jackets.

Its 2009!! Gosh! I'm starting to feel old, and I'm only 24! I feel like my life has flown by! Its funny, I remember-what seems like ages ago-when I was younger, my brothers and I liked the Back To the Future movies. I think its in Back To the Future II where Doc and Marty McFly hop in the Delorrian and time travel to the future... 2015. Haha! We aren't quite there yet, but thats only 6 years away! Where's all the flying sports-cars and sky highways? Or those inflatable, auto-drying, re-sizable nifty jackets... or HOVER BOARDS! Now those would be sweet!! -Stay away from the water though! But for real, its 2009, time flies!

I was talking with my brother tonight about worship stuff, trying to get an idea of something to share with my church to lead into the worship set, and of course, being the awesome, worship leading, older brother that he is, he helped me out. I think we tend to overlook what worship really means. What is worship? I feel like the typical answer would be "singing songs to God", right? Yes, and no; it goes deeper than that though. Worship is our outward action of showing God how much he really means to us-how much he's worth.
I Googled the question, "What is Christianity?" The first definition listed was, " a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus..." Christianity should be more than just a system of beliefs; more than a religion. Its a relationship! Its not something that is required, rather, its our response to how awesome our God is! Think of all the things that God has given us... Now, how much of that do we deserve? None of it! We don't deserve anything! As humans, we deserve death-its the result of our sin. We are born with it. There's no getting out of it. God, however has given us so much! He's given us everthing! The very breath in our lungs is a gift! What a great reason to worship!
One of the songs that we're singing this morning is I'll Stand by Hillsong. I love this song. The chorus of it goes like this:

I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
I'll stand, my soul, Lord, to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

Now, they don't know it yet, but I'm going to encourage Evident Church to sing this song in response to everything that God has done for us. Its a new year, just looking back to 2008, God's done countless things for all of us! But I want to focus on the words for a second... Why do we stand when we worship? Standing is a way of showing honor and respect for something or someone. -Makes me think of our American flag, we stand for our flag, we salute it, we honor and respect our country by standing for our flag and singing the national anthem. In the same way, we stand and sing to God in reverence. Why do we lift our hands? Lifting our hands is a sign of surrender or submission. I picture a police officer shouting at a gunman to stick his hands in the air! Or in war, when a handful of soldiers have been caught and surrounded by the enemy, they lift their hands in the air as an act of surrender. Now, God is not our enemy (maybe I picked a some bad examples, lol), but we lift up or hands to show God that we surrender! We give up! Its up to you God, you're in control now. Thats what the song is talking about. But anyway, I'm rambling, and I need to go to bed. Haha! its late. Good night everyone!