Taste and See

Let me say from the outset that this post could never be as long as it needs to be. What does that mean? It means that the events that took place this past week could never have enough words written about them to do them justice. I struggled for a bit about how to try to do so. Then I looked at the title and realized, my purpose is not to give a precise, detailed, moment-by-moment transcript, but to simply provide a taste. A taste of what can happen when a body of believers presses in together to seek Him, to know Him and to experience His presence, like never before.

Let me also say that mine is just one perspective – just one experience of a hundred or more. Some of what is contained here could be shared by all, but I am certain that the each and every person that experienced this past week has their own story.

Every January, our church starts the year with a fast, as we press into what God has in store for us and in preparation for the year ahead. This year was a little different, in that we added a worship and prayer service – at 6:00 AM – every day of the week. What follows is a taste – a sampler plate if you will – of the many ways that God moved and spoke this past week…

Preparation

On Sunday, we had no idea what was in store for us in the coming days. For the most part, this was a relatively normal and typical Sunday service. The focus was on our church’s word for the year – SHIFT. Our pastor spoke that some things need to move in our lives. That these moves can’t happen until we are in position, and that sometimes these things happen suddenly. This was a reference to our key verse, Acts 2:2, “Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.”

There were a couple of other points that stood out to me, as well. First, that we need to, as our pastor said, “stop waiting for God to do what he has already given you the ability to do!” This made me think a bit…

And second, that we need to “take out our trash”. In this sense, the “trash” was our sin, sin patterns, bad habits in general and those things in our life that lead us away from God and not toward Him. As a symbolic act, we were given the opportunity to write these down on little pieces of paper and nail them to a wooden cross that had been placed in the corner of the sanctuary.

The recollections of Monday – Friday below are all from our 6 AM service. On Saturday we met at 9:00 (for reasons I will explain below.)

(I already realize I’m still trying to capture and record too much! The following days will be more brief…)

Monday

During worship, God gave me a word that was to be the theme for my week, as it was reinforced to me every day, in various ways. (And this will be the focus through the remainder of this post.)

“We must move – we must shift – we must choose a side –

Complacency is dead.

Passiveness is dead.

Luke-warmness is dead.

Straddling the fence is dead.

Tolerance of evil – is dead.

I AM ALIVE!

Treat ME as such.

Live with ME as such.

Worship ME as such.

Trust ME as such.

Love ME as such.

It’s time to choose a side. Choose love. Choose life, Choose ME!

I love you.”

Tuesday

The theme continued with a follow-up word from The Lord…

“This choice you need to make – you need to make it before you need to make it. You need to pre-decide. A time is coming when you won’t have time to make it – you have to already know – in every part of your being – whose side you’ve chosen.”

I’m not going to get into what this “choice” may be. As the week went on, I realized that it wasn’t just a word for me, though, but for the greater church. I’ll leave it up to you to pray and discern what it means for you, and maybe your church community.

Wednesday

The continuation of the theme came a little earlier, during my quiet and devotional time before we got to church. In a discussion of Simeon, and his meeting Jesus when Jesus was just eight days old, John Stott makes the following statement: “Confronted by Jesus, neutrality is impossible.”

Or, to place it in the context of Monday’s word, neutrality is dead.

There is so much here… But, remember, this is just supposed to be a taste!

Thursday

Today I dealt with a little tension – until I realized what He was saying. It started when I felt prompted to read Psalm 14 during worship. If I thought I was going to read something uplifting, I was sorely mistaken. I’ll leave the reading of the entire Psalm up to you, but I’ll just share verse 3, as God says of man, “But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!”

He had been working on my heart and speaking to me all week about making choices and moving toward him and away from evil, and then this? This was not what I really wanted to hear. This was not making sense to me. This sounds very futile. Do we even have a choice? So, I did what I typically do when I’m confused and have questions for him – I started writing. This is what I wrote in my journal…

You see us here Father – seeking after you – yearning for you – desiring you. We are yours Father. Don’t overlook us. I know you see our worship.

- You see it.

- You hear it.

- You relish it.

Do not forsake us Father.

I no sooner finished writing this and I heard God say, “Now read Psalm 15.”

From the translation I read, just the first two verses… “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart…”

“Yes! Thank you Father!” was what was written next in my journal. There is always hope. It is never futile. It may not be easy, (is it ever easy?), but there is always a choice.

Friday

During worship, we sang the song Rest on Us by Maverick City Worship. We were singing part of the chorus, “You’re all we want.” After a few times through, God spoke again…

“What do you want? You need to decide. Is it me? Is it something else? The time of being indecisive is over. Now is the time to decide – What do you want?”

Saturday

I’ll start here - We weren’t even supposed to have church on Saturday… It was supposed to be Day 6 of Prayer and Worship. However, some wintry weather was finding its way into north Georgia, thus we decided to shift a bit, and repurpose the prayer time for our regular weekly service, and not meet on Sunday when the weather and roads were predicted to be bad. As it turned out, there was nothing at all regular about the service we held.

The service was two and a half hours long. It would take two or three times that to talk about everything that took place. I’ll briefly share two, that were very personal for me.

First, there was a period right after worship where the presence of God was almost tangible. Several people started sharing words of knowledge aloud to the congregation. As it started, something popped into my head. “Surely, you don’t want me to say this out loud, Father?” Silence (from Him.) Then, the next word started to be spoken, and it was along the same lines of what I had heard in my head. I thought maybe that got me off the hook! “So, I don’t need to speak this now, right?” I asked The Lord. At which point I felt that it was even more important than before that I speak it out. A separate theme of the week had been unity – and the power of being in agreement with each other as a body. So, I guess a little redundancy wasn’t a problem – and in fact – was probably necessary.

So, I spoke it. I don’t remember all of it, but I am sure of the first few words… “You have heard it said to ‘taste and see’. This is your taste…” It went on about our experience in that moment, and the week before, being just a glimpse of what God ultimately has in store for us.

The second powerful moment was when our pastor burned all of the pieces of paper that had contained our confessed sin and “trash”, that had been added to throughout the week. He had placed them in a burn bucket and lit them on fire on the stage. Seeing all of those papers – and what was written upon them – go up in flames, including those papers that I had written – was powerful and freeing.

There was one other moment in particular Saturday morning that was especially moving, in which I was blessed and honored to participate. It is our Pastor’s story to tell, though, so I won’t share it here. I will say though, that when God moves, He moves everywhere, and with – and in – everyone.

I hope I’ve been successful in whetting your appetite – giving you a greater hunger for God, with what I’ve shared here. If you pursue Him, He will make Himself known – and in ways you could never ask or imagine. If you’re reading this and you were part of this last week at CCC, please feel free to add one of your highlights in the comments. What took place was not meant to be forgotten, but shared and celebrated.

So, reader, let me encourage you… If you don’t have time with Him every day, start doing so. Find the time. He’ll redeem that extra hour of sleep you might miss if that’s what it takes. If you already have that daily time, spend a little longer with Him. Try listening more than you usually do. If your time has become too much of “just a routine”, change it up a bit. If you don’t know what to do differently, just ask Him... Trust that He’ll answer… And then do what He says. And, as this blog’s guiding verse (Luke 11:28) says, you will be blessed.