Finding the river

Last night, Michael Bates and I went over to DFW for an international worship conference. The speaker was Bob Sorge. He used Ezekiel 47 as the jump off point of his message. It speaks about a river of God that flows from heaven. He used this portion of scripture to talk about how churches should worship. He said the goal of every worship leader is not to follow his list, but it is to find the river of God and stay there.

I thought back to a week ago as we attended Harbor Point Community Church in Plano. There was a particular song where the sense of the reality of God was strong in the room. The lead worshiper recognized that and deviated from his list to follow the river. The sense of Gods reality stayed. My eight year old son told me later that day "Dad, I felt something in my heart during the worship I had never felt before, I'm not sure what it was, but I know its kinda good". It encourages me that not only was I aware of God showing up in our worship Sunday morning as was the worship leader was, but my eight year old picked up on it to.

He talked about how we American christians should not be so set on our lists and our linear paradyms, but to set our goal as finding the river of God and hanging out there.

Bob Sorge also talked about how that in Grateful Dead concerts there were times when Jerry Garcia and company would just take off playing music. it wasn't anything they had played before. At these times they were creating new music. It is as if something spiritual was happening as all the band members flowed together. Bob said how this was like an unholy river that the Grateful Dead learned how to plug into, not every concert but in many. This is one of the reason so many "dead heads" would follow them around the country. They hoped to get caught up in this spiritual experience.

We as Christ followers are looking for that holy river, one that brings the reality of Gods presence before us.

I thought about my own life. How many times have I let my agendas and my to do list (for God) keep me from finding the river and staying there. Oh, God show me the river today, let me take a swim.