Today's guest blogger comes to us from Newton, IL. She currently works as a guidance secretary for the local school district. She is also active in the church as a leader of the children's choirs, and directs the adult choir as well. She is a mother of 2 grown daughters, one son-in-law, and is the wife of Dr. Steve Willis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Newton. Scherry and Steve have been married since 1977 and have served at First Baptist for the past 26 years. Thanks, Scherry, for sharing what God has placed on your heart about worshipping our Lord!
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I look forward to Sunday mornings and the opportunity for a family of believers to come together to give God worship and praise. I thank God every day for all His blessings, direction, and forgiveness; however, Sundays are different. I reflect in a different way than I do any other day of the week. Being married to a pastor might make others think that I don’t have a choice as to how I spend my Sundays. I am so thankful that this is not the case. My worship on Sunday is a time to be thankful for who God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are and how that relates to my life. This is a time set aside to be saturated by His word, to be taught, and to praise Him with a host of other believers.
Our church, like many, went through the process of trying to find a healthy compromise for hymnal music and contemporary Christian music. I thank God that our church is very diversified in age and with that comes different likes and dislikes in music. I love having both in our worship service. When I read the words to songs we sing from our hymnals; I am so thankful for the words penned to remind me of God’s amazing grace and that my faith is planted on a firm foundation. I love the songs that pertain to the Lord’s Supper. All of these reminders enhance my worship time with God.
When the praise and worship music begins I have to admit that, on a purely human note, I love the beat of most of the contemporary music. I realize that enjoying the music does not make me less Godly. Even though I know most of the songs by heart, I still read the words on the screen to help me focus on the message of the song.
When I sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, worthy is the Lamb,” my mind is immediately transported to a different place. I can’t remember the timeline that God first allowed me to have this visual moment. However, when I sing praise and worship music I immediately go back to this visual place without reservation. There are no limitations; it is an immediate reaction to singing about praise and adoration of our King. I picture a place in heaven that I can only describe as being insignificant as to what is going on in this place. There is a visual representation of a building. There are large columns with several seats for persons of honor perched between them. I have a mental image of more than one seat; but I only see one figure .The figure represents Christ. No, I am not seeing visions; however, I feel the very presence of Christ as I worship. As we sing these words of adoration, I perceive a countless number of people filling the area below these seats of honor. Everyone is clothed in white that actually makes the place appear to shine. As we sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” Christ stands to His feet with His arms stretched out toward the crowd. It is though this cloud of witnesses is gathered at His feet to give endless praise and adoration. His presence is utterly radiant as we sing. I always smile because it is such an awesome place! It is as though Christ is saying that He loves the time we have to sing for Him.
God tells us in His Word in both the Old and New Testament to worship. What a wonderful gift He has bestowed upon us as believers.
Psalms 95:6 - “Come, let us bow down in worship.”
John 4:24 - “God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
I am thankful for those moments when God allows me to have a place that helps me concentrate on Christ and Christ alone. I hope you have those moments in worship where it is just about you and the Lord. I have no idea what all we will be doing in Heaven. However, I sure hope that we have lots of singing and praising together. With all of those perfect bodies; the choir should be wonderful. We will be with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of course, we are going to be praising and worshipping our King. I can’t wait!
~Scherry Willis
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