Day 1: Real and Personal

Prayer: Lord help me draw near to you. God my desire is that you more fully reveal yourself to me. Lord give me spark that causes me to pursue you with all that I am. Help me to never boast in myself but boast only in your and the good things that you do. In your son's holy name. Amen

Verse of the Day: " The LORD says, 'Wise people should not boast that they are wise. Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful. Rich people should not boast that they are rich. If people want to boast, they should boast about this: They should boast that they understand and know me. They should boast that they know and understand that I, the LORD, act out of faithfulness, fairness, and justice in the Earth and that I desire people to do these things,' says the LORD."( Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Worship Song of the Day:  Our God is Greater by Chris Tomlin

Good Morning or Evening or Night depending on when you read this blog. Well today was my first day of personal devotionals accompanying the Core series at Beltway. Well first off let me say again how excited I am about this series. I desperately need to reconnect to God and discover more about his nature and exactly who the bible says he is. I have all too often fallen into the trap of trying to define God to fit in my own little box and world view. As someone who on occasion actually tries to write worship songs it makes what you write a little narrow.

The best worship leaders and songwriters have some of the deepest understandings of who the bible says God is. For example our song of the day is by Chris Tomlin, who I consider to be one of the best worship leaders and songwriters alive. His songs have such depth and biblical root that it gives the song that much more power. This is what separates a great worship song from just a song sung about God. This is part of the reason I'm so excited to learn more about the depth of God and the reality of him in the word. I desire to do as John 4:23 says and worship God in spirit and in truth. See all too often we are guilty of just worshiping in spirit or just worshiping in truth.

I find it best to look at worship music in two ways. There are horizontal and vertical worship songs. If you have never head those two words then let me explain. Horizontal worship songs are songs that sing about God and vertical worship songs are songs sung to God. Think about some of your favorite worship songs and identify which category they fit into. The other thing that I tend to look at is that horizontal worship songs tend to be focused on truths about God and therefore might go under the category of worshipping in truth. Vertical songs however tend to be sung from the hear to God and might qualify as worshipping in spirit. While there is truth and spirit in both types of worship songs it seems each one is more focused how I described them above.

That's where I'm going to leave things today. As you do your bible reading today perhaps you can identify some worship music your fond of that use the qualities of God that you read about today. Seek hard after  him and worship him in spirit and truth. Until next time blessings from the God of heaven and his son Jesus Christ.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian