What am I Doing in Church?, Part 2

I believe that the the Lord has placed three words is my heart as I reflect on my time in any individual worship setting whether this time is private or public. These words are: Recognize, Release, and Receive. I want to take a moment and elaborate on these words. RECOGNIZE: In some ways I wrote about this need in yesterday's posting. During prayer and meditation time yesterday the Lord began to reinforce in my spirit the need to recognize the presence of God among His people. We must learn to focus the attention of our heart and soul toward the One who is able and ready to make a difference in our lives. Do you realize that if someone rich, famous, or what we considered important came in among us we would do our best to place him/her in the line of our eyesight? We would move our head and in some cases even move our body so that we could position ourselves for that one look so that we could go away from that encounter and declare that we saw the person that we intended to see. People will camp out early to get the best seats in the house; people will camp out in front of ticket offices to buy those "special tickets" for the entertainer or sporting event that is so important to them. Yet, we go to church and the slightest distraction can cause us to lose our focus on Christ and before long our minds are adrift in the sea of things of lesser importance. We must learn the discipline of right priorities. The most important presence in our services is the presence of God. We must seek to turn our hearts toward Him and seek to identify His presence. A few years ago I attended an Alabama football game ( I am a diehard Crimson Tide fan) with our sons. We arrived early (can you even imagine arriving early at church?) at the game so that we could watch for the team buses to arrive. We wanted to see the players and the coaches arrive for the game. When the buses arrived we followed them to the gate where they would unload; not to be outdone, I made my way close to the door, stuck out my hand and began to shake the hands of the team and coaching staff as they arrived. I "recognized" many of the players and several of the coaches; needless to say I shook several hands that day because I positioned myself to "see" the players. Don't you think it is time that we positioned ourselves to "see" the Lord God Almighty as He releases His Spirit among His people? The next time you are in a public worship service position yourself to see the presence of God as He begins to move in your life and the lives of those who are present in the service.