Last Saturday night was awesome.  200 people packed into the intimacy and coziness of a dark gym, flashing lights and loud music.  All for God.  It was one of those night that you didn’t want to end.  It jazzes me up that God shows up to remind us that life is good.  That He is good.  That life without Him is not good.  That life-change happens when we let Him have all of who we are.  There were personal stories of how God had transformed a broken life; how displacement from Hurricane Katrina had brought someone to ACC; how connecting with other people in a LifeGroup had made God real, personal and accessible.

And that night we realized, with awesome clarity, that we were just tasting for two hours what encountering God forever will be like in heaven.  What a great reminder that when we raise our hands; when we raise our voices; when we read from His word, when we share our personal stories and when we gather with other believers, we’re not seeking an emotional high but to encounter a God that gives me grace in spite of myself.

It was a time to bring something to God.  Ourselves.  And we did.  A time to make it all about Him; to give Him glory; to give Him honor and to praise the personal God Almighty.  It’s ok if I don’t know the words to the song.  It’s ok if it’s too loud.  It’s ok if there are 20 people in the front row that I don’t know who are jumping around and shouting to God.  It’s worship.  It’s unashamed adoration.  It’s thanks.  It’s heart-pounding humility before a Creator who cares that I love Him back.  And I do.  We did.  And that’s just one of the practice rounds for how I’ll spend the rest of my life on the other side of life on this planet; life in eternity.  I’ll provide a video taken during one of the songs that night in a future post.  Thanks Scott Spivey for leading us to encounter God that night!