Here I Am To Worship

Worship - a difficult word to define, yet, an action that should be our life's endeavor! Today, I'd like to share with you my attempt to define worship, but then I'd like to give you an example of this action. Worship is defined (Vine's expository dictionary) as adoration and acquiesces to God - that is being in complete agreement with God, regardless of your circumstances. Horatio Spaffored defined true worship when he penned the words to the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" after the loss of his daughters to death in a tragic ship accident. When we live our lives in obedience to God, teaching the Gospel to others and seeking holiness in all we do - we are worshipping God. So, with that - do we all worship the same way? The Bible teaches us in the Gospel of John that we worship in Spirit and in Truth. My belief is we don't all worship in the same way, but we all worship in One Truth, and that is worship that is pleasing to God.

I recently had a "crisis of faith." Have any of you ever had one of those? Now, I did not have a crisis with Jesus Christ. I had a crisis with man-made religion. I found my way out of the crisis by God's Biblical formula of being close to Him. It is found in James and Malachi. God says, "Draw close to me and I will draw close to you." While I was in this "crisis of faith" instead of one daily quiet time a day - I turned to two "quiet times" a day. As always I found Jesus Christ faithful to lead me out of my "crisis of faith" well my crisis with man-made religion.
My crisis came when a person questioned my comedy and its purpose in the church (the use of comedy in the church.) My first mistake was giving this person an ear. I never aspired to be a Christian comedienne - it is God's call on my life, and when I do comedy - I'm in agreement with God with His call for my life - so, comedy is my act of worship. I listened to the person question my call and comedy's place in the church. Big mistake - listening to man instead of listening to God's. When I listened to the questions of this person -I began to question comedy myself - which meant I was truly questioning God. I was "beaten up" and hurt. Jesus tenderly reminded me that I must agree with Him and not man - so I did ... I'm now back at doing comedy routines ... And Here I am to worship You Jesus!

Now, I told you I'd like to share an example of worship with you. As I write this entry to you my son, Alex, my seventeen-year-old-hormone-infested teenager is in Honduras. I truly should say, "My young man is in Honduras." He is with his youth group on a mission trip in a third world country. Alex plays the guitar in his youth praise band and he absolutely loves playing the guitar in the praise band! Now, when his youth group was given the opportunity to go on this mission trip, and the praise band was going to lead the worship services in music. Alex never questioned whether he should go or not ... he just signed up. My first reaction was, "God, thank you so much that my son wants to go on a mission trip," and my husband, Mike, and I began to encourage him to go. Then one week from the plane taking off ... the realization set in. My baby boy (he'll always be my baby) was going to a third world country where I would not be able to text him, call him or even yell "Alexander Dayton Nettles" out the front door to get his attention. My husband and I began to question our decision of encouraging Alex to take this mission trip. We began to ask, "Is he old enough? Is he prepared enough?" Is he "enough" of anything? We began to worry, "What if he gets sick? or Will he be safe?"
Then Sunday, July 20, 2008 rolled around. This past Sunday. His praise band was going to lead the music in our church's worship service. They would be playing the songs to be played in Honduras. One of the songs was in Spanish, the official language of Honduras. It was so cool! When the music began to play, tears began to well up in my eyes. I looked up and my 6'3" -160 pound seventeen-year old was strumming his guitar with the music! He was glowing as he began to sway to the music, mouth every word of every song, and play his guitar with all of his heart. A smile enveloped his entire face! I noticed something different about him at that moment. Alex knew he was worshipping God with his talent. That is why my quiet and very reserved son was radiant. It was his act of worship. The tears began to flow down my face as I realized Alex was worshipping God and that when Mike and I encouraged Alex to go on a mission trip we were in agreement with God, and there was no better place for Alex to be in life than in agreement with God. Then I realized that releasing all of the fear and anxiety of Alex taking the mission trip over to God and supporting him was agreement with God ... so at that moment in our church service I began worshipping God ... the best part was my our son led me to worship that day!


Please pray for Alex and the Trinity Baptist Youth Mission trip to Honduras July 22 -29. Thank you all so much for your love and support! I'd never be here without you! i love you all bunches! Because He lives!!!! cherie PS - let me hear from you!