These are the thoughts I had before the Sunday service started. Boy, was I wrong... In fact, this last Sunday service was the best service I have ever been to in my life so far. I felt the amazing presence of God fill me as I worshipped and witnessed His greatness. This is definitely a day to remember.
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I woke up at 5:30 in the morning with my alarm ringing from my blackberry. I just had the experience of a "Sunday Morning Scramble" the week before, and I'd say that it was not something I would want to occur again. Off to the shower immediately. I got dressed and we were off to church.
We arrived early, seeing that only a few of the musicians had arrived before us. As they prepared their instruments, I took a seat in the front row of the right wing in the auditorium. I glanced at the clock and realized that we still had at least 30 minutes before the service starts. At that moment, God softly whispered to me to "prepare your heart for His presence". I pulled out my iPod from my pocket and tapped on the Bible application. There, I read the whole chapter of I Corinthians. After I closed in prayer, I felt that my heart is prepared for the morning.
Everyone took their stations, mine being in the choir stage. The opening song started. Kak Petra (our youth leader) opened the service with greetings. Even in this first song, I can already feel the peace around the atmosphere. After that first worship song, we moved on to praise. It was jumpy and joyous! I don't think I've ever jumped and dance that much on stage :P but I do this all for His sake (we sang the Rebirth song "You Are Great" with one phrase in the bridge: "I'm not ashamed to jump and dance before You; I owe it all to You"). It was fun yet meaningful.
After that, we sang a new worship song by Sidney Mohede. It's amazing that the song was actually quite familiar. We were able to engage so easily with the words. I started to reflect on those words as we sang. Immediately, I felt God speaking to me. All I could say was, "God... You have been so faithful to me. You deserve all the praise and honor, and with my whole heart, I worship You (S'gala puji, s'gala hormat, seg'nap haiku menyembah Kau). Accept my life today, Father, as a living sacrifice unto You alone (Terimalah s'gnap hidupku s'bagai persembahan yang hidup). Tears fell from my eyes as I said these words from my heart.
The pastor came up to commence the Holy Communion. We sang "Jesus Be the Center" until the end of the praise and worship. Powerful words...
Verse: Jesus be the center of my life Jesus be the center of my life From beginning to the end, it will always be It's always been You Jesus Jesus Chous: Nothing else matters Nothing in this world will do Jesus You're the center Everything revolves around You Jesus You Bridge From my heart to the heavens Jesus be the center It's all about You Yes it's all about You Chorus 2: Jesus be the center of Your church Jesus be the center of Your church And every knee will bow, and every tongue shall confess You Jesus Jesus |
(Just recently today, I was Skype-ing with a friend of mine discussing this song. "When all else fails, Jesus is all you got," we agreed. It's true. We can call ourselves "Christians", but if Jesus is not the center of our lives, then it is meaningless.)
The sermon was really touching too. It's about giving our life and dedicating it to God and His ministry. The speaker was a missionary named Ps. Rusty Russell. In one of his testimonies, he mentioned that he visited a village in Nepal to minister. One time, a deaf girl came up to where he and his team were camping. Pastor Rusty placed his hands near the girl's ears and prayed for immediate healing. Suddenly, the girl was able to hear again! She went back to tell the people in the village about the miracle that recently happened. An old man approached the missionaries and asked for the "magician". "We have no magician," was the reply. "But I can pray to my God to heal you as He did the young girl." The old man was also deaf in one ear. As immediately as the prayer ended, the man was restored! The news spread among the villagers and most of them got saved after the incident.
After the sermon, Pastor Rusty called on all those who wants to accept Jesus to their lives for the first time. A lot of the congregation stepped up and gave their lives to Christ. Then, Pastor Rusty caught us off guard when he said, "God is telling me that some of you need a healing miracle. Among you, there's one who is deaf in your right ear (an elderly man stood up and walked to the front immediately). There are also people here with kidney pains, neck pains, shoulder pains, knee pains." A long line formed in front of the stage. Pastor Rusty called on the leaders of the church and prayed for God's healing anointing to be upon them too. He poured oil and rubbed it on each of the leaders' hands. After doing so, he prayed for the elderly man who was deaf in the right ear. After a short prayer, he began to snap his fingers in front of the elderly man's ears. "Can you hear now?" The man smiled and shouted "Yes!" There was another elderly man who came up to the line with his son. He had a knee injury. After a prayer for healing, Pastor Rusty told the man to skip around. The man did so with no pain whatsoever. The surprised look in the son's face was just priceless! He stared with wide eyes at his father's recent recovery. Throughout the whole healing service, the worship team sang Hillsong's "Healer". Everyone was touched, even the audience. After everyone was prayed for, the first service came to an end.
By the beginning of the second service, my voice was already half gone due to the high notes of the songs. Common sense dictates that I should rest my voice for this service. But God is beyond common sense. I made a decision to "sing out loud until my lungs explode if it comes to that" =P (Thank God it didn't). The opening song already drew tears. By the time we reached the song "We Have Overcome", I already felt my throat hurting a little. Ironically, this made me sing out more :P I had fun throughout the praise. We sang "Jesus Be the Center" again. I have never sung a song in which I meant every single word before. "Nothing else matters", "From my heart to the heavens, Jesus be the center", "It's all about You". When we reached the part where we sing "Jesus" over and over again, tears literally RAINED down. In my heart, I kept saying to myself, "Yeah, sing the beautiful name of Jesus. The name above all names. The name that conquers all. The name that softens the hardest heart. The name that heals. The name that saves..."
It was a beautiful praise and worship session... I have never felt anything like that. The last time I felt a huge "tsunami" of God's presence was back in Manado when we had a youth service at the church there. Never before have I experienced the best worship session in my home church. After 17 years, this was the first time I felt something like that. It was truly amazing. Our God is so awesome. I saw the deaf regain their hearing, I saw the crippled walk, and I saw the lost found. I praise and amazing God...
Thank you for reading,
Justin
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