SINGin' and SIGNin'!

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to visit another church (pulled from my bowl).

This was the 2nd that I've visited this year during my "Season of Visitation."

Pretty much ALL of the churches that I will be visiting are churches that my Christian friends attend. As I scroll through my Facebook feed on Sunday mornings, I make note of who's checked in where, and in the bowl it goes. I make it a point to not tell anyone that I'm visiting their church. That may sound odd, but I just want my experience to be as organic as possible...so if they happen to be there when I visit...great. And if not...that's okay too.

The church I visited this morning begins worship service at 9:00. A little early for my taste, but before my church had our own church home, we held service at our "sister church" and began at 8:30. So 9:00 isn't that much of a stretch.

I arrived, walked in and was immediately and warmly greeted by a woman whose name I now know is Doris.

She asked if I was a visitor or a guest. I said visitor.

She asked how I'd heard about the church and I told her that I have a friend who attends with his family.

She told me that she hadn't seen them yet, but encouraged me to go on in, have a seat, and join in as they worshiped the Lord.

I did just that.

Found a place to set my things and joined right in with Praise and Worship. I immediately sensed the presence of the Lord in that house and my spirit knew that this would be a great experience.

One thing that particularly moved me was the sign language interpreter. She signed those songs TO THE GLORY OF GOD! It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

At one point, we sang a song that had alto, tenor and soprano parts to it. To my wonderful surprise, there was not just ONE sign language interpreter, but THREE...each singing and signing their own part. Can you say POWERFUL! That's exactly what it was...POWERFUL!!!

I kept watching trying to catch words here and there. I learned "forever" and "Jesus (which is pictured here)." Just watching them made me want to learn. They did so much more than just stand there and move their hands. Their facial expressions showed their awe for God. The way they moved their bodies to emphasize certain words showed their awe for God. They were simply AMAZING.

After Praise and Worship was over, the Pastor took to the pulpit, greeted the congregation, covered some things pertaining to various ministries in the church and ultimately got into the message. One thing I noticed while listening to him discuss the ministries within their church was that they are a Bible-believing, Bible-led church. And if anyone is in a ministry leadership capacity there, they MUST devote time to studying God's Word. In hearing that, once again, I knew I was in the right place. This Pastor's stance on ministry leadership matches that of my own Pastor. How can one lead spiritually, if they don't have God's Word in them? The short answer is...they can't.

The message came from Matthew 6:31-33, and the title was "Seek first the kingdom."

In a nutshell, there are so many things that we desire, and none of them are a surprise to God. But if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then those things we desire will be added unto us, as long as they are according to His will.

So that was my visitation experience this morning to Victory Institutional Baptist Church. I am happy to say that God was truly glorified.

Let the DIALOGUE begin: Do you know how to speak American Sign Language?

Talk to me!

Til next time...