Come With It

This is from a talk that I gave to our volunteers yesterday at our pre-service meeting:

John Ortberg writes in his book God Is Closer Than You Think about the Michelangelo painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel called "The Creation Of Adam". In the painting, God is rushing toward Adam on a cloud powered by angels. It is apparent in the painting that God's total desire at that moment is to reach this man. His hand is stretching out to touch Adam's hand, with only a small gap between. That's where a lot us are today - that small gap between. God desires to come to us. He longs to touch and have contact with His children, but He is not going to come all the way to us. He leaves that small gap for us to make a choice. We have to make the decision to fill the gap and come the rest of the way to Him.

Psalm 100:4 says:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Notice that it says "enter his gates with thanksgiving - his courts with praise". It doesn't say "come in, and when you feel something to be thankful for - do it". Or "when you start to feel the groove of the band, or hear the people around you, or hit that key change going into the final chorus - then start to praise." No, it says to come with it. Come with thanksgiving for the great things that God does for you daily. Come with the praise that should continually be on your lips. Don't wait this week for God to shake you up. Bring what you have to Him. Can you imagine if all the believers came to church this weekend with their thanksgiving and praise flow already on? God would rock the church! God wants to come to us, but He's waiting for us to fill the gap. Let's come with it this week!