I Found God In Iced Tea...

Second to coffee, I love ice tea. But, I'm very specific on how I like it - regular, UNsweetened iced tea, NO lemon, NO flavorings of any kind. :)

My Mom likes lemon in her unsweetened iced tea. I find this taints the basic flavor of tea - and I love just the flavor of regular tea. I really don't even want a slice of lemon on my glass lest it drips even a few drops of lemony-sourness into my drink.

My mother-in-law likes a bit of sweetener in her tea. Not a lot, just a few pink packets to flavor it up. Ugh - that changes the flavor too-too much for me. Perhaps a few drops of lemon I could stomach, but you add sweetener, and it's just not the same!

Then you have my good friend Stephanie - she's southern - hence she only drinks "Sweet Tea" - to me, a dreadful concoction of sugar and tea brewed together. One mouthful of this and my face puckers up into a foul expression. I can barely swallow it, and it's hard to believe that this, also, is considered "iced tea."

Four different people - four different ways to enjoy our iced tea. And even though it's still "TEA," it's presentation and flavor are completely unique to each of us.


This reminds me of church services. I happen to LOVE our grungy, garage-band kind-of service called "The Well." I love sitting my the speakers with my head and heart just filled up with the guitar and drum and low voice of our main singer. No robes on our pastor. No reciprical prayer. No "Creeds." No hymns. Just a great, honest message from our pastor, and song-after-song in that modern, grunge style.

Our church also offers a more "pop-contemporary" service. That Worship leader is great too - it just reminds me more of the pagentry of American Idol than the backyard, garage band. We have a lot of friends in that service, and I'm happy to pop in there once in a while, but I still prefer The Well.

My friend, Jackie, shies away from The Well and attends the Blended Service. A mixture of some pop-contemporary and some traditional hymns, this is way too "watered down" for me. But even though Jackie and I enjoy different services, we still meet up for the same Sunday School class and have become great friends over the last few years. It hasn't mattered that we don't sit side-by-side or see eye-to-eye on the style of worship we prefer.

Then there's Debbie, my best friend since 9th grade and Michelle, my roller-coaster friend. My garage band service is SO out of league with what they want in a church service! Both much prefer the traditional services - robes on the pastors, hymns from the hymnals, reciting the Lord's Prayer, bring on the organist, and keep those guitars and drums to yourself, thank you very much!! :) After 5 years of rockin' out at our current church, I can't even fathom going back to the traditional United Methodist service that my friends attend. And while Debbie has visited our rock-n-roll church service (and was so gracious about it!), she knows that she prefers quite a different style of worship than I.

Just like it does not matter whether we each prefer our tea "straight up" or "sickenly sweet," God does not care HOW we worship... just that we DO worship. You can use the organ OR the guitar. You can sing with the choir OR with the band. You can pray from a book OR speak the honest words in your heart. Whatever way, God is listening. And regardless of the methods, the purpose is the same: To Worship God. To sing praises to His name. To confess our sins. To thank Him for our blessings. To spread His Word. To share His love.

God designed each of us as unique human beings - complete with our own sets of likes and dislikes, talents, and quirks. So of course, we are going to experience styles of worship that "speak" to us more than others. I went to a traditional United Methodist church for 10 years and didn't feel one kernal of God there... ever. It was a hard and lonely time, faith-wise. And, though I made some wonderful friends there, I did not find God - and I was ever-searching... Yet, it only took TWO visits to our current church before I felt, mind, heart, and soul, that God was speaking to me. And every week for the last 5 years, I have looked forward to church and have left with a direct message in my heart from God.

Just like a person with dyslexia must find another way to read. I needed to find another way to God. And for me, my path includes drums and guitars.

JOHN 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

So what's your style? How do you take your "tea?" And if your current "tea" isn't satisfying you, isn't it time you start shopping for a place where you find your perfect blend? God just wants you to find Him - so what's the best way for you to get there?

Karaoke Tuesday: "I Believe" by ZOEGirl

When I first started listening to Christian contemporary music, there was one song that I played over and over: ZOEGirl's "I Believe." Our first son was only a year or less, and my husband and I would giggle at him through the rearview mirror on our Blazer because as soon as this song would come on, his eyes would brighten, and he'd start bopping back and forth to the music... not unlike those Saturday Night Live, obnoxious, date guys who bounce their heads to music while cruisin' for chicks! :)

This is such a great "I'm-a-new-Christian" song; here are the lyrics.


Can you remember a time in your Christian walk when things changed for you?

When you finally, finally! felt God inside your heart?
When God breathed His life into you, and you were forever changed?
Do you remember when you stopped feeling self-concious when you talked about your faith?
Do you remember feeling like you could "shout it from the mountains" because suddenly, your faith had meaning and you felt like you understood, for the first time, what it meant to be Christian?

Sometimes, it's hard to be a Christian. People stereotype you into one of the pop-culture caricatures or set you on a clay pedestal- and then are aggravated when you fail to meet their expectations. Tempations strike the Christian just as it does the non-Christian. Being Christian will not exclude you from hardship, persecution, troubles, grief, sorrow, or pain. But BELIEVING does ensure that you will always have someone walking alongside you regardless of whatever trials comes your way. You are never alone. You always have a friend. You always have someone on your side.

That is something to celebrate.
Being a Christian is something to celebrate.

So celebrate it. Take a moment and just revel in the miracle of Jesus Christ, your personal Savior. That is something to smile about!

:) Mags

Song: I Believe
Artist: ZOEGirl
Album: ZOEGirl
Here it on Last.FM

God Rocks!!! I Found God In L-O-U-D Music...

My more conservative friends tell us that we go to the "rock-n-roll" church now. After 10 years in a beautiful Methodist church (the church where we got married), we left 2+ years ago and went "church shopping." Four churches later, we found Christ's Church At Mason - and I discovered something about myself...

I discovered that all the pagentry, organ music, robes, recipricol prayer, and traditions drove me crazy!! I hated it! No wonder I couldn't feel God there - for me, this was a language I did not speak... did not understand. But when we went to our first "rock-n-roll" service, I found Him... I did not even know this rock-concert-style of worship even existed - and I was nearly stunned with the power of it.

God came in many forms:

• The voice of the lead singer, bathed in spotlights - pouring his heart and soul into every song,
• The harmonies of the Worship Team singing in tandem,
• The swell of the music created by the band (drummer, guitars, keyboards, once an electric-violin!) - all of them church members and volunteers,
• The lyrics of each song that touched something deep in my heart,
• The vibrations from the speakers (we sit only three rows away) echoing through my body,
• The energy of the Pastor in his sermon and the powerful message he delivers,
• The people - strangers, at first - who reached out and welcomed us,
• And did I mention the MUSIC...?! :)

Fast or slow - all of it is loud and powerful. We sit so close to the speakers (by choice) that we can often feel the drumbeats in our bones, the buzz of the guitars in our joints, and the lyrics in our hearts. We are not just listening to the music... but are IN the music as well.

This is the only church I've attended where I miss it when we aren't there on a Sunday... where I look forward to being there every week. Of course, we don't attend just for the music - we go there for Worship - but the music was the hook that reeled us in. Just as Jesus called to Simon and Andrew to become fishers of men, CCM is casting out their lines and bringing more and more people to Christ. When we started at this church, the average attendance was about 1,200 people in a weekend. Fast forward two short years, and we are averaging over 2,000 worshippers in that same time span!! Talk about a great catch!

Have you found God in your church? Do you feel Him each Sunday? Do you hear His messages to you? Maybe your style of worship is along the more traditional route. Maybe you need the robes and the chants and the routine. Maybe you are like me and crave the concert-style worship that also has you singing along in the car to the same tunes. Regardless of your preferred method, there IS a style out there that will tune itself to your own personal rhythm - that will make you feel like you have, indeed, found a church HOME.

And coming Home, is the best feeling in the world...!

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18 NIV)

I have added an iMeem playlist to my blog - you should be able to control the play-vs-not option yourself. I hope you enjoy some of my favorite songs!

♥ Mags