Open up your hearts to Him...

Lately I've been listening over and over again to the song Tom Read wrote that captured my heart's expression while I was in Hong Kong...

"Open up you heavenly gates
Let the King of Glory in
Open up your hearts to Him
Let the King of Glory in."

Last Saturday I led our joint church missions conference into singing this song, and when we got to the chorus, I just let myself go in singing this song out. B/c the Word says that the Lord resides in the praises of His people, and that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. We are His temple, and His Spirit is residing in us. How awesome can that be? It's beyond me. God is such an awesome God.

CCF
Lately God has been doing some amazing stuff at CCF. Two weeks ago, I felt the Lord lead us at CCF to give an alter call after our regular Friday service. I was pumped, excited and just anticipating God's move. I began to realize that as a leader, all I need to do is just provide the opportunity for God to move. Two weeks ago, one of my friends came to Christ. He's been at CCF, going to church, and studying the Word for the longest of time, but hadn't made the decision till that night. The week following, he led a Bible study. I sat in the Bible study and he did an awesome job.

Last Monday, I sat down with the committee and asked them for feedback. But more than just feedback on the program and how things went and what people thought...I asked them, "What is the spiritual state of CCF? What is God doing at CCF? What are some of the hints He's left us with of what He's doing? What are some the glimpses of where He wants to bring us?" And after thinking through it and reflecting we realized two things:
1. Provide the opportunity for people to believe in Christ for the first time on Friday large groups.
2. Emphasize small groups.

Last Friday, based on those two things, we opened the floor again for anyone who wanted to believe in Christ for the first time...and FOUR people signified that they wanted to make that decision! Our God is an awesome God!

And with each week of CCF that passes by, I'm beginning to convince myself that I've found the key to a successful ministry. It's not in better plans, better strategies, or ideas...but it's in obeying the answer to the question, "God what are You doing? How can I join in?" Never before have I placed myself in the leadership position of just following fully in this sense. And since I've stepped into this role and into following, I see more and more how great God is and how small I am...and all I need to keep doing is just ask and see where God is moving and watch Him do amazing things.

Open up your hearts to Him...and watch the King of Glory come in.

P.S. If you want to check out this song and its songwriter, you can find him here at: http://www.thomasread.net