There is a new David Crowder album out called Milk and Honey. I highly recommend. I bought it for Rebecca and she has listened to it several times already and I have gotten to hear most of the songs. I have a couple of favorites but the one I want to talk about is called “In The House”. It is basically about going to church. The thing I love about it is that it is talking about all of the things that we get to receive and participate in just because we go in the House of the Lord. It stands out to me because, being someone who was not raised in church, I always figured that I would get something when I went in. Like a lot of people, I figured I would get struck by lightning because of what a bad person I was. I figured I would receive a considerable dose of shame, guilt, judgement, condemnation, and just general bad feelings about myself. I figured those things not because of any research I did or because of people I knew. It was simply because I thought church people were good and I was not good and that is the way it is. I guess the hope would be to at some point transition into a church person and at that point be good and then I could not feel that way anymore. That is so far from the way it is supposed to be when you walk in. This song tells how it should be. The bridge says this:

Bring your heartache,

Bring your burden

You can lay them down at the door.

There is no fear, you belong here

Step into the house of the Lord.

Today if you read this and you don’t have somewhere to go to church, find somewhere where Jesus is taught and worshipped and the bible is the only truth. Because you belong. Just as you are. There are no prerequisites to entering the house of the Lord. You don’t have to look a certain way or act a certain way and if anyone tells you different, find somewhere else. Will there be changes that come in your life? Absolutely! But they will be born out of receiving the love of God and a desire to love Him back as you spend more and more time in the house of the Lord.

Pastor Dale