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Worship God
His Way
Early in our marriage I gave my wife a terrific anniversary gift: a rain gauge. At least I thought it was a great gift. Susan, after all, is a farmer's daughter and keeps close watch on the weather. I envisioned her delight and nostalgia while tracking our back yard precipitation. I congratulated myself on my creativity. Guess what? Susan was not impressed: "A rain gauge—for our anniversary?!" The rain gauge is now a family joke, a classic example of a gift enjoyed by the giver but not the receiver. One word I hear a lot these days is authentic, as in "we seek authentic worship." Usually this means we're trying to create an experience that helps worshipers feel something. Nothing wrong with that, but if our focus is only on our experience, we may be giving God a rain gauge. Are we offering in worship a gift we enjoy and figuring God will like it? A real gift, real worship, means knowing what's important to The Receiver.
And the Receiver of our worship is supposed to be the Lord God Almighty, above all. The priority of worshipping God His way is not what we receive from worshipping God but what we give to the One we worship. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual (or reasonable) act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom. 12:1-2 NIV). For those of us in Christ (i.e. those who have trusted in Jesus Christ by faith for forgiveness and for eternal life), the most pleasing worship of God, in His eyes, is to offer ourselves completely to Him. We spend too much time thinking of what we can receive and how we feel when it comes to worshipping God, when we need to focus more on how we can give more of ourselves to God; our thoughts, our heart feelings/attitudes, and our actions. And perhaps the greatest thing about worshipping God His way, today, is that we can worship Him anytime & anywhere as living sacrifices to His glory. Yes Lord, help us to truly worship You, Your way! Jesus said, “.. a time ..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. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24 NIV Pastor Mike |
Rev. Mike Mullins
Mike was born and raised in Florida. He grew up in the Tampa Bay area, very involved at Indian Rocks Baptist Church. In 1990, he graduated from the University of South Florida with a BS degree in Management Information Systems major where he then went to work for EDS and became a Systems Engineer. After five years with EDS, Mike was called by the Lord to be a pastor.
In 1997, he began attending Liberty Theological Seminary in Lynchburg,VA, which was founded by Jerry Falwell. He served in the youth ministries at Thomas Road Baptist Church. While in seminary, Mike married Kym Johnson in 1999, whom he met off campus working for a Christian mail marketing company. He graduated in 2000 with a Master of Divinity.
The Lord sent them to Perimeter Road Baptist Church in Valdosta,GA from seminary where Mike was Pastor of Student Ministries and Adult Education. In 2003, the Lord called them to Calvary Bible Church in Lewistown, PA, where Mike served as Pastor of Educational Ministries.
Mike and Kym have three young boys; Luke (2/1/02), Joshua (3/2/04) and Zachary (10/25/05).
Mike enjoys Jesus, his wife and children, family and friends, church ministry, bible research, preaching/teaching/writing, computing, traveling,
football (especially the Buccaneers & FSU), racquetball, fitness, foosball, ping pong,and drag racing among other things of interest.
