"Captivated"

For the last three years or so I have been on a journey of sorts with the Lord.  Up until that point I would say that I loved the Lord and that I served Him, but I realized that I didn’t ‘know’ Him.  Sure, I knew His ways and I knew His Word, but I can’t say that I really knew Him.  Through the course of events I know to be lined up by Him, I realized that I knew ‘of’ Him, but did not have the knowledge of Him that I should have of my Savior.  I began to really want to know him like I knew my closest friends except that I wanted Him to truly be my closest friend.  So I began to ask the Lord to show me how to “know” Him, not just know of Him.  I wanted relationship; I wanted to know His voice like I know the voices of those closest to me; I wanted to know His personality, if you will, to know what kinds of things He would say or wouldn’t say…the kinds of things He would do or wouldn’t do.  What I found out is that if you seek Him (not His ways, not His hand, not His blessings), then you will find Him.  He began to show me how to get to know Him, and that is what I want to share with you.

I long for every single one of us to know Him like He wants to be known by us.  I believe that when we all have an intimate knowledge of Him, our worship will be ‘over the top’ in every worship service as well as everywhere in our lives.  So, let me give you what I believe to be the first step in that direction…the first step toward intimacy with an Almighty God:
Proverbs 9:10 (NIV)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The fear of the Lord is where it all begins.  Do you want to know Him intimately? Fear Him.  Do you want to serve Him passionately? Fear Him.  Do you want to see His plan worked out in your life? Start with holy fear.  Do you want to worship Him from a pure heart? Fear Him.

So what is the ‘fear’ of the Lord? That was my first question.  Did that mean I have to be scared of Him?  That didn’t seem to make sense because I knew that you couldn’t really be close to someone you were afraid of.  What God began to show me was that it is always thinking of Him with reverence and awe.  I began to let the wonder of it all sink from my head into my heart.  It truly is mind-blowing that a King would desire relationship with His servants.  Not only did he want it, He was willing to die on our behalf to make it possible.  THAT truly is awesome,  worthy-of-praise, mind-blowing, stereotype-destroying love.  The King we serve wants us to draw near to Him. He tells us in James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  As I began to give God the reverence, awe and respect He deserves deep within my heart, I began to sense His presence like never before.  I began to ‘hear’ his voice and really get to ‘know’ Him.  It began to awaken in me a passion to see His presence fill every part of my life.  He became my very best friend and yet I never lost sight of the fact that He is still King who reigns over everything and everyone.  It is still so amazing to me even as I am writing this that the God of all creation would call me His friend…WOW!!!  How can I do anything else but praise Him?  How can I function any other way but to worship Him with absolutely every moment of my life.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning…the beginning of wisdom, relationship, fulfillment, abundant life!

My prayer for this worship experience in August is that we feel His presence like we have never known before. I believe that the first step for us is to give Him the respect and admiration (holy fear) He deserves.  I pray that you will let Him start you on a journey that will draw you near to Him in a way you have never experienced before. By the time August gets here, I have a passion to see us abandon ourselves in the worship of a Holy God who is so deserving of it. The author John Bevere says in his book The Fear of the Lord, “All true worship is anchored in a reverence for his presence.” My prayer is that we will exalt Him to His rightful position on the throne of our hearts with worship that is ‘fear-full’.  Please join me in praying that we will all grow in our ‘fear’ of the Lord as we prepare our hearts for a worship experience we will never forget.

Amy Campbell, Acoustic Guitar

“It is absolutely astonishing what God has done in less than five years here at PNCC! If someone had played this on a large screen in 2004 when we began the church, I would’ve thought it was a dream. The journey from 24 people in a living room to over 1600 this past Easter is mind-blowing! But what a journey it has been… We have seen God do miracle after miracle. From provision to salvations. Friends, this opportunity is another miracle. We have been praying for this to come to pass for two years. Obstacle after obstacle has prevented the moment. Now, God has opened the door and of course the timing is all in His perfect plan. This night will actually kick-off our 5 year anniversary celebration. That is exactly why this live recording is NOT a concert. We are gathering to celebrate and worship the Creator of the universe with humility that He has chosen us to be a huge part of His plan to bring redemption to this community for such a time as this!
That’s why I am asking you to set aside a particular time each week to, first, thank Him for ALL he has done…second, pray that people will be drawn to His heart on this night and that we will see HUNDREDS of people come one more step closer to Jesus!!!

Cal Woods, Senior Pastor

August 21, 2009, is not just another date on the calendar. For our team at Pointe North, it’s going to be the culmination of massive amounts of praying, fasting, planning, rehearsing, and dreaming. We are so blessed to have a team of musicians and vocalists who are not interested in “pocketing” glory for themselves; rather, their hearts are all about seeing the Bride of Christ (the church) connect to the Bridegroom (Jesus). We believe that the night of our live worship recording is going to be just that – an encounter with Christ through worship that we’ll never forget! One thing is for sure: This is NOT going to be a “concert”; the vision behind it is so much greater than that. We are believing for people to give their lives to Jesus; for people to be healed; for everyone of us to walk out that night with a renewed sense of God’s presence. We define worship as “the declaration of what we value the most” and on August 21, we are going to join together to declare that JESUS is the One we most value! We will come that night believing that our hearts will be captivated by His beauty, and His heart will be captivated by our worship.

Ricsha Kinard, Worship Pastor