For those of you who haven’t met us yet, my wife Brooke and our three kids (Leah 6, Kaelin 4, and Nathan 18mths) moved from Pennsylvania about six months ago when I began my MDiv program at Reformed Theological Seminary.  We have been blessed to be a part of Orlando Grace since that time and are looking forward to our upcoming covenant membership in a few weeks.  A generous donor has made it possible for me to come to the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference in Minneapolis, and Pastor Curt asked if I might be interested in contributing to the blog with some conference musings.

I  have never been to anything by Desiring God before, and so far I’m having a great time of fellowship with Curt and Clay as well as enjoying the tidal wave of edification coming from the speakers.  One of the most moving experiences I had the first night was the pleasure of singing the praises of God together with several thousand men, raising our voices and hands to our mutual Creator, Savior and Sustainer–creatures glorifying our Creator.  The voices were loud and strong, and I couldn’t help being moved considering the parallel of corporate singing and praise with the worship in the courts of heaven.  Consider Revelation 7:9-12:

After these things  I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count,  from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands: and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”  And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever.  Amen.”

There is something fundamentally right and almost prophetic about redeemed sinners collectively rejoicing and praising their redeemer.  It is an echo of the future when all people will sing the praises of the risen Lord Jesus Christ and there will be no more sickness, death and sin.  The next time you are in church on Sunday and have the privilege to worship our Triune God with your brothers and sisters, remember that you are participating in a prophetic vision of the New Heavens and Earth, announcing to the whole world that our God reigns and we are His thankful creatures, and also reflecting an image of the very courts of heaven where all the redeemed do not cease to sing.  Think of that, and glory in the privilege of being one of God’s singing people!  

One last morsel to tantalize you is this great definition of finding joy in God provided by Pastor Sam Storms, the keynote speaker:

Joy is a deep, durable delight in the splendor of God that ruins you for everything else.

Wow!  Meditate on that for a while and glory in the grace that is shed abroad for us to make it so that we can know such a God, in whose light all else grows strangely dim (Psalm 16:11).