2 Years and Counting...

Well today certainly marks a reason for worship! Two years ago, today, I married my beautiful wife Nicole, and together we have seen God's blessings poured out over the past two years. As I stop and think about all that God has done in our lives, it brings me to worship Him.

A major theme at our wedding was "We Will Walk By Faith," and we have definitely had to do that in our marriage thus far. And plenty more faith-walking will take place, as our baby is due in November, and as we continue to serve the Lord together here in Indiana.

Our wedding day was an incredible celebration, as you can maybe see above, but whats more exciting to me is that two years later, I love Nicole even more. It is only by the grace of God that I could have found such a God-fearing wife, who loves the Word and dedicates herself to God first, then myself. God completely reveals himself in my marriage and the blessings it brings, yet so many times I probably forget to respond in Worship. This morning countless memories and fun times have been running through my head, and I can't help but give God the glory. He has brought us a long way in just the two years of full-time life together. From Pittsburgh, to Lynchburg VA, to South Bend IN, and who knows whats next. I often don't know what God is thinking, but Nicole and I are choosing to walk by faith, and though at times its hard, we see God's blessings and affirmation, which causes us to worship!

On our wedding day two years ago, I wrote a song and surprised Nicole by singing it at the end of our wedding ceremony. I wish I had the real clip, but I recorded it below. Before we were married we prayed that Christ would always be the center of our marriage, and we will continue to keep that the Number one focus. The song simply states the vow that No matter where God would ever lead me, Nicole would always be by my side, and that I would learn to love her more as my wife everyday. Ephesians 5:25 boggles me at times because I am to love Nicole as Christ loves the church. Well, we know Christ is only capable of a perfect love, and I'm not, so I continue to strive for the perfect love of Christ towards my wife!

I love you Nic!

Nicole's Song from Micah Klutinoty on Vimeo.

New Song: I Will Trust In You Lord

So a couple of posts ago, I posted lyrics to a song the Pastor Trent and I wrote. The lyrics are completely out of Psalm 37, but the song turned out to be a great thing in our church.

Before you listen to it, this song really seemed to open people's hearts to putting there trust in Christ this past Sunday. Before the message, the band did this song, and I prompted people to come and kneel if they needed to put there trust in Christ over something in there life. By the end of the song, we had about half the congregation kneeling at the front of the stage, praying for each other about trusting in Christ! That is the church how God intended it! To uphold one another and pray for one another.

Anyways, I hope this song ministers to you, and causes you to put your trust in Christ for every obstacle.

I Will Trust In You from Micah Klutinoty on Vimeo.

Worship through God's Character

"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." 1 Chronicles 29:11-13

What a powerful statement of worship that is above! The declaration above was made by King David in a large assembly of people. When you think about all that he said there, David really describes a lot of "kingly" characteristics. Characteristics that many probably thought of David, but David knew that all things come for the LORD. David recognized the character of God in his worship, and pointed people not towards his own character, but towards the character of God.

Isn't it comforting to know that God perfectly fulfills all good characteristics? Our God is perfectly Holy, perfectly loving, perfectly just, perfectly jealous, and the list goes on. His names often tell of His characteristics...Our provider, our joy, redeemer, the day-spring, our healer...etc. The character of God is all around us everyday, and should be a prime source for leading us to worship Him. The immense God that we serve, takes the time to show compassion when we need it the most. Or, the perfect God that we serve, takes the time to chasten us when we are far less than perfect. How often do we take for granted the character of God that may be right in front of us? If we were to look for the character of God in his attributes, his names, and his works every minute, I think we could experience the character of God, causing us to worship Him in fresh ways.

Not only is it incredible to know that our God has a perfect character, but if we surrender to Him, he willingly gives us his own characteristics in times of need. The exact characteristic we need at a given moment, through surrender, God can show us. I have been reading, "The Worshiping Artist," by Rory Noland, and in the book Rory has a quote by the Puritan writer, Thomas Brooks, which is written from God's perspective concerning His characteristics:

"You shall have as true an interest in all my attributes for your good, as they are mine for my own glory...My grace, saith God shall be yours to pardon you, and my power shall be yours to protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and my mercy shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you."

Does that make you want to worship our great God? It makes me! To know that my God cares about my protection, pardon, direction, relief, and the list goes on is incredible. And the final statement of the quote should bring any believer to worship. John 17 confirms that statement when Jesus says, "the glory you have given to me, I have given to them." One day we will be crowned in the glory of God and worship Him in all that He is. But for now, I believe God shows himself to us through his character everyday and we often miss it. Don't miss the opportunity to worship Him for all that He is!

5/5/09 Service Review

Trent, the senior Pastor here at Harvest Granger, and I wrote a song this past week to be played along with the message this week. The title of the message was "Accelerate Your Trust," taken from Psalm 37. Within the passage there are a lot of popular truths that many of us have heard within our walks with Christ. Being that there was so much in the passage, we wrote a song, summing up the truths from Psalm 37 and the band played it today. It went great! It even spoke to me about putting my trust fully in Christ, and not fretting over things of the world. Check out the lyrics:

Verse 1
Be still before the Lord, Wait patiently for him
Delight yourself in Him alone, Your hearts desires will overflow

Chorus
I will trust in You Lord, Commit all of my ways
As You shine your light, In my darkest days
I will not fear, for Your my defense
All the world will fade, but in You I'll remain
I will trust in You, I will trust in You

Verse 2
I will not fret oh Lord, When the wicked draws His sword
I will turn away from anger Lord, Know You do not forsake Your saints

Those were the words God put on our hearts and a melody seemed to fall in place and I could tell it really hit home with some people in the congregation. On top of that it was a great morning of worship. The people are more passionate than ever, which is rare to be able to say about a church congregation! It was incredible this morning to hear everyone singing loudly, declaring the words: "I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the one who gave it all; I'll stand my soul Lord to You surrendered, all I am is Yours!" It was a great moment and I pray that those words would be not just a song, but a truism in the lives of everyone that lifted those words this morning.

God is Good!