Rejoice in the Lord!!

so...this past sunday i went to a black [forgive my un-politically-correctness] church just to experience it. :O) brought 5 other people with me [all asian except marissa.HAH!].

so i googled it and found Second Baptist Church in Riverside. i wonder why it's called second baptist.

anywho, it was a VERY long service. on the website, it said the service is from 10:15am-11:15am but it turned out to be 2 hours long!! they worshipped for like an hour and a half and the rest of the half hour was for the message. it was pretty intense.
they were reallllly welcoming though and so friendly. not afraid to give hugs or kisses too. aha.
it was funny hearing the pastor say "i wish i had somebody" when he wanted his congregation to say amen in response.
there was also one random white girl in their choir. i thought it was cool though :O)
and at the end, the senior pastor called us out by saying he knows there are visitors and asked us to come to the front so he could meet us. it was really funny cause our whole group took up a whole pew in the sanctuary. but yeah, the pastor was really nice!!

something i really appreciated and found refreshing from the whole experience, mainly the worship, was how much they really praise God for his grace&mercies and they are not concerned about how they look when they worship. they give it their all! they truly REJOICE in the Lord. i loved watching and experiencing it. it was a good reminder to me of how i should be worshipping God. He deserves so much praise for what He does in my life. even the fact that i have life is a gift and blessing! getting to join in worship with them was a fun blessing and good reminder :O] they even fist pumped at one moment&i joined in for a few pumps ;O)

i think we should all approach worship with a glad&thankful heart towards our loving Savior. we should not care about how we look when we worship Him because he deserves our everything-even down to our leg movements and clapping hands. :O] If we can get others to join in on worship, then i think it's a great feat to have our worship be contagious just like theirs was. i really appreciated that. Worship should also be free, a time to express oneself to one's Lord. We need to give it our all even if it makes us sweaty in the end and in need of the fanning motion.

"I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!" Deuteronomy 32:3

"For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods." 1 Chronicles 16:25

"Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain." Psalm 48:1

"My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever." Psalm 145:21

I PRAISE YOU GOD!!!!