Cool experience at church today

I had a pretty cool experience at church today. God has been especially gracious to me recently, and he confirmed his pleasure to me today at church. During worship, the sun shined directly through an upper window in the back of the sanctuary right through to me, making me suddenly warm. It was as if the sun was shining a beam directly at me, like a spotlight pointed at me. It was pretty cool because the sun was behind me, so it didn't mess with me trying to look at the screen for the lyrics for worship, but when I turned around the light was so intense, forcing me to squint. (I wonder what the people behind me were thinking, as I looked forward, then turned around and squinted, and repeated this a few times.) The feeling was just awesome. In addition to the intensity of the light, the warmth I felt physically really felt like an embrace from God, and I immediately thought of "This is my son whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17), and felt that God was saying that directly to me, that God was pleased with me. I remember thanking God for bringing me into the light and out of the darkness that was referred to previously in the service from Jeremiah 3. I imagine that looking at God in all of his glory must have been something like what I experienced, warm and intense. It was awesome.

...yeah, it was a lot cooler than it sounds. I know it sounds quite ordinary and a coincidence, but God uses the ordinary things in our lives to speak to us, as he did today for me. So for all you haters out there, I'm not one who is superstitious, very easily moved, or charismatic, but I am certain of God's presence with me this morning! I really felt the blessing of God that we normally hear during the benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

My Sermon/Message Notes!!

In a somewhat unrelated note, I've started taking notes during church on my phone, and I'll be uploading all of my sermon notes to Google Docs, and anyone can view them. If you want to format or contribute anything to my notes, just ask me and I'll give you permission to edit the document.

Here are all of my sermon notes.

Enjoy.