Freedom In Worship
"For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:24
There is so much boldness in the world. Think about it, in the clubs there is a freedom in dancing either solo or with a partner. When at a concert of your favorite singer or band, most like you will shout out with everyone else or sing along with what the artist is belting out. For sports fans whether at home or at an actual game or event, the probability that you are yelling your head off is high on the charts and gamers have no problem enteracting with other online players. And then there is eating and drinking, something that we are required to do daily in order to stay in good nutritional standing in our bodies. If we don't think too much on drinking water during the cold months of the year, when the depths of summer, sometimes before and sometimes after occurs, because of that heat we are reaching out for that bottle or cup of water. And this is normal, it is a good thing...
YET, when it comes to dancing, singing, shouting, yelling and interacting with others all in the Name of and for Yeshua (Jesus), we seem to all of a sudden get very shy. When it comes to eating and drinking of Him, how come we go for just a small "snack" and then walk away? Do we do that with our daily nutritional needs for the physical body? Do we deny ourselves of food and drink when we are hungry? Do we take a good amount of food (sometimes too much), pile it on our plates and get that larger than life glass of soda or juice to wash all that down, or do we just take a small portion with the self-deceptive thought that we are "just fine (thank you very much) with this" even though we know we may want and/or need more to maintain the vitamins and such that the body needs? Why is it that we don't care to give that attention to our spirits? Don't you know that the spirit needs to be fed on a daily basis too?
Some of us take the time to say a prayer over our meals each day, some call it saying grace as I was taught growing up, others say lets bless the food. But Jesus takes it step farther and goes to the depths and focuses on our spiritual blessings; "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." [Matthew 5:6] And when He spoke to the woman at the well, He knew the history between the Jews and Samaritans but again, He went straight to the depth of spirit, bypassing the normal expectations of quenching a thirst in the flesh;
"4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." [John 4:4 - 15]
But then notice what she does next. She does not retain this new found information to herself but instead she went out and shared it with her people; "28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.". [vs 28 - 30] She was not ashamed nor scared to do it, she had opened her heart to receive what He said to her and now she wanted others to know the good news too.
In the book of 2 Samuel chapter 6 we see that David got his praise of thanksgiving on for the Lord...publicly. Why? Because he was able to bring the Ark of the Lord into the City of David. Scripture says (vs 14 - 15) this, "Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets." He did not care who saw him, he was worshipping the Lord with all that was within him. And man was he noticed! Saul's daughter Michal was greatly embarrassed by David's display of worship, even to the point of telling him exactly how she felt;
16 "As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. 20 "When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
But David did not care and his response to her caused me to give a shout of praise as I read it; 21 "David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
Unhindered and undignified. That is where and what we need to be in giving honor and praise to our King. When I was in the world, I was one of the top club dancers this side of Jersey. I was an exotic dancer and a stripper (there is a difference), even taught young girls how to "perform" on stage at strip clubs. I did bachelour parties and traveled (on the dime of the client) to do private dances. I was a smoker and a drinker, belted out rock and roll music and the drugs of choice were weed which led to cocaine, which led to crack, which led to angel dust, which led to mixing dust, cocaine and weed in a joint and smoking it, which led to hallucinations. As a result of all that, it nearly killed me when one night I purchased rocks that were laced with drain cleaner.
I sat on the floor of my apartment at the age of 22, afraid that if I died at that moment, I would go to hell. I prayed for the first time in years for the Lord not to take me, and as my heart beat so fast and hard that I felt it throughout my body, as the blood was moving so fast that I could hear it in my ears while fluids were coming out of every part of my body, I promised the Lord that if He spared my life, I would never touch that stuff again.
I did all of that with no dignity, and nothing was going to hinder my having fun and enjoying life as I chose to. But the LORD stepped in and took ALL of that away from me. In Jan of 2003 at 5:00 pm, I smoked my last cigarrette, and drank my last beer. I took on HIS cloak of spiritual salvation and from that point on, He healed my voice from the smoking and gave me a new song to sing. He turned this dancer of the world into a servant that danced for HIS glory, unhindered, uninhibited and undignified. Instead of me filling my lungs with the posion of drugs, He filled my lungs with the Breath of Life that I gladly inhale, and the joy of praise which I gladly exhale and I do so with no shame.
One of my favorite things to see is the youth worship. You wanna see unhindered and undignified? Just watch the youth as they honor the Lord with THEIR praise and worship. With everything that is within them, they glorify Him with arms raised high in complete abandon, singing, shouting, jumping, crying, praying and rejoicing. He fills their hearts with an unspeakable gladness and and a song to sing from the inside out and they just take it and explode with uninhibited release, a release that only can be received from the Spirit of the Lord. They have no fear or shame of witnessing for the Lord.
The Lord wants us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. He wants our worship without inhibitions, fear or shame in our witness of Him, and our worship for Him. And think about what Jesus said; "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38)
In Yeshua
There is so much boldness in the world. Think about it, in the clubs there is a freedom in dancing either solo or with a partner. When at a concert of your favorite singer or band, most like you will shout out with everyone else or sing along with what the artist is belting out. For sports fans whether at home or at an actual game or event, the probability that you are yelling your head off is high on the charts and gamers have no problem enteracting with other online players. And then there is eating and drinking, something that we are required to do daily in order to stay in good nutritional standing in our bodies. If we don't think too much on drinking water during the cold months of the year, when the depths of summer, sometimes before and sometimes after occurs, because of that heat we are reaching out for that bottle or cup of water. And this is normal, it is a good thing...
YET, when it comes to dancing, singing, shouting, yelling and interacting with others all in the Name of and for Yeshua (Jesus), we seem to all of a sudden get very shy. When it comes to eating and drinking of Him, how come we go for just a small "snack" and then walk away? Do we do that with our daily nutritional needs for the physical body? Do we deny ourselves of food and drink when we are hungry? Do we take a good amount of food (sometimes too much), pile it on our plates and get that larger than life glass of soda or juice to wash all that down, or do we just take a small portion with the self-deceptive thought that we are "just fine (thank you very much) with this" even though we know we may want and/or need more to maintain the vitamins and such that the body needs? Why is it that we don't care to give that attention to our spirits? Don't you know that the spirit needs to be fed on a daily basis too?
Some of us take the time to say a prayer over our meals each day, some call it saying grace as I was taught growing up, others say lets bless the food. But Jesus takes it step farther and goes to the depths and focuses on our spiritual blessings; "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." [Matthew 5:6] And when He spoke to the woman at the well, He knew the history between the Jews and Samaritans but again, He went straight to the depth of spirit, bypassing the normal expectations of quenching a thirst in the flesh;
"4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." [John 4:4 - 15]
But then notice what she does next. She does not retain this new found information to herself but instead she went out and shared it with her people; "28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.". [vs 28 - 30] She was not ashamed nor scared to do it, she had opened her heart to receive what He said to her and now she wanted others to know the good news too.
In the book of 2 Samuel chapter 6 we see that David got his praise of thanksgiving on for the Lord...publicly. Why? Because he was able to bring the Ark of the Lord into the City of David. Scripture says (vs 14 - 15) this, "Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets." He did not care who saw him, he was worshipping the Lord with all that was within him. And man was he noticed! Saul's daughter Michal was greatly embarrassed by David's display of worship, even to the point of telling him exactly how she felt;
16 "As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. 20 "When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
But David did not care and his response to her caused me to give a shout of praise as I read it; 21 "David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
Unhindered and undignified. That is where and what we need to be in giving honor and praise to our King. When I was in the world, I was one of the top club dancers this side of Jersey. I was an exotic dancer and a stripper (there is a difference), even taught young girls how to "perform" on stage at strip clubs. I did bachelour parties and traveled (on the dime of the client) to do private dances. I was a smoker and a drinker, belted out rock and roll music and the drugs of choice were weed which led to cocaine, which led to crack, which led to angel dust, which led to mixing dust, cocaine and weed in a joint and smoking it, which led to hallucinations. As a result of all that, it nearly killed me when one night I purchased rocks that were laced with drain cleaner.
I sat on the floor of my apartment at the age of 22, afraid that if I died at that moment, I would go to hell. I prayed for the first time in years for the Lord not to take me, and as my heart beat so fast and hard that I felt it throughout my body, as the blood was moving so fast that I could hear it in my ears while fluids were coming out of every part of my body, I promised the Lord that if He spared my life, I would never touch that stuff again.
I did all of that with no dignity, and nothing was going to hinder my having fun and enjoying life as I chose to. But the LORD stepped in and took ALL of that away from me. In Jan of 2003 at 5:00 pm, I smoked my last cigarrette, and drank my last beer. I took on HIS cloak of spiritual salvation and from that point on, He healed my voice from the smoking and gave me a new song to sing. He turned this dancer of the world into a servant that danced for HIS glory, unhindered, uninhibited and undignified. Instead of me filling my lungs with the posion of drugs, He filled my lungs with the Breath of Life that I gladly inhale, and the joy of praise which I gladly exhale and I do so with no shame.
One of my favorite things to see is the youth worship. You wanna see unhindered and undignified? Just watch the youth as they honor the Lord with THEIR praise and worship. With everything that is within them, they glorify Him with arms raised high in complete abandon, singing, shouting, jumping, crying, praying and rejoicing. He fills their hearts with an unspeakable gladness and and a song to sing from the inside out and they just take it and explode with uninhibited release, a release that only can be received from the Spirit of the Lord. They have no fear or shame of witnessing for the Lord.
The Lord wants us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. He wants our worship without inhibitions, fear or shame in our witness of Him, and our worship for Him. And think about what Jesus said; "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38)
In Yeshua
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