What does He delight in?

[Runtshell]

This past Friday in the chatroom, beside the normal silliness, arose the subject of worship.



It seems there are some who don't differentiate between praise and worship. There have been concerns in some churches about the political correctness of hymn lyrics and they've changed the word "men" to "friends."

We talked about the 'fleshiness' (my paraphrase) of church 'worship.' How it becomes fluff and we sing about G-d rather than to him.



As dance ministry director, I've been given a lot of freedom to do pageantry, flags and interpretive dance in addition to our normal fare of Hebraic circle dances. We've been blessed with a group of musicians who know what it means to enter the throne room.



Saturday, in our Shabbat service at Or Ha Olam Messianic Congregation, after an amazing worship service, our Rabbi Shmuel gave a message that was a continuation of the chat. Could this be the Ruakh HaKodesh? The Holy Spirit?



His message was on worship: what it is, what it isn't. He presented the following questions: "What did G-d think of the worship? Did He experience our love? What does He delight in?"



The conclusions Shmuel drew were that G-d desires worship, not because He's insecure but because it's TRUTH. Worship is heart to heart communication with the Lord. It's EYE CONTACT with HIM!



What a blessing to have Friday's chat confirmed and affirmed.

[HelenaZF]

I love it when God does that. Someone once said that "there are no coincidences...only God-incidences".



I like the way Shmuel put it and agree.....our goal in worship should be to connect with God, to please Him by showing our love and adoration to Him.

[sonworshiper]

Hey,



My thoughts on the "why" or "for whom" of worship. . . .it's for us, in that we connect (as one of you put it) with G-d. It's our time to stand before Him and show Him how we feel about Him. But more, it's for Him. Hopefully as we spend time worshiping G-d--whatever that looks like--He is pleased. He receives our worship, our praise, our words, actions, dance, heart, thoughts, and we communicate with Him in that special intimate way that some (sadly) do not understand.



As a worship leader it's my privilege to usher G-d's children into His throne room and to encourage them to open up and have an intimate worship experience with the G-d Who created all.



My pastor often reminds us of the story of "Chariots of Fire", where the main character is talking about how it feels when he runs. He said something to the effect that "when I run, I sense G-d's pleasure". That's what / how I feel when I'm leading worship (or rather worshiping as the lead worshiper). That to me would be a great by-product of worshiping, sensing G-d's pleasure.



My Canadian 2cents worth.



Blessings!



Moe.

:crooner: