Worship

Dear Friend,
Merry Christmas!
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Do you look for eternity?  I’m grateful, as our Father gave me the heart to long for it.  Sometimes when I worship Him, I imagine His throne in Heaven.  These days, I often said to Him, “Father, I long to see Your face.  I long for the day when we see face to face.”  And I meant it.  And sometimes when I thought of Him on His throne, I became emotional, welling up with tears.
The psalmists’ confession or the lyric of the songs simply became my heart song:
Who am I that You are so mindful of me?
There is none like You, Father.
And especially when I saw His love toward His children through their testimonies, I simply said to Him, “Father, I like You the most.  You’re the best.  There is none like You.”  How much our adoration will please Him!  We don’t necessarily need worship music to worship Him.  We can simply say to Him anytime, “Father, I love You.”
One night, I was overjoyed for His goodness, as I saw Him restore the relationship of our family in His marvelous and amazing way.  I didn’t mean to dance, but when I was alone in the living room, I danced for Him with my hands lifted up.  I was simply joyful for His goodness.  I thought if anyone would see me, he or she might think or say like Michal, one of king David’s wives scolded his dancing in public for the joy of the Lord, not understanding his joy.  Then, I changed my pose and arms, as if I would dance with Jesus.  Interestingly enough, in a day or two, I opened a notebook that I used to use a few years back.  It is a pink B5 notebook that I stopped using in the middle, since I used much smaller size of notebook.  As I finished a smaller size of notebook recently and tried to find a new notebook, I happened to find this pink B5 size notebook that I didn’t finish yet, and thought I would continue on this notebook.  So, in one morning, I opened it up and found my writings back in early 2019 and early 2020 when I visited my sister in California.  I wrote kind of a diary in the dressing room of a guest room where I stayed.  Almost every morning I got up early to pray and worship Him on the floor in the dressing room.  And I wrote what I felt was from the Lord as well as my thoughts from the Bible reading.  Then, the first sentence I read from that diary was the Father’s words to me, “I also long to see you face to face.”  I was marveled as if He replied to my recent worship and my words, “Father, I long for the day when I see You face to face.”  Then, more surprisingly, I read another word, when I flipped back to previous pages, “Dance with Me!”  I didn’t even remember I wrote these words in that pink notebook.  I felt it was really the Lord’s talking to me, again.  I opened that notebook, before reading the Bible, but instead of reading the Bible, I continued to read the notebook, flipping back the pages in it.  I found it such a treasure.

Friend, I would like to encourage us to worship Him in adoration right now, before we do that in eternity.  As I shared Watchman Nee’s book, The Normal Christian Life, I believe worshiping Him “now” before eternity is more precious.
Speaking of worship, I would like to share a Pastor John Fenn’s teaching on “7 Words That Can Change Your Life.”  He introduced this audio teaching as below:
In English and other languages we read in the Psalms and Prophets words like ‘bless’, ‘thanks’, and ‘praise’ and we group them all together. But in the original Hebrew the authors used very specific words. For instance, some words specify kneeling, others shouting, others praise with the extended hand, and another with accompaniment by a stringed instrument, and many more. This series studies many of the Psalms and prophets in their context, understood as they were written, with these very specific words reflecting and in some cases, instructing us who to offer worship and praise to the Lord. You’ll never read familiar Psalms the same way again, and by following the author’s intent, you can greatly enhance your own worship and time with the Lord!
And I’d like to share one Hebrew word out of the 7 he explained, which is Barak.  In English, it’s translated into “Bless,” as in Psalms 103:1~2:
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I read the expression, “Bless the Lord,” in my NKJV Bible, I was wondering how we, as His creature, can bless our Creator.  I thought blessing someone must be done by one who has greater power and authority.  To me, it was like a toddler’s trying to bless his parents, while he can’t even change his own diaper!  Then, I got to understand from Pastor John’s teaching, the Hebrew word for bless in Psalms is Barak, and it means to kneel down in adoration or to bless the person in humility.  Now it makes sense to me that we kneel down in adoration and in humility before Him, and say to Him, “Father, You are merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in mercy!”  Since I got to understand that, I kneel down, especially when I say part of Psalms 103 to Him.

Friend, I’d like to encourage us to worship our Lord Jesus today, no matter whether we kneel down, lift our hands or dance.  He is worthy to be praised and worshipped.  He is the One and Only to be worshipped.  He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  It’s my prayer that our praises and worship may be a sweet smelling sacrifice and He is satisfied.  We worship Him now as well as in eternity.

Have a bliss!
Yunee

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. (Psalms 100:4)