Welcome to Authenti-City

I will celebrate before the LORD. – 2 Samuel 6:21b
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" 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”
– Matthew 15:9 (Isaiah 29:13)

Do you (like me) ever find yourself wanting to be “authentic” in worship? And then you realize you are trying too hard to be worshipful, therefore it is not authentic? Then you realize you are being hypocritical, and just shrink back? Ugh, real worship is not present. I am there but God gets nothing, or very little. Then I hope there is a video or drama or something coming soon…sigh.

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Fear of man will prove to be a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe. – Proverbs 29:25

One the other hand, many of us actually hold back during corporate worship because we are fearful of being judged by our neighbor. It doesn’t happen all the time, but now and then we have that cocoon around us, and we do not give God what we really feel in praise from our heart. We fail to express physically and emotionally our true worship, perhaps out of some cultural or community-based egg shell sensitivity barrier. Or maybe that friend we invited is present and we know s/he is watching. Hmmm?

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Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. – Mark 12:30 (Deuteronomy 6:5)

May God help us to lose all inhibitions, whether negative or positive. God’s capacity to accept the limits of our worship styles far exceeds our ability to express them. Sing, shout, stand, sit, kneel, clap, dance, or be still, in awe…God loves it all and deserves it all. Free yourself for HIM, because he has freed you.

The next time our worship team breaks out in shouts with songs like “I Am Free”, I pray that the Lord will grant you whatever freedom you need to be free, authentic, and to SHOUT BACK! The Lord loves LOUD!

Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. – Psalm 33:3

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. – Psalm 47:1

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I, whom you have redeemed. – Psalm 71:23

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