Shout Unto God

By Jeremy Riddle and Stephanie Gretzinger

I’ve wanted to send out a worship video like this for awhile but needed to wait until now. Jeremy and Stephanie are uninhibited worshippers and receive a lot of criticism for their exuberance. We should never criticize the exuberance of someone worshipping our Creator. God Himself enjoys the expressions of love that His people give Him.

The Book of Psalms is full of expressions of love like leaping and shouting and skipping before our God! Who are we to criticize someone who is expressing what is in their heart to our God? Yet it happens and usually as a justification of why the ‘criticizer’ is not worshipping as the scriptures describe.

Remember Michal, King David’s wife? She criticized how her husband, the King, worshipped. It didn’t end well for her, she was left barren, unable to produce fruit. A sad end to a promising life.

In 2 Samuel 16:1-23 we read an astonishing account of David moving the Ark of the Covenant, God’s very presence, back to Jerusalem. He loved the Presence of God and wanted the Blessing of His Presence in his own life and in Jerusalem.

So David brought the ark back to Jerusalem and the scriptures tell us that “...David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod.” David had taken off his royal clothes, the clothes of a King, and was wearing the clothing of a priest, a simple linen ephod. And expressing his heart to God, unashamedly and without concern of what people might think of him. The same event is chronicled here:

1 Chronicles 15:27-29
27. Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. David also wore an ephod of linen.
28. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres.
29. It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.

There was a time in my life that I was ridiculed for my exuberant worship. Admittedly, I was loud and off key but I started every day with expressions of love toward the Lord. However, wanting to please men more than God, I allowed the criticism from others to affect my worship for much of my life. That would be a sad story if it ended there but it didn’t. God is the Redeemer.

The promises of God, I love them!

“Then I will make up to you for the years
That the swarming locust has eaten,
The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.” Joel 2:25

God has more than made up to me for the years that were destroyed by the evil one and his minions. That’s Love and that’s why I worship Him. That’s why I shout. That’s why I jump and leap for Joy in His Presence. He is God!

God delights in our worship because where there is true worship there is True Love and God is Love.

Only Jesus.

John
love-never-fails.net

“And even when I am old and gray...I will declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come.”   Psalm 71:18

PS: Reinhard Bonnke: Reinhard may be the greatest evangelist who has ever lived. These are a couple of videos (about 30 minutes each) that his ministry organization uses to promote their ministry and raise funds. Don’t let that bother you, enjoy the miracle that God has done in Africa in our lifetime! It is truly amazing.
Part 1 https://youtu.be/JV-8BoTOZjk
Part 2 https://youtu.be/V27wU5n-N_k