- at Jesus's feet -

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Dance as Worship

One beautiful expression of our worship to God is the use of dance. Ballet and other dance forms are a unique way to get your whole body involved in praising Him. We can use everything He has given us to give back to Him in our expressions of praise and worship. In Romans 12:1 we are instructed to offer our whole bodies as "living sacrifices" before God, and to make His glory the motive for anything we do with our bodies.

When Jesus explained to a Gentile woman that she didn't need to be in the temple at Jerusalem in order to worship God, he made it clear that worship is a spiritual act, not made up of rituals or restricted to one specific place. He gave us freedom to worship God without the rules the Jews had followed for so long. Because of this freedom, we can give God an offering that is pleasing to Him when we dance before Him with the sole motive of giving glory and adoration to Him.
Throughout the Bible worship and praise to the Lord are expressed through physical actions done with the body, such as bowing down, kneeling, and trembling with reverence for God. When we humbly come before God and give Him all that we have - in our bodies, our minds, and our hearts - this is the kind of worship God desires.

Our English translations of the Bible use the word "praise" to represent many different words in Hebrew, each with larger meanings than we may naturally think of when we hear the English word "praise."
For example, when Psalm 21:13 says "we will sing and praise Thy power," the word translated "praise" actually carries a meaning similar to "touch the strings," in reference to playing a stringed instrument in the Lord's honor.
And in 1 Peter 1:8 it says "though you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." The word translated "rejoice" in English means "to leap and jump for joy" in the Hebrew language.
For an even more dramatic meaning, the word translated "rejoice" in Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it" - literally means "to spin around with violent emotion."
And Psalm 113:1 says "Praise ye the Lord, praise o ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord." The Hebrew word used here means "to boast, to celebrate, to be clamorously foolish."

free to dance
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
...Rossy...**