Numbers 25:11Then the Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by displaying passionate zeal among them on my behalf. So I have stopped destroying all of Israel as I had intended to do in my anger. Right after Balaam blesses Israel in front of King Balak, Israel goes off and is seduced by the Midianites. Some of the men sleep with the Midianite women and soon Israel is feasting with them and worshiping Baal. God is furious! I would be, too. He just finished blessing them, and they go off and, literally, sleep with the enemy. So, He tells Moses to execute anyone who was part of leading Israel astray. As Moses and some of the people are weeping in front of the tabernacle, some man has the nerve to bring a Midianite woman into his tent – right in front of Moses! Phinehas sees this and is so upset that he grabs a spear, chases after the man, and thrusts the spear all the way through the man and the woman! Because of this act of passion, God stops the plague and does not wipe out Israel. Passion. That’s something we don’t have a lot of these day. Well, we have passion for politicians, cars, jobs, sex, TV shows, celebrities, money, and a lot of other things, but do we have passion for the things of God? When we see things that make God sad, are we moved to do anything? When we see things in our own lives that make God sad, are we moved to do anything? Do we have any passion left for Him? I’m not saying we should go out killing those people who do the wrong thing. That wasn’t the point of God’s statement. It was because Phinehas displayed passionate zeal on God’s behalf that Israel was saved. How can you show passionate zeal for God? Well, I think that varies from person to person, but certainly living a life of worship for God is a good place to start. Praise Him – yup, you can do that… you might look a little silly, but you can do it! Try singing along to worship music in your car. There’s music out there that can appeal to you no matter what your musical taste is (there is everything from gospel to christian rap and heavy metal). Make the lyrics a prayer from you to God. What else? You can help others. Maybe this means you serve at your church welcoming people to the service, or maybe it means that you work in the nursery. Maybe it means listening to that guy in the cubicle next to you who is going through a really rough time and encouraging him and being kind to him. Maybe it means playing on the floor with your kids instead of watching that TV show you love. It means something different to everyone. It’s doing what God would want you to do – loving other people, being passionate about the things that God is passionate about. Passion without fear. I doubt Phinehas was thinking about what people thought of him when he killed the man and the woman. He was obeying God. He was passionately upset by what people were doing to disrespect God. His obedience and his love for God saved hundreds of thousands of people. We may never know the extent of our obedience, our passion, but I have no doubt that there is a ripple effect that goes farther than we imagine – here and in heaven.
Last night John and I went to the Hillsong United concern at the First Baptist Church Orlando. It was amazing! If you don’t know the band, they are an offshoot of the Hillsong church in Australia that was made famous by Darlene Szcheck (sp?). They write their own songs, and it’s a more rock version of the traditional Hillsong stuff. We went with a bunch of other people who are also on the worship team at my church. One thing I noticed was their passion. It was really hard to miss it. And it wasn’t just because they were on stage with lights and screaming, worshiping crowds around them. They worshiped on stage, too. It made me wonder why they seem so passionate about God and worship in Australia, seemingly more so than here in the US. I thought about why I am not always as excited as I want to be when I lead worship. I came to this conclusion: we fear man’s opinion. When I lead worship at some place, I know the “mood” of the church and pastor and know that if I get all excited and bounce around the stage it makes them really uncomfortable and they get a little like deer in headlights. And I thought about when I’m leading worship at my church or worshiping from the congregation. There are a lot of people who don’t “get into” worship… In the US we get complacent and used to having the ability to worship freely. We are so afraid of looking foolish for God’s glory that we stifle the passion we have for Christ. We forget to focus on God, not caring what others think if we raise our hands or fall on our knees or cry a little, or get on our faces in awe and reverence. Instead we stand there holding out hand or crossing our arms to forcably keep our unruly hands from raising, keeping our eyes open lest some one, heaven forbid, think we’re weird for praying the song back to God. We fear man, not God. Man’s opinion, not God’s opinion. Think about David. The man danced naked in front of thousands of people, reveling in God’s love, passionately displaying His love for his God. Ok, so I don’t think that dancing naked is the answer (at least not in public). But if there is a passion bubbling up inside, who cares if you look foolish to the people around you. If you’re being obedient in worship, looking like a fool is nothing. I’d rather look foolish in my worship of God than look like a fool to God for refusing to show my gratefulness, love, adoration, amazement, and thankfulness to Him. So, you can count on me to be there, hands raised, eyes closed, tears leaking, bouncing in my shoes, loving on my God. Not always, but when the Spirit moves, I hope I always go there. Foolish or not. Will you be a fool for God?