“The best worship pleases God and nourishes me”
Nourish: to provide (someone or something) with food and other things that are needed to live, be healthy, etc. (Merriam-Webster)
I am tired of worthless worship!
What is worthless worship? Worship that God does not enjoy. Worship that leaves me unchanged. Worship that leaves me in a passive state without inspiration or motivation to draw closer to God or demonstrate I care for others by my actions. Worthless worship has no spirit and no truth!
I am on a journey to worship. I want to experience Jesus! I want to make Him and His Father smile. I want to become like Them. I want to stay in their presence. And I want to offer this opportunity of experiencing Them to others so that they can enjoy life more fully as well. And so I am on a journey to find better worship. And the first realization I’ve come to is this: because we have worship focused on drawing the masses through entertaining them it is like fast food–tasty, full of damaging calories, and the cause of spiritual obesity and death.
At the time of the writing of this post there is an obesity epidemic in the United States. According to the CDC more than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese.
I personally have struggled with weight gain. When I am stressed I eat. When I am sad I eat. When I’ve just finished a performance I like to celebrate by eating and treating myself to something sweet or very flavorful. The result of my actions is that I have health challenges. High blood pressure and Asthma are just two of the things that have come into my life in a major way because of my being overweight. My singing voice has even been affected as well.
But what does this have to do with worship? I’ll get to that in a moment.
My family and I participated in a documentary about a lifestyle change called The Corrective Diet. We agreed to follow this diet for a month. The changes we saw were dramatic. After 10 days my blood pressure was back in the normal range without medication. None of us had to use our inhalers though we all have asthma. I lost 32 lbs. It was all so amazing!
But what caught my attention was this. I was eating as much as I wanted of the food that I was allowed to eat. So it was strange to me that I could eat so much and yet lose so much weight. The key I found was that I was getting the nourishment my body needed from the raw fruits/vegetables and juices that I was eating everyday. Along with this nutrition rich food I wasn’t having any processed foods or sweets which allowed my body to release the toxins that the fat cells had been protecting me from. You know that’s what our fat is for. To protect us from the toxins that we’ve eaten that would kill us if we had their full effect. The effect of removed toxins and increased nutrition was very noticeable. My voice improved. I slept better. I have sleep apnea and have to use a CPAP machine to keep my airway open as I sleep to make sure I have the oxygen I need. But even when I feel asleep without the machine on I didn’t snore as before with periods where I stopped breathing. All these changes occurred when I stopped eating what stimulates me and started eating what nourishes me.
I believe that so many people could stop being obese if they stopped having what stimulated them and started having what nourishes them. BUT I believe that this is an accurate and stunning revelation of the spiritual condition of many in America and in some other parts of the world. Worship has become about what stimulates me and not what nourishes me. Let me say that again. Worship has become more about what excites me and not about what heals me and draws me close to my creator. The result is that we have a form of Godliness but without the power. The worship experience that was meant to transform us and has done so for many generations has instead lost it’s power and lead to spiritual morbid obesity.
On this blog I will share my journey to find the worship of Jesus Christ the way he taught it and the way his disciples lived and shared it: The journey to a worship that nourishes.
Please join me on the journey by subscribing below!
And I’d like to give a special message of thanks to those who donate to this ministry. I can never say thank you enough!!!
