“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”” Mark 8:38…….
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”” John 4:24………..
Oh, how delighted I was! I looked across the moderately busy New York City street, as New York City streets almost always are to one degree or another anyway, and there stood a lady waving her hand high in the air worshiping the Lord! She must have been singing aloud to Him, though I was too far away to tell, especially given how New York City is almost always loud, such a loud city, with noises everywhere virtually all the time it seems. Maybe she was praying, not praising, but still her hand was held high in the air toward the heavens where the Lord Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of God until He returns. In a city in which I’ve rarely thus far met anyone on the streets who is a committed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, how wonderful it was to see someone out in public in front of all to see praising God!
Then reality hit me. I was in New York City. Where people wave a hand in the air to call a taxi cab. The woman wasn’t praising the Lord. She was calling a cab to get to wherever she wanted to go next in life.
I wonder how many of us who have committed our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ restrict our love for Him, our praise of Him, our worship of Him, our honoring Him, our thinking of Him, our spending time with Him, our seeking Him, and praying to Him, to the church building on Sundays, or to Bible study on Wednesdays, or to our bedrooms and living rooms and dens, and then walk out onto the streets, and into our schools and jobs and sports stadiums and restaurants and theaters and banks and shopping malls and onto planes and cruise ships and into homeless shelters and into prison for those who are imprisoned for crimes or for those who volunteer there and keep our love for, and praise to, and worship to, and meditation on, and learning of, and conversations about the Lord quiet, silent, hidden, because it’s just not popular, and politically correct, and such, for the Lord Jesus Christ to be number one in our lives in public places where others can see us loving and worshiping Him, and living for Him, adoring God and being dedicated to Him and on and on.
We have no problem raising our hands upward to call a taxi cab in New York City, to let the waitress know we want more coffee, to get the teacher’s attention in the classroom, to celebrating a slam dunk in a basketball game, etc., do we? But when it comes to worshiping God almighty, some of us tend to hold back because we’re afraid, or ashamed, because we’re concerned of what others think of us.
Let us lift high our hearts, and hands, and wherever we are, whenever we’re led, without concern of what others might think, let us say, and act accordingly, and celebrate, THE LORD! PRAISE THE LORD, OH, PRAISE THE LORD!