»DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!!! (Dancing in Church-Part 1)

Ok... here we go... breaking man-made traditions and installing what Jesus wants for His church. It's all in the bible... It's not about your ideas, what feels good or what your grandma taught you. It's what the Holy Spirit led men of God to write down, so that today we can have a biblical model of how to do things. I love this!

So... I got a comment asking me this question:

"You see, here where I work there are 2 chicks and they dont believe in dancing (like in church) because it's not in the spirit and because David didn't dance in the church, he danced on the way to church... That dancing isn't from God because it's your flesh moving to a beat.... Can you help me?"

Ok... good question, Of course I can help. Let me help.
First of all, I am not a liberal to tell you not to worship, I will encourage you to worship Jesus, but also I am not so legalistic as to tell you there is only ONE WAY to worship. Meaning this, the Bible lets us know of a lot of ways on how to worship. Some worship sitting down, meditating on His goodnes. Some worship standing up. Some worship with arms raised and some worship with their voice. Some even worship laying on the floor. All these ways of worship are biblical and have a Bible scripture for them. BUT, DO NOT CRITICIZE SOMEONE THAT IS NOT WORSHIPPING YOUR PREFERRED WAY. Respect their style. It was hard for me, because I come from a very charismatic background where if I don't see you flying around the sanctuary on a rope... you are not of God and you are backslidden. What a mistake! I repented and Jesus has forgiven me! Hehe.

Furthermore, I believe that you have to worship Jesus. We were created by Him and FOR Him... It is a MUST that we worship Jesus. The Bible says:

John 4:24

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Now, some people mistake this and say that you cannot dance or clap or MOVE in a service because you are doing it with your flesh.

If anybody tells you that, ask them to do this for me:

Ask them to tell their pastor that they will go to Sunday Service in their Spirit and they will tell their flesh to stay home. So they can be more "spiritual," take it a little bit farther, ask them to not go to their services in their flesh and not show up to the church for the rest of the year. Let's see what the pastor has to say...

Just Kidding.

Don't be mean.

Anyways, back to the "Teaching."

Lets get some bible in here please.

Psalm 149:1-3

"(1)Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.
(2)Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
(3)Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp..."

Whoa, homie... You can read that again!

It clearly states that that they would be in the congregation of the saints (that sounds like church to me) and they would praise His name in dance. WOW. Shocking, right?

Ok. Read the whole chapter (Psalm 149) and start praising Jesus. Maybe dance a bit. I love His Word!

Let's read more Bible... Now, this is not me making this up... Open your bible and read with me the famous Psalm 150. And it goes a little like this.

Psalm 150:1-4

"(1)Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
(2)Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
(3)Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
(4)Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs."

Ok... It cannot any clearer than this.

Verse 1 lets me know that they will praise him... WHERE?!

IN THE SANCTUARY...

They will paise Him... HOW?!

Many ways... but to understand the reason for this post... check out verse 4.

"(4)Praise him with the timbrel and dance."

Forget about the trimbel right now. Do a word study on that later... just notice that it says that you will praise God in His sanctuary with... dance!

That's it! It's over! I dare you to stand up and DANCE! Hehe! I'm feeling that old song that says:

"Has cambiado mi lamento en baile!

Me ceñiste de alegria

Por eso a ti cantare gloria mia

Y nunca estare callado."

Oh, come on you don't know about that! That was some old time religion that got the people started back in the day... and they danced, shouted, cried, jumped... oh, how I rememmber!

Those were the days were all the songs that were sung came out of reading Scripture... and YES that is a verse.

Salmos 30:11

"Has cambiado mi lamento en baile; Desataste mi cilicio, y me ceñiste de alegría."

For you english speakers...
Psalm 30:11

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,"

If you don't dance, its ok. I understand. You say you are not a person that demostrates feelings... Let me see you with a lottery ticket worth 1 Million dollars in your hand that you barely won.

I bet you will dance.

No? Come on... don't lie to yourself. You know you will.

So, Jesus gave you eternal life. Dance.

If you still don't want to, its ok. I said I understand. I'll respect you. Just worship Jesus. Hehe.

Lemme dance a bit.

I'm out..

»I FEAR(ED) LONELINESS.

One of the fears that I had all my life was to be "lonely". It is ironic because sometimes, I love being alone. But it gets to a point where I want to have somebody that I can trust and talk to... I had always feared staying by myself. Even though I had some friends, I knew that one day they would go on with their own lives. I always feared being stuck in life, feeling lonely.

The way that I received help in this area was to confide in God's love. If I could feel God's love and I could love others, I would be allright. Even though the people that I once loved and spent time with... left me, I would keep making new relationships and love again.

1 John 4:18

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear..."

I give thanks to God for a very special person that God put on my life. Ruthie, my girlfriend. What an awesome girl she is. She is my world. She helps me in this area... I love her deeply.

There are other people that I love... and I thank God for them too.

What I encourage you not to forget though, is that "perfect love".

The only love that can help you abolish all fear is the "perfect love". That is what the Scripture says. And that perfect love can only come by having a relationship with Jesus. If you have a relatioship with Jesus, every fear that you have ever had will be wiped out. Fear of the dark? Fear of loneliness? Fear of making mistakes? Fear of anything? Just receive that "perfect love" from Jssus, because where there is love, there is no fear.

I leave you with the words that Jesus told his disciples.

Matthew 10:31
"So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows."

It does not matter who you are... you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Do not fear.

»SIMPLE CHURCH (What I'm Reading)

I just had to write again... I bought this book and am devouring it page by page. Oh wow! This is an amazing book. I love the style that both authors use to write it. I am learning so much on how to have a Simple Church and not a Difficult Church, concerning staff, that dang calendar, announcements, numbers, meetings and mission statements.

It is a Church Administration book and I love it. Thank God for people that write such books and help us (aspiring ministers) from running into a brick wall... Well, we will all have our brick walls. But these books do help.

I encourage each person that is doing and will be doing ministry to read this book.

I cannot wait for Chapter 3. Imagine a church without the clutter and all the mission statements. Imagine the church like the Google homepage. Simple. Wow! Where the process of making disciples is Simple, easy and not complex. I gotta stop. This is awesome.

Read the book. It's wort the $15.

»I FEAR NOT KNOWING EVERYTHING!

Pastor Rios is going through an 8 week series dealing with Fear and how to be free from it. I can't wait to learn some things. But for the next few days, maybe this whole week, I want to be transparent and write about some fears that I have. Can I be honest with you? No. Really?

I will write about what I fear and the strategy that I use to defeat that fear. I hope you can benefit from this.

I FEAR NOT KNOWING EVERYTHING.

People have expectations from you. Your family expects things, your friends. Even your church expects you to know things. Sometimes, I expect to know a couple of things for myself... and I learn. I read like crazy. I study people. I watch and observe. I want to know. It is an instinct. Sometimes, people come and ask me questions concerning the Bible. I give them an honest answer. BUT... Sometimes I just don't know! Hehe.
Really. Sometimes, when people have asked me things that I expect myself to know how to explain, and I cannot answer them, I fear that everything else that I have said before will be doubted. When I see a person in pain and cannot answer them when they ask, "Why?" I fear that I am not living up to myself. I fear when a person comes up and asks me a question that I have to know, because I have been in church all my life, and according to everybody, "I need to know."

So how do I cope...? Not really cope, but overcome this fear? Well the scripture says in John 24:17

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as

the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled,

nor let it be fearful. "

I overcome when I stay calm and don't let the pressure get to me.

When someone challenges me with a question that expects a very good answer, I rely on God's peace to come into my heart and I keep calm... and let them know I will get back with the with an answer.

When someone faces a crisis in their life an questions God and comes to me just asking , "Why this...?" and, "Why that..?"I can only rely on God's peace to say the "right" things and be confident that God has everything under control.

There is a saying that someone said. I don't remember who. He said:

"This world is lost. It needs a Pastor."

It does not need more educated doctors and good technologies. It does not need more money and luxuries. It needs a Pastor. A pastor that is just as human as the people he serves , but is hearing God's voice at all times. A pastor that whenever faced with fears he can rely on God to answer even the toughest question. A Pastor that stands with God's people in times of Need, Recovery and Victory. A pastor that fears, but fears (relies) God more.

I pray to be like that.

Even if I do not know everything. I want to have the peace in my life and be conficent that God really is Omniscient and that He knows ALL things.

I realize this: I will always fear not knowing everything. I will NEVER know everything, but I also know this... that if Jesus gives me the peace and confidence that He only can give, I will be able to withstand any expectation.

Come back tomorrow to hear about my next fear.

»What I Desire to see in Ministry.

Oh man... oh man! What a week!
I dislike working for the man... and the"man" may be myself... hehe. I wish to see someones life change. I desire to see someone commit to serve Jesus. I long for the days that I can be a witness of life change in people. Not the beginning of life change. Not the result of life change... but the PROCESS of Life Change. You know? It is not an event... or a program... or a single testimony that I want to see. It is the dayS, the eventS, the testimonieS that I want to see in people. Many can lie about it. Many can give up after they testify. Many will fall away after they come to Him. I want to see the development of a person before their conversion and after the conversion. That's what I pray for in Ministry. The hard work, the effort, the times of quietness (meditation), will be paid off with an army of people that are experiencing Life change. From bad to good. From good to better. From better to best. What a joy it is to see a person that has nothing... to see them smile big, knowing that all they have is Jesus. Wow. That is why I live... To see that.

You don't have to motivate me to want to see the joy of a new Christian. You don't have to push me to see the positive life change of people. No. You don't. I was created to serve Jesus in that way. I wish to tell you everything that I feel in my heart, but I'll save it for later. One day.

I am excited. Once again, I will be helping out in the pulpit of Starting Point this Sunday. God has been really showing up, in my life, at least. It is a fight! It is a battle! But I guess you already know who the Champion is.

All I know is that I love the responsibility of preparing a message and move myself around to be able to put my ear to God's heart and feel what He wants me to say to His people.

"Life change. Jesus, that's all I ask for... that there would be Life change this Sunday. Let it be so."