By Major Warren Dabis
Isn’t Facebook great? Most of us would say “Yes,” however too many of us bear our souls online! Hmmmm…perhaps it may be a good thing depending on the way you look at it!
Authenticity 24/7. Not long ago, my wife took to task a Salvationist young person who used inappropriate language in a posting and it was not a good witness. The young person wrote back and said his posting had nothing to do with The Salvation Army, it was his Facebook, he was his own person and his decision and he did not need a sermon. Quite an uproar of discussion in my circles with several young people asking me: “Is that person authentic?” I answered, “Absolutely!” Where upon the young people were taken back by my answer! Let me explain!
I do believe that young person was authentic because it was very obvious with his posting that he was authentic: to the worldliness he found himself in! He felt his worldliness had nothing to do with his witness or testimony. As a matter of fact, he was witnessing and testifying to the pull that the world and Satan exerts on us!
Speaking of Facebook, let me share with you another posting that caught my eye. This person gives a definition of integrity. "INTEGRITY - It's not what you do when other people are watching; it's what you do when they're not." It is an excellent quote, however, even more excellent when we live up to it! Which is what authenticity is all about!
Authenticity: Being WHOSE we are and in this context being the “true” worshipers we are in Christ. Being authentic 24/7; not only when we are leading worship, or a Bible Study or when we are at WYI and WMI or at Youth Councils or at TWAR or WBC. Not playing the game of Christianity when we need to at the Corps or DHQ or where people see us, but being that Christian true worshiper 24/7. David, in the midst of the desert, was praising his God when he wrote: “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night” Psalm 63:6. Yes, we as “true” worshipers need to be authentic 24/7, even when we sleep or should be sleeping!
Let me close with this question to worshipers and lead worshipers: How can you expect to lead your people in corporate worship of the one true God, when you do not worship Him in your personal worship? Amos says, “Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps” Amos 5:22-23. We may give Him our talents, skills, abilities, and we can make great music, but are we truly authentic 24/7 in our worship of Him?
May we be authentic in our worship as the older praise chorus challenges us:
I Love You Lord
I love You Lord and I lift my voice
To worship You, O my soul rejoice
Take joy my King in what You hear
May it be a sweet, sweet sound In Your ear
CCLI Song No. 25266
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Laurie Klein
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CLI License No. 581793
Authenticity! Whatever you are, be able to express it at the corps, at your school, on Facebook, and in the streets. Whether you are living in Christ or living in the world, be who you are everywhere you are. If you're not authentic to the people around you, how are you going to be authentic to the God who created you? He wants you just the way you are... whatever that is. So, be who you are and allow people to respond the way their going to respond. You may be surprised at who will still love you because you are who you say you are.
ReplyDeletewow this article is a great blessing. This is a topic that all of us worship team members should definitely read and practice. Being real and authentic in our daily walk with God is not a game or a "status" that we can change everyday like our status on facebook. It is necessary to make sure that our personal worship with God is as real as what people see when we lead at church.
ReplyDeleteThank you Major, God Bless