Worship - Interaction With God

On a recent mission trip to Vietnam, we visited an orphanage for disabled children. The children were approximately 8-17 years of age. All had some form of disability. They were either blind or deaf and mute, but they were not pitiful. They were children the same as any we know. They interacted with one another normally - just with sign language.

The distinguishing mark of their presence was their sheer joy of being or feeling loved. I have never been hugged so much or had someone seem to receive such delight from my embrace. The children seemed to grow stronger and more full of life with every hug. Smiles were broad and genuine. They seemed to thirst for the interaction - the loving interaction.

One of the oddities was a little girl who was crying. There was a man with us who was formerly from Vietnam and the Vice President of the organization we were with. He had just walked into the middle of the children and sat down on the floor beside this little girl when she began to cry. He wrote on his hand, "what's wrong?" Writing on his hand she replied, "My father just died."

I suppose that the man reminded her of her father. The good thing was that he was there. Of all the children to choose to sit beside, he had chosen her by divine appointment. There he was, a Vietnamese man about the age of her father. He was there to comfort her, to hold her, and to show her love in the absence of her father.

It was as though God the Father had sent her a comforter. He had - the Holy Spirit - and the Holy Spirit chose to use Dan as His hands, His ears, and His arms.

As we started to leave, one little girl pulled me down to hug her. The she gently kissed me on the cheek. Then another child followed her lead and then another. The candy and gifts that we had given to them were now secondary, and the gifts and candy were cast aside. Love, hugs and kisses were all that mattered now. And they would not be deprived or left easily.

"How unlike the children of our society who often take their gifts and run," I thought. They have to be told to go back and say, "Thank you." They are too busy enjoying the gifts.

These children were enjoying the "givers." To hold us, to touch us, to simply stare at us with a smiling gaze seemed sheer joy to their hearts.

"How like us as we come and go from worship," I reflected. We are so quick to seek out our "gift" from the Lord and enjoy the gifts from the Lord, but slow or negligent in simply enjoying the "Giver."

There is a spiritual principle called the "know, be, do" principle. We start in our Christian experience by seeking to know - to know God, His Word, etc. We progress to becoming what He wants us to be by focusing on allowing Christ to be "formed in us" (Gal. 4:19). Out of this, godly actions and a godly walk are manifested in every area of our lives. Worship is one thread that runs through all three- "know, be and do" - and leads us into a deeper "knowing of God," a greater hunger "to be" or to become, which is followed by a passion "to do."

Many never are compelled to grow in Christ after their initial experience because they fail to worship in "Spirit and in truth." It's no wonder that they have no passion for the things of God.

Many want to "know" because knowing satisfies their intellectual need. Many want to "be" because it satisfies an emotional need. Many want to "do" because it satisfies a desire to repay God for His goodness. However, the true worshiper wants all three simply because Jesus - both Gift and Giver - is everything to them.