Formative Thursday!

Being formed in the Image of God, carriers of His love, light and glory. We are uniquely designed to reflect Him into our world. Today we learned about the gentle formation of clay into pottery. We learned about the firing process and the ancient Japanese art form - Kintsugi. Clay can be reused 100000's of times as long as it isn't fired, but as soon as it has been through the refining fire, its precious, like glass. However, unlike glass, if it shatters, it can be made more valuable. The lord takes our broken pieces and uses them for good. It is truly a blessing that He is with us, for us, and working on our behalf for His glory! 

Thursday: The Blessing Expands

• Bless God - Welcome in His Presence. BARAK! 
  
• When we bless God it is actually His Presence, or our awareness of His presence, that increases within us. 
  
• Almost every prayer of the Jewish people started with “Blessed are You, our Lord.”
  
• Lesson on the 7 Hebrew words for praise that engage our WHOLE body as we worship (more than just when we sing songs at church/. Ask them what they think of when I say the word "Praise" -  Just like the Hebrew language has different words for different "love" it is also far more descriptive when it comes to the word "praise". Here are the 7 types of praise we talked about today: 
  
  • Yadah - surrendering and knowing God. This form of praise is like a child wanting to be picked up by a parent or grandparent. The comfort you feel in knowing the one who holds you! It often looks like both arms raised in the air. The song I sing to them here is "Surrender" by Hillsong
    
  • Todah - standing in agreement with God. Can be in His promises, His Character, or what He says of us. It's like a handshake! It often is a right hand raised or pressing forward. The song I referenced here was "King of my Heart" by Steffany Gretzinger and "One thing Remains" by Passion.
    
  • Barak - Bowing down before the King. This is a form of praise that comes when we are reverent! Psalm 8 and many others are a place where we can see this heart of praise "what is mankind that you are mindful of us." This often looks like kneeling. We talked about how small we feel when we look at the stars and we did an imagination session of what it would be like to walk into the Throne Room of the Kindest King. I'd say a good song for this one is "Here I am to worship"  by Hillsong
    
  • Shabak - to SHOUT! This can come from Halal, from fear, from anger, from sadness. A shabak is a holy roar. That is how we fight our battles. We see this is the story of Jericho, and any Psalm that says "shout to the Lord". 
    
  • Zamar - praise with instruments. Anytime you see in the Bible, praise the Lord with the harp, exalt him with the lyre, etc...  That is zamar, it's the most common form of worship we see in our churches. 
    
  • Halal - to be clamorously foolish the Lord. We shared the examples of King David running through the streets in the equivalent of his "underwear", and Mary washing Jesus' feet with her tears. A halal heart is about being undone and not caring about your prestige or image, but worshipping God with your whole heart! Halal is where we get our word for Hallelujah, and it can also mean spinning and twirling...
    
  • Tehila - Tehila is spontaneous song! This can come at any time but is a gift to US because we put into words revelation from the Holy Spirit about the goodness of God and his Creation! Tehilla is To-Heal-Us, because we often go into Tehilla when we are deepest into His wisdom and His presence, this is where we are in the secret place and having revelation from the Spirit of God! The best part of Tehilla is that this will be our native language in Heaven! This will be our unending new song!