Evangelism in Japan.

Lately, I have been studying the 7 hebrew words for praise.
In our english translation of the bible we use the words, commend, extol, praise, give thanks.. and such things like this. Unfortunately, what is lost in translation is some very essential hebrew understanding of the principles of praise and attitudes of the heart that they created the words to describe. For example:
Halal, is the root word for Hallelujah. Halal means: to praise, to celebrate hilariously, to be clamorously foolish, to rave to boat, to make show.
Hallelujah is literally translated "Praise Yah", which means "Halal to Yaweh". We see an example of this word for praise in action and in attitude in 2 Samuel 6-- David dances so hard that his clothes fall off, and many see his nakedness. His response when confronted by this is, "I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humilated in my own eyes." (verse 22)

If we are not aware of the true meaning of some of the words that we use to worship God than we can lose some very important principles of giving true worship to God.
The word hebrew word Tehillah literally means 'to sing Halal.' It means: to spontaneously sing praise and adoration to the Father, to the point of looking foolish in the eyes of others. And so this brings to light this scripture in Psalm 100:4 "Enter his gates with thanksgiving (Towdah) and enter his courts with praise (Tehillah); give thanks to him and praise his name."

So the principle we see in this scripture, is that to give thanks is to enter his courts, and to praise (Tehillah, or to sing Halal) is to enter his courts. Spontaneous singing, spontaneous praise to God, is to enter his courts.

After spending time processing that, I decided to take this principle out on the streets. We went out to the train station as a team, and I just played some chords over and over and did some spontaneous singing to my style of music for 30-45 minutes. Now, we didn't see any miraculous salvations, but there were a few guys who told us, "We see many musicians playing on this corner, but we came to talk to you today because all of you were smiling." There is a distinct difference between a worshiper of God and a musician, even in countenance. As I sang over hundreds of people walking by, I felt the presence of the Lord so strongly! And it was as if each word, each melody and phrase of worship to God was piercing the hard hearts of the Japanese people despite whether they understood it or not. I felt a deep sense of appreciation for the Father for choosing to spread my worship of God over the hearts of the people passing by-- It gave him the opportunity to step into the lives of his lost children and start to soften their hearts towards his amazing gospel of peace and salvation.

Often times I don't realize how powerful worshiping God in the midst of darkness can be. But it only takes one small flame to start an enormous forest fire.