Shout for joy!

One day, while playing with Bowden, we heard Josh shouting. Not for joy- things like, "What!! What are you thinking?? That was the most moronic thing I've ever seen!!! What kind of imbecels (yes, words that I can't even spell) are you???" And so on... (Interesting side-note: the absence of profanity seems to invite a more colorful expression - Go Josh!!)Anybody who knows Josh probably knows to whom this tirade was directed. His beloved, but bumbling Redskins.
Bowden looked at me and commented, "Daddy is wierd." and kept playing. Later, when his dad came by and asked Bowden what he thought of the game, the little diplomat amended it, "They are weally wierd!" and Daddy and son bonded over that thought.

I have also heard Josh shout for joy- the purest time, when we were all shouting, was at the birth of his two children. (His was actually more like laughter) That was real joy! That was a moment when noone seemed to mind the volume and the exuberance.

I've been reading through Psalms lately and the scripture that has jumped out at me is "Shout for joy." Anyone who knows me knows that that could be a very dangerous thing for me to latch onto. I am LOUD- many say TOO LOUD. So God, what are you thinking, telling ME to shout for joy? And really, since in the assembly, during praise, I sometimes find myself being the shouter, slipping out with exuberance, do I really NEED that message? You should be telling me to keep it down, like most other, sane people do.

So, feeling that this command is really going to set me up to be a fool, I am looking for more scriptures for it. Guess what? They abound. I even found mountains and trees clapping their hands. Okay, just a metaphor, but a metaphor for what?

The picture that came to mind as I tried to "Prove scripturally" that there might be a place for shouting in all of this- was the Triumphal Entry.
When the Pharisees said that Jesus should tell the children to stop the shouting, his response was, "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." It was ordained for that entry to be accompanied by shouting. It was a precourser to the work at Calvary- the purchase of our souls, and the shaking that came, the great awakening that came, the birth of the Church that came .

There is a king riding in with His kingdom, ready to release a fresh flow of anointing, of revival, of people- coming to the saving knowledge of His greatness. And it might not look - no it won't look like it did before- in part, because His chosen vessels, especially the youth- don't look like they did before. And he uses these individuals and their individual personalities, giftings, and language to reach their peers.

I am excited, as I give myself to say "Yes, God." for the breakthroughs that will come, in my own soul, and in the lives of others. Earthquakes are loud, and there is a shifting in the spirit. Can you sense it, somethings rising?
There is, as at Jerico, a time to walk and be silent. There is a time to wait. But there is also, as at Jerico, a time to proclaim, to shout, (or maybe for some, to just whisper) but it was in that time that the walls came down.
May I be one who helps bring down walls, who ushers in God's rule, on earth as it is in heaven.