WE NEED SOME SANCTIFIED SHUGAH NUGAH TIME

WE NEED SOME SANCTIFIED SHUGAH NUGAH TIME.

My friend, fellow pastor, and very special brother Greg Moody, teases me about my sudden outbursts of celebration when I make a good play in Pball. He calls it my Shugah Nugah move.

When I am able to make a really good play and score against a strong opponent, especially at a critical point in a game (Pball, Rball or whatever) my hands clinch in front of my chest (as in a boxing posture), my head and shoulders scrunch (as if preparing to explode), and my body twitches, and my feet may go into an impromptu dance. Usually there is also a verbal outburst as well. Yes, I am an emotional, demonstrative person.

I also break into exuberant praise for my teammate when he/she makes a great play or shot. I shout out kudos that can be heard throughout the gym. I often lock eyes with my teammate and smile widely as I give a fist bump. Man, I love it when my teammates do well.

IN THE CHURCH
We could use more Sanctified Shugah Nugah in the body of Christ. I mean, we should all get so excited about the victory that Jesus leads us into that we suddenly break into praise and thanksgiving. We should be so blessed by one another that we find ourselves jumping in jubilation. Defeating Satan should be a time of victorious celebration.

I am, what use to be called, a shouting Methodist. There are times when I get so blessed I cannot keep the tears back, or the feet still or the shouts suppressed. I don't have these fits all of the time. In fact, I don't have them publicly as often as I would like, though I do experience them when God and I are alone together. I only have them when they are real and uncontrollable. So, when it happens, it is not just a human reaction (as in my Pball celebrations).

We, in the Church, ought to be making the right moves and plays in life, and we should be scoring against our opponent (our enemy, Satan), and we should be seeing the exceptional actions in our teammates, resulting in joy, praise, thanksgiving, celebration, encouragement.

BENEFITS
The end result is at least five fold.
1. God is glorified, and He is worthy of praise.
2. We are lifted up, we are transformed, we are delivered as we praise Him.
3. Our teammates are encouraged, strengthened, emboldened, edified.
4. Those who are watching will see a little bit of heaven.
5. The enemy, Satan, will be defeated, in our own lives as well as in the lives of other people.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16
(14) Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
(15) For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
(16) To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

Additional Thoughts
If we have our shugah nugah time for anything or everything other than the glories of the faith life, we are celebrating useless accomplishments. If our best team victories come in sports, finances, business, or any other temporal endeavor, we are not sitting together in heavenly places. If our immediate and continued exuberance is due to the passing pleasures of this world, rather than in the Person, nature and work of Jesus, we are sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.

I am afraid that there are many more people who have celebrate a passing moment in human affairs but have...
Never experienced "joy unspeakable and full of glory,"
Never had their cup to overflowing,
Never eaten from the table of divine delicacies, while in the presence of their enemies.

Clapping, shouting, crying, laughing, praising and blessed quietness are all part of the celebration of believers. If these manifestations do not flow from an overflowing life, from a life of full surrender, it is empty and self oriented. But when it is the natural overflow from supernatural infilling, it is worshiping God in the beauty of holiness.