Jesus Freak

What makes a great song? The music? The melody? The ability to sing along? Or dance along?

For me, it's the words. My favorite song ever is DC Talk's Jesus Freak. Some of the lyrics (written by TobyMac and Mark Heimermann) are colorful:

I saw a man with a tat on his big fat belly
It wiggled around like marmalade jelly
It took me a while to catch what it said
'Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly wit' my head
"Jesus Saves" is what it raved in a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city and he claimed he had a dream.

The words reveal some dude on a street corner jumping around and preaching his heart out. His jellied belly and tattoos prove he's not a typical street preacher, but he didn’t care. He’s just one in a long line of Jesus freaks.

John the Baptist

The lyrics from the song describe a Jesus freak from the Bible:

There was a man from the desert with naps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke made the people assume
There wasn't too much left in the upper room
With skins on his back and hair on his face
They thought he was strange by the locusts he ate
Ya see, the Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak
Until the king took the head o' this Jesus freak.

Jesus called John the greatest of all time. He prepared the way for the Messiah, then lost his life because of it.

Mary

Mary (sister of Lazarus and Martha) was another Jesus freak in the Bible. She earned it by once pouring a bottle of expensive oil on Jesus’s feet. Some were upset that she wasted something so valuable. But Jesus commended her because she had prepared Him for burial:

I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed. Matthew 26:13 (NLT)

Paul

The apostle Paul was a new kind of Jesus freak. At first, he was killing and throwing Jewish believers in prison. But Jesus struck him blind and gave him a new mission—be the first Jesus freak to preach the gospel of grace to Gentiles.

Here’s his best line about our Savior:

And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NLT) 

As with John the Baptist, though, Paul spent his final days in prison before paying the ultimate price for living for Jesus. 

King David

We cannot talk about Jesus freaks without mentioning King David. Although he lived centuries before Jesus, he knew some of God’s plan. He prophesied this about the coming Messiah:

My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs;
    an evil gang closes in on me.
    They have pierced my hands and feet. Psalm 22:16 (NLT)

The freakiest thing David did, though, was dance like a fool before the Lord. But he didn't care what others thought, even his own wife, Michal, who was embarrassed by his behavior. (2 Samuel 6:1-16) 

John, Mary, Paul and David top of the charts of the greatest Jesus freaks in the Bible. They didn't care how they looked to others. They only cared how they looked to their Savior. If they represented Him well. Celebrated Him. Pointed others to Him.

Label me a Jesus Freak, too.

Are you?

If not, do you want to be?

Paul gave us the only way of salvation today, the only way to become a Jesus freak—believing in what Jesus did for us on the cross:

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NLT)

Now, go hang out with other Jesus freaks! Sing, dance, celebrate Him—whether you have tattoos or not!

[Official Jesus Freak video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbB0QrBIs9k
Lyrics Copyright 1995 by Achtober Songs, Up In The Mix Music, Freaklife Publishing.]