May true worship of the Living God ring from our hearts.
Tag: glory
Sunday Praise and a Prayer for Peace
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9
Heavenly Father, you are praiseworthy. You are true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable, and we choose to think about you and all the ways you’ve shown us your goodness. You’ve rescued us time and time again. You forgive all our sins and have removed them as far as the east is from the west, and remember them no more. Your grace is always upon your children, and your mercy, too.
You have promised to prepare a place for us with you and to come again for us and take us with you where you are, where there is no more crying or pain or suffering. Your love sustains us, teaches us, and matures us until the day when your wisdom says it’s time to come home. Lord, in all these constant ponderings throughout the day and night, you give us peace, and we praise you. You know the trouble we face in this world, but we know you’ve already overcome it. Help us cling to you, both in the times when things are going well, and in times when things are hard.
Give us the strength to turn to you when the enemy is whispering in our ears that you don’t care. That you can’t possibly love us after what we’ve done. Give us the strength to call those what they are: lies from the pit of hell. Help us cling to the truth, and where our beliefs are false, we ask that you would change them. Where we believe wrong things about you, please show us the truth. And where we believe wrong things about ourselves, please break down those strongholds of falsehood, knowing they keep us from living purely in the victory you would have us. We give you our minds and our hearts to mold as you will. We receive your peace, and we give you all the glory. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
Soon and Very Soon…
“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12
I accepted the Lord the first day, the first moment, I walked into a small church over 28 years ago, and I fellowshipped with, served with, prayed with, cried with, laughed with, and loved the people at that church for 23 years. Many of those dearly loved people, all of them much younger than expected, have since gone home to be with the Lord. A few of them just recently.
It’s so easy to fall into day to day living. Waking, working, eating, cleaning, phoning, watching, doing, sleeping… And all those things are fine. But somewhere in all the minutiae of life we can sometimes forget that life is very temporary. And very short. None of us knows when our time will come, or when the time will come for someone we love. We take for granted that we’ll all live to a ripe old age, but we might not. And having lost my dad and then my mother, I know that any age for someone you love is too soon.
But God knows when, and He reminds us through this Psalm written by Moses, a man who lived to be 120 years old, that life is fleeting, and that we should take great care in the way we spend each day. In every word we say, and don’t, in everything we choose to do, and don’t, we have the opportunity to honor and glorify the Lord.
And the people who have gone to heaven ahead of us remind us to live our lives for Christ to the fullest. We have been called for a very special purpose: to shout the Name of the Lord, with our voices, with our lives, with our love, to the whole world, and those nearest to us.
To praise and glorify His Name by living soberly, that is, always being aware of who we are in Christ, of our supreme privilege of giving our lives to Him daily so He can love others through us, draw others through us, comfort others through us, minister to others through us.
One of those people who has gone ahead just recently was there that morning I walked into church over 28 years ago. She sat a couple rows in front of me. I had felt the presence of the Holy Spirit the moment I walked into the room, and tears were already falling down my cheeks. The worship band started playing beautiful love songs to Jesus. The woman a couple of rows in front of me raised her hand to Him in loving praise and worship, and I knew I was surrounded by people who loved the Lord, and I knew I could love Him, too, and that He loved me. For me, after the life I’d had, that was no small thing.
I never told her that. But I bet Jesus is still telling her all the ways she blessed people without even knowing it. By just loving Him, she helped others love Him, too.
We may have one more day, or thousands. Is there any better way to spend each and every one of them than by loving Christ in all we say and do?
And for those who have gone ahead of us, yes it is painful, yes we grieve, but we remember this: “brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
What a glorious day that will be.
With much love and gratefulness,
Saturday Song – Lift Your Head Weary Sinner
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Luke 15:1-20
Maybe you’ve somehow stumbled onto this page, and you’re lost. You’re searching. You know you need God but you’re afraid. Afraid He won’t take you. Afraid of what you’ve done. Afraid you’re too far gone.
My friend, I promise you, God promises you, you are not too far gone.
Maybe you knew Christ at one point a long time ago. Maybe it was just last week. But you’ve done something, and you can’t face Him. You’re afraid, too. Surely He’ll punish you, you think. Surely He’s ashamed of you, disappointed in you. You can’t go back.
My friend, you can.
Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, get this –
God loves you.
And He is willing at this very moment to forgive you and receive you.
Come to Him, no matter what you’ve done. Come to Him with your sin; come to Him with your wretchedness, your weakness, your guilt. Come to Him, like the prodigal child.
He is there, waiting with His arms open wide to receive you right here, right now, to forgive you, to love you, to welcome you back with no reservation. With no condemnation.
That is how great He is, how great His love and mercy and forgiveness. Whatever it is, it’s all been paid for on the cross.
Just come. And let the chains fall.
If you need prayer, I would be honored to pray for you. Simply email me by clicking on the envelope to the far right of the Facebook icon to the right.
May you bask in the glory of the Risen One, the One Who paid it all.
Sunday Praise – Be Exalted!
Heavenly Father, help us this week to walk with you so that our hearts and minds are changed and everything we do is in your name and your power. May you be exalted in the mighty works you do in and through us. In the name of Yeshua Hamashiach – Jesus the Messiah, amen.