Tag Archives: worship

Morning and Evening – Psalm 92:1-6

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There is SO much to give thanks to the Lord for.  Sitting here pondering this I realise how much

I take for granted, and how very little credit I offer to the Lord for everything He has done in my life and the lives of countless others around me and accross the world!

I can thank the Lord for the very fact I woke up this morning!  Yes the Lord has given me another day.  I pray I use it wisely and for His glory.  What other things might we want to be thanking the Lord for in a morning?  I will list a few that come to mind.

Thankyou for:

  • Giving His Son
  • Loving me
  • Family and friends
  • Food on the table
  • His beautiful creation
  • Fellowship with others
  • The car still works!

OK, my list is seemly random, but to make a point!  Psalm 92:4, reminds me how much God has done for us!  Jesus death for our Sins is mind blowing, and I cant thank the Lord enough.  What I often forget is that God doesnt stop there.  He has a hand on our lives, influencing those around us, caring for the creation around us, guiding our hearts and carrying us through those difficult times!

How often I take it all for granted, how often I forget to “declare my love” for Him in the morning, and my faith in Him in the evening (Psalm 92:2).

Check out my recent post about “Starting Right“.  And consider this.  What better way, to start the day, than spending time with God, praising, thanking, communicating with, listening to and growing in the Lord our God.

Thank you father.

Undignified – 2 Samuel 6: 12 – 23

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God is Good All The Time.  This has been the message of Phils preaches, as well as discussions within lifegroups.  Also that the pursuit of Gods presense is a vital part of growing in faith and our relationship with the Lord.

With this said we can often look at others, how they worship, how they react to the Lord presense and we if we don’t understand it, we can often judge it to be “over the top” or “american”!  OK so a bit of that is the Britishness in us, but the main reason is because we have developed in our minds, a list of acceptable worship methods and reactions that we feel comfortable with.  Should we then see or experience something that is not covered by our list, we are immeadiately uncomfortable with the situation.

The thing is, lots of amazing things happened in the Bible, and our short list of “acceptable” styles of worship does not do it justice!  We certainly shouldn’t be boxing the Lord God almighty into a list of expectation and acceptability.  God is almighty and cannot be contained, or restrained.  He will act how He sees fit, and people will react and worship in different ways.

Looking then at this passage in Samuel, David is really going for it!  Without the fear of what others will say or think, David worships the Lord with dancing.  Michal looks at this, and perhaps it was a bit of pride, and perhaps also she did not have dancing in her “acceptable” list, but when she sees this she is obviously uncomfortable and she challenges David.  His response is as follows (NIV):

22 “I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

David is prepared to dance, to do whatever it is that He feels will glorify the Lord no matter what others think.  He is prepared to do even more that what he did.  He was certainly not going to confirm to other people expectations, he was also not going to worry about what people thought or said about his actions!  He was c oncentrating

on worshiping the Lord and Glorifying Him.

I think therefore we should become “undignified” ourselves.  No longer being concerned with looking “normal” or conforming to expectations, but we should let ourselves go and worship the Lord in whatever way we feel is right, and that Glorifies His name.  And also, when we see others worshiping, and perhaps their style is something we are not used to, or do not understand, lets not be quick to judge or admonish, but we should remember the day that King David, yes the King of a Great Nation, let his own hair down and worshipped the Lord “David” style!

Staying Alert – Matthew 26:36-46

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“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (NIV)

We are weak as much as we do not like to admit it.  There are occasions where we have given into temptation dispite knowing we am doing wrong.  Often its because we have been convinced by the lie of that temptation, that we will feel good for doing it, that we will be satisfied.  As Jesus said, the body is weak.  We alone lack the strength to resist temptation, to go the right course, that is why it is so important we have help.  Some tempt ation c

an creep up on us and get us when we are particularly vulnerable.  Other temptation can be in front of us for a long time, if we know it or not, slowly breaking us down should we become tempted by it.

The Lord in His great wisdom provided us with a helper.  His Holy Spirit whom guides and strengthens us to do the right thing.  We need to keep ourselves spiritually fit and active so we are not lulled into any false sense of security before sin pounces on us.  How can we do that?  Sounding like a broken record from many of my past posts the main ingredients are always regular Bible Study, Prayer, Worship and Fellowship.  Keeping ourselves fixed on the word, and continuing to develop our relationship with our Saviour is vital if we are to be prepared for any battle.

We need to understand and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of All, it is the Lords strength that allows us to resist temptation, not our own.  And any time we resist, it is for His glory and not to pat ourselves on the back saying, “didn’t I do well?”

Before I sign off on today’s reading, I am also reminded of the importance of rest (including sleep).  Yes the disciples were not being alert when the time required them to be.  We need to also remember however that rest and sleep are important tools in spiritual warfare.  When we have had too little (and the same affect can be had from too much sleep), we are not as quick to react, we are tired, vulnerable, and that is when Satan can pounce to try and steer us from the right path.  Remember satan is like a prowling tiger, waiting to pounce.  We need to be well rested, alert, full of the Spirit, and have fed on the Word regularly.

Love Your Wife – Ephesians 5:25-33

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I haven’t yet read the devotional but I wanted to note down my first thoughts about this before I carried on. The passage talks about loving your wife as Christ loves the Church. It’s a great reminder of how we should honour, respect and cherish our wives. Marriage isn’t something to be done lightly, and once we are married it is so important to work on it.

The daily devotional continues to also talk about understanding your wife. It is important to spend time with her, to get to know her more and more each day.

Part of honouring our wives includes taking care of ourselves, ensuring we are healthy and fed. We need to be in good shape if we are going to do all of the above!!! Of course it would be foolish to try do all this in our own strength!

Prayer, Reading the Word, Fellowship and Worship all play a vital part in maintaining the strength and wisdom to continue to be a good husband.

Of course if my wife reads this, I am sure I will be in for some comments!

The Right Focus – Proverbs 4:20-27

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What a wonderful reminder to keep our sights set on that which is good!  Let me explain!  To live as a follower of Jesus, he has made the desire of my heart to follow him.  Most of the time, my own selfish desires try and invade that space and there is usually some sort of battle going on there!

The Bible it self is the word of God, and is the source of life, wisdom and fulfilment.  Each time we read it we are to:

Proverbs 4:20-21 (NIV)

20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
listen closely to my words.

 21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;

We need to fill our hearts and minds with the word, the love and the knowledge of the Lord, so that we can continue to live for Him, to imitate His ways and live lives that glorify Him and are a testament to those around us so that they may to be saved.

Feeding daily on the Word of the Lord really is a necessity for any Christian, and that doesn’t simply mean reading words then closing a book, it means understanding what you have read, dwelling on what

you have read, storing it in your heart.

Proverbs 4:23-27, goes on to talk about keeping yourself away from things that may cause you to sin.  For example, if you struggle with any particular sin, be it gossip, sexual, substance related you need to remove yourself from any place, situation or group where temptations and access is freely available.  We are human, and weak, and placing ourselves in a position where we are staring temptation in the face is not healthy!  We will more than likely fall into or fall back into that sin because we are looking right at it!  If we turn right round and focus on the Lord

and store his word in our hearts as these verses say, we will be equip to flee sin, and resist temptations.

We are called to be obedient to the Lord, we can’t do it alone!

I thank the Lord that he regularly reminds me of the importance of feeding on the word, prayer, fellowship and worship as is becoming quite apparent throughout many of these readings.

The Credit / On Show – Matthew 23:1-12

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I haven’t yet read the devotional section after reading this passage, but want to record my initial thoughts before I do. Some sections that jumped out at me today were the mention of people doing things for others to see, and to get attention and praise from others, even without necessarily raising a finger and just delegating!

I reminds me of storing up treasures in heaven, and not doing good deeds in this life so that others may see and give you honour and credit. Instead by being humble and discreet, and doing your deeds to the Glory of the Risen Lord whom died for our sins, and rose from the grave, so we may one day join him in heaven forever. Each deed we do on her for his Glory, will store us up a little more treasure in heaven. Matthew 6:20

Of course any deed done for earthly gain, and that leads to reward only reaps temporary benefits. You cant take your money with you when you die, praise for something you did only lasts a period of time.

Things done for the Lord will last an eternity.

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Moving on from my initial thoughts, the devotional on Our Daily Bread also picks up very importantly on not being consumed with appearances! An example that I can admit to doing in the past is acting at church or with Christian friends like the perfect model Christian! Yet I would then live a life that pleased myself in the week day, quickly turning on “perfect Christian” whenever I was a friend from church!

Equally we shouldn’t want to conform to worldly images either, trying to look like the latest stars, or being sucked into materialistic buying so that we can look good to others. As my above thoughts, its all temporary, there is no lasting satisfaction. True satisfaction comes from the Lord and as is a common theme now in all my thoughts, I can only draw the conclusion that reading his word, prayer, worship and fellowship are the only ways of growing as a Christian and being fulfilled.