Enter His Gates with What?

Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are His--His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations. (Psalm 100)(HCSB)


Have you ever felt that your worship seemed to be blocked somehow? Like you were trying to praise God but there was some kind of barrier up? I know that there have been times when I couldn't seem to sense the Lord's presence as much as at other worship moments. I was reading through Psalm 1oo the other day and it hit me that much of the time we may be struggling with our worship because we're trying to "enter His courts with praise" when we haven't even passed through "His gates" yet.


What do I mean? Look at what verse 4 says again-- Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Many times we may fall short in our worship because we aren't entering in with thanksgiving, with a thankful heart. We're sincerely trying to worship Him and praise Him in His courts, but we can't because we've been held back at the gates due to our lack of thankfulness and thanksgiving! I decided to title this entry "Enter His Gates With What?" because so many times we act like we've never seen that word before. It's as if we say, "Thanksgiving? Isn't that just the holiday on a Thursday in late November? What in the world could the psalmist be talking about?" We have so much to be thankful for, but it seems that our culture has raised us up in such a way that we're never satisfied. We're all looking out for number one, and we don't have time to acknowledge what God has done for us. We need to stop and realize how blessed we are, and take the time to express our thanks to our loving God. Let's take a quick glance at a few scriptures in the (HCSB) translation that speak of thanks and thanksgiving.

• giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:20)
• Give thanks to the Lord (1 Chron. 16:8, 34)
• Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. (Psalm 136:1)
• But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Cor. 15:57)
• Give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:18)
• Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving (Psalm 95:2)
• I will offer You a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Psalm 116:17)
• through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6)

It's clear that God means for His people to be thankful and to live our lives with thankful hearts. So I want to encourage all of you to clothe yourself with thankfulness and thanksgiving when coming to church or when attending some worship event. Think about the great things that your loving Father God has done for you in your life---like your salvation, forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, adopting you into His royal family, making you heirs with Christ, giving you eternal life, sending the Holy Spirit to guide you and comfort you---and then you can pass through His gates and truly enter into His courts and praise Him!
Joey C.

The All-Knowing, Ever-Present God

Ps. 139:1---Lord, You have searched me and known me.
Ps. 139:7---Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? (HCSB)





Omnipotent----Omnipresent----Omniscient
Three strange-looking words that describe our Almighty God. Webster's Dictionary defines these words like this:

Omnipotent: having unlimited or absolute power or authority
Omnipresent: being present or in existence everywhere at once
Omniscient: knowing everything
It's hard for us with our limited understanding to comprehend the total implications of what these words tell us of the character and attributes of God. I mean just think about it. God has unlimited power and authority; He is present everywhere at the same time, and He knows everything there is to know. It's hard to fathom! How can someone know everything and be everywhere at once? I don't know, but God does---it's easy for Him---it's just the way He is.

In my Holman Christian Standard Bible the heading under Psalm 139 reads "The All-Knowing, Ever-Present God." So the psalm is mainly speaking of God's omniscience and His omnipresence, but it also implies and testifies to His omnipotence. Let's face it-- if God is all-knowing and ever-present, then He has got to be a supreme being of the utmost power.

Let's see what Psalm 139 teaches us regarding God's omniscience and omnipresence:
vs.1: God knows us and searches our hearts.
vs. 2: He knows what we do and when we do it.
He knows what we're thinking.
vs. 3: He knows where we go.
He is aware of all our ways.
vs. 4: He knows what we want to say before we say it.
vs. 5: He encircles us and places His hand on us.
vs. 7-12: We can't hide from His Spirit or His presence.
vs. 13-16a: He created us and knew us before birth.
vs. 16b: He planned all our days before our life began.
vs. 17-18: His thoughts are great and vast.


Wow! God knew us and had our life planned out before we were even born. (v.16) He formed us and knit us together in our mother's womb. (v.13) That sort of takes the whole idea that the Pro-Choice movement likes to push on us, (that the fetus is just a lifeless clump of cells), and blows it right out of the water. God created us and He knows us. He sees what we do and where we go. (v.2-3) He even knows what we say and think! (v.2 & 4) It kind of reminds me of the old Christmas song by Gillespie and Coots, "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town". If you recall, the lyrics in the song say--"He sees you when you're sleeping--He knows when you're awake--He knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake." ---The difference here being that we know God is a real person. He does see us. Even when we try to distance ourselves from God and hide in the darkness, He is there and He sees. (v.11-12, 16) We can't hide from God. Wherever we run to in our attempt to flee, God is there waiting for us.


When I was a teenager I wrote a song based on Psalm 139. It was entitled "You Will See". The main idea of the lyrics was that no matter what we do or where we go, God sees. And He cares. He's not an omnipotent God who's just watching and waiting for us to mess up so He can zap us with a lightning bolt like the Zeus of Greek mythology. Oh, He is a just God, and the evil will reap what they sow. (Prov. 22:8, Gal. 6:7) But He watches over us with love as a loving father leading His children. He wants us to follow Him so that He can take care of us and keep us from harm.


I'd like to end this blog entry with the prayer which closes Psalm 139. I hope that you'll pray this prayer as you read the words:


Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way. (Ps. 139:23-24)(HCSB)


Joey C.