The Lord is the God of Heaven

And Jonah answered, "I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." (Jonah 1:9)(NLT)

When Jonah's ship ran into a violent storm, the crew asked Jonah, "Who are you?" His answer was simple: "I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." Jonah's answer revealed that his very identity was rooted in worship of the Lord. At the same time, his answer revealed the Lord's relevance to the crew's situation--God created the sea and the land, both of which were of great importance at the moment. So when the crew threw Jonah overboard and the seas became calm, they worshiped the Lord and vowed to serve him. Like Jonah, our life should constantly testify to the one we worship so that others might come to worship him as well.

God of Heaven, you have created all that exists, and you are constantly at work in our life. Teach us to draw our identity from you, whom we worship. Help us to testify to your greatness so that others may come to know you. Amen.

(from the Praise and Worship Study Bible--Tyndale House Publishers)

Mere Christianity Quotes (p. 82)

Here is another excerpt from the classic book about what all Christians believe, Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis.

The first thing to get clear about Christian morality between man and man is that in this department Christ did not come to preach any brand new morality. The Golden Rule of the New Testament (Do as you would be done by) is a summing up of what every one, at bottom, had always known to be right. Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that. As Dr. Johnson said, 'People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.' The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see; like bringing a horse back and back to the fence it has refused to jump or bringing a child back and back to the bit in its lesson that it wants to shirk.

How do we worship in spirit and in truth?

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)(NLT)

When we read these words of Jesus which were spoken to the Samaritan woman at the well and recorded for us, the question naturally arises..."So, how do we worship in spirit and in truth?" Take a look at how this question is answered in the Quest Study Bible published by Zondervan.

[Genuine worship involves both fact and faith. Truth means we are to worship the right God---the God revealed in the Bible through Jesus Christ. Spirit means that true worship demands more than just outward motions. It is an inner submission of oneself to God (Romans 12:1).]

So to worship in spirit and in truth, we need to worship from the heart, with all that we are. Jesus called this the first and greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:5)(NLT)

And we need to know and acknowledge Who we are worshiping. We can't know God without a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the Truth. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)(NLT)

Christian Love

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ" (Phillipians 1:9,10)

This devotional about Christian love is by Dr. Stuart R. Schimpf:

The best gift we can ask God to grant another is the gift of love. Oswald Smith says that love is supreme in our discipleship. Jesus asks, "Lovest thou me?" This is His first concern. Love is also supreme in our conduct. "If ye love me, keep my commandments"! Again, love is supreme in our service. "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."

What is Christian love? It is more than natural affection. Such "love is of God," and hence Paul prays that others may possess it. Christian love is not "blind"! The more of it you possess, the greater your understanding of spiritual truths and the better you can discern God's will. This means the ability, not merely to recognize what is good and what is bad, but "to approve things that are excellent," to be able to distinguish between what is good and what s better! Love lends sharpness and clarity to our spiritual vision.

Augustine, the famous church father, is reported once to have said, "Love God, and do as you please, for what you then please to do will accord with the law of God!" Let us pray that the Lord will help us to love Him as we ought to love, and thus be "sincere and without offense till the day of Christ."

More love to Thee, O Christ

More love to Thee

Hear Thou the prayer I make

On bended knee

This is my earnest plea:

More love O Christ, to Thee

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

Why Are Songs Included in the Bible?

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: "I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. Pharoah's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharoah's officers are drowned in the Red Sea. The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy." (Exodus 15:1-6)(NLT)

The passage above is the first part of the Song of Moses and Miriam sung in celebration after Israel's victory over Pharoah. Throughout Scripture, songs have a central role in the worship of God. Songs will always be a fundamental ingredient of worship, for Colossians 3:16 says we are to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in [our] hearts to God.

Some view songs such as the song of Moses and Miriam as spontaneous outbursts of worship. Others see them as models for worship that were inspired by the Holy Spirit, carefully composed, and preserved for future generations of believers. Perhaps they are a mixture of both. The point is, songs provide an important way to worship God. They offer glimpses of God's character and celebrate what he has done in the world.

The song of Moses and Miriam celebrates how God saved the Israelites from Pharoah and his army and looks with confidence at how God will conquer other enemies en route to the promised land. Likewise, the song of Deborah and Barak (Judges 5) praises God for saving Israel from the Canaanites. Biblical songs are our models to praise God for his salvation, love, faithfulness, power and grace. He is to be the central focus.