The Lord Inspires Praise

 

Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, "Stand up, take your mat, and go on home. because you are healed!" The man jumped up, took the mat, and pushed his way through the stunned onlookers. Then they all praised God. "We've never seen anything like this before!" they exclaimed. 

(Mark 2:11-12)(NLT)

The crowd's response to Jesus' miracle was immediate and spontaneous praise to God. "We've never seen anything like this before!" the people exclaimed as they recognized Jesus' unique power. We, too, should be moved to praise God, like these people, when we witness his great works. He alone wields absolute sovereignty over all things and deserves our worship.

MIGHTY GOD, we praise you for your greatness. We thank you for the wonderful deeds you have performed on our behalf. Move us to worship you in response to your magnificent deeds. Amen.

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

A Prayer of Worship for Christ, Our Mediator

 

O Lord, how great is the privilege of those who can look up with holy confidence to you. How blessed are they who have you for their friend, you who made heaven and earth and have all things under your government. We ask you to receive us into your favor, to adopt us into your family, and to make all things work together for our good. Amen.

Henry Thornton (1760-1815)

God Responds To Worship

 

And it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever," the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God. 

(2 Chron. 5:13-14)(ESV)

Scripture assures us that God notices and responds when we worship Him. That worship may be as formal and elaborate as the ceremony to dedicate the temple (2 Chr. 5:11-14), or it may be as simple and spontaneous as the worship of the early church, which often met in people's homes (Acts 2:42, 46-47). What matters most is not the setting or the program so much as the content of the worship and the heart attitude of the worshipers (Jn. 4:21-24).

It is interesting to compare the account of the temple's dedication in 2 Chr. 5-7 with the account in 1 Kg. 8. Second Chronicles provides less detail until it comes to the singers and trumpeters. Then it shows how the musicians' harmony in pitch and purpose brought the ceremony to its climax (2 Chr. 5:13), and how God responded by blessing the occasion and the temple itself with His glory and presence (2 Chr. 5:14).

The New Testament makes no mention of early Christians engaging in anything like the carefully scripted and rehearsed ritual that the Hebrews practiced. Nevertheless, God responded to the Christians' worship with similar assurances of His presence and power (for example, Acts 4:31).

So we are encouraged to worship the Lord in whatever ways are appropriate to the circumstance. He invites us to "come before His presence with singing" (Ps. 100:2)---whether that means painstakingly detailed ceremonies led by professional singers and musicians, or simple prayers and songs of heartfelt praise. Either way, He longs for us to "enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise" (Ps. 100:4).

(from the Word in Life Study Bible - Nelson Pub.)

The Revealing of the Wisdom of God

 

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 

(Eph. 3:8-10)(ESV)

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians that "the world did not know God through wisdom"(1 Cor. 1:21)(CSB). The philosophy of the Greeks never revealed God, and the religions of men cannot find Him. Zophar, the friend of Job, asked him a question, "Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?"(Job 11:7)(CSB). The obvious answer was "No". God has made foolish the wisdom of this world as men seek to discover Him through their knowledge and learning. (1 Cor. 1:20).

God's wisdom is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been made unto us wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30); and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden (Col. 2:3). However, the specific way in which God's wisdom is revealed is in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is God's way of dealing with the world's sin and making people fit for His presence.

To the Jew this is a stumbling block while to the educated Gentile it is foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18,23), but to those who are saved it is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:18,24).

The true church is composed of all who have accepted the Lord Jesus as God's Son and their Savior. They have been baptized into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22,23).

Through this body God is making known His wisdom to the angelic realm. The church is the intermediate agency. As angels watch the growth of the church they are learning about God's wisdom. Are they learning anything from you and me? This is a searching question.

(by Dr. R.H. Belton)

A Prayer For Guidance

 

O Almighty God, when our vision fails and our understanding is darkened, when the ways of life seem hard and brightness of life is gone, grant to us the wisdom that deepens faith and enlarges trust. And whenever the ways in nature or in the soul are hard to understand, then may our quiet confidence, our patient trust, our living faith in You be great...May we with a quiet mind at all times put our trust in You. Amen.

Harold Vincent Milligan

Why Seek A God Who is Beyond Understanding?

 

How great is God -- beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.          (Job 36:26)(NIV)

There are many things about God that we will never comprehend. What does it mean for God to be self-existent---to have no beginning and no end? Such a mystery is beyond understanding. But the fact that we can never comprehend God for all that He is does not mean that we cannot have a meaningful relationship with Him.

God has most fully revealed himself to us by sending his Son Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-3). Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14: 9). By pursuing and cultivating a relationship with Jesus Christ, we come to know God through a being of flesh and blood. As Moses said to the people of Israel, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever (Deut. 29:29).

(from the Quest Study Bible - Zondervan)

God's Word Endures

 

Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Juday has burned." 

(Jer. 36:27-28)(ESV)

The Lord specifically instructed Jeremiah to write out on a scroll a special message of judgment for the people of Judah. But the king of Judah did not like the message, so he cut the scroll in pieces and burned it in a fire. But this did not stop God's truth from coming to Judah, for the Lord simply instructed Jeremiah to rewrite the message on another scroll--with even more prophecies than the first scroll! God's Word will always endure, despite human attempts to destroy it. Let us praise God that his truth stands forever.

GOD OF ALL TRUTH, we thank you for giving us your Word. Help us stand firm upon your truth, for it cannot be shaken. By your Spirit cause us to understand your messages in Scripture. Amen.

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

A Prayer for Desiring God

 

O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire you with our whole heart, that so desiring, we may seek and find you; and so finding you, we may love you; and loving you, we may hate those sins from which you have redeemed us, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Saint Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109)

No One to Turn to -- But God

 

The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among man...

But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:2a,7)(ESV) 

Perhaps you sometimes feel that you have no one to turn to with your stresses and struggles. It is not just a matter of having someone to understand, but of finding someone you can trust.

Micah must have felt quite lonely as he faced the proud, powerful people of Jerusalem. Like Elijah (1 Kings 19:10), he probably felt as if he were the last faithful believer on the planet (Mic. 7:2). Wherever he turned he seemed to find people who were blood-thirsty, corrupted, treacherous, and deceitful. Even the members of his own family were not to be trusted (7:2-6).

Faced with such a world, Micah found reassurance in the fact that God remains in control and takes care of His faithful children, no matter what others may be up to (7:7). This truth can be a great hope for believers today, especially when we find ourselves in the minority, or even all alone among people who do not know or honor the Lord.

(from the The Word in Life Study Bible by Nelson Pub.)

The Lord Will Not Forsake Us

Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid of them! The Lord your God will go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you. (Deut. 31:6)

The Lord promised the Israelites that He would go before them into Canaan and would never forsake them. This must have been very reassuring since the gods of Israel's enemies were regarded as deities that could give the people only limited protection within their own territory. Imagine how the Israelites must have felt knowing that their all-powerful God was not bound by geography and would never leave them. We should be grateful today that we serve this same God who "never changes or casts shifting shadows" (Jms. 1:17). Praise the Lord that He is ever present and ever faithful to us.

FAITHFUL FATHER, you go before us in everything. We praise you for the promise of your presence with us. We thank you that you will neither fail us nor forsake us. Strengthen us to remain faithful to you in thanksgiving for your constant presence with us.

(from the Praise and Worship Study Bible by Tyndale House)

Where is God? Who is God?

Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. (Micah 7:18)(NKJV)

As Micah’s prophecy draws to a close, he begins a psalm or hymn of praise (Micah 7:8), praising the Lord for His watchful protection over His people. Looking into the future, Micah can foresee a time of restoration, when the Lord will gather Israel as a shepherd gathers sheep (7:14), and the ruined city of Jerusalem will stand again (7:11-12).

In the meantime, however, as the people endure God’s judgment, their enemies mock them with the defiant question, “Where is the Lord your God?” (7:10). It is a question often thrown at God’s people by those who have no fear of the Lord (Ps. 42:3, 10; Mt. 27:41-43; 2 Pet. 3:3-4). Yet the question will come back to haunt those who ask it when the Lord vindicates His people.

This leads Micah into worship. “Who is a God like You?” he asks rhetorically (Micah 7:18). The answer is evident: no one! Only the Lord of mercy is capable of pardoning sin (7:19-20).

The merciful God still pardons sinners today. He invites us to come to Him as we are, in order that He might remake us as He is. Where is God? He is ever-present with those who fear Him. Who is God? He is the Lord of mercy, compassion, and justice.

—from the Word in Life Study Bible by Thomas Nelson Pub.

How Can We Develop Wise Hearts?

 

My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. (Prov. 23:15-16)(NIV)

Developing a heart that is skilled in following God's ways requires exceptional commitment. Because of sin, we enter this world with a spiritual "heart disease". The heart, the inner control center that thinks, feels and makes choices, is clogged with all kinds of evil thoughts, sexual perversions, deceit, pride and foolishness.

Bringing healing to our hearts begins with a passionate fear of the Lord (Prov. 23:17). It requires distancing ourselves from people who will lead us into a life overdosed on pleasure (Prov. 23:21). We must weed out evil thoughts, desires and motives (Prov. 4:23), and fill our minds with true, pure, admirable thoughts (Phil. 4:8). We must listen carefully to the right sources of input (Prov. 23:19,22). Believers who are aware of God's wrath against sin and the brevity of life will give their days to the pursuit of a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).

--from the Quest Study Bible by Zondervan

A Prayer for Mercy and Knowledge

Almighty and most merciful Father, whose mercy has kept me from the grave, grant that I may reflect on my past life and repent of the days and years in which I ignored your grace and neglected my salvation. Help me to use the time you have given me, so that I may become more diligent in the studies you have given me. When at last I shall be called in judgment, may I be received as a good and faithful servant into everlasting happiness. For the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Adapted from a prayer by Samuel Johnston (1709-1784)

 

No Other Name

 

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)(ESV)

One of the great tragedies of the age is that countless thousands are trying every way conceivable to reach heaven. Many are looking to good works as a ticket to heaven. Surely a righteous God is not so unjust as to overlook their labor of love, they reason. 

Others look to church membership, baptism, confirmation, and other ordinances to save them. They forget that these have no redemptive power. The load of sin weighing heavily on each of us can never be lifted by good works, sacraments or ordinances.

According to God’s infallible Word, only one Name can bring salvation. It is not the name of Mary or any other human agency. It is the name of Jesus Christ alone. He paid the price for our salvation in His finished work on the cross. Only in, and by Him are our sins forgiven and our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life— if indeed we place our trust in that finished work.

Human morality can never save anyone. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment..”(Isa.64:6)(ESV). Man’s pride dislikes to hear such blunt truth about his foolish efforts at reformation. Though he may reform his life, it is not in him to bring about regeneration and transformation. Only the quickening power of God’s Holy Spirit can accomplish that after a person has been awakened to his need, convicted of his sin, led to repentance and then has exercised his God-given faith to receive all that has been done for him by God’s dear Son.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s end is the way to death.”(Prov.14:12)(ESV). “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”(Jn. 14:6)(ESV). 

May we seek that way which leads to everlasting life.

—David R. Enlow

The Lord is our Rock

 

For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? (Ps. 18:31)(NIV)

We often hear that the Lord is our rock, but we don't always realize what this means. A rock in ancient Israel provided security in two ways: It served as a bulwark against attacking armies, and it provided an immovable foundation for great buildings. David realized that God was an unshakeable foundation for his faith, and he often ran to this refuge to regain his strength. We can find our security in the Lord as well. Let us praise God that He is our rock, upon which we can confidently build our life and faith.

O God our Rock, our hope rests in you. We praise you for your strength, and we thank you for the security we can find in you. Teach us to build our faith upon you, for you are unshakeable. Amen.

(from the Praise & Worship Study Bible -Tyndale House)

Right Paths

 

"I have led thee in right paths" (Proverbs 4:11)

"We only go this way once." Life is brief and life is precious. It is desirable that we live it that one time so as to hold no regrets. God instructs us, "Ponder the path of thy feet" (Prov. 4:26). Our paths should receive earnest attention from us.

A variety of paths seems open before us. Some live one way, some another; and it would appear that we can do as we please. Yet a clear analysis of the situation reveals that there are really only two kinds of paths out there ahead of us: right paths and wrong paths.

The Hebrew word translated "path" in our text really means the furrow made by a wagon or other vehicle. It is plain and visible to the eye, easy to follow. The first half of the text says, "I have taught thee in the way of wisdom," which means that the paths in which the Lord will lead us will always be wise paths and therefore right paths. Conversely, right paths will always be wise paths, and wise paths, plain ones.

If the Lord's ways are always right and wise, then it can never be a mistake to go the way He directs. It is never foolish, not a defeat to genuine personal interests or potentials. God wants to lead and we ought to follow. He will "establish" our ways if we follow Him. Right ways can be established, i.e., made permanent, because they are for the good of all and for the glory of God.

All the way my Savior leads me; Oh the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised, in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way. ---Fanny J. Crosby

Let us pray daily for discernment to recognize practical application and wisdom to walk in "right paths."

--Rev. Roger J. Andrus

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

 Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, your unworthy servants, give you humble heartfelt thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all for your limitless love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And, we humbly request, give us a sense of all your mercies, that our heart may be openly thankful, and that we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips but in our life, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

adapted from the Book of Common Prayer

The Lord's Name is Majestic

 

O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth! (Psalm 8:9)(NLT)

A person's name is more than just a label. It represents who they are. Hearing someone's name often brings to mind that person's character, abilities, and appearance. So, too, with our God, whose name is above all names. When we hear the name of the Lord, we should reflect and marvel, as David did, that the God whose glory fills the earth has lavished such affection upon us human beings. In a small way, he has allowed us to share in his majesty, granting us dominion over his creation. Our wonder at the majesty of his name will then give way to heartfelt worship.

MAJESTIC GOD, as we hear your name, we are reminded of your presence and power. Forgive us when we misuse your name or fail to appreciate the greatness of the One it represents. We are grateful that you have called us by your name, and so we ask you to glorify your name by our life. Amen.

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

A Prayer for Guidance

 

O Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We pray you allow us never to stray from you, who are the way, nor distrust you, who are the truth, nor rest in any one other thing than you, who are the life. Teach us, by your Holy Spirit, what to believe, what to do, and how to take our rest.

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

The Path of Pleasing God

 

"When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him"          (Proverbs 16:7)

Human behavior patterns can please the Lord. A servant can please his master. A son can please his father. A student can please his teacher.

"Without faith it is impossible to please him." Hebrews 11:6 does not say that it is improbable but that it is impossible. It is totally outside the realm of a possibility that a man can please God without first trusting in Him. He wants to be believed, for one thing. The one who doesn't trust Him is virtually saying that God is not trustworthy. Then again, man cannot know God's will about the ways that please Him unless he believes what God has said.

When He is pleased He makes human enmity to melt and turn to peace. This is a general truth but not a universal one or else Christ would have had no enemies, for He wholly pleased the Father. Also, there would have been no martyrs. In the main, however, when a man pleases God, other men seem to like him and want to have a good relationship with him.

But the greatest reward to such behavior is the knowledge that we give God pleasure. This is an astounding thought and yet is exactly what our text teaches. Man can give God real pleasure. That is not to say that He is satisfied and seeks no further growth, development, or obedience from us. He is easy to please although hard to satisfy.

"The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, on those that hope in his mercy" (Psalm 147:11)             "For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation" (Psalm 149:4)

-- Rev. Roger J. Andrus