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)

A Prayer To Live For God

Govern everything by your wisdom. O Lord, so that my soul may always be serving you in the way you will and not as I choose. Let me die to myself so that I may serve you; let me live to you who are life itself. Amen.

-Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

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.

A Prayer for Holy Living

Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church or the closet nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere I am in your presence. So may my every word and action have a moral content. Amen.

--Susanna Wesley (1669-1742)

Praise God for His Word---Read it---then Do what it says!

Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. (Psalm 119:89)(NIV)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)(NIV)

The Word of God, the Bible is eternal. It was there in the beginning (Jn. 1:1), and it will stand forever (1 Pet. 1:25). As a nation, we are blessed beyond measure, like never before in the history of man, to have such complete access to the Word of God. We have many different translations to make it easier to read and understand. We have countless types of study Bibles, recordings of the Bible, electronic Bibles, on-line Bibles, and endless commentaries and study materials to help us in our learning. We have stores all over town that sell the Bible, and most of us have two or more copies in our homes. But how often do we pick it up? Once a week, on the way to church? Once a month? Once a year? Does it have a thick layer of dust on it? Can you even recall where it is?

I fear that in many ways we have become like the divided nation of Israel back in the days of Josiah, King of Judah. Hilkiah the high priest discovered the Book of the Law in the Lord's temple. (2 Kings 22:8)He apparently found it, meaning it had been lost for some time! Because of their sin, and the sin of the evil kings that had preceded Josiah (King Manasseh and King Amon), they had strayed away from God for many years, and even the high priest didn't know God's Word! He had apparently never seen it before. To his credit, when King Josiah found out, he repented and made many reforms, beginning to turn the nation back to the Lord. O how I pray that our president would come to the realization that we are in the place we are in as a nation because of our neglect of God's Word! What if Obama turned whole-heartedly to the Lord, and instead of putting God's Word down and turning his back on the Christian heritage of our nation, he would lead us to exalt the Bible and put it back to the rightful place of respect and honor that it deserves? Wouldn't the USA be a better place?

We have got to start spending more time daily in God's Word. The more time we spend in it, studying it, meditating on it, the more real it becomes to us. As it becomes more real, then it begins to change our lives. As it begins to change our lives, then we begin to obey it and live it out, and it will in turn impact the world around us for the building of God's kingdom.

Look at some scriptures that speak of and confirm the greatness of God's Word: 

• Jn.1:1--In the beginning was the Word
• Jn.1:14--The Word became flesh and dwelt among us
• Heb. 4:12--The Word is living, active and sharper than any two-edged sword
• Matt. 4:4--Man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every Word of God
• Deut. 8:3--Man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every Word of God
• Isa. 55:11--When it goes forth, it doesn't return void
• 2 Sam. 22:31--The Word of God is flawless
• Prov. 30:5--The Word of God is flawless
• Prov. 18:30--The Word is pure
• 1 Pet. 1:25--It stands forever
• Luke 21:33--Jesus said His words will never pass away
• Matt. 24:35--Jesus' words will never pass away
• Eph. 6:17--The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit
• Philip. 2:16--They are words of life
• Col. 3 :16--We are to let the word of Christ dwell in us
• Isa. 40:8--The Word of God remains forever
• Jn. 6:68--Words of eternal life
• Jn. 17:17--God's Word is truth
• 2 Tim. 2:15--word of truth
• Ps. 119:9--Live according to the word
• Ps. 119:11--Treasure His Word in your heart
• Ps. 119:89--Your Word is eternal
• Ps. 119:105--The word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path
• Ps. 119:129--Your decrees are wonderful, therefore I obey them
• Ps. 119;130--The revelation of Your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced
• Ps. 119:140--Your Word is completely pure
• Ps. 119:160--The entirety of Your Word is truth
• Rev. 19:13--His name is called the Word of God

We need to praise God for the Word. We need to start living our lives as if we really believe that the Bible is the Word of God and like we believe what it says. One of the best ways for us to praise God is to follow the instructions in His Word. To be DOERS---not merely HEARERS. (James 1:22) I mean we can read the Bible, and say that we believe it all day long, but until we start living out what the Bible teaches us, putting it into practice, it's not gonna do us or anybody else a whole lot of good!

We read in 1 Sam. 15:22 that "obedience is better than sacrifice". King Saul decided He would rather worship God his own way than to obey God's commands. Because of that disobedience, God took away Saul's kingship and gave the kingdom to a man after His own heart--- a shepherd boy named David.

So to sum it up: PRAISE--READ--DO. Praise God for His Word--Read His Word--Do His Word. God's Word, the Bible, is real, flawless and forever. We need to understand how precious it is to have such great access to the Word, and try our best not to waste the opportunity we have to study it. We need to understand that it is truth and life and that we should read it every chance we get. But it doesn't need to stop there. We need to be a people, a church, a nation that does what God's Word says!

Joey C.

It's Good To Praise the Lord

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. (Psalm 92:1-3)(NIV) 

I like to put Bible verses on the dry-erase board in the choir room at The Ridge in order to help keep our singers focused on praising the Lord. Psalm 33:1-3 is a good passage which goes hand in hand with the one above, reminding us that it is good to praise our God. Let's look at how Ps. 33:1-3 reads in both the NIV and The Message.

NIV--Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. 

The Message--Good people, cheer God! Right-living people sound best when praising. Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs! Play his praise on a grand piano! Invent your own new song to him; give him a trumpet fanfare.

It's good to praise the Lord! Why? Because He alone is worthy of all praise. And it's fitting for the upright to praise Him. I like the way that The Message puts it, "Right-living people sound best when praising." And it's not that we necessarily sound good, we might not have the best singing voice or even be able to sing in key (but God's not that concerned about those things); but we're at our best when we're assembled together, focusing on Jesus, worshiping together in unity. It's fitting for the righteous to praise Him, because when we're gathered in His name, He's right there in our midst. (Mt. 18:20)(KJV) It's good to praise the Lord because God inhabits the praises of His people. (Ps. 22:3)(KJV) 

So if God's presence is in our midst and He inhabits our praises, then we can rest assured that as we gather in His name and worship Him in spirit and truth---there He is. And where God is, there is love, joy, peace, mercy, power, truth, healing, salvation, deliverance, faithfulness, strength, forgiveness, life and hope. Wouldn't you like to be in the midst of some or all of these things right now? You can. Just send your praises up to God, and He will rain down His mercy, love and power over your life! I've always marvelled at how simply praising God can alleviate and/or disintegrate things like stress, depression and anxiety. Sometimes when I'm worried or stressed out about things I find that just singing a simple praise chorus or hymn will calm me down. As we focus our attention on God and His majesty, we get a better perspective on our problems and the worries of this world. As we praise Him, thinking on the eternal blessings He's poured out on us, His children, the cares of the world pale in comparison. That thought reminds me of the beloved hymn, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus", by Helen L. Lemmel. You'll recall the lyrics to the chorus of the song:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus 
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim 
In the light of His glory and grace

When we turn our eyes on Jesus, giving Him our full attention, all that this world can offer pales in the brightness of His glory-- the true Light (Jn. 1:9), the Bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16). Truly, it's fitting for the upright to praise Him and it is good to praise the Lord! 

Joey C.

Never Stop Praising God

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. (Psalm 86:11-12)(NIV)
It is not the dead who praise the Lord, nor any of those descending into the silence of death. But we will praise the Lord, both now and forever. Hallelujah! (Psalm 115:17-18)(HCSB)

We like to sing Tommy Walker's praise song "Never Gonna Stop" here at RABC because it reminds us that praise, for the believer, is eternal. It's not just for the here and now, but the worship, the praising we do now is like practice, a warm-up if you will, for when we get to heaven. Take a look at some of the lyrics of Walker's song:

So I'm never gonna stop, never gonna stop
lifting up my hands to You, lifting up my heart. 
When the last day comes and goes and time will be no more,
I'll be praising You. 
So I'll never let it end, just begin it all again,
thoughts of thankfulness and love I'm always gonna give.
A thousand years from now before Your throne of grace and pow'r 
I'll be praising You, praising You.

It's amazing to think that in a thousand years from now we'll still be praising our Father in heaven! And it's not just wishful thinking or a song that we sing; it's a fact that we can bank on if we have truly accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. Take a look at a few scriptures which assure us of our eternal life:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Jn. 3:16) (NIV)

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 Jn. 5:13) (NIV)
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. (1 Thess. 4:17)(NIV)

The term "eternal" is referring to not only a length of life, but also to a quality of life. Jesus came to earth not only to give us an unending life spiritually, but to give us what the Bible calls "abundant life." (Jn. 10:10)

As we follow after Jesus, worshiping and serving Him, we begin to experience the kind of life that God meant for us to have. We find the peace and purpose of life that only He can give us. As we praise Him on a daily basis, we're getting a little practice in for eternity where we'll be in His presence forever in praise and adoration of Him!

So as we worship the Lord, let's remember that He is the One we'll be worshiping through all eternity. Let's start to act like it by truly entering in to worship when we have the opportunity at church services realizing that our eternal praises belong to Him and to Him alone. (Psalm 111:10)

Singing His Praises,
Joey C.

Angels from the Realms of Glory

This Christmas hymn, penned by the British abolitionist newspaper editor James Montgomery, bids its hearers to come worship Christ. First it calls for the angels to proclaim Christ to the world, then it bids the shepherds of the Christmas story, then the wise men, and finally "we saints before the altar bending" in the present day. The hymn declares that God was with us on earth through Christ and that he "in his Temple shall appear" at the last day. Let us, too, respond to the call to "come and worship."

Angels from the realms of glory
Wing your flight o'er all the earth
Ye who sang creation's story
Now proclaim Messiah's birth
Come and worship, come and worship
Worship Christ the newborn King

Shepherds in the fields abiding
Watching o'er your flocks by night
God with us is now residing
Yonder shines the infant light
Come and worship, come and worship
Worship Christ the newborn King

Sages leave your contemplations
Brighter visions beam afar
Seek the great Desire of Nations
Ye have seen his natal star
Come and worship, come and worship
Worship Christ the newborn King

Saints before the altar bending
Watching long in hope and fear
Suddenly the Lord descending
In his Temple shall appear
Come and worship, come and worship
Worship Christ the newborn King

(from the Praise & Worship Study Bible)

A Prayer for Peace

O God, you who are the Author of love and the Lover of pure peace and affection, let all who are terrified be fears, afflicted by poverty, harassed by tribulation, worn down by illness, be set free by your indulgent tenderness, raised up by renewal of life and cherished by your daily compassion.

-The Gallican Sacramentary (ninth century A. D.)

The Beginning of Jesus

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life--the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-" 
(1 John 1:1-2)(ESV)





Several heresies had arisen within the Christian church in the time of the Apostle John. The most dangerous of these was Gnosticism, and especially the branch known as Docetism. These people denied the possibility of God being in the flesh and claimed that if Jesus was God then his presence on earth must have been an apparition. Flesh and material were all sinful and, therefore, God could not come in flesh. The challenge was to the foundational doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ. When, then, did Jesus begin to be?

It is evident from the scriptures that Jesus did not have His beginning when He was born as a babe in Bethlehem. John asserts that Jesus was from the "beginning." This is a word of time and not eternity but by it John does not mean the beginning of Christ's earthly existence in the flesh, nor yet does he mean "In the beginning" as in Genesis 1:1. He means that Jesus is simultaneously in existence with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus is very God and the second person of the Trinity.

We speak then of the pre-incarnate Christ, meaning that Jesus was active in the Godhead from eternity. In John 8:58 Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am." Why does Jesus not use the past tense and say, "I was before Abraham?" Jesus uses the present tense because with God there is no future or past tenses. God is not bound in time. This may be a little philosophical but it is very important for it is the genuine understanding behind Hebrews 13:8 which declares that Jesus is ".... the same yesterday, today and forever."

It is a thrilling thought, to the believer, that Jesus is very God and we must hold tenaciously to this conviction.

(Dr. Robert M. McMillan)