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Posts Tagged ‘Truth’

Praise and Worship

Posted in Christian, Christianity, Faith, God, God's love, Jesus, Life in the Spirit, Praise, Prayer, Uncategorized, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I hope you are well and that you will be encouraged and blessed this morning!

I had quite a vivid dream last night…

silhouette image of person praying

Photo by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels.com

At one point in my dream, I found myself in a large room with many other believers. I had the distinct impression that we were gathered together due to the prevailing challenging circumstances. We were all praying in the Spirit. There was some passion and urgency in our prayers, I guess it was proportional to the amount of pressure we were all under (oh, the wisdom of pressure that can, if we choose, push us into the Father’s heart).

I remember I had this song bubble up in my heart and out of my mouth…

Praise Him, He is here!
Praise Him, He is here!
Praise Him, He is here!
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!

It was at this point that I woke up.

Then I started bumbling around with my smartphone, pressing wrong buttons and waking up my wife (always not a good thing). I was trying to write down the above  simple song that not only praises Jesus but acknowledges His presence. I knew I wouldn’t remember it in the morning. I finally succeeded.

It took me a while to go back to sleep but as I pondered and sang this song (in my head) I remembered the scripture where Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well.[Luke 4:1-26] In particular, Jesus, at one point says to the woman (verse 22)

…”You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know”…

As this woman found out, an encounter with Jesus radically transforms our praise and worship. We begin to praise and worship what we know, or rather, who we know, instead of who or what we don’t know. We go from worshiping in ignorance to worshiping in truth. What a great revelation and freedom this is!

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (not where but who) (not ignorance but truth):
…21 “Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.…

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Praise

Posted in Christian, Christianity, Faith, God, God's love, Hillsong, Jesus, Life in the Spirit, Praise, Salvation, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Thoughts about ‘Praise’:

(Inspired by a message given by Chrishan Jeyaratnam(Hillsong Church State Leader – Western Australia/Bali) entitled ‘The Leper King’ – Sunday 26/07/20)

Chrishan spoke about the story in the Bible of the 10 lepers and how 10 were healed but only one came back to praise and thank Jesus. Luke 17:11-19

I want to particularly focus on a quote Chrishan gave from C.S.Lewis which greatly spoke to me. This quote was originally taken from C.S.Lewis’ book ‘Reflections on the Psalms’ [P93-97] but is also reproduced here in a devotion from the C.S.Lewis Institute. Here is the C.S.Lewis quote…

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed […] The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. But we shall then know that these are the same thing. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” – C.S.Lewis

There is a revelation moment here for me. There is something deeper here to be grasped. C.S.Lewis is able to form into words something quite profound about praise.

“Praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment” – praise is the completed work of enjoying God. It’s the end product of knowing Him!

“Praise is the appointed consummation” – what a marvelous way to describe praise! God isn’t demanding us bow and praise Him for some kind of vane reason – no! – God is not like that! – no, no – praise expresses the completed (and ongoing) revelation of enjoying Him and “we delight to praise what we enjoy”. 🙂

“In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him” – AMEN!

 

 

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Coming to an Understanding of God’s Grace and Truth

Posted in Christian, Christianity, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae he writes in Col 1:6:

“All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.”

The gospel is bearing fruit and growing because people are not only hearing the good news but they are understanding the good news of God’s grace in all its truth.  I believe what this verse is saying is fundamentally important in the Christian faith.  Believers must personally not only hear the good news but also come to an understanding (or revelation) in their hearts of the good news and of God’s grace and truth (through Jesus Christ).

John 1:17 says…

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

So God’s grace and truth came through a person – Jesus Christ!

Salvation comes through an understanding (or revelation) of the truth revealed of the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Just a few verses back, in John 1:14:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,  who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus is full of God’s grace and God’s truth.  When we truly know this deep in our hearts; when we come to repentance in awe of the love of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son; when the Spirit brings revelation of this to our hearts; we are truly set free by the man of grace and truth, Jesus!

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [John 8:32]

Do you “understand” the message of God’s grace and truth?  Does something deep inside you say YES! to the truth of the gospel?  Do you want to accept God’s free gift (grace) of salvation and eternal life (knowing the Father through the Son by His Spirit)?  The Bible tells us that all of us have fallen short of God’s expectations and that we need to repent (turn away) from our sins and accept Jesus as our Lord (master) and Saviour (Jesus took the punishment for our sins on the cross) and receive His Holy Spirit.

Father, thank you for opening my eyes to the good news about your grace and truth coming through Jesus.  I am truly sorry for all of my wrong doings, I turn away from all of them and I turn to you Jesus.  You are my new master.  You are my saviour.  You have saved me from the penalty of my sins.  Thank you Jesus.  I want to follow you Jesus.  Come live in me by your Spirit and take control of my life.  I want to bear much fruith for your Kingdom, Amen.

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