The Revelation Song ~ Kari Jobe

I picked the Revelation Song because it is one of my favorite worship songs. If you can listen to this song and it not give you cold chills then there is something seriously wrong with you. Nah, just kidding. It doesn't touch everyone in the same way but you have to admit, it is a pretty awesome song. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. God Bless!

My favorite part goes like this:

"Clothed in rainbows of living color

Flashes of lighting rolls of thunder

Blessing and honor strength and glory and power be

To You the only wise King"

Filled with wonder awestruck wonder

At the mention of Your name

Jesus Your name is power, breath and living water

Such a marvelous mystery" 

Strength and Power!

God In Me

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

When people meet me for the first time they look past my outer beauty and see something they might have never known or seen in someone before; they see God in me. To a non-believer they’re seen scratching their heads in wonder, wondering what it is about me that makes me different. Then I speak, if I did not carry God with me, I will leave those people scratching their heads but as soon as I speak they see it, that thing that makes me different, they see God in me. 

Eph. 4:22-24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

When attending Church, people have a tendency to walk out the door still the same person who went through those doors. If we have an ounce of faith in what was said behind those doors we will walk out renewed and wear a different layer of clothing; a new man.

We can read and believe until we’re blue in the face but if putting on a new spirit does not renew you then you have missed the gift that God has given you of being a new person in Christ. We’re not the same, we’re different and non-believers can see Christ in you.

If you walk out of those church doors and are the same beer drinking, hate spewing, judgmental person then you are missing the message being delivered and not learning to live with Christ in you. People will then see you as a non-Christian and as such you contort the very meaning of deliverance that Christ brings to the world. You’re setting up shop of becoming known as a hypocrite who knows the Word but doesn’t know Christ. 

Phil. 2:1-5 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

We can’t live like we know Him if we don’t make an effort to get to know Him. Reading the bible is not getting to know Him, attending church is not getting to know Him; living with him in us is the only way we can feel the personal connection to Him that causes us to be renewed in the spirit. 

Here’s an example of what I mean. When you read To Kill a Mockingbird, do you know Atticus, do you know Gem and Boo Radley? No, you read about them but you don’t KNOW them, they can’t live vicariously through you by just reading about them. Let’s say you went to Harper Lee’s house, does that mean you know her? You read her book, visited her house so does that make you an all-knowing friend of hers? Not at all, you have to have years and years of a relationship with her to even KNOW her. 

When we go to our mother and father’s house we know them. We know where they put the forks and spoons, we know where the spice rack is, we know which bedroom is theirs; we know because we lived with them throughout our life and have taken all that we learned from them with us out into the world. 

If our father has passed away, we still carry him with us and we still see him in little things like an old hammer he used or an old song he used to listen to; we smell him in different foods and colognes because he is living in us because he is with us in spirit.

This is the difference in reading the bible, going to church and saying we KNOW God. We cannot know God unless we live WITH Him. We carry Him with us out into the world because He defines our world; He IS our world. 

If we read, believe and go to church we cannot in all good conscience come out and spread the word saying we KNOW Christ, we have to LIVE with Christ to say we know Him. In all we say and all we do with all that our Father has taught us over the years can we carry Him to the world.

It would be very vain of me to say, I am God; it would be smug of me to say, I am Jesus; but it would be truth to say that God is IN me because I’ve known Him my whole life and the Spirit of my Father dwells within my soul.

Rom. 12:1-2 “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Poetry Sunday ~ Hosanna!Hosanna!

Matt. 28: 19 - 20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Hosanna! Hosanna!

***

He gave life to the dead, cleansed the impure

healed the sick, became all lepers cure.

Fed the hungry, gave sight to the blind,

revealed the innocence of a child’s mind.

If you were thirsty, He gave you to drink,

Washed away sins with nary a blink;

Of His eyes we shined while light was dim

righteousness filled our cup to the brim.

Turn your cheek from the one that maims

seventy times if you burn with flames

Forgive, forget, move on I say

I’m reaching out to show you the way.

Disciples slept, while Jesus pleaded

to let him live unless he was needed.

Crying out He returned to die

while all looked on, not batting an eye.

They rejoiced and sang; praised his name

Hosanna! Hosanna! Into town he came.

Fronds of palms were laid at his feet.

All glory to Jesus our Savior we greet.

But lo and behold this man betrayed,

was scourged and beat but never swayed!

“My Father, My Father why have you forgot,

I gave them all that you said they’d have not.”

With one last breath he gave up the ghost,

shedding blood where man needed it most.

Our sins forgiven our God came as man

In a wondrous fete generations will span.

Will we remember the sacrifice made?

Can we ever honor the price that was paid?

Do we respect all things that He taught

our souls are free for sins his death bought.

My Glorious redeemer, Savior and King,

I bow with honor my soul shall sing.

 

 Blessed Resurrection Sunday to all!

Lent: Day Thirty-four ~ Praise and Worship

Isaiah 29:13-14 (NIV) The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

What is this talk of praise and worship? Through this Lent series, you’re learning about the great Almighty God and Jesus but what does the bible say about worship and praise? Is praise in reading the word? Is worship in believing?

The word praise is used over 400 times in the bible; the word worship over 200 times, so the words in scripture must carry some meaning; more than just reading and believing.

Praise is defined as: the offering of grateful homage in words or song, as an act of worship: a hymn of praise to God. Worship is defined: reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred; formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: They attended worship this morning.

1 Chron. 29: 13 Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

God calls us to praise and worship Him. He not only calls, He commands us to do so. If you have a mother, you understand command. When your mother said be home at eleven, she wasn’t asking you politely to obey her order, she was commanding you to listen to her.

This is the same with God. He doesn’t ask us to read and believe the bible; the choice is yours but He DOES command you, once a believer and follower to praise and worship Him outside your comfort zone.

Your comfort zone is the nice quiet place you reside, read and believe. With all your intelligence that you’ve garnered after reading the bible and dissecting it scripture by scripture; your wisdom that you think you own and have gained will be swallowed up.

Isaiah 29:13-14 (NIV) The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

These people that the above scripture verse is speaking of are the ones sitting comfortably in their homes. They call on God with their mouths, they pray with their lips, but their hearts, sitting comfortably at home are far away from Him.

Have you ever heard the one that if a tree falls in the woods and no one was around to hear it, would it still make a sound? I hear over and over again a logically wise response, a resounding NO!

That’s what praise alone is; it is making a sound (if the utterance leaves your mouth) but it is not heard. You are paying lip-service to God and to me (TO ME) that is short changing an all Mighty and Powerful God who says their wisdom will perish and their intelligence will vanish.

Worship is the same way. God does not command us to worship alone.

Ex. 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

I feel as if your (my) television screen or computer screen is a false God. If your worship of Him is with a television, radio, or computer screen, remember the Jealous God. The screens are no different than that of the golden calf that the people built while Moses was away receiving the Lord’s Commandments. The TV becomes a false god.

We get into a comfort zone and remain there thinking we can pick and choose how we praise and worship. The choice isn’t ours to make. God COMMANDS us to worship Him and Him alone, He COMMANDS us to praise His name and His alone. He calls us to come out of our cocoon of a comfort zone and Praise His Holy name.

Will God hear your praise alone in your cocoon? Of course He will. But like our mother commanded us to be home at a certain time and we chose to come in a little later, we are chastised by her. Do we expect God to be any different? Does He pick and choose the commandments you’re to obey? Does He say come to me in the comfort of your home and sit idle and praise me? No! He commands us to EXALT him, praise Him, glorify His name, worship Him and Him alone.

A Christian understands the commandments. He or she understands praise and worship and the benefits that flow through your veins.  He doesn’t pick and choose how he sees it fit to praise and worship, he is guided by the very hand of God.

Chron. 16:29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Matt. 4: 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Praise is the basis of the Christian spirit. Reading and believing is not praise. Praise is when you feel in the pit of your stomach a glorifying of God lift inside of you and song is poured through your mouth. You are not a tree, alone in the woods falling with no one around to hear. Your voice is lifted up and those surrounding you hear your praise and are there with you glorifying the heavenly high God. The power of Lord rains a spiritual shower on your spirit and the psalms of praise are heard.

Pss. 150:1-6 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

In closing, allow me to say, we are not to pick and choose how and when to praise and worship; God makes it very clear the methods in which we are to follow scripture and His Word. Picking and choosing is the way of a vain and selfish man thinking of himself above the Savior and King.

“When God’s people begin to praise and worship Him using the Biblical methods He gives, the Power of His presence comes among His people in an even greater measure.” ~ Graham Truscott

Just as there is POWER in prayer, there is also a Mighty POWER in praise and worship. If you are new to the Christian faith, let me tell you, once you feel the power of praise, you will no longer pick and choose the scripture you adhere to. Your praise will be felt and heard.