Lent Week One Day 3

Today is about reverence, worship and praise toward God for who He is and toward Jesus for what He has done. I wrote an article about reverence, worship and praise here . What I read today brought these scriptures to mind. Romans 5:8, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 4:19,  We love because he first loved us.

My reading was a poem and a quote. The quote is about how the blood of Jesus is forgiveness of sins and the cross represents the sinners that we are. He bled forgiveness on each one of us. We all have a cross to bear, our own sinfulness, but Jesus’ shed blood washes it away. Picture yourself carrying this heavy, burdensome cross across a river and a big gush of water like in the wild rapids comes along and takes the cross from your back and washes it down river. Jesus can do this for us.

The poem was about seeing God for who He really is. Having reverential fear and awe towards Him. We shouldn’t take His presence lightly. It is an honor to be in His presence. We should remember that we need God to survive and thrive. We take His Holy Spirit for granted these days. The Israelites didn’t have His Holy Spirit. We need to take God’s presence seriously and be thankful Jesus made a way for us to be with Him.

Trail to the Tree was about the gift of rescue. Ann wrote:” Father, we paint ourselves red with Jesus’ blood so that satan can not enter into this soul place to wrack ruin and death, but that You would come through the door of our hearts…that we would come through Jesus, the door, and into Your Presence.”

We are rescued just as the Israelites were on the first Passover. They painted crosses with blood of a lamb on their door posts so no death would come inside. So by faith I paint with Jesus’ blood a cross on the door of my heart so no evil can come into my thinking, my attitude, my love, my peace, my joy. Jesus rescues me and also protects me.

Day 1- Get your thinking straight and be in God’s presence

Day 2- Be reading the Bible and trust God

Day 3- Reverence, worship and praise God and Jesus for who God is and what Jesus has done.

Thank you God for loving me even as a sinner. Thank you for Your mercy and lovingkindness and for sending Jesus to save me. Thank you Jesus that You saw Your mission through to the end to save us all from death. Thank you that You loved us first and died for us to live.

 

Temple of Love- Enigma

This video and song give me a feeling of awe for God’s creation and for Him.

Seek Jesus And You Seek Wisdom

In Chronicles 9 Queen Sheba visited King Solomon and she experienced his wisdom. She had HEARD of his wisdom and didn’t believe it until  she went to see him and experienced it for herself. There is a similarity to her seeking King Solomon and us seeking Jesus. Do we really want to seek Jesus, experience Him for ourselves or do we want to let someone else lead and guide us through so called church? I choose to seek Jesus for myself. Know the truth from my own experiences with Him. We can only KNOW something through experience. In Proverbs 9:10 it says worship and reverence for God is the chief and choice part [ the beginning ] of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding. First we have to have a respect for God and a heart that worships Him before we can receive His wisdom.To have a heart for worship means we have to be born again. The Bible says we can only worship in spirit and in truth, so if we aren’t born again of His Spirit we can not worship Him. We are dead in our sins until we are made alive by God’s power.  Chronicles 9:23  says God put wisdom in Solomon’s mind. I like what Joyce Meyer says in my Bible in putting the Word to work, she said, God-given wisdom is far more valuable than wealth.

I came across a native american proverb the other day that makes a lot of good sense.

I believe the native american had life right. They lived off the land worshiped and reverenced God, protected the planet and loved others. After all that’s how we got Thanksgiving. But the white man ruined everything. Not so wise. The native american was wise. White man is all about money and wealth and statue. Native americans just wanted to enjoy the life they had with what God provided because that was enough. Jesus is enough. God has given us everything we need but Satan wants us to think we need more worldly things to fulfill us. It’s the presence of God and His wisdom that will fill us. When we experience it we will see that this is what we have been longing for all along. I  have native american heritage on my dad’s side and I don’t know if that’s why I am drawn to native americans. But even as a child watching those old cowboy movies I always rooted for the native americans. I have a need lately to listen to their music and chant. It connects me with God in a deeper more intimate way than the christian music today. I believe I’m on a journey from surface relationship with God to a deeper one.

Second Chronicles 15: 1-4, The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. ² He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. ⁴ But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.

If I seek God (Jesus) as craving for Him, I will find Him but if I become indifferent and forsake Him, He will forsake me. The Lord is with me while I am with Him. So when I am feeling alone and like God isn’t there, it is me forsaking Him.

KEEP SEEKING JESUS, NOT WEALTH!

 

Reverence, Worship and Praise

These three words are what comes naturally after being born again. Once we are woken up to the fact of who God really is, when we know without a doubt that He is the one and only true living God and He loves us, we begin to have reverence for Him. Reverence is a deep respect for Him. Then, as some would not realize, comes worship. We tend to think singing to God is worship, but as we reverence God there is a feeling that comes and it’s called worship. So, as Kim Walker once said, we worship God in our heart and the singing is a manifestation of the worship we feel.  So, singing is praise! Praise is the expression of reverence and worship.

God showed me several scriptures in the Bible having to do with reverence and worship. Scriptures that tell us if we will do these things God will do something in return. First of all if we want to have wisdom we begin with reverencing and worshiping God. Psalm 111:10 says,  The [reverent] fear of the Lord is the beginning (the prerequisite, the absolute essential, the alphabet) of wisdom;
A good understanding and a teachable heart are possessed by all those who do the will of the Lord;
His praise endures forever. If we reverence and worship we are in God’s will and He will give us wisdom. As followers of Jesus, not only do we want knowledge but most importantly we want His wisdom. When we possess wisdom we have insight and understanding that mere knowledge can not express. Knowledge of something isn’t the same as experiencing it. When Jesus imparts wisdom to us we are experiencing His presence. When we follow the Holy Spirit we are living in wisdom.

When we reverence and worship God we are actually serving Him. If we ever doubt that we are serving,  just look at your heart and see if you are reverencing and worshiping God. As it says in Psalm 2:11, Worship the Lord and serve Him with reverence [with awe-inspired fear and submissive wonder];
Rejoice [yet do so] with trembling. When we are serving God and in His will for our lives we then put ourselves on the path where all blessings flow. Blessings include provision. Psalm 111:5 says, He has given food to those who fear Him [with awe-inspired reverence];
He will remember His covenant forever.  God notices who reverences and worships Him. He will provide for them and never forget them. 

When I read about people in the Bible such as Abraham, Jacob and David, I like to think we are like them only living in a different day and time. This scripture tells me that this is true, Psalm 61:5, For You have heard my vows, O God;
You have given me the inheritance of those who fear Your name [with reverence]. We can have assurance that if we are reverencing and worshiping God as they did, that God is with us too. God is looking for people who will honor Him, put Him first!

And lastly, when we reverence and worship and then praise God, it keeps Satan away! I had a dream once where demons were messing with me and taunting me and I heard the Spirit of God tell me, evil can not inhabit the praises of God!  When we are actually praising God, evil can’t be present. That is comforting to know that evil can’t penetrate the praise we give to God! Luke 4:8, ⁸ Jesus replied to him, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.’”  This was what Jesus said to Satan when he tempted Jesus.

So, no matter what we do, keep worshiping and praising God! It should be like food is to our body. Do it all day, every day! Keep your head up and hold hands high!