Come, Let Us Sing

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3 KJV

I was in Miss Richardson's seventh grade music theory/sight reading class at Sydney Lanier Junior High in Houston, Texas - longer ago than any of us wants to remember. She taught the beauty of blended voices; two-, three-, four-, and even five-part harmony! It was there in that college-sized classroom that I first imagined what Heaven's choir might sound like as the acapella voices choreographed in perfect harmony rang out in strains of the Navy Hymn, ♪♫ Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm doth bind the restless wave...♪♫

For years, I was adamant about perfection of the parts. Always striving for perfection. Then one day, I was prompted to read this Scripture passage again, so I did. Again. So I did. Again! What was I missing? 

Our Promise for Today reads make a joyful noise. It doesn't say one thing about perfection. It says absolutely nothing about perfect harmony or carrying the melody line. 

So, even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket with handles and help - Come let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord our God - for He is a great God! And worthy to be praised!

Prayer:

Father,
            We come, singing unto You. We will make a joyful noise to You - the rock of our salvation. We come before Your presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto You with words of praise. For You are a great God, and a great King above all gods. We want to worship You in Spirit and in Truth. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

If We Believe

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
James 2:26 KJ21

Do you ever wonder why you do some of the things you do - the ones you wish you didn't do? Are you willing to seek and find the answer, the root of why?

The Truth is - What we believe determines our actions. I'm not talking about mental assent; agreeing with the possibility or likelihood of something. I'm talking about truly believing. For instance, how about God?

Mental assent agrees there is a God or likely a 'higher power', but it really doesn't change the way the he/she conducts business or treats others. Mental assent assumes he/she is basically a good person and that all 'good' people go to heaven. 

Truly believing that God is who He says He is will change your life. It will change the way you do business, the way you treat all others (not just those you know.) It will change your priorities and your activities in life. It will change how and where you spend your hard-earned money. Yes, your money...

True faith in God and His Word will cause us to do good works. If we believe.

Prayer:

Father,
          We want our faith to be alive and growing in You. Open Your Word to us in new ways. Reveal Yourself to us so that we may be more and more like You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen 

Treasure Hunting

This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding. For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:2-3 The Living Bible

Did you ever hunt treasure when you were a child? What a great adventure! Quartz that sparkled like diamonds; iron pyrite that you just knew was real gold. And the wealth of it was going to solve all your problems. How sad you might have been to discover that while pretty to look at and sparkly to behold, your young dreams were dashed by the reality of imitation minerals and stones.

What treasures do you seek now? Things that sparkle and shine? Where are you digging for the buried treasure? Is your map reliable?

If we will seek the treasures that are eternal, we have the perfect map - Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Verse 3 of our text for today tells it perfectly, For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself. In Him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Let's not settle for shiny imitations. Let us seek our True Treasure - the One whose light will always shine true for us.

Prayer:

Father,
            Thank You for providing everything we need for the grandest adventure of all. Help us to walk firmly in the paths You have laid out for us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

*The S Word

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. 

Romans 12:1-2a NLT

The S word... Sacrifice.

When I think of sacrifice, I think of death. Something has to be killed to be considered a sacrifice - whether it was a bull in biblical times or the desires today that we choose to lay down (kill) within ourselves. Our Promise for Today is about giving our bodies to God as a LIVING and holy sacrifice - so basically to lay ourselves on His altar...

And to stop crawling off the altar to get away from the fire of His holiness.

Just something to think about.

Prayer:

Father,

          Please continue to draw us closer so that the dross and impurities in our lives are burned away in the fire of Your holy presence. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

WWW

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2nd Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

How often do we utilize the world-wide web (www) to find answers to our questions? I am amazed (and often dismayed) at what can be found by typing a few words into a favorite search engine. Although, I once tore down a washing machine, fixed it and put it back together based on what I'd found on the WWW.

However, often times, a minute piece of information may be omitted, be incorrect or not verified (such as in Wikipedia), but perhaps we don't find out until it's already too late. Or we take everything at face value because it's written in black and white. That can make for some troubling times.

There is only one truly trustworthy source of information. I use it as my personal search engine. It's the WWW that never leaves me dismayed. It doesn't leave anything out of the equation, so I can always get the information - ALL the information - that I need. You know I'm talking about the Bible. It's God's Words, Way and Will for our lives. WWW. Go ahead. Search for anything. It has all the answers.

Prayer:

Father,
          Give us wisdom in how to better search out Your Holy Scriptures for the answers we need to live our lives for You. Continue to provide Your strength so that we will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Look, Dad! Watch me!!

The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.
Psalm 34:15 NLT

The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 
2nd Chronicles 16:9a NLT

In my memories are those of my daughter calling to her father, "Look, Dad! Watch what I can do!" And my youngest granddaughter, echoing the same sentiment to her father, "Look, Dad! Dad! Watch me!" Do you have a similar memory?

There are MANY Scriptures we could point to about wanting God to listen, and asking Him if He is, but how often do we think about God watching us? I mean other than the times you hope He's NOT watching...

The Truth is He not only knows it all - He sees it all. Yes, all of it, but it's not to try to catch us doing something wrong! He wants to see us doing what is right! That's what He's looking for! Hearts that are committed to Him, who want to please Him, no matter what!

He wants to strengthen those hearts! He watches over us. He rejoices over us with singing, according to His Word. In Jeremiah 24:6a, God says, "For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up..." What do you think about that? I'll tell you how I feel about it...

Hey, Dad! Look! Look, Dad! Watch me!

Prayer:

Father,
         You're a good, good Father! It's who You are, and we're loved by You! Thank You for watching us and watching over us. Thank You for hearing our cries for help and for strengthening our hearts. Keep us ever mindful of being fully committed to You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen 

Know It All

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
1st Corinthians 13:12b NLT

God's Word tells us in Proverbs 4:7 NKJV, Wisdom is the principal thing;  Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

You've heard it said, "What you don't know won't hurt you." Do you believe that? Is it a trustworthy statement? How much of what we don't know can hurt us in some way? And yet, try as we might, we can't possibly know it all... All that we know is partial and incomplete.

Here's the good news. There's only one thing we have to know. We have to know God. He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. All-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10)
He knows it all. 

And if we will spend our time knowing Him, then one day soon, He will welcome us with "Well done, good and faithful servant..." THEN we will know everything - completely.

Prayer:

Father, 
          Keep us ever mindful that You are God and we are not. That You know everything and we don't. We want to know You more. Teach us, Father. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen