God Loves Me
Posted by jerrywhite on Sep 29, 2008
If you should ask me how it is possible that one day
that I shall stand glorified with my Lord,
The answer is that I am justified.
If you should ask how it is possible that I should be justified,
I would answer you that I was called.
And if you ask me why I should be called,
the answer is that I was predestined.
And if you ask me why I should be predestined,
the answer is that he loved me.
And if you were to ask me why He loved me…
I have no answer.
My words give way to worship.
Author unknown
~~~
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)
~~~
Clear heart vision of the Lord in all of His wondrous beauty, and heart understanding of what He has done for you because of His everlasting love, cannot help but bring a deep heartfelt response of gratitude, adoration, and worship. It is all too easy to lose sight of Him because of the world’s distractions. Regular private worship helps keep focus on the Lord Jesus and distils refreshment upon one’s soul by His presence.
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Failure To Worship
Posted by jerrywhite on Sep 25, 2008
“I say the greatest tragedy in the world today is that God has made man in His image and made him to worship Him, made him to play the harp of worship before the face of God day and night, but he has failed God and dropped the harp. It lies voiceless at his feet.”
A. W. Tozer
Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church, pp. 12-13
~~~
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:23-24 (ESV)
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
Psalm 96:9 (ESV)
~~~
To worship is
to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God,
to feed the mind with the truth of God,
to purge the imagination by the beauty of God,
to open the heart to the love of God,
to devote the will to the purpose of God.
William Temple
Source unknown
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The Attitude of Worship
Posted by jerrywhite on Sep 21, 2008
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
Psalm 29:2 (ESV)
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
Psalm 95:6 (ESV)
~~~
The attitude of worship
is the attitude of a subject bent before the King.
[True worship requires a humble heart before the reigning Lord.]
The attitude of worship
is the attitude of a child yielding all its love to its Father.
[True worship requires total submission before the sovereign Lord]
The attitude of worship
is the attitude of the sheep that follows the leading of the Shepherd,
and is content in all that pasturage which He appoints.
[True worship is obedience to whatever the Lord’s Word commands.]
It is the attitude
of saying Yes to everything that God says.
[True worship is a bondservant obeying all his Master’s will.]
Source unknown
~~~
True worshippers worship in private as well as corporately. They take time to be alone for personal worship of the Lord Jesus because they love Him so much. Their heart longs to focus on Him without distraction. They find the time to be with Him alone regardless of the demands of life.
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Oneness With Christ
Posted by jerrywhite on Sep 18, 2008
“The believer is said to be in Christ, as the element or atmosphere which surrounds him with its perpetual presence and which constitutes his vital breath.
Christ and the believer have the same life. They are not separate persons linked together by some temporary bond of friendship, — they are united by a tie as close and indissoluble as if the same blood ran in their veins.”
A. H. Strong
Systematic Theology, pp. 797, 802
~~~
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 (ESV)
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (ESV)
~~~
Our Lord Jesus, by His life’s blood poured out, purchased for us complete cleansing from all of sin’s defilement before Holy God. Not even one faint stain remains. His atoning sacrifice cleanses completely. This perfect cleansing by His perfect sacrifice prepares believers to become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, their bodies becoming the very temple of God. The Holy Spirit, who is the living third person of the Trinity, and One who is exactly like the Lord Jesus, invades the believer’s inner being at conversion and joins Himself to the spirit of that person. This incomprehensible result is the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of the believer actually become one so that Christ is in the believer and the believer is in Christ, like the Son is in His Father and the Father is in His Son. This means that wherever you go today, and whatever you do, Christ with all of His beauty and power is in you wanting to express His life through you for the Father’s glory. What difference would it make if you and I lived with this powerful awareness, “I and the Lord Jesus Christ are one in this frail human body?”
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Dependence Plus Discipline
Posted by jerrywhite on Sep 15, 2008
“Dependence is critical, but there is no growth in the Christian life apart from discipline and self-control…. Spirituality is not instantaneous or haphazard; it is developed and refined. The Epistles are full of commands to believe, obey, walk, present, fight, reckon, hold fast, pursue, draw near, and love. The spiritual life is progressively cultivated in the disciplines of faith; you and I will not wake up one morning to find ourselves suddenly spiritual. This is why Paul uses the metaphors of an athlete, a soldier, and a farmer to illustrate the discipline of the Christian life…. We grow in godliness as we hear and obediently respond to the Word.”
Kenneth Boa
Conformed to His Image, p. 76
~~~
Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
1 Timothy 4:7 (NASB)
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
1 Corinthians 9:25 (ESV)
~~~
Love is the compelling motive, and choices for discipline is love’s expression. Love for the Lord Jesus prevents discipline from becoming drudgery and obedience legalism. Rather, love enables right choices to be made with joy and delight. Our Lord Jesus loves His Father with His whole being. Therefore, while on earth it was His food to do the Father’s will regardless of how hard the choice might have been (John 4:34).
His yoke for us is easy because it is a love relationship of intimacy and pleasure with one another. It is a double yoke, which requires nearness and pulling together. Loving the Lord Jesus with all of one’s being, and living in His fullness, motivates one to exercise discipline and self-control in order to become like Him.
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