Adoration Time

On November 14, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 2: 12

“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”

Okay, it’s official. This Christmas season has begun. So now, I can start my Christmas celebration.

I love Christmas and I have already been playing and singing Christmas music. I was touched by the line, “Come let us adore him.” What a beautiful petition. Come friends, let us adore Christ in our actions, words and thoughts. I was touched by this thought but also chagrined as I realized how often I have heard those words and that is all they were, words in a song. It is amazing to me how we can sing such songs and sometimes remain untouched by them. What a great message for us, though, as we enter the Yuletide season. Come, one and all, let us find breath and sentiment to adore the Christ.

One of the things I have noticed this year already is how happy and light my heart becomes as I sing Christmas songs. The child who came brought with him salvation for all. That is worthy of praise. He also brought joy, a joy so deep and so broad that time cannot mark its boundaries. It is a joy so profound that your human heart is altered as you experience it. You feel it in your body and you may even find yourself a little giddy. No wonder Christmas makes children of us all. The joy Christ has poured into our hearts is most easily expressed in a childlike fashion.

I encourage you to give into that innocent joy. As you sing Christmas carols, give yourself over to the exultant emotion within. Let your heart be reborn in the simplicity of the Christ child. Lift your voice to give God praise and experience the overwhelming sense of love and acceptance.

Let me be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. As we enter this season of great joy I pray that the presence of Jesus will be with you more strongly than ever before and that you will find your heart lifted on the wings of his love. Come friends, “let us adore him, Christ, the Lord.”

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Be Blessed

On August 16, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 112: 1 – 3

Praise the Lord! How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on the earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

Every now and again we need to hear and be reminded of the blessing of the Lord for those who love Him. We can soak in these words; breathe them in and let them fill the tired and weary parts of our soul, rejuvenating the very marrow of our bones.

The Lord is great and full of love and compassion for His kids. His lovingkindness plays throughout our lives and even dances on the cells of our bodies. His words, His expressions of kindness are salve to the spirit. All the words and all the thoughts of the Lord are for your well-being. God Almighty is a blessing to you and longs to fill your life with the power, joy and glory of His might. He fills your soul with blessing and empowers your success and your peace.

All things, in the Lord, are peace and joy. We need to learn to breathe Him in with every inhalation. He is more than enough and yet we never seem to have enough of Him. We always want more of Him. And so, we seek Him and yearn for Him and for the day when we will be saturated with Him.

For those who love the Lord, there is wealth, riches and enduring righteousness. He has poured Himself out so that we may be full of His goodness. The glory of His kindness to we, His children, shall shine through the ages. Eventually, all the world will see and know the greatness of our God through the lovingkindness which He demonstrates in our lives.

I pray the blessing of the Lord chases you down in the street today, overtakes you and overflows to you. As you are blessed, you can bless the nations. I pray the blessing of your life shines brightly and brings praise to our Father and Lord. Amen.

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No Problem

On June 20, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Psalm 40: 1 – 4

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear, and will trust in the Lord.

I found this today while I was searching out another topic and thought it was the sort of good news you may be happy to hear. It is all good and reassuring but what struck me was that the writer, David, waited patiently for the Lord. Maybe that is where I miss it sometimes.

His patient waiting is an indication of his trust in the Lord. Despite the circumstances, regardless of the fear and worry raging in his heart, David learned how to stay at peace and trust that God was going to make an appearance. It worked too. David waited and God showed up and took care of all of the problems. The next thing we hear from David is that he is singing praises to the King.

David’s example can be an example to us all and that is what David expected. Many will read his words and, through him, experience the grace of God. Through this vicarious encounter with God, we can all learn to trust in the Lord.

I know you have struggles. If you are breathing, there are still challenges to be worked out. No problem! We have a God who specializes in problems. We just need to learn to roll the care of all of those situations over onto Him and then in fullness of trust, wait patiently for our savior to work it all out. Our part is to believe, trust and sing. I think I can do this. How about you?

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Beautiful

On January 26, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 27: 2 – 3

When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident.

This is one of those passages where we really need to slow down and savor every word. How amazing these statements are! David wrote this about the actual challenges he faced. His enemy tripped and fell when they arranged themselves against him. Where would your heart be; how strong your confidence if a host quite literally surrounded you? Why David’s immense confidence?

David had experience with God’s power; specifically His power to protect and rescue him. In verse two David tells us very clearly that his enemies, who were evildoers, pursued him meaning to devour him. These were angry, violent men who meant to destroy David physically and even to wipe the memory of him off of the face of the earth. David stood and beheld the glory of the Lord though. He watched as his adversaries “stumbled”. Do you know who the stumbling block is? Jesus is the stumbling block. David was saved many times by the mighty hand of the Lord.

Why were David’s enemies unable to defeat him? I believe the answer is in verse 4 of this same chapter. David writes, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” There is David’s secret weapon. He adored God. He thought the Lord beautiful, so beautiful, in fact, that all he wanted to do was to be in the Lord’s presence and admire Him. Wow! No wonder his enemies stumbled. How could they even get to David? Well, they couldn’t and I imagine part of the reason is because an angelic host camped around him. I believe they were drawn to David’s adoration of the Lord. God inhabits the praise of His people. That makes a pretty amazing shield but I just think that all sorts of heavenly beings are attracted to an atmosphere of adulation. I can believe they want to soak in those genuine and sincere feelings. They must have flocked to David’s side to join in the worship David offered our God. In a very real sense, though this is a spiritual reality, David’s enemies couldn’t get to him through the heavenly host. They stumbled over angels.

The spiritual things of the world are quite real. Angels are real. We do not interact with them very well because we are very anchored in the three dimensions of the physical world. There is a fourth dimension, though and believe me, spiritual beings can interact with the physical world. Angels actually are ministering spirits that our Father has provided to us. So, just because you do not see them easily, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. You usually cannot see air either but I bet you depend on its presence. I believe that David’s praise, worship, admiration and adoration of the Lord, brought heaven to earth in a very real sense and he gained very real, tangible and substantive help because of it. His desire was to spend his days admiring the one true love of his life, the Father, and it brought the power of God to bear in the earth.

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Thankfully Seeking

On October 11, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 16: 11


Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually.

This verse is placed in a “Psalm of Thanksgiving” found in First Chronicles. I find it interesting that in the midst of a Song of Thanksgiving David would include these words. This was his source of strength. He recognized that his source of Thanksgiving came from his seeking of the Lord. His great praise comes from his having sought the Lord on many occasions. He knew that he was enjoying this wonderful time of praise because he sought his Lord prior to the abundance of blessing.

We learn from this passage that the blessing is in the seeking. In other words, when we seek the Lord, we find the multitude of blessings that are just naturally a part of Him. David is teaching us that we should praise and thank the Lord but that we should also remember to continue to seek God’s face continually. Jesus prepared a way for us to commune with he and the father and it is in that communion with them that the greatest blessing is found. Then there is great ground for praise and worship.

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So Glad

On October 10, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 16: 8 – 9


O give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders.


Now there is a beautiful picture of praise. Here speaks the voice of one who is truly grateful for all the Lord has done and for who he is. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of all that the Lord has done for us so that we can be just as jubilant as was David in the above passage. I have to remind myself but once I get started I find there is an infinite well from which I can draw. Then it becomes easy to speak of all that He has done in your life. His wondrous deeds begin to bubble out of you. Sometimes when you begin to think of what the Lord has done it is hard to get past the blood of Jesus. That alone can fill you with praise. Think on all the things you have and all that God has done for you and then sing praises to Him.
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Appointed Praise

On October 4, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 16: 4

And he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel.

King David erected a tent to house the Ark of the Covenant. On the day that he had the Ark moved to the tent, he sent singers and musicians before the ark and he, himself, also sang and danced before the procession. After the ark was placed in the tent, King David made offerings to the Lord. When he finished making the offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord and then he appointed a whole group of people to celebrate before the ark. There were people who played instruments, some even who blew trumpets continually. They were assigned to bring praise to the name of the Lord and to give thanks. It was important enough that the King involved himself in seeing it done.

These days we do not have priests to perform these tasks for us. We have entered into an intimacy with the Lord such that we do not need intercessors or mediators between us and our father. Jesus purchased our way to the father. We can now lay our own petitions at the feet of the father ourselves. That means, though, that we must also learn to praise and give thanks for ourselves. David setup a system whereby there was always someone in the tent offering thanks and praise to the father. That suggests to me that we are to be in a continual state of thanksgiving and praise. Even as you remind the Lord of the things for which you ask, offer your praise and honor him. Tell him how grateful you are to even be able to come into his presence. Let him hear how you love him and trust him. And really, if you will do that first, before you begin to petition him, you will find that your asking will change in tone. You will have a different perspective on his provision, more confidence and assurance I think. And that also will please the Lord.

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