Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!

Have you ever gotten up in the morning and by noon time wished that you had never risen from your bed? It seemed that every moment since you opened your eyes something went wrong?

Well, I’ve had a few of those days. There have been times when I experienced an awesome time of worship or an incredible time of prayer and praise or maybe just come through a major answer to a long awaited prayer. I think of times when we met and proclaimed the fact that God is able to do the impossible and that we need only to trust Him and watch Him do above all that we could ever ask or think. What an exciting thought! Ever have an experience like that and be up on the "mountaintop" and then the next day you realized that Satan listened in and wanted to challenge your new found excitement?

Why do we have days like that? Why do we have days when it just seems like everything, I mean everything, goes wrong and life just stinks? I sought God for an answer and here’s what He said,

"…This precious treasure – this light and power that now shines within you – is held in a Perishable container, that is, in your weak body. So that everyone can see that yourGlorious power is from God and is not your own. Mark, you are pressed on every sideBy troubles, but you are not crushed and broken. You are perplexed, but don’t you giveUp and quit. You are hunted down, but I will never abandon you. You get knockedDown, but get up again and keep going. Through suffering, your body constantly sharesIn the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in your body."(Personalization of 2 Cor. 47:10)

According to God’s Word, I should not be surprised by days like this. As a matter of fact, I should expect them. And when they come, I should remember to see it through His perspective and rejoice that He wants to use me to glorify His Name through my situation. It’s all about Him, and His glory, not me and my comfort! What a wake-up call.

"…That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are
Dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our
Present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long.
Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that
Will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see
Right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet
Seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys
To come will last forever." (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

~Whew, I needed that today, I hope it encourages you!
Because He lives,
Pastor MJ

Praise The LORD, O My Soul

“Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits

- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.”
Psalm 103:1-3

The rainfall over the past month has been incredible. Out of 31 days in May, 24 of them were blessed with rain. I say blessed, because I remember the many months of drought prior to May when we would be praying for God to open the flood gates. With that in mind, have you taken a moment as you ran to your car in a down pour or after you hurried outside to close your car window or as you were leaving the game mid-way due to a sudden storm, to stop and praise the Lord for the rain that He has graciously sent?

What else do you have to praise the Lord for and about today? David gets right to it and exhorts us to not just praise the Lord, but to do with everything that is within us. Our as I like to say, with our “everythingness”! Packed in the first three verses of Psalm 103 are four reasons why praise should flow out of the hearts of every believer!

1. Because the Lord is Holy – He is the only one who can claim this and we are blessed to be His children. (Vs. 1)
2. Because of all of God’s benefits toward us – Everything good in our lives, past present and future are from a gracious God who loves to bless His children with Good things! (Vs. 2)
3. Because of God’s forgiveness of our sins – Through Christ, your sins are cleansed and forgotten. God Himself paid a debt that He did not owe instead of us having to suffer a debt that we could not pay. (Vs. 3)
4. Because God heals all of our diseases – That’s right! Even if the most terrible disease is eating away at every fiber of your being today, if you know Jesus, one day, maybe in glory, you will be free; no more sickness, suffering or death. (Vs. 3)

Okay, are you doing a dance of praise yet? Take time today to give Him praise. Because, my friend, God is good – all the time and all the time – God is good! Amen!

Prepare For Worship

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84:1-2 NIV

I thought it was strange as a child that every Saturday night my family had to be home early. Why? We had to get ready for church! My parents told us that we needed to be rested and have our minds and hearts prepared for the Lord’s Day. Over the years I have come to not only appreciate what they taught, but have taken that understanding to another level.

In our daily lives we see the importance of preparation. Have you ever seen someone give a presentation that was unprepared? They lose track of what they are saying, they seem nervous, their thoughts are not clear and they come across in a loud way that what they were asked to do along with the audience that they were to do it for were not that important to them.

On the other hand have you ever seen a young person getting ready for a really important date? If the date is on Friday, they often begin days before preparing for the event. Guys go to the gym to buff up and girls eat like birds to make sure they fit into the special outfit. They wouldn’t think about showing up on Friday night unprepared. Why? Because the person they are meeting, in their minds, “hung the moon”!

What do you do to prepare for our corporate worship gatherings? It’s not a small matter that God takes this subject of preparation very seriously. Throughout Scripture we see that when people entered into the presence of God there were very specific ways they had to prepare and to enter. God required preparation and if not followed serious consequences were received. That is because God is a Holy God and flippant unprepared acts of worship did not show proper acknowledgement of who He was.

In this age of Grace we are not required to do many of the same things as were prescribed in the Older Testament, however, we worship the same God and He is no less worthy of our giving our all in preparing to enter His presence in worship. God expects and requires our hearts to be prepared. That takes effort on our part. Yes, it takes work and it takes time. But as David said, “… I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing." 1 Chr 21:24

This next week think about meeting with Him. Live in anticipation of meeting with the God of the universe! What can you do and how can you prepare to offer your best to Him. Let’s remember that He is worthy of our doing all we can do to bring Him our very best. And unlike getting ready for that special someone on a date, He actually did hang the moon!