I Stand In Awe

“Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son."

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"”

Genesis 18:10-12

It continually makes me stand in awe as I think that the King of kings and Lord of lords loves me. And not that he loves me alone, but also desires for me to be in relationship with Him. As I read through Scriptures, I notice several times when God is so grieved over man’s unfaithfulness, sin and rebellion, that He states that it is His desire to destroy them. However, as wicked as man has been, God has never destroyed all of mankind. And as a matter of fact, on many occasions, because of the prayers of faithful men, God changed his plan.

No matter how many times God proved his faithfulness, no matter how many times He proved that His promises are true, men and women through Scripture and still today cry, keep silent and or laugh in disbelief because of our lack of faith. Sarah was such a person. God had told Abraham and then Sarah that through them many nations would be born and blessed. Sarah had a hard time believing that especially since she was 90 and Abraham at this time was 100 years old. She had been barren that long, how could she possibly give birth for the first time now?

The Bible teaches that, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2Peter 3:9) Now, I imagine that God was at least hurt at Sarah’s disbelief, but His was probably also angry. He had provided, led, and guided them without fail up to this point and still she laughed with disbelief. Yet God kept all of His promises, remained faithful and delivered. Right on time!

What a gracious, loving, forgiving God we serve that in spite of our doubt, He still blesses. In spite of our fear, He still delivers! In spite of our unfaithfulness, He remains faithful. Do you agree that we indeed have reason to praise him for his faithfulness?

Take a week and do so.

Jury Room

“We the jury, find the defendant…”

As I sit here in the Central Jury Room awaiting the judge to arrive, my mind is racing about our American judicial system and how it works. In just moments or possibly hours, I could be called in to take part in someone’s “Jury of their peers”, with all of my pre-judgments, faults, misconceptions, experience, good and bad.

During the process of “Voir Dire” is in place for the judge and attorneys to search for biases among the potential jurors that might prevent them from being fair and impartial. For example, if I woke up that morning and saw someone vandalizing my mailbox and I showed up at the court that morning and the case that I’d be sitting on involved someone accused of vandalism, then they probably would not choose me to be on that case because of my inability to be “fair and impartial”.

As I dwelt on this process, I began to think of standing before God one day: The moment when I stand before the Judge of the universe who has watched me every moment of my life and knows even the depth of my thoughts and motives. He has watch me “vandalize His mailbox” and more and I’m standing trial for “all of the above”. In reality, I’m doomed before I even come before Him. The evidence is beyond any doubt and is clear.

However, there is a person in the “court room”; actually, it’s the Son of the Judge standing by and when all of the evidence is presented, He stands and says to His Father, “I’ve already paid Mark’s debt, as He holds out His nail scarred hands.” At which point the Judge speaks the words, “Mark, you are free. All debts are paid and sins forgiven. Welcome home, my child.” The “tapes” from the security cameras are destroyed and all records and evidence of wrong-doing are annihilated, forever.

My friend, take a moment today and wrap you mind around this thought today and as you do allow your worship to be a response of gratitude to the One who has paid the debt that neither you nor I could ever pay. Glory to His Name: JESUS!

“…I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.”
Hebrews 10:17 (The Message)

I Surrender All

“All to Jesus, I surrender; all to Him I freely give! I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence freely live. I surrender all, I surrender all. All to Thee, my precious Savior, I surrender all!

How many times have you sung that hymn? How many times do you feel like I have while singing it, like a total hypocrite? I surrender all. When I am hit with the truth of what that statement means, I have often had to fall on my knees and tell the Lord that I have failed to keep that commitment, especially in the areas that are really precious to me and that seem to bring be the most comfort, like a favorite pillow that has been around for years, or like a “pet “sin.

God is calling us to surrender our all to Him. As we read His Word and listen to His Spirit, we realize that there is nothing we could ever give up that comes close to comparing with what He gives us in return! Neither does anything compare to what He gave up for us. The greatest thing that comes between us and total surrender to God is fear: fear that God will not be worth it, fear that “bad stuff” will happen, and fear that we could never give our all to God. We need not fear because the Holy Spirit is standing by waiting to walk us into a relationship with our Father, a relationship that we can’t even imagine.

What is holding you back today from giving your utmost for His highest, from giving your best for His glory? Whether it is a “pet” sin, unforgiveness, fear, food, an unequally yoked relationship, materialism, work, or family, ask yourself if holding on to that sin brings you more comfort or happiness and joy than you believe God can. Whatever your answer is, God is standing right by your side waiting to have a loving, totally surrendered relationship with you that will fulfill your purpose for being here; it is why you were created!

As we worship together this week, ask Father to reveal to you the areas in your life that need to be fully surrendered! Let’s join together and lay them at His feet today.

“I will offer up my life in spirit and truth, pouring out the oil of love
as my worship to You. In surrender I must give my every part;
Lord, receive the sacrifice of a broken heart.
You deserve my every breath for You’ve paid the great cost…”
(Matt Redman)

Goodie Bags

One of the things that amazes me about children’s birthday parties is the tradition of “goodie” bags. You know, those small gifts that parents give to the guests as a way of saying “thank you” for coming to a party.

The thing that amazes me about that tradition is not the gift, but what I’ve seen happen in some children’s attitude towards those gifts. There are some children who are disappointed if there are no goodie bags or if the gifts inside are not up their standards. Some children come to parties now expecting that they will be treated just for showing up. Take notice sometime, a child goes to a party. They are welcomed, they are treated to a series of fun games and given drinks, prizes, cake, ice cream, sometimes pizza or hot dogs and if they are really lucky they get to go roller skating, swimming or do something cool like inside rock climbing. And this is what the guests get to do. Sometimes it’s really hard to tell who the guest of honor is. However, the disappointing part is not that the guests get treated well, that’s wonderful, the problem comes when the lines get blurred of why they are really there and when a child comes to expect that they will be treated special at someone else’s birthday party.

This is not just a problem that children have. Even as adults we see this so prevalent in our culture. Have you every look around at Christmas time? Who’s birthday is it really? Compare the gifts that we get to the ones that are given to Him during that time of the year. We’ve been so blessed that we’ve come to expect to be blessed and as a result we often lose sight of the blessing giver and that it’s really about celebrating Him.

We do that often in our corporate worship. We plan services around the pleasure of the people we want to reach. We preach sermons around what people want to hear. We come into services wondering whether or not our favorite song or speaker will be on the “menu” today. If you walk into many services today around the country you’d have to wonder who the focus of the service was . And what is on our mind when we walk in? Do we wonder what we are going to receive today? Or do on the other hand consider what we can bring to bring pleasure to our Master, the true Guest of Honor? May there never be a mistake when someone walks into our gatherings who everything was prepared for.

One of the wonderful things about our Lord is that as we put Him in His rightful place, we will always receive. He is so good.

Now, remember this principle today and if you can celebrate your mother for mother’s day and please don’t let her cook for you. It’s about her today! Honoring her is one way we can worship God today! MJ

Fall At His Feet To Worship

At this I fell at his feet to worship. But he said to me,

"Do not do it... Worship God!" (Rev. 19:10 NIV)

As John was caught up with what he was seeing in heaven he was so overcome with the culture of praise and worship and being in the presence of the Almighty that he began to worship the messenger of God rather than the God of the message. The angel reminded him that there is only one who is worthy to be worshipped and that is God Almighty! We are created to be worshippers. Every created being is made with the ability and the drive to worship, to give worth to something, someone higher than themselves.

The problem comes when the object of our worship is wrong. Since the beginning of time people have been worshipping “out of focus”. This happens when we see incredible things coming from something that has been created and we become so focused on the beauty, the talent, the power, the love, the comfort, or the provision that we forget where those things ultimately originated from.

Lest we think that only those who worship trees, the sun, feet, or animals are the only ones off course, consider some of the things even many Christians can fall into the trap of worshipping and by doing so, ascribe more worth to the creation than to the Creator.

Financial stability – instead of worshipping the One who provides.
A loved one – instead of worshipping the One
who brought the loved one into our lives.
A sports hero – instead of worshipping the one
who gave them their talents and abilities.
The tools of worship – instead of worshipping the Object of our worship.
Physical beauty – instead of worshipping the One
who fashioned the beautiful one.

God is the only one worthy to receive our worship. Today, ask the Lord to reveal in your life where this may be true. Is it your finances, your family or even your religion? Talk to Him about it today and make the journey back to the place where He receives the worship that He is worthy of. Be sure to thank Him for the gift, but never allow your thankfulness for the gift to get in the way of your worship of the Giver.

Pastor MJ