Worship - Sole Occupation

Living a lifestyle of worship! As we look at a glimpse of heaven as portrayed in scripture we see that worship will be our sole occupation in heaven. I’ve been with over 22,000 believers shouting out to God while they worship Him with everything that is in them. It was an awesome sight to behold and to be a part of. But what will heaven be like? Well, we won’t know until we get there, however, we don’t have to wait to get there to live lives that worship Him day by day. How can we begin now what we will spend eternity doing?

Psalm 113:3 says, “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.” Most likely, the thing or person that you are the most in love with will occupy your mind and your thoughts at the beginning of your day. Is that God? How about starting the day off talking to the Lord? Take a moment and praise Him for the sunrise, for the ability to see the sunrise. Thank Him for one more day to serve Him here on this earth. Think about the blessings of the past week and take a moment before you begin your activities of the day and bow before Him and adore Him by singing a love song to Him. Use the words in scripture or let the emotion from your heart be poured out to Him.

In the middle of your day you are struggling. You have been wronged at work, you’re tired, you’ve got problems at home that you cannot get off of your mind and you’ve got financially problems that seem to pile up every day. During your lunch break or at your desk, take a moment and bow your head or get on your knees at your chair and pour your heart out to God. Tell Him that you are struggling and that you are at the end of your rope. Tell Him that you have been anxious and that your heart has not been focused on the right things. Confess everything that is on your heart to Him and tell Him that you need Him to step Him. Tell Him that He is worthy of you giving your all to Him and then do it.

As you drive home that evening and think over your day the Lord lays someone on your heart that you know is in need. The Holy Spirit prompts you to pray for them, do so and then ask God for wisdom and the words to say and then ask God what you can do to minister to them and show them His love and then do it. When you are done, praise Him for being a God who knows everything and is concerned about our every need.

Before you turn your lights out at night reflect on your day. Think about the ways that God revealed Himself to you through the day. The ways that He’s blessed you, protected you, provided for you and met you. Take the next moment and kneel by your bed and lift up praise and adoration to Him for being such an awesome God!

That’s a day filled with acts of worship. That’s a day where worship was our lifestyle. That’s a day when we put a smile on Father’s face. May we together live more and more days where we make it our goal to worship Him with our everythingness “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets”.

War Is Hell

War, it has been said, is “hell!” It indeed is a terribly awful experience as known by anyone who has been in one. People die; the innocent as well as the guilty. Homes are lost, lives are ruined, societies and landscapes alike are at times changed forever. As descriptive as the original one who coined that phrase is, it falls short of understanding what hell will be like. The most devastating war in history does not equal what a Christ-less hell will be like.

Amazingly enough, however, there are and have been men and women throughout history who have been willing to put their lives on the line and in many cases give their lives in war so that a cause would succeed.

The Bible describes a cause that comes from the God of the universe. It tells us that this cause, a restoration of relationship with Himself and His creation, was important enough for Him to enter a war in which many would die, but in this war the supreme sacrifice would be made in order to secure eternal victory. The King would give His life in order to defeat the powers of hell. (John 3:16)

Today, as we reflect on and celebrate the Lord’s Supper, let us never forget this memorial event. Jesus entered a war that had as its stake the souls of mankind. The result of a loss would have ended with every man, woman and child enduring an eternal separation from God. But glory to God, Christ is victorious and has overcome sin, death and hell with the price of His own blood. However, failure to receive this free gift from the Savior will still result in eternal separation from God in a hell where the pain and suffering and ravages of a spiritual war will last unquenchable forever.

One day the wars on earth will cease. Where we will spend eternity will determine whether or not we’ll experience the reality of that opening statement. My friend, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, allow Him to make today your spiritual birthday. Receive His free gift that he fought for in the war of all wars and won! If you already have, make a commitment today to tell this good news to as many others as possible. Shout it out loud, Jesus saves!!! Praise and worship Him for that truth this week.

Pastor MJ

Don't Brag About Tomorrow

“Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don't know

what the day will bring”.

Proverbs 27:1

Yesterday, we remembered as a nation the 9th anniversary of the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. That will be a day that I will never forget. I was ministering at a church in New Jersey that morning as I heard the news of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I immediately ran next door to the youth pastor's home and watched the events unfold on TV. As the day continued the news got worse as I learned that some people whom I knew, some whom I had just seen the day before in church were in those buildings. It would be days before we knew the hard truth that some would never return. As I drove back in forth to work for several days the reality hit me like a ton of bricks as I passed the parking lot by the train station to NYC only to see cars that did not move and would be later towed away, the owners never to return.

A couple of weeks later after talking with a member of the worship team who got out alive, I was reminded of the loose way we have to hold on to things in this life. How we cannot, as the bible says, boast about tomorrow, because we don't know what the next moment will bring.

I've never seen people pull together, fill churches, look out for others the way that I saw people respond during that time. As my sister in-law walked across the bridge from Manhattan into New Jersey from the Empire State building, people were waiting there just to offer rides to perfect strangers. The amazing thing about this event is what seemingly happened just five to six months later. When the dust settled and the danger didn’t seem eminent, people began to go back to normal and life their lives like before, not remembering the unsure nature of tomorrow.

How would you live your life if you knew that today was your last day on earth? More than that, how would you live it if you knew that your life would end in a tragic way that would affect your family for the rest of their lives? Would you talk differently? Would you make different decisions? Would you spend more time with them? If you knew you would be in the presence of Jesus tomorrow, would you try and get to know Him better before you see Him? If you knew that you’d be entering into eternity tomorrow, would you want to firm up where you’d be spending it?

Truth be told, the guarantee of the state of our lives today is no different than it was for those men, women and children in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania in 2006 before the first plane struck. None of us knows what tomorrow will bring, and with that in mind we should live each day, each moment to it’s full, in a way that is pleasing to the Lord so that what ever moment here we enter a timeless eternity, our Lord will greet us with a huge “well-done!”

As you worship today, take this moment and express your praise to Him like it was your last, and if it is, wonderful, if not praise Him even more. If you are blessed to be here tomorrow, take a moment and remember all that you have to be thankful for and tell those that you can things that you should and that you might not be able to tell them tomorrow.

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

Do not boast about tomorrow,

for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Proverbs 27:1

There are not many things that we can be sure of. None of us can wake up tomorrow morning and say that your job, your marriage, your finances, your home, your health or anything else are for sure. Many people in New Orleans and Mississippi built homes and businesses in recent years believing that they’d be there for a very long time if not forever. Today they are left with the clothes on their backs and their lives and some have less than that. There is only one thing that we can be sure of and that is God’s Word. Whatever God says will come to pass. Things He says about history, promises that He makes and things He claims about Himself are for sure.

The book of Romans gives us hope against all hope as we see God’s Word declaring truths about what He has done for us and Paul tells us what our responses should be towards this Awesome God. Listen for a moment to the voice of God: “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (8:1); “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him…” (8:28); “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8); “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (8:38).

How do we respond to a God who has done so much for us and who did so even at the expense of His being responsible for the death of His only Son? We do so by renewing our minds (12:2), by using the gifts we’ve been given for His glory (12:4-8), and by living lives of obedience and living worshipfully each day walking with the God of our salvation, singing this song with our lives:

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and

Knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments,

and His paths beyond tracing out!

Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God

That God should repay Him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

Today, let’s worship Him with everything within us. He’s worth the effort.