Praising God

Tad warmer today, but still in the low to mid 80’s which is comfortable when outside.  Overcast with a small potential of rain.  We are just getting enough to spot the cars so they have to be rewashed, but not enough to really give the garden much of a thirst quencher.

Since we will be home over Labor day we can dodge the raindrops without any difficulty.  I know several families that are camping or at least trying to enjoy outside activities where rain can be a damper, especially for the last official days of summer, but so be it.

Teresa and Ian came by for lunch, fixed another deep dish pizza, half Hawaiian and half hamburger and onion, plus peppers and left over steak.  I goofed on the pineapple, it was a bit moister than I figured, but it was good.  The crust this time was better – I put cheese down first THEN the pizza sauce, if it hadn’t been for the pineapple it would have been nice and crisp underneath – live and learn.  

Throughout God’s Word it is written that He wants our praise.  He doesn’t need it for His ego, He wants us to praise Him because we have realized Who He is and all the things He has done for us.  Whether we worship together as a body of believers, in the church or in private dwellings or meeting rooms in restaurant, or in the private closet of our private prayer and meditations with Him – it is important to praise God.

Psalm 95:6-7   O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
⁷ For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

I can remember talking to a fellow believer one time about how I came into the Foursquare Church services and couldn’t believe how loud it was – he said not all churches are like that.  I thought two things as we talked about it, one, he was correct, the manner of praise is not as important as the fact we give praise to God for all He has done.  The second was, how sad it is that these people don’t feel the joy and the release of their emotions as they openly praise God with a loud and clear voice. 

2 Chronicles 5:11-14 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course:
¹² Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)
¹³ It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord;
¹⁴ So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.

God inhabited the praises of His people that day.  They were of one accord in their focus on Him, they were so enthusiastic that He came down to dwell among them and show them how pleased He was with their recognition of who He is.  It is an amazing thing to be praising God and have Him come down in His Spirit and walk among us.  Touching us and raising our spirits to His.  WE can experience this same blessing given by God by praising Him without reservation – it can be quietly if that is how you praise Him, but the heart needs to be opened up and the mind fully on Him.  It is not so much the manner of praise, but the fact that it is genuine praise to God for who He is, His touch during those times is beyond anything a person can describe, only experience.

How wonderful it would be if come next Sunday everyone in the world had to move the worship of God outside their churches because His house was filled with His Glory.  The testimony to our communities would be undeniable and the results could very much be like the results when Peter prayed at the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon him and the others in the upper room – 3000 people were saved as a result of their curiosity – wondering what was going on in that upper room – the leading of the Holy Spirit within and through Peter and the movement of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of those 3000.

Let us pray that we will be so focused on our God and our praises to Him, that He will move on us and our communities.  We need a revival in our land, but it must start first within the hearts of believers and the churches they attend.  We must invite God to take a prominent place in our hearts and not worry about what others will think, what programs we should offer, or how we appear to the outside world and try to fit in with their views of what a Christian should be like.

If we open our hearts to God, read His Word, praise Him and allow His Holy Spirit to move within us we will see God’s mighty hand moving across the globe and many come to know God and Salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 107:8, 15, 21, 31 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

May our focus, at all times, be on God.  May our mouth use His name in praise to glorify Him as we go about our daily lives.  Let our testimony of God’s greatness and love shine through to others.  May our testimony of His love be done in a humble spirit with the truth of His righteousness in the forefront for all to see.

When we look at our world through the praises to our God, we see it differently.  We see it as the creation of God and the need of all to understand that creation and accept the Creator.  He speaks through every leaf, blade of grass, cloud in the sky and the mountain in that background.  He can be seen in the pet at our side, the river as it travels to the sea and the sea itself.  This wonderful world was created by Him, He truly is, as the Psalmist says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

Later, Art :-)