Showing posts with label heaven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heaven. Show all posts

Sunday

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 136


Each Sunday I choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 136 





This Psalm falls into 5 parts:



V. 1-3
God


V. 4-9
Creation


V. 10-22
Redemption


V. 23-25
Love


V. 26
Hope


This Psalm starts and ends with two almost identical verses - verse 1 and verse 26


However they are each placed specifically at those important points.


We Start with God's Goodness



God.
He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords.
 He is Good, He is Merciful and He is Love and His goodness, mercy and love will never end.
 How could we not be thankful?





Creation.
He is full of wonder and creative power.
All that is on, above and around the earth was made by Him.


Redemption.
He provided our Salvation right from the start.
Our lives should be a witness to that.


Love.
He is the one who always sees, cares, and acts on behalf of His people.


Hope.
Even though we have not seen Heaven or can properly understand Heaven we believe in God so we believe in Heaven because we know His love is not going to end.









The Psalm is a portrait of our lives with Him.

 How He is good to us and draws us 
through our knowledge of 
His Greatness, Salvation and Love 
to the culmination of a 
Home 
perfectly prepared for us by Him.



We end with Heaven.








This is a Psalm which some might say is simply repetitive.

But

this is really a Psalm of recognition on our part of how worthy God is to be praised 
over and over again.


This is a Psalm which uses the history of the world to highlight the Love of God
to His people

and

to lead us to 

the Eternal Hope we have in Heaven - our home with Him! 













Why We Worship 18





I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"




Righteousness is the state of moral perfection God requires of us to be able to enter Heaven.



The Ten Commandments show us how far we are from reaching this standard that God has set us.  We know we could never keep all His laws completely.




because He is SINLESS





But we are SINFUL.



So it would seem there is no way that we can enter Heaven.




However God has a solution for our problem.




Jesus is God and is also Righteous because He is Sinless.

God has told us in the Bible that He will apply Christ's perfect righteousness to us imperfect human beings when we believe that Jesus is Lord and trust fully in Him.

The only way that God cannot punish us for our sinfulness is if we have someone to be our substitute and take on our sin and punishment which is what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

This is God's Plan of Salvation for all of us and it is a free Gift.
We just need to accept that Jesus has stepped in to be our Saviour.


So Salvation for us is not through anything we can do for ourselves but through the righteousness of Jesus.

Christ's righteousness is accredited to us and makes us holy before God.











I am thankful that there was a way for me to be acceptable to God because Jesus bore my sins on the cross and gave me His Righteousness.



I am also thankful that my Father in Heaven is Righteous and can never be found at fault.











Have you accepted this gift of Salvation through Jesus?

Can you worship God because He is Righteous and has made you righteous?










Why We Worship 2





If someone were to ask you today why you worship God would you know how to answer?

We dealt more with that in the first one in the series featuring GOD IS GREAT                             
         Today let's look at                          

Revelation 4 v 10 - 11


        the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.


If the 24 elders who are before the throne of God worship Him because He is worthy then we can not disagree but need to proclaim exactly the same thing now here before we need to do it in Heaven.




   

Some people might say
  
                              "Let's Practice what we will be doing for eternity"
                       
               
 but instead we should say

"Let's worship and let's do it now" 




Let's declare it now "God is Worthy to be praised".



because

                                                         




                                                              now and for eternity.