Showing posts with label worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worship. Show all posts

Sunday

Why We Worship 14




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


We have already looked at the 
omnipresence of God and the omniscience of God 
so today I wanted to consider the 

Omnipotence of God


   This simply means that God is 

All-powerful




 God has all power.  

             No one or no thing has more power than God.

                          He is so powerful He created everything out of nothing.

                                       God has power over everything, all of the people and all of creation.








Not only does verse 5 of Psalm 147 speak of how powerful God is but the whole Psalm is centred around this telling us of His power to 

water the earth v. 8,  send the wind v. 18,  bring peace v. 14,  etc.

Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
    for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
The Lord lifts up the humble;
    he casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre!
He covers the heavens with clouds;
    he prepares rain for the earth;
    he makes grass grow on the hills.
He gives to the beasts their food,
    and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and rules to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his rules.
Praise the Lord!





So if God is for us who can possibly stand against us



I am thankful that God has all power on Earth and in Heaven, everywhere.






Why We Worship 13




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



We have already looked at the omnipresence of God so today I wanted to consider the 

Omniscience of God


                This simply means that God is 


All-knowing


 This includes the past, the present, and the future, and everything within these times.

 It includes what has actually happened and will actually happen but it also includes what could have happened and what could happen in the future depending on how we exercise our free will.

                       So he knows what will happen and he knows what "could" happen.

There was never a time when God did not know everything and there never will be a time when God does not know everything.

Does this not give us a great security because we have a God who knows all things about us, about everyone else and about the universe.




Read through 1 John chapter 3 yourself to get the right context for this verse.

1 John chapter 3 is written by John to people he refers to as:

  • Children of God  v. 1 & 2
  • Little children  v. 7
  • My brethren  v. 13
  • My little children  v. 18
  • Beloved  v. 21

He is writing to people who are saved but perhaps have not had enough time or opportunity to have learnt many things about their heavenly Father.
Throughout the chapter he is assuring them that they are in God's family and are loved by himself and God.
Nowhere is he trying to scare them with the thought that God knows all things and will hold anything against them.
He is in fact stating that God knows all things so even when they do not think they are good enough God knows their salvation and the truth they are standing on.





How could He not be the rock for us to hold on to.


Do you agree?







Why We Worship 10





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



Many people nowadays say that God is only a God of Love and want to forget about justice but justice is not a harsh thing, justice is keeping to what is right.

Isaiah 30 v 18 states that
    The Lord is a God of justice
but the verse also highlights the grace and mercy of God




God lets no sinner off the hook without a fitting punishment, or a fitting substitutionary atonement.

God is concerned with all the wrongs in this world.

God wants to right those wrongs.


I am thankful that God cares about the things that are evil and wrong because ultimately they hurt me and everyone else.

So it is very comforting to remember what it says in His Word and realise that God is in control even though we tend to focus on the wrongs.





Let's look at another passage also in Isaiah


Isaiah 45: 18 - 22

18 For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.
20 “Assemble yourselves and come;
Draw near together,
You who have escaped from the nations.
They have no knowledge,
Who carry the wood of their carved image,
And pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Tell and bring forth your case;
Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Saviour;
There is none besides Me.
22 “Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.





It is because God is a just God that he provided His own Son as our Saviour.







Why We Worship 9




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


Today I want to look at God's Mercy.


Mercy is "not getting what you deserve". 


ie.  It is like a judge finding you guilty of a crime, but then not administering any punishment.


The Bible tells us that God is Merciful towards us.




So God shows us his mercy by not giving us the punishment we deserve.

          The punishment we should receive because of the sin in our lives.

          The Punishment which should be death and complete separation from God.


This is a compelling reason for us to worship God and give Him thanks.








Thank you God that you are a merciful God.


Can you pray this along with me?








Why We Worship 8






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


 This week  Malachi 3 v 6  brings us the reason to focus on
                  






This means that God is UNCHANGING



He never changes in His being (who He is) or in the promises He makes.

We can change from year to year or from day to day but God does not.


Malachi  ch 3
Says the Lord of hosts.
“For I am the LordI do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
Yet from the days of your fathers
You have gone away from My ordinances
And have not kept them.
Return to Me, and I will return to you,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

Also look at verse 7 to see another promise from God and because He has already declared He does not change then we can believe what He says here.



This gives us great stability and we know that we can depend on Him 
at all times 
and 
       in all circumstances.    

 





I am thankful that I serve an unchanging God, are you?









Why We Worship 3





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


I am not presuming that there is one overall right answer.


Perhaps because we are all uniquely different people we may also believe we have uniquely different reasons for worshipping God.


I believe we will have some uniquely different ways of worshipping but there are many reasons why we worship that must be common to us all.


In this series I'm really focusing on the attributes of God at the moment with

       
          God is GREAT

               
                    God is WORTHY 

                             

                                   

and for today I'm taking the bible verse   1 John 4 v 8








How do we know that He is Love?


The Bible tells us He is Love as in the verse above.


Our pastors and leaders in church explain to us that He is Love


But most of all our personal relationship with Him cries out to us that He is Love.





We would not even be able to have this relationship with Him if He was not Love.

We would not have been given the only way of Salvation through Jesus if He was not Love. 

We would never be able to get beyond our sinful nature if He was not Love.


I am thankful that God is Love and I have experienced His great Love for me.



Without a doubt God is Love!


Do you have this relationship where you can say without a doubt that 

God is Love?










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.