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Children of a Singing God

 

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:26)

Can you hear Jesus singing?

Was he a bass or a tenor? Was there a down-home twang to his voice? Or was there an unwavering crystal pitch?

Did he close his eyes and sing to his Father? Or did he look into his disciples’ eyes and smile at their deep camaraderie?

Did he usually start the song? Or did Peter or James, or maybe Matthew, do it?

Oh, I can hardly wait to hear Jesus sing! I think the planets would be jolted out of orbit if he lifted his native voice in our universe. But we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken; so, Lord, go ahead, do it! Sing!

It could not be otherwise but that Christianity be a singing faith. The founder sang. He learned to sing from his Father. Surely they have been singing together from all eternity. Don’t you think so? Would not infinite eternal happiness in the fellowship of the Trinity sing?

The Bible says the aim of our singing is “to raise sounds of joy” (1 Chronicles 15:16). No one in the universe has more joy than God. He is infinitely joyful. He has rejoiced from eternity in the panorama of his own perfections reflected perfectly in the deity of his Son.

God’s joy is unimaginably powerful. He is God. When he speaks, galaxies come into being. And when he sings for joy, more energy is released than exists in all the matter and motion of the universe.

If he appointed song for us to release our heart’s delight in him, is this not because he also knows the joy of releasing his own heart’s delight in his own image in his Son by his Spirit in song? We are a singing people because we are the children of a singing God.

BRIDLE YOUR TONGUE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY APRIL 27, 2022.

SUBJECT: BRIDLE YOUR TONGUE!

Memory verse: "You are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth.” (Proverbs 6 vs 2.)

READ: James 3 vs 2, 5, 8 - 12:

3:2: For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

3:5: Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.

3:8: But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 

3:9: With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God?

3:10: Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not be so.

3:11: Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 

3:12: Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

INTIMATION:

The tongue is the flexible muscular organ in the bottom of the mouth used for tasting, swallowing and human speech. Without the tongue speech is impaired. Therefore, if you control or bridle your tongue, you have controlled your speech. What you say and what you don’t say are both important. To use proper speech you must not only say the right words at the right time but also not say what you shouldn’t. 

Examples of an uncontrolled or unbridled tongue include gossiping, putting others down, bragging, manipulating, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, and lying. Before you speak, ask, “Is what I want to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? and so on.

Our words are part of ourselves; they are ourselves. We create a mental condition with our words, and words coming from your heart goes out into the air to thrill or throb the hearts of those that listen. Life is largely made of words. If your words are full of love and peace and fidelity, they are born out of your heart life. We declare war with words. Divorces and defeats are made up of words. Children become what words make them. 

We dare not be careless with what we say, thinking we can apologize later, because even if we do, the scars remain. A few words spoken in anger can destroy a relationship that took years to build. Before you speak, remember that words are like fire; you can neither control nor reverse the damage they can cause.

Our words dominate us. At times our words are right and pleasing to God, but at other times they are violent and destructive. You might be imprisoned with your own words. You talked failure and failure held you in bondage. You said that you did not have faith, and doubt arose like a giant and bound you. You said that you could not, and the moment that you said it you were whipped. A woman said the other day, "I always speak my mind." She has few friends. Only pity causes people to go see her. Her lips have been her curse. It isn't so bad speaking your mind if you have the mind of Christ, but as long as you have a mind dominated by the devil, few people care to hear your mind. 

Learn that your lips make you a millionaire or a pauper; wanted or despised; a victor or a captive. Cultivate the habit of thinking big things, and then learn to use words that will react upon your own spirit and make you a conqueror. Your faith will never register above the words of your lips. Thoughts may come and persist in staying, but you refuse to put them into words and they die unborn.

Learn from our Messiah, His confessions proved to be realities. Jesus confessed that He is the Light of the World. He is it. The rejection of Him has plunged the world into a new darkness. He said He was the bread from heaven, and it is true. The people who feeds upon His Words never suffer want. His Words were filled with Himself, as we act on them, they fill us with Christ. 

We were made in God’s image, but the tongue gives us a picture of our basic sinful nature. God works to change us from the inside out. When the Holy Spirit purifies a heart, He gives self-control so that the person will speak words that please God. The believer's words should be born of love and filled with love. Our words should never bruise or hurt, but should bless and heal. 

Prayer: Abba Father, I know the creative power of words, for the world was created by spoken words, and by my words I will be justified, and by my words I will be condemned. Bridle my tongue, O Most High, endue me with spirit of self-control that I may speak words abundant in love, trust, and confidence in You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

You Were Made for God

 

“For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.” (1 Samuel 12:22)

The name of God often refers to his reputation, his fame, his renown. This is the way we use the word “name” when we say someone is making a name for himself. Or we sometimes say, that’s a “name” brand. We mean a brand with a big reputation. This is what I think Samuel means in 1 Samuel 12:22 when he says that God made Israel a people “for himself” and that he would not cast Israel off “for his great name’s sake.”

This way of thinking about God’s zeal for his name is confirmed in many other passages.

For example, in Jeremiah 13:11 God describes Israel as a waistcloth, or belt, with which God chose to highlight his glory, even though there were times when Israel was temporarily unfit. “For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.” Why was Israel chosen and made the garment of God? That it might be a “name, a praise, and a glory.”

The words “praise” and “glory” in this context tell us that “name” means “fame” or “renown” or “reputation.” God chose Israel so that the people would make a reputation for him. God says in Isaiah 43:21 that Israel is “the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”

And when the church came to see itself in the New Testament as the true Israel, Peter described God’s purpose for us like this: “You are a chosen race . . . that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

In other words, Israel and the church are chosen by God to make a name for him in the world. This is why we pray first and foremost, “Hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9). This is why we pray, “Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name’s sake” (see Psalm 23:3).

When we speak of being a God-centered people, remember, this is because we are joining God in his God-centeredness. And on this side of the cross, that means being a Christ-dependent, Christ-exalting people. “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake” (1 John 2:12). “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).

REINSTATED TO ABUNDANCE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY APRIL 26, 2022.

SUBJECT : REINSTATED TO ABUNDANCE!

Memory verse: "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4 vs 11).

READ: Psalm 50 vs 10 - 12; First Timothy 6 vs 17:

Psalm 50:10: For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

50:11: I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.

50:12: If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all its fullness.

First Timothy 6:17: Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us all things to enjoy.

INTIMATION:

God created all things, and therefore, owns all things. He created all things for His pleasure, and as well as ours. God is not in want of anything because He is sufficient in all things. God created all things including us. He made us special by creating us in His image and likeness. And we are made sufficient in God's own sufficiency (Second Corinthians 3 vs 5).  

In the beginning God placed everything that man could use and enjoy in the Garden. God saw to it that Adam lacked nothing, as he was created in His own image and after His likeness, leaving nothing to be desired by him. God gave Adam dominion over everything. Adam was the master of the kingdom given to him, and was empowered to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it. God only placed Himself above Adam as his master.

God's Will of abundance for mankind was supreme until that fatal day Adam committed high treason against God by doubting God's integrity, and believing God's permanent enemy. According to the Scriptures, the woman was deceived but the man was not (First Timothy 2 vs 14), meaning that Adam knew what he did, and the implications of what he did. He tried shifting the blame on the woman when God enquired of him concerning his did (Genesis 3 vs 12).

When Adam partook of the deadly tree, he died, not physically but spiritually. Spiritual deadness is the nature of Satan. That nature consequently overtook Adam's once righteous spirit, and he became one with Satan. Every phase of Adam's life came under the curse of his new god, Satan. He was driven from the Garden; abundance was no longer his to enjoy. He had to toil and sweat in order to survive. His beautiful life was overrun by thorns and thistles both in the physical and in the spiritual world.

The Lordship of God provided only good. Poverty and lack came only after Adam changed god and began to operate under Satan's dominion, the author of poverty.

It is obvious that God desired man to live in abundance, but by Adam's own choice, the lordship of Satan engulfed him in a curse that resulted in poverty and lack. 

God's heart yearns for His people to be free, and through His infinite wisdom, He has continually provided deliverance for man and freedom from the curse of poverty. God, in His infinite mercy that endures forever, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, for our sake, to pay the supreme price: "Surely He has borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace upon Him, And by His stripes we are heeled" (Isaiah 53 vs 4 - 5). 

Through our believe in Christ Jesus, our Sacrificial Savior, He gave us right to become His children (John 1 vs 12). We are reinstated to our original position with Him. His wish is that you shall prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (Third John 2). In accordance with His Will for us, in prosperity and sufficiency, He has given us back all things in Christ Jesus to enjoy, Hallelujah!

Prayer: Abba Father, to You be glory for the great things You have done. My sufficiency is in You who made heaven and the earth. Thank You for my redemption in Christ Jesus, and uphold me by Your generous spirit, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Paul’s Salvation Was for You

 

Formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. . . . I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:13–14, 16)

Paul’s conversion was for your sake. Did you hear that? Here it is again: “I received mercy for this reason, that Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” That’s us — you and me.

I hope you will hear this very personally. God had you in view when he chose Paul and saved him by sovereign grace just the way he did.

If you believe on Jesus for eternal life — or if you may yet believe on him for eternal life — Paul’s conversion is for your sake. The point of his conversion happening the way it did is to make Christ’s incredible patience vivid for you.

Remember that Paul’s pre-conversion life was a long, long trial to Jesus. “Why are you persecuting me?” Jesus asked on the Damascus road (Acts 9:4). “Your life of unbelief and rebellion is a persecution of me!” And yet Paul tells us in Galatians 1:15 that he had been set apart by God for his apostleship since before he was born. That’s amazing. It means that all his life up to the point of his conversion was one long abuse of God, and one long rejection and mockery of Jesus — who had chosen him to be an apostle before he was born.

That is why Paul says his conversion is a brilliant demonstration of Jesus’s patience. And that is what he offers us today.

It was for our sake that Jesus saved Paul when and how he did. To “display his perfect patience” to us (1 Timothy 1:16). Lest we lose heart. Lest we think he could not really save us. Lest we think he is prone to anger. Lest we think we have gone too far away. Lest we think our dearest one cannot be converted — suddenly, unexpectedly, by the sovereign, overflowing grace of Jesus.

SATAN IS UNDER OUR FEET!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY APRIL 25, 2022. 

SUBJECT : SATAN IS UNDER OUR FEET!

Memory verse: "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8 vs 11).

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 17 - 23:

1:17: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

1:18: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints,

1:19: and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

1:20: which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

1:21: far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

1:22: And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church,

1:23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

INTIMATION:

In the first three chapters of the apostle Paul's epistle to the church in Ephesus, he enumerated the consummation of Christ's substitutionary work regarding Satan and his cohorts—the demons. His heart intent is that we will come to the full knowledge of what we are in Christ.

From the passage we read today, we observed that he prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of our heart flooded with light, so that we can know and understand the hope to which He has called us, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the believers.

He clearly stated that, it is the working of God's spiritual might which He wrought in the Christ when He raised Him up from the among dead, and that same Spirit is still at work within us. The heart can hardly take it in that the same Might, the same Resurrection Power that wrought in the dead body of Jesus is ours today. That same Spirit that embodied the power is indwelling us today, and with the same power.

In Ephesians 2 vs 4 - 6, the Scripture says:- 

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." You must always keep in mind that we were raised together with Him, and He made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places; so representatively, we are seated on the throne with Christ.

He has been given all authority, that authority belongs to His body—the church, for its benefit. He conquered all the forces of darkness and left them paralyzed and broken before He arose from the dead. It is as though we had accomplished the mighty work, because It is reckoned to our credit.

Notice carefully the twenty-second and twenty-third verses: "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." We are the fullness of Him (John 1 vs 16). We are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2 vs 10). He is not only our fullness, but we are His fullness also. The word, "fullness" comes from a Greek word that is almost untranslatable: "pleroma," which means "completeness," "perfectness," or any other synonym that suggests fullness. 

Adam had sold us out in his sin of high treason. Jesus redeemed us, defeated our enemy and put him beneath our feet—the church (His body), and we are the church. Consequently, all these malignant, wicked influences are beneath our feet. We have been made masters of them all. He did not defeat them for Himself, but for us. He did not fight that battle for His glory, but for our good. 

That knowledge should become as common to us, and as usable as the multiplication table. And when this is done Believers will spend less or no time glorying the devil, instead of using the time time to glorify Jesus Christ for His triumph over Satan and his cohorts. It was for this reason that the apostle Paul thanked God in Second Corinthians 2 vs 14, for His triumph over Satan for us; "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ...."

When our hearts take it in, and our minds become fruitful with this mighty unveiling of what we are in Christ today, we hardly will give the devil any room to minister his usual lies to us because, by God's grace, we have embraced the truth of what we are in Christ.

That is the Hallelujah chorus of the new creation, and it never becomes real until we begin to confess it, begin to tell to the world what we are in Christ.

The Bible in Hebrews 9 vs 12, says, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Yes He obtained Eternal Redemption for us. Not just a redemption for the hour in which it was done, but that Satan is as much defeated now as he was when Christ arose from the dead; that he is as much a subject to the Name of Jesus as he was when Jesus conquered him.

Prayer: Abba Father, I thank You for what You wrought for me in redemption in Christ Jesus. Thank You for the triumph You have given me in Christ over Satan. Help me to comprehend fully the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of Christ's love for me, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!