TRUE WORSHIP - PART ONE

I am teaching a class tonight on worship and in preparing my notes and lesson I was reminded about a mini lesson that I had recently from the Lord. One evening as I was observing a church service on TV not too long ago, the congregation was singing an old hymn that I cannot recall the name of. I watched as the camera panned the sanctuary and showed the faces of those that were singing. As the people stood there and sang the words, I could not help but notice the faces as they lifted up their voices to God in song. After the song was over, they sat down in their pews and the rest of the service went off like clockwork. As I watched the singers, I could not help but wonder, if they were enjoying what they were singing and if they were truly meeting with God for even a moment, in real worship and surrender. Many, many times, I do believe that we lose sight of what worship really is and means. Jesus told the Samaritan women in John chapter 4 what real worship was. He said that true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. He told her that God is spirit and He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. So, to understand what true worship is, we need to recognize two very important elements of worship from what Jesus tells us, spirit and truth. Because God is spirit and upon salvation our spirits are quickened or made alive to know, understand and even feel His presences and truth, we are to worship Him through and in our own spirit.   We can do this in 3 steps. We first humble ourselves in humility, then allow our faith to be the vehicle that leads us into a spirit of worship and finally, be willing to be obedient as we prepare to come into His presence. Jesus Himself has set up the system of worship for us to follow. As we enter into worship, we are entering His territory and at that point we must be willing to submit ourselves to God’s will and not our own. This is where humility comes into play. Humility is the first key to any successful time of worship. Throughout the entire Bible, the primary Hebrew and Greek words for worship mean, humility. Without humility you cannot truly worship. Humility means to lower yourself and submit yourself to the will of another. So when you worship, you are coming under submission of the Holy Spirit, and allowing Him to fill you and move in and through you according to what He wants to do. By doing this you are giving Him the liberty and freedom that He needs to inhabit your worship of and to Him. The scriptures tell us in Psalm 22 that God inhabits the praises of His people.  Romans 12 says that you should present, or submit, your body to God as a living sacrifice. So very often in our Churches real worship never happens because the church does not come under the submission of the Holy Spirit during a worship service. More often than not, the worship leaders themselves are not guided or under the influence of genuine worship. There are many distractions that can cause this to happen for all of the worshipers. Whether it be a busy or hectic morning, schedules to keep, announcements to be made, the pastor’s need to be done on time.  All the while the Holy Spirit is waiting His turn to get in on the worship service.  As long as we stay in control, we will have church as usual. But when we let the Holy Spirit takes control we will stop having church and start being the church. When the Holy Spirit is actually involved in the services, watch out, you never know what might take place. A marriage may be restored, God’s people will be truly refreshed and joy will reign in the hearts of the true worshiper. God’s people will love each other, have a stronger desire to serve God and by doing so, the lost will come to Jesus. When that happens, will the services go past noon? Probably, but no one will care! When we choose to worship, we will expect the Holy Spirit to take control of us as well as the service and by doing so, we release to Him the authority and power which is His anyway, to show off, allowing us to see His handi-work. When we do this, the lost will see Him in us and come running to receive what we have. The broken will see Him and shout because they have been healed or restored. The proud and stubborn will see Him and weep in humility. That is true worship my friend! Worship in spirit and in truth! You will know that you have experienced true worship when God has had the freedom to have His way in your hearts. God inhabiting our praises is a principle that works, when we apply it with the right heart attitude and once you have experienced real worship, everything else falls short of the real thing. When the enemy comes at us to strike his blows at our joy, our confidence and our hope and we feel guilt from our doubts, fears and even despair, slipping away in our spirits to worship, will bring relief and refreshment to those that hungers for God. There is a story in the book of Acts about Paul and Silas being in jail. They didn't leave their situation but they sang...and their singing became their weapon ….He never fails sweet friend, we just fall short of seeking Him the right way!

Loving you today,

Bren

YOU CAN PUT TRUTH IN A GRAVE...BUT, IT WON'T STAY THERE!

WHERE DO YOUR DISAPPOINTMENTS LEAD YOU?

Disappointments can creep into our lives robbing us of our peace. The peace that sustains us emotionally and gives us balance between where we are and where we want to be. Disappointments are dissatisfaction's that arise when our expectations are not met by our outcomes. Depending on the size of our disappointments and how we choose to deal with them, our feelings of disappointments may dissipate after a short while or hang over us for extended periods of time. If we do not handle them properly, they can lead us into bouts of depression and even apathy, where we just give up. The reason that we even have disappointments are because we can have a certain passion towards the outcome of something. And with everything in our life there is a cause and effect. As I shared with the ladies in my Bible Study last night for our disappointments, our passion is our cause and our disappointments are the effect. If we did not care about something we would not be disappointed when things go opposite of what our expectations for them are; and while they can be quite painful, regardless of their magnitude, in the end they can take their toll on us.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see….Hebrews 11. When our disappointments cloud our peace and visions of hope we are to be reminded that God Sovereign wisdom and knowledge goes beyond what we can only imagine to be possible. Always battle and replace doubts, worries and fears with Truth….and Truth is what God says about a thing….when the weight of disappointment presses on you with a crushing force, remind yourself that your hope is in the God of miracles, and though you may not can see for while the fulfillment of your prayers answered, remember that He is faithful to bring it to pass.

My husband is a Trouble Shooter for an Electric Company. His job is to seek out the area where a problem is, determine through his years of experience what the problem is and give the proper instructions as to what to do, to get it fixed. As Christians, we are to take on a similar role....the role of a Spiritual Troubleshooter for our souls. Our tool belt is our willpower to go to God and our knowledge of what His Word has to say  about whatever it is that we are disappointment about.   

When your hopes of deep satisfaction are tarnished, and your dreams appear to be broken remember: God says, ... that He knows the plans that He has for you, and they are to prosper you and not destroy you. Your values, having meaning and clinging to hope will always act as a catalysts, in mobilizing you with the energy and will power that you will need to endure and have victory in spite of your disappointments. While setting your goals, always be mindful that unless our plans are in the will of God, then our plans can become misplaced. King Solomon said in Ecc 2:11 “As I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless…like chasing the wind”. The scriptures teach us that our disappointments can and will build the proper character and patience in us , when allowed to do so. Romans 5:3-4 says that we can rejoice…when we run onto problems and trials because we know they work for our good….they help us to endure, and that endurance is what builds in us the very character of God. Romans 8:28 tells us that God works all things for our good for those that love Him. May I say to you sweet friend, that the more we stake our security in Him and what we know about Him, the less power our disappointments will have on us to rob and undermine our hope. The stronger our relationship is with the Father, the greater hope we will have that will empower us to face any disappointment. Let your disappointments lead you to Jesus, who will enable you to endure all things, refresh your attitude and renew a right spirit in you, giving you peace and encourage the hope in your heart that brought you to Him.

Don't you give up sweet friend....run to Jesus!

Loving you today,

Bren 

WHAT IS JESUS ASKING OF YOU TODAY?

Suppose God tells you to do something which is an enormous test to your common sense. Will you pull back and not do it? If you get into the habit of saying no to God, guess what? You will establish a priority in your life that says to Him, ”Lord, I will follow You; but….” Like the men in Luke 9:57-62 did. Once you put your foot to a thing, then never look back nor get side-tracked in doing it or you will once again fall away, or not be worthy to follow at all. While your worthiness does not count for your salvation, the effort you make to follow Christ reflects your affection for Him as well as the spiritual power that you possess to walk in Him. Never doubt in the darkness of your life the truth that God has shown you in those times of light. He is faithful to us, and requires the same from us.

The men in Luke 9 wanted so bad to follow Christ, for they knew who He was and believed in Him. yet when Jesus ask a thing of them, they were just unable to do it. Why? Because the scripture tells us that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. Those men’s hearts were tied to something that they were unwilling to give up, which lead to their rebuke and unworthiness to be a follower of Christ. Like a music or sports fan, we can also be a Jesus fan….yet Jesus wants more of us than simply to be His fan….He calls, yes even demands that we be true followers of Christ, not simply His fan. Where are you today in your walk with Christ? Is He asking a thing from you? What will you decide to do?

Loving you today.....Hold fast sweet friend and don't you dare give up! Do that thing that He may ask of you!

Bren

THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS

Jesus, the Suffering Servant who carried the sin of the world on the cross and who now is exalted, as Lord of Lords and reigns forever as King of Kings! He did for me what I could not do for myself spiritually and I gladly accept it as the propitiation for my sin. That is what I believe the truth about Jesus is. Every soul must determine who and what they believe Christ to be for themselves. Was He mere man that just so happened to be a great teacher? Was He a prophet that possessed a vast amount of wisdom and spiritual insight? Was He a liar?  Or, was He whom He said He was. Fully man and fully God. The Way, the Truth and the Life, that no man would be able to go to God unless they go through Him, by accepting the work that He did on  the cross on their behalf John 14:6. We can sugar coat the Truth all day long to make us feel better and not hold ourselves accountable for it when God sends it our way. But in the end, every soul will have to work out their own salvation, not by their own works or merit but, by what they believe to be truth.

For some people it’s not so hard to believe the Truth. They simply accept it, on its own merit, not because they are simple minded, but because they have worked it out for themselves and understand the principle of the cross  and the work that God did there. For others, they must thrust their hand into the holes, in the Son of God’s side and hands in order to believe, as did Thomas. Either way, God allows us to come to Him and reason with Him. He is always willing to prove Himself to us, if we are honest in our searching. However, some will choose not to accept the Truth on God’s terms, because they fear the Truth to be too hard for them to understand and accept or they simply chose not to seek it, because they believe they have no need for it. While still others do not want God no matter how easy He makes it for them, because they desire and love darkness more than they love or desire Light and the Truth.   

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God John 1:1…while He had many claims,  they all pointed in one direction…Jesus told his disciples upon their asking Him to show them the Father that.... if they wanted to see God, then look at Him John 14:6-11….because His whole life’s purpose was to point and direct men to His Father, restoring them spiritually, back to the original state that they were created to be in; allowing them once again to have fellowship with God. What sin’s bitter consequences had ravished upon all mankind, the blood atonement of God's only Son would finally and ultimately pay as a spiritual covering over all mankind’s sin before God, if man would simply accept His work and repent fo their sin. Jesus would do for all mankind what they could not do for themselves. The Bible says that one day every person will bow before God. At that point... it will matter what a person believed while alive. While many people may doubt that and choose to believe differently, the day of reckoning will surly come…for us all.

Where and or Whom do you put your trust and faith in sweet friend….our lives are but vapors, they appear for a while, and then they disappear. You must work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling Philippians 2:12, and in the end, you will know if you made the right choice!

Loving On & Praying For You Today!

Bren

YOUR VIEWPOINT SHOULD NEVER BREAK YOUR FELLOWSHIP

I have always loved the expression, or you might say, a laymans definition for Christian Fellowship: “Fellowship is two fellows in a ship going the same directions”.  I like that because it reminds us that godly fellowship is nothing more than yielding each other’s rights to one another for the sake of love and peace. There are few things worse than being confused over something. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart or things that can cause us spiritual confusion over some type of issue that we may be facing. Sometimes, if allowed our confusion can separate us from one another because of our lack of judgment or view point in a matter. The church in Corinth was dealing with just such conditions when Paul wrote his two letters to them. Paul had found them in a state of disagreement, which led to their developing cliques within the church which caused splinter groups that were all going in their own direction as they found themselves following after different leaders. Their hearts had become angry towards one another which were causing disputes and disruptions between them.  The enemy loves to find families as well as churches that have become immobilized, by these conditions. Woven throughout the two letters to the Corinthian Christians, was God’s concern that they not let those divisions break down their love for one another. They were told that there are many more things that bind the children of God together than the things that separated them because of their disagreements and dislikes. Those two letters found in I and II Corinthians, to the Church at Corinth are still relevant for us today. They are a beaming light that gives us warning and directions as to how we should respond to the things that we do not have clarity and exact direction in.

Both I and II Corinthians cover a vast amount of instruction and encouragement to the child of God, from reminding them; of their higher call to holiness, to the divisions amongst themselves, spiritual wisdom in matters, dealing with family who insist on living ungodly, marriage, lawsuits, sexual immorality, regarding eating, being a stumbling block to the lost, the rights of an Apostle, warnings, worship, the Lord’s Supper, Spiritual gifts, love and the resurrection; and those are just some of the topics discussed in the I Corinthians. II Corinthians covers matters about, attitudes, conduct, comfort, forgiveness, exhorting believers not to be unequally yoked, generosity, Paul’s rights, false teachers, Pauls own personal thorn in his flesh, his concerns for them, and his final warring’s. I’m sure that I have left out a number of other subjects that Paul wrote about in those two letters as well. But as you can see by just the ones that I have mentioned; there was enough divisions going on that he felt had to be dealt with, and did. God had called Paul to lead them in truth and love, and he was bent on telling them the truth no matter what the cost to him might be.

These two letters are alive with examples of how to live and how not to live. Paul made great effort in trying to teach them the difference between what they were taught by their religion before they came to Christ and what was expected of them once they received the Truth and was set free from the legalistic hypocritical lessons taught by the Pharisee of their day. While the religious leaders were adamant about keeping the law, they failed greatly in teaching love and forgiveness. They taught that if you did not walk the chalk line by keeping the rules and traditions that they themselves had created for the people, then their faith was worthless, and at one point Jesus rebuked them for it. While the Sadducees did not give a hoot about living up to the Pharisee’s conservative traditions, because they were above the law, they being the aristocrats within their religion, the wealthy liberals in their theology and were rationalist in their philosophy. Today, they would be known as Philosophers. The more knowledge they could attain the more puffed up they became. They were in conflict with the Pharisee and were considered to be their spiritual enemy. Once in Matthew 16, when a group of both the Pharisees’ and the Sadducees came to Jesus to test Him, He said to them, “You Hypocrites”, he ask them how was it that they could discern the weather by looking at the conditions in the sky, seeking signs, yet they could not discern the signs of the times, He even call them an adulterous generation, because they sought after signs more than their hearts sought real truth. You see this is what I believe causes us to have and harbor anger towards one another. Because our focus is in the wrong place sweet friend! The Christians in Corinth had a misplaced faith as did the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Any time we take our focus off of the truth, there is always a costly consequence. In Corinth, the consequence was that brothers and sisters in Christ were squabbling with each other over their viewpoints and sin, that they were breaking fellowship with one another. Instead of allowing their angry to cause separation, they should have understood that there was a deeper question to be ask, and that was not, “whom do we follow”, but whom do we love and what is more important here….having my way, or agreeing to disagree for the sake of peace and how we are reflecting that peace and love for one another to the world. If it is truth that we seek, then we need go any further than the scripture to find that we are commanded to be at peace with all men whenever it is possible, loving, forgiving and enduring with one another. Never let your personal viewpoints, break your fellowship with one another.

Loving you,

Bre

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE SONG OF SOLOMON

While attending Bible College years ago, I was required to take a class in the Book of, Song Of Solomon. Had it not been a required class, I don’t believe that I would have ever taken the time to do as thorough of a job reading through or studying it as I did then, having been required to do so. What I found in that book was a personal love letter from God to me. I had never dreamed that God had such extreme affection for me or anyone for that matter, until I personally dug deep into the pages of those short but precious chapters in that great book.  There is  no other book in scripture on which there have been commentaries written that are more diverse of opinion than that of the Book of Song of Solomon. Some think upon its eight chapters as mere spiritual poetry, while others tread upon its pages with an exhaustive verse by verse of allegory and passion. For the sincere student of the Word, many have avoided it’s study to avoid it’s frustration, as so often occurs when trying to understand it’s interpretations and meanings. However, regardless of those frustrations, most are ever drawn back to the rich pages of what is absolute in the fact that it is,  a love letter written to someone’s beloved. Some find it easier to read the book of Ecclesiastes along as a companion study to the Song of Solomon. While Ecclesiastes focuses on the human intellect. Song of Solomon focuses more on the human emotion and you are always safe to call the song of Solomon a human love story. It is also a picture of the love between God and His people. The very point or purpose of having this great book included in the Bible is to arouse the reader of God’s deep love and affection for them. After a good study of the book, one is lead to have an even deeper gratitude for that great love of God, no matter what their understanding of Him may be.

While it is one of the most controversial and can be difficult books to interpret,  it is also one of the greatest books of literature on the planet. It has been interpreted to be Typological in that it’s approach to typifying Solomon and the Shulammite woman as a picture of God and His people and as the future bridegroom, which was the Messiah to the Church that He would establish as His Bride. Another interpretation to view this book is to look at it from an Allegorical view. This means that there are hidden allegories in the verses that convey the mystery and true spiritual meanings picturing Yahweh as the lover, and the woman as Israel. Then there is the literal, historical and grammatical approach to interrupting this great book. This view takes the meaning as face value and are to be taken as a historical record of the romance of Solomon with a Shulammite woman. Its purpose is to give us a glimpse into the joys of his love, courtship and marriage while counter acting any extremes of lust. It reveals the rightful place for physical love within marriage, and only then is it clearly established as being good and honored. It reveals Solomon's perspective as well as his brides. Obviously, Solomon did not furnish the best example of marital devotion, because he had many wives as well as concubines, of which was not the perfect will of God for his life as he found that out. The experiences that he recorded in Song of Solomon may very well reflect the only pure romance that he ever had, thus writing the song about it. The fact that he had made many mistakes is clearly seen in this book as a message of what love is like when it is done the right way, that honors God.

 
Nonetheless, this book does not loose it’s theological meaning when read as a whole in the context of the book itself. It delivers a beautiful picture to the reader of the intensely intimate relationship that God’s people can enjoy  with Him, if they are living rightly and abiding in a right relationship with Him. We humans have always had a waywardness about us. It’s called a sin nature. To overcome that nature, we must first receive a new nature which comes from God through Christ, and then we learn to yield ourselves to the truth and what we know to be right putting to death the wrong in us. We must beat our wills and make them subservient to the will of God. In doing this we can experience the kind of intimacy with God and have the right kind of intimacy with the bride or bridegroom with whom we live.

God loves you and desires a personal relationship with you….He is so worthy to be sought after. Will you seek Him today my friend, and do that thing that He is asking you to do?

Song of Solomon 5:8 "...if you find my beloved, as to what you will tell Him: that I am lovesick for him."

Loving on you,

Bren