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9/26/2013 0 Comments This Is My Story, This Is My Song! When I was young I would sing this song in church with the youth choir and I would hear my father belt this with confidence as he led us from the pulpit. I also have fond memories of hearing my grandfather telling the congregation to turn to a certain page in their hymnals and leading us off with that same confidence that my father had. I never understood why they sung this song with such confidence and meaning until I became a grown woman, and had fostered my own relationship with God. The words to this song have a whole new meaning. When I think of having trust and feeling safe in a relationship it really is to have a Blessed Assurance, meaning to feel confidently assured that this person is who they say they are, will have my back and they have my best interest at heart. When you're assured in anything, you are confident about that thing. Your position is not to worry that it will work out, if it is what it says it is, or is who they say they are; you trust it! The Scriptures teach that we can know with absolute certainty that we have the life of God within us (1 John 4:13). This confidence is not based on inner feelings or outward signs. Rather, this “blessed assurance” is founded upon the promises of a faithful God and His inspired Word and it depends not on the amount of our faith but on the object of our faith–Christ Himself! Hebrews 10:22-23 says, "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. . . .Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” This means being confident in my leader, God, and the gifts, talents, and knowledge He has placed in me. I know that without Him I am nothing. What does your confidence rest on? What were you put on this earth to be or to do? What is your story, what is your song? Believe me your story and song is what God uses to give you beauty for your ashes. (Isaiah 61:3) God and His Spirit that dwells in us gives us the power to overcome worry, stress, anxiety, low self esteem, and all the 'isms that I don't have time to name. So as we look worship today, let's worship with a Blessed Assurancee that says I am not ashamed of my story, and I will sing it with confidence. Not with confidence in me, but in who I worship for being a Blessed Assurance!
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9/17/2013 0 Comments I Need Thee! The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. ~Psalm 34:17  One of the most difficult things we can face in life is loss, and in the aftermath of a tragedy, the pain of loss can be very difficult to cope with. At times, it may even seem unbearable. Because God made us with feelings, there are many other difficult emotions we may experience when grieving or facing tough circumstances. We can feel hopeless, helpless, confused, fearful, anxious, and even angry. Recognizing these emotions, and releasing them in healthy ways, is extremely important in the journey toward healing and wellness. Ignoring or suppressing them can be very destructive, crippling to say the least. What emotions do you feel in your heart? Heartache and pain are undoubtedly among them. You're probably hurting so badly that all you really want to do is cry. And that's okay! Even the Lord Jesus Christ wept when faced with the tragedy and sorrow of death (see John 11:35). He was so deeply moved within because of the sorrow resulting from Lazarus' death that He began to weep. Sure, it's good to be strong in the midst of difficult circumstances, but it is also important to acknowledge the emotions that pain, suffering, and loss can bring. Think about it. How can your heart truly heal, if you don't acknowledge that you're hurting? So take the first step. Get alone with God, and tell Him honestly how badly you are hurting. Cry if you want to. Cry out to Him, "God, I need You!" You will find that as you pour out your heart to the Lord, you'll begin to feel the burdens of your soul roll away. How comforting it is to know that wherever we go God is there with us. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations and we wonder if God is paying attention. We may feel so alone and even depressed. We can't feel God's presence, and we need His guidance and help. Sometimes friends, spouses, and parents don't really understand what we are going through. But God does and He cares. God told Joshua to be strong and to have courage. Then He told him a wonderful truth: "The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." We don't have to feel all alone. God is with us. He is working out the problems, and we don't even realize it. But now...the Lord who created you says: "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.... From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do. No one can reverse my actions. ~ Isaiah 43:1-3, 13, NLT God is with us, leading us, guiding us, loving us, providing for us -- all with His unlimited resources. What do we need? Do we need strength, peace, love, joy, or hope? He has it all. He is longing to pour out His favor and blessing upon us. We need to be open to Him and to trust Him. We need, by faith, to receive what He has for us. It is essential that we realize how much He loves us and that He has a good purpose and plan for us. You can trust God. No matter what is going on in your life, He is there! So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. He is just waiting for you to tell Him how deeply, "You need Thee". 9/11/2013 0 Comments Worship Him, For Real! The past three months have been busy with a purposeful busy, but the past three weeks have been the most challenging. We've experienced some very high highs and some low lows. There has been such a range of emotions, so much so that I have been emotionally exhausted. And to make matters worse, I hurt myself and have been forced to almost two weeks of bed rest. So you can imagine the frustration, feelings of being overwhelmed, loneliness and uncertainty. Thoughts of throwing my hands up and accepting defeat surely crept in. But something deep inside would remind me of how this God I serve has never left me nor forsaken me. And that's when I reached deep in my arsenal, just as the tears were about to flow and those words of surrender were on my lips, and I made a choice to go into a real praise and a real worship for a real and true God. Real worship is a voluntary and unconditional surrender to God Himself. Rather than be motivated by what I will get out of it, or what I feel, real worship is the result of coming into true relationship with God. And a true relationship is formed in the trenches of despair and ambiguity. In these trenches we develop an spiritual intimacy with Him and reap a major benefit to this real worship, and that is we will not become defeated, discouraged, and distraught in life. But to experience this we must worship God in spirit and in truth, we must enter into a relationship with God which reflects the truth about who God is, and who we are. Unconditional and voluntary surrender to God is the only way the relationship between us and God can reflect that truth and that truth for me is that I have been through to much not to worship Him and He deserves all the glory. I am not ashamed to say this is my truth. I am sure there are some who probably are tired of me constantly praising my God or who don't understand the total surrender of my life. But they have no idea what I have been through. The nights I have cried in the midnight hour from the pain or the days I have had more questions than answers. And in those time I have found his grace to be sufficient and His power made perfect in my weakness. So, I can't afford to not to worship HIm. You see, when Jesus dialoged with the woman at well in John 4, he reprimanded the Samaritans with the words, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know”. Today on this Worship Wednesday if you know God to be faithful, to be loyal, to be gracious, to be a deliverer, to be merciful, to be a provider, to be a healer, to be father, to be a mother, to be a friend, to be a counselor, to be a lover of your soul, to be a heart fixer, to be a mind regulator, worship Him for real! Thank you Jesus! Yolanda D. "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ~John 4:23-24 9/4/2013 0 Comments Worship In The Wait  "I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord, More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning." Psalm 130:5-6. One of the important urgings of the Bible is the call to “wait on the Lord.” Even though God promises special blessing for waiting, waiting is one of the most difficult urgings of Scripture. Why is it so hard? Because, as a part of fallen humanity, we are so prone to take matters into our own hands, to follow our own plans. Yet, over and over again we are told in Scripture “wait on the Lord.” Even in our modern age of conveniences, waiting is still a big part of life. When we think of waiting, what comes to mind? We might conjure up visions of an airport terminal, a doctor’s waiting room, the line at the supermarket, or being stuck in rush hour traffic. The facts are, most of us are waiting for something most of the time:
When the psalmist wrote in Psalm 130:5-6: “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning,” he was comparing waiting expectantly on the Lord to the night guards of the city who watched the passage of time in anticipation of the coming dawn when they would be released from duty. The coming of the dawn was certain, but not without the passage of time. In our “I want it now generation” we must understanding and accept the fact that waiting on the Lord always involves the passage of time just as it does when we are waiting for the news, a special program, for a plane to arrive, or for retirement. Waiting on the Lord inevitably means enduring the passage of time, but it means more, much more. Waiting means a confident expectation that God is going to do what He said and this is based on knowledge and trust. This means just not simply waiting—filled with and taking matters into our own hands. This means waiting seeking The Lord and taking action at the right time. This means waiting strengthens and enables and builds character. This also means resting in God's timing and trusting in His goodness that He will work this wait for His good in our life. You see waiting should lift us out of despair and cause us to praise God. In the Bible Paul and Silas knew about waiting, and they waited well. Acts 16 tells the story of how they were attacked by a crowd, beaten and thrown in jail. Verse 24 says the jailer put them into the inner prison (the dungeon) and fastened their feet in the stocks. He was making sure they couldn't escape. But about midnight, God showed up. Now it would have been nice if He'd come a little earlier, but Paul and Silas didn’t seem to mind—they just decided to start singing and began to worship the Lord. They began to wait on God. Verse 25 & 26 say, "But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the [other] prisoners were listening to them, suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken; and at once all the doors were opened and everyone's shackles were unfastened." God answered them suddenly! When people patiently and expectantly wait on God, and worship in the midst of horrible circumstances, suddenly God breaks through. I don’t know what you may be going through at the moment, but whatever it is the challenge of Scripture is to wait on the Lord because, unlike temporal man and the fleeting world in which we live, the sovereign Lord of the universe loves us with a steadfast love and personally cares for us like a father. So don't give up! Don’t stop believing! Stay full of hope and expectation and worship in the wait! |
What is Worship?
The Apostle Paul described true worship perfectly in Romans 12:1:
“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship." Worship is first of all an experience. It may express itself through certain forms, but it is not primarily a form. It is an experience. It is a consciousness of the presence of God and a response to that consciousness. Worship expresses itself as an outreach of the deepest emotions of the soul in adoration, reverence, homage, exaltation, and praise to the Almighty. We hope that our Worship Wednesday creates a deeper more meaningful worship experience for you. Visit our other inspirational blog
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August 2015
CategoriesAll Are For Your Good! Are You Living In The Spiritual? Are You Operating In Your Gift? Ascribe To His Beauty Atmosphere Of Faith Blessed Assurance Come Clean And Break Free! Flow Giving Is Worship Greater Is Here Great Is Thy Faithfulness Hallelujah! Praise Him In The Hallway! Have Thine Way He Is Faithful! He Is Mine He Takes Our Ashes And Gives Us With Beauty! His Name Makes Things Happen I Need Thee! I Need You…Please Don't Pass Me By It Is Well With My Soul… Just Listen Living For His Glory Look Where He Brought You From Minister To Him Like Anna My Everything Overwhelmed? Cling To The Rock. Pouring Out Praise Quench Your Thirst Saturate Me Singing And Dancing In The Rain And Walking On Water Something Happen Something Out Of Nothing Speak Life Thank You Is The Heart Of Worship Thank You Lord For Everything! The Miracle Of Grace The Name Above All Names The Smile Of God Is The Goal Of Life This Is My Song This Is My Story True Bread ThatLasts! Want To Put A Smile On His Face? When Others Say Where He Is Wholly Surrendered Who Needs A Super Here When He Is There! Will You Worship In The Midst Of The Storm? Withholding Nothing Withhold Nothing Worship Brings A Word In Your Season Worship In Barrenness Worship Into Your Season Worship While I Wait Your Gift Will Look Good On You. Unwrap It. |
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