REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS!

REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS.

AND AGAIN I SAY REJOICE!

Philippians 4:4

A mindless sense of well being that ignores what is going on around you is not what Paul has in mind when he tells the Philippians to Rejoice In The Lord Always. The letter he writes to them is filled with recognition of difficult circumstances that they are all facing. In the opening words of the letter Paul acknowledges his own situation as a prisoner facing execution. A little later he encourages the Philippians to remain strong in the face of opposition that currently threatens them as well. Yet even in the face of execution, persecution, and suffering, Paul repeatedly calls on them to have JOY, to Rejoice In The Lord.

Firstly let us note that Paul has issued this statement as a command from the Lord. Has God ever issued a command that could not be carried out? Never! The very fact of a divine command proves that obedience is possible. Note further, God not only demands that we rejoice; He demands that we rejoice CEASELESSLY.
So how do we follow this command to Rejoice In The Lord Always, even when things are going horribly wrong? There is a basis for it: Paul does not tell us to rejoice in our circumstances. He tells us to Rejoice In The Lord and he tells us this REPEATEDLY. He even acknowledges that he is repeating himself but says that it is good for us to be reminded again and again to rejoice always. But our rejoicing must be “IN THE LORD”. When our circumstances cause us nothing but grief, disappointments, fears and doubts we can still be glad and strong because our JOY is not based on fluctuating circumstances, but has it's SOURCE in the One Who loves us and is the object of our love

Secondly, Rejoicing is a matter of our CHOICE. There is a great difference between JOY & HAPPINESS. Joy is the realm of the spirit whereas happiness is related to our emotions, feelings and circumstances. When things are going well, we have happiness. It is good to have happiness, but we cannot have it all the time.
To illustrate: If I lost my wallet, I would be very happy when the founder returned it to me. After a few days, I would no longer have the feeling of happiness although my wallet is still with me. What I have actually lost is the feeling of happiness at the time of finding it.

Joy on the other hand, is not dependent on feelings or circumstances. There is only one source of Joy and that is God - God Himself! That is why it is possible to "Rejoice In The Lord Always!" and they are able to do so because "the Lord is near" (Philippians 4:5) - [In His Presence is fullness of JOY (Psalm 16:11)]. You will note that while rejoicing they are also encouraged to submit their petitions and prayers which include the spirit of thanksgiving. (Philippians 4:6) And the resultance is having "the peace of God" (Philippians 4:7) in midst of whatever circumstances.

Beloved, if we but exercise our faith and choice to "rejoice in the Lord", in the midst of our adverse circumstances, these negative feelings of grief, fear, doubt and anger will just melt away!
Therefore, we are able to declare apostle James' message to "count it all joy even when we fall into divers trials or testings" (James 1:2) because it is "The Joy of the Lord" which is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) that will carry us through.

HAPPINESS DEPENDS ON WHAT HAPPENS. JOY DOES NOT - Oswald Chambers

Have A Joyous and Victories Week
TPWC

WORSHIPERS - A CULTURE OF SINGING

SING TO HIM,

SING PRAISE TO HIM

1 Chronicles 16:9

We have seen in the previous post that OUR GOD SINGS! But are you aware of how many times the Scriptures also urge us to sing?A spoken voice that praises God is wonderful, but it isn't sufficient. A natural conclusion, from the scriptural emphasis on song, is that music was created to bring our voices closer to an accurate reflection of His beauty.

Have you noticed how powerful music can be? It adds weight to the spoken word in movies, on the radio, and even commercials. Most important, it adds beauty to our worship and prompts our hearts to praise God more passionately. The Bible is efficient in it's instructions, it instructs us often to make music to the Lord. And why wouldn't we? If there is anything in this world worth singing about, it's the Lord of glory. He is of highest value in this or any universe. As another psalm so pointedly urges: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord" (Psalm 150:6). Songs, as every ear has noticed, have breath. They're living testimonies to the Creator.

Does your praise reflect the importance of song? Musical expertise isn't the issue, and neither is a good voice. The attitude of the heart is the target of the Bible's instructions. David appointed musicians to praise God in the tabernacle, and Paul urged the church to "sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16). we are expected to make melody.

Let your voice produce music for God. Hum. Whistle. Sing - anytime. Regardless of your talent, your heart will soar. And God will be glorified.

An extract from - Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen

Blessings - TPWC

A SINGING GOD

He Will Rejoice Over You With Singing

Zephaniah 3:17

Did you know that God is a singer? Why would that be a surprise? He created us to sing; one would expect that He has some experience at it Himself. Yes, the Lord of all creation sings. That defies our image of the frozen-faced, always-disappointed God of high expectations. Sure, we have failed Him and our love is far too cold for such a lovely Lord. But that's not what the Lord of glory focuses on. When judgement is spent, when He looks at a redeemed soul conforming to the image of Christ, God sings. And not just because He has to. His heart is in it.

That boggles our minds, doesn't it? The God who loves us sing over us. We often think of love as obligatory; He has to love us because of how He made us and redeemed us, but doesn't He doesn't really enjoy it because of how we've failed Him. As we imagine Him, He has a purposeful love but not a passionate one. But that's not the biblical picture of God. Scripture paints Him as highly emotional, deeply grieving over our sin and dancing in celebration over our repentance. In the Bible, God weeps, rejoices, grieves, dances, laughs, gets angry, and celebrates. And He sings!

Imagine the voice! In Revelation, His voice sounds like a trumpet (Revelation 1:10) and waterfall (Revelation 1:15). Can you imagine a voice that exceeds all human instruments and the forces of nature? The volume, the tonality, the quality, the range! And the creativity of the song must be amazing. God-produced music must be astoundingly beautiful. And what's most humbling and amazing is that He sings it over us.

An extract from Worship The King - by Chris Tiegreen In response let us sing back to Him :
- Sing to the Lord, you saints of His; praise His holy name (Ps 30:4)
- Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for for the upright to praise Him (Ps 33:1) - Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy (Ps 33:3)
- Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises (Ps 47:6)
- I will sing of Your strength in the morning, I will sing of Your love; for You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. (Ps 59:16)
- I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness known through all generations. (Ps 89:1)
- I will sing of Your love and justice; to You , O Lord, I will sing praise (Ps 101:1)
- I will sing and make music with all my soul (Ps 108:1)

Blessed singing!
TPWC

WHY WE WORSHIP?

All Nations Shall Come

And Worship Before You

Revelation 15:4

Worship is the number one responsibility
of every believer everywhere.

Worship is the highest priority of our Lord.

1) Created To Worship

We were created to worship God from the very beginning. Did you know that worship is not just our praise but also our obedience? When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God they chose not to worship Him. To worship God means to obey, honor, reverence, respect, praise, and give Him all the glory. The first commandment God gave Moses was to worship Him and Him alone (Exodus 20:3-5).

Jesus told us to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:32). This means our heart, soul and mind are to worship God. Romans 12:1 tell us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. This means we worship God with our bodies.

2) Instructed To Worship

Jesus taught His disciples that they should worship even before the present their requests to God: "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name" (Luke 11:2).
"Hallowed be Your name" is a phrase of worship. We are to magnify God's name and put Him first and high above all earthly things. We need to follow Jesus' example by worshiping the name and character of Yaweh before we make our petitions. Before we ask of Him we should honour Him.

3) Called To Worship

We are also commanded to worship throughout the Epistles: "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9).

A.W. Tozer said God's purpose in sending His Son to die and rise again to sit on His right hand was that "He might restore to us the missing jewel, the jewel of worship: that we might come back and learn to do again that which we were created to do in first place - worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, to spend our time in awesome wonder and adoration of God, feeling and expressing it. We're here to be worshipers first and workers only second." - The Missing Jewel Of The Evangelical Church by A.W.Tozer.

Blessed Week!
TPWC