Saturday, January 29, 2011

PRAISE REVOLUTION: SUFFERING

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory
Romans 8:16-18
But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ,
so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed
1Peter 4:13
Perhaps you thought that yesterday's prayer would lead you to unimaginable esctasy in the presence of God. Maybe it will. But until it does, don't be surprised by trials in the interim. A fundamental truth of getting-to-know-God process is that some aspects of Him can only be revealed in pain. And one thing we will learn eventually is this: God shows up in our suffering in ways that He otherwise would not.

Doesn't it make sense that if we are to know the mercy of God, we are going to have come face-to-face with our sin first? Or that if He is to be our Healer, there must first be some sickness? Or that if He is to be our Rescuer, we must be in some sort of trouble from which we need rescuing? Or that if we are to understand His compassionate comfort, we must have some kind of hardship that makes His comfort understandable? There are quite a few attributes of God that we simply cannot see unless we're in trouble or hurting or desperate. So don't be surprised if, when He shows you His glory, He shows it to you in a difficult context. That's where glory is best viewed.

Are you suffering? Be faithful and worship. Are you persecuted? Be faithful and worship. Are you in pain? Be faithful and worship. Just like Paul and Silas in the depths of a Philippian prison (Acts 16), just like Jehoshapat surrounded by hostile armies (2 Chronicles 20), be faithful. Don't be surprised at the trial you are suffering. It may be the answer to yesterday's prayer to see God's glory. Praise Him anyway. Painful praise is often the most profound kind of praise there is.

Our response whether in good times or bad, whether is ease or difficulty, whether in fruitfulness or barrenness, is to worship. It is never inapproriate. God is worthy at all times and in all places.
(an exract from: Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

PRAISE REVOLUTION: CHOICE

I Will Bless The Lord At All Times
His Praise Shall Always Be In My Mouth
Psalm 34:1
CHOICE: Everyone of them, in a sense is a test. Why? Because they reveal our desires. As worshipers, our choices have profound spiritual results: often our taste for obedience is exposed and our deepest loves come to the surface in the choices we make.

What would happen if we decided to let every thought and every breath BLESS GOD? Imagine the result if His name were affectionately on our lips as we lay down at night, as we turned over in our sleep, as we awoke in the morning and as we went about our daily business. Would such a perspective radically change our hearts? Probably. Would it change our world? It's likely. Anytime (both good or bad times) in the Bible someone gives himself to worship, God does amazing things through that person. blessings abound. God's work is done. He is honored.

What prevents us from such a pervasive sense of His worth? Are our schedules just too busy? Or is it deeper than that? Perhaps it's a suspicion that He hasn't been as good to us as Scripture declares that He is. Or maybe it's a subtle resentment that He has not paved our path with gold and has allowed us to taste the bitter trials of life.

Whatever reasons we can come up with, we should ask ourselves if a worship-filled heart is worth sacrificing to the gods of busyness, apathy, and dissapointmnet. If we really got a glimpse of God, we would never be too busy, we would never be too apathetic; and we would never be dissapointed with His will for us. We would understand that underlying everything we go through and everything responsibility we're given is the LOVING HAND OF GOD who is leading us closer to Him. The end result is a greater blessing than any earthbound human can possibly imagine.

WHAT WERE KING DAVID'S REASONS FOR MAKING HIS CHOICE TO BLESS THE LORD AT ALL TIMES? May the reading of Psalm 34 enlightens us:
1) He will deliver us from fear (Psalm 34:4)
2) He will save us out of our troubles (Psalm 34:6)
3) He will guard and deliver us (Psalm 34:9)
4) He will listen when we talk to Him (Psaml 34:15)
5) He will redeem us (Psalm 34:22)
But we must do our part. we can appropriate His blessings when we:
6) Seek Him (Psalm 34:4 & 10)
7) Cry out to Him (Psalm 34:6 & 17)
8) Trust Him (Psalm 34;8)
9) Fear Him (Psalm 34:7 & 9)
10) Refrain from lying (Psalm 34:13)
11) Turn from evil to do good and seek peace (Psalm 34:14)
12) Serve Him (Psalm 34:22)

We usually find it easy to PRAISE God in good times, when everything seems to be going our ways, but hard to boast in the Lord when our circumstances are difficult.We can see in king David's life as a passionate WORSHIPER is not always smooth ... in context, Psalm 34 reveals that king David was prepared to PRAISE God even when he was in fear for his life, had gone down to Gath where he had been forced to play the part of a madman (1 Samuel 21:10-15). Therefore, Psalm 34 was king David's testimony of God's goodness inviting others to BLESS, to BOAST, to MAGNIFY, to EXTOL and to EXALT THE LORD .... AT ALL TIMES!


Let us revolutionize our PRAISE. Make that CHOICE to BLESS the LORD AT ALL TIMES!

TPWC

Saturday, January 15, 2011

PRAISE REVOLUTION: SACRIFICE

Let Us Continually Offer To God
A Sacrifice Of Praise ...
For With Such Sacrifices God Is Pleased
Hebrews 13:15-16

Do you want to pleased God? As a believer, of course you do. Not only has He put His Spirit into you to prompt such desires, it was your created purpose from the beginning. We often get it backwards, thinking that God exisits for our pleasure; but when we read the Bible, we get a different picture: We exist for His. As created beings who exist for His pleasure, redeemed by His blood and filled with His Spirit, a desire to satisfy Him comes naturally. Of course we want to please Him.

Many Christians at this point get caught on an endless merry-go-round: lots of movement with no real progress. we stress and strain, desperately seeking His will that we might do it and please Him. We may feel like we're jumping through hoops just to try to get His attention, doing all sorts of gymnastics to hit the perfect landing and make Him applaud. All the while, He is pleased with His Son, who happens to reside in us; and He is pleased with believers who can fulfill the instructions of this simple passage.

The writer of Hebrews tells us clearly how to please God. Earlier, he told us that it is impossible to please Him without FAITH (Hebrews 11:6). Now he gives us some more specifics. For instance, God is pleased with a SACRIFICE OF PRAISE. The verse even spells that out for us: It's the fruit of lips that confess His name (Hebrews 13:15). And - a significant "and," to be sure - "do not forget to do good and to share with others" (Hebrews 13:16). These are things that please God.


THERE IS NOTHING THAT PLEASES THE LORD SO MUCH AS PRAISE - anonymous

If you have been stressing about making your Father happy, stop the gymnastics. Jesus pleased Him, and Jesus is our life. God is satisfied by our FAITH in Him. But if you want your behavior to thrill His heart, start here. This will revolutionize your life. Let your lips PRAISE Him, confessing His name with JOY. And do good to others. God is pleased with such SACRIFICES. Do this. and He'll be pleased with yours!
(an extract from: Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen)
P.S. For more on The Sacrifice of Praise - Please check TPWC's blog post dated 14 & 21 August 2010
Blessed Week - TPWC

Saturday, January 08, 2011

PRAISE REVOLUTION: READ

May My Lips Overflow With Praise,
For You Teach Me Your Decrees
Psalm 119:171
PRAISE will revolutinize your life! There's no doubt about it. It will reorient your thinking, taking your mind off of yourself and placing it firmly on GOD, where it belongs. Rehearsing His mercies will open your eyes to them, and confessing His name as the source behind all your blessings will magnify your blessings enormously. PRAISE is a radical step in a life-changing direction.

The problem many believers have with that is where to start. How do you PRAISE Him? Where do you begin? What if you're discouraged and depressed, and your eyes can hardly see the blessings He's given, much less prompt your mouth to PRAISE Him for them? What if you hardly know Who He is and can barely come up with words to say? The psalmist gives us the answer: Begin in His WORD.

Very practically, here's a good way to learn to PRAISE the Lord. Begin reading. Open your Bible to any page in any section - it doesn't matter where, although Psalms or the New Testament ase good places to start. Begin reading a passage. When you get to a verse that speaks of God's faithfulness, PRAISE Him for His faithfulness. Think of ways He's been faithful to you. When the WORD speaks of His sacrifice or His love or His promises, PRAISE Him for His sacrifice, love or promises. As often as His WORD reveals some aspect of His character or His works, thank Him for that character and those works. Voice your gratitude for the way He is and the things He does. Before long, you will be an endless fountain of PRAISE.

MAN'S CHIEF WORK IS THE PRAISE OF GOD
- AUGUSTINE -

Can you think of a better use for your life than being an endless fountain of PRAISE? God uses such fountains mightily. He changes hearts and redeems souls for just such purposes. You might have always thought that He is focused on your behavior - and certainly He cares about it - but behavior begins in the HEART. PRAISE reorient the HEART. Focus there, and let your fountain flow.
(an extract from Worship The King - by Chris Tiegreen)

Saturday, January 01, 2011

THANKSGIVING, PRAISE & WORSHIP REVOLUTION: DAILY

Every Day I Will Praise You
And Extol Your Name
For Ever And Ever
Psalm 145:2

As we step into the New Year, what would be our thanksgiving, praise and worship to our King be like? Is it a Sunday ritual or a frenzied emotion that we can put on and take off? Is it limited to one style of music or a particular church?

God seeks those whose worship emantes from deep within. He desires legitimate praise and integrity between heart and mouth. He wants to be the One we treasure most. Most of all, He wants you. Yes all of you! If you don't have a daily time of thanksgiving, praise and worship, make one.

Let us establish genuine praise of the Father, the Son and the Spirit as a daily experience. Psalm 145 is a good place to start. It mentions the urge to praise and worship our King daily. And it is glorious in it's sweeping praise of the Lord, so there's no shortage of material in it by which our mouth can honor Him, if for some reason praise is hard to come by. Read it daily - slowly, thoughtfully, worshipfully. Don't let it become a stale routine, only a treasured habit. The exaltation of the King is always to be treasured.

Again and again in the Bible we find people thanking and praising the Lord and instructing others to do the same:

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving ... Praise the Lord! ... Praise Him, O servants of the Lord ... You who revere the Lord, Bless the Lord ... In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus ... Through Him letus continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God!

God places great importance on thanksgiving, praise and worship. Withholding thanksgiving, praise and worship is an injustice toward God. we owe Him everything, and it is only right that we give thanks to Him and ascribe to Him "the glory due to His Name." (Psalm 29:2). For these reasons and many others, thanksgiving, praise and worship is not a mere obligation. It is our greatest privilges a schildren of the living God. It should rank high in our priorities!

If you don't have a daily time of thanksgiving, praise and worship, make one. Put them even higher on your list of priorities than making prayer request to God. Let them be the springboard into your request and your study of the Word. Stop now, if you can, and give thanks, praise and worship Him for at least one of His benefits. It you have ever needed a dramatic change, daily, heartfelt thanskgiving, praise and worship will bring it about.
(an extract from Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen)

Blessed New Year 2011
TPWC