Blessing the Lord at All Times

I like to talk on the word worship a lot. Its always good to remind ourselves that it is more than a time when we come together and sing a couple songs before hearing a sermon.

Worship is anytime we choose to deny ourselves for the Glory of God by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8). This can be through walking in HOLINESS as seen in Romans 6, helping the orphan and widow in their distress (James 1:27), taking up our cross DAILY and denying ourselves (Luke 9:23), being diligent to see that there is no bitterness within our hearts as seen in Hebrews 12-13, honoring the authority structure He has placed over us in every season, and the list could go on and on.

When will we realize that what David said of singing in Psalm 34:1 is the effect of a deeper cause that should be continually happening in our lives. We must realize that every chance to go low in humility, every chance to deny our flesh, every time we open our hearts for the light of God to search out our darkness, etc etc is a LIFETSTYLE of living for the glory of God and not for ourselves…. (It even comes down to something so simple as when you get asked to take out the trash… Do you do it begrudgingly or because you know God is watching to see how you respond to the request of service? Make it a time of worship…. SERVE with a happy heart before the eyes of God!)

So once again, I will say that worship is anytime we choose to deny ourselves for the Glory of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is never of ourselves, but always of Him. He provides the power to follow after Him, that we would never boast in ourselves (Psalm 16:1-2). Let our singing be the branches that grow from the roots of denying ourselves, planted in the soil of the Holy Spirit.

Proof That You Are Not Bitter At Someone

• 1) You do not tell anyone the wrong someone did to you

What if God were to tell all about who we are??? As far as the east is from the west our sins have been washed away. Judge not lest you be judged.  God has enough on all of us to bury us..

• 2) You don’t let them be afraid of you.

Perfect love casts out fear.  When someone walks into a room and they are scared of you and you say “good”, thats not love…. love keeps no record of wrongs.

• 3) You don’t even let them feel guilty

Usually in our pride we want to make someone sit on a guilt trip. But quietly we must forgive them.  “Poor out your complaint to the Lord”.  Tell it to Jesus.

• 4) You let them save face

You protect them and cover for them.  Instead of rubbing their noses in it, you act as though they did nothing. God just forgives, he never brings up the past again.

• 5) You protect them from their darkest secret.

Joseph didn’t let his brothers tell jacob what they did.

• 6) Total forgiveness is a life sentence.

You gotta keep doing it.  Its like a prescription that the doctor says “you have to take this the rest of your life”. You have to do it today, tomorrow, a week from now, a year from now…. 10 years later.

When Jacob dies in Genesis 50, Joseph’s brothers panic and think he is “gonna throw the book at them”.  They make up a story and said their dad told them to tell him to forgive him… he told them he forgave them 17 years ago!

• 7) You bless them

Pray for them.   Ask God to bless them.

700 Billion Minutes and the American Dream

I just read an amazing blog on the total time spent by 500 million active users on facebook a month.  It adds up to being 700 billion minutes!! THATS CRAZY!!! That equals the amount of 1.3 million years of time spent by all users combined a month!! I found a quote that really got me thinking a lot. My thought is that you might find it insightful as well.

What are we actually doing with our Facebook time? Is what we do there significant enough that it merits the time we dedicate to it? What are we accomplishing with all of those minutes? What do you accomplish with your share of those 700 billion minutes?

The facebook growth chart below is also stunning to me. It’s beginning to resemble the tower of Babel! — Well, not literally, BUT think about it…. there are more human beings that are connected together and conversing with 1 language (computer code) through Facebook in 2010 than there were humans with one language at the time of the tower of Babel…. Makes you wonder about the times in which we live ay?? (Click the image for a better view of the numbers..)

To be awakened from the American Dream is to be alive to the living reality that self denial is the only way to bringing all glory to Jesus. Maybe some of us need to block facebook completely out of our lives as a way to move towards awakening from the American Dream of self fulfillment and living totally bored. Let us now ponder this quote..

One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time. – John Piper

To read this whole article, click here (Trust me it is worth your time to read it).

True Leaders Are Servants of All

What a shepherd this man Derek Loux was. This night in Korea I watched him pray for thousands of people after his sermon on Fatherlessness from 10p.m.-4:30a.m. in the morning. Why did he do it?? Cause He had the Father’s heart.. Now to follow in his footsteps…

2 Edged Sword

I am taking these verses to heart today….

“…Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer..” (1 Cor. 10:10)…

“bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” (Col. 3:13)

Let us pour out our complaints to God alone and not to other men (Psalm 142:2); and then pray Psalm 141:3; and Psalm 19:14…