Who is at the center of your praise? Revelation 1-5

Revelation 4:11

“ Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

Throughout Scripture, particularly in this section of Revelation, we have a recorded doxology in praise and worship to God.   The book of Psalms is whole committed to such a task.  In the above doxology we see the center piece of our worship and the reason for our worship.   Christ is "worthY' to receive glory, honor and power.    The reason given is because He "created all things."    Christ was there at Creation and when God "spoke" the world into existence Jesus Christ "was the Word" (John 1:1-4).   But, the doxology doesn't stop there.   Not only is Jesus worthy of honor, glory and power because He created all things but also "because of Your will they existed and were created."   Christ was not only the agent of creation, it was for His will they were created.   Christ is the center focus of how things were created and the center focus of why things were created.   We exist because Christ willed it for the sole purpose of honoring and glorifying Him.   That is the shame and sin that comes when we take credit for things ourselves.   Satan accomplished through Adam and Eve the ultimate sin - the desire to live without Christ as the center, but rather putting yourself in the center.   Only Jesus is worth of our honor, glory  and of power.   Join the voices of the 24 elders in Revelation 4 .... shout from the top of your lungs, "Worth are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power." 

Flirtatious Language works - Song of Songs 1-2

Song of Songs 1:15-16

“ How beautiful you are, my darling,

 How beautiful you are!

Your eyes are like doves.”

“ How handsome you are, my beloved,

And so pleasant!

Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!

Words are the path to the heart.  Language, proper language, using the right key words, opens up the heart to the passion of love.  In these two verse the two lovers in Song of Songs share a brief, but potent exchange of compliments.   "You look terrific today ... your eyes glow," he says to her.   "And you are one handsome man," she says ... adding, "Our couch looks inviting."   The seduction and flirtatious speech of the two leads to the passion of the physical.   There is not anger between them.  They are not jesting toward one another with put downs and negative phrases.   The language of the heart is to compliment, to commend and to convey.    He to her; her to him.   Taking time today to say to the love of your life a simply phrase of how she/he looks and appeals to you is the the fragrance of love.   Words can be condemning and hurting.   But, they don't have to be.   Instead, use your language to usher in the passion of love.   Take time to say something longing and real about your love.  Notice her eyes.   Notice his strength.   We can spend time noticing the things we don't like about our love.   That it easy.  It is easy to find fault with size, weight, color and shape.  But, it is easy to notice the curve of the cheek, or the strength of the jaw, as well.   Use your language to build up and compliment.   Love awaits.  

Do your prayers smell good? Psalm 140-142

Psalms 141:2

May my prayer be counted as incense before You;

The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.

In Revelation 5 and 8 we are told that the prayers of the righteous (believers) are incense contained in a bowl in heaven.   That thought has always struck me.   When we pray several things are happening.  We typically think of the one thing we want to happen and that is an answer to our prayers.   But, there is more happening than just answers.   When we pray God stores the prayers up in a bowl and will eventually pour them out on the earth.   That is why we are told in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 that we are to pray, "... Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ...".    Our prayers, now, accomplish later what God wants to accomplish.   Righteous prayers will be used in righteous ways.   That is why in Psalm 141:2 David wants his prayers to be counted (fixed in the real sense of the Hebrew word) as "incense" before God.  That is the same concept that John tells us about prayer in Revelation 5 and 8.   David wants even his small gesture of lifting up his hands to seem as the entire "evening offering."   David doesn't want passive worship.  David wants his worship to reach the very ears, eyes and nose of God.   Our prayers should not be filled with personal agendas and as a Christmas wish list.   Our prayers are to bless God and be a sweet fragrance to God.   Let's lift Him up in our prayers and remember that just as a sweet incense to us in our homes, offices or stores soothes our spirit, our prayers should be a sweet incense to Him to adorn Him with praise and worship.  

Weakness is your real strength - Nehemiah 5-9

If you have ever been discouraged in doing God's work then the story in Nehemiah 6 is for you (and me).   Nehemiah has an impossible task.  He has been commissioned by God to rebuild a city that so destroyed it is hardly recognizable.   He is to rebuild it with very little material and with a remnant of people who busy abusing one another.   On top of that stress he is asked to do this work with an enemy who constantly tries to distract him and discourage him.   His "arch enemy" stops by to mock, to threaten, to warn, to distract.   What is Nehemiah's response:

Nehemiah 6:9

For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, “ They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.

When we are in the midst of difficulty doing the work of Christ we can rely on our strength or we can rely on God's strength.  God can and will do some great work in us as we trust in Him and have faith in His strength, not our own.   Many believers do the work of Christ in their own strength and fail.  Those who do work in Christ's strength find a source of power otherwise unknown.   Paul, in the midst of his toughest times came to realize that when he was weak that is when God came to strengthen him and that is when he found he was strong.   Note what Paul says:

2 Corinthians 12:10

Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

We can only find real strength when we find that we are really weak.  God strengthens those who lean on Him, not those who lean on themselves.  

Vow or Don't Vow - Dueteronomy 22-25

Deuteronomy 23:21-22

“ When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you. However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you.

Note what God teaches and rewards in regard to vows.   Vows are important to God.   God takes them very seriously.   If we vow God wants us to keep the vow we vowed.  We can't back away from the vow once it is uttered.   However, it IS NOT sin to NOT vow.  God is not asking us to say or commit to something that is not in our hearts.   The story in Acts 5 of Annanis an Sapharia teaches us the same thing. God didn't discipline them because they kept back part of the sale of their land.  He killed them because they vowed  more than they gave.   They didn't have to give anything to God from the sale of their land.   But, once they vowed that what they gave was the entire price of the sale and withheld some, they broke God's truth.   The failed to give what they vowed.   If you vow give it to God.  If you don't have it in your heart, don't vow.   Vows are important to God.  

The TRIANGLE of relationships - 1 John 1-3

1 John 1:7

... but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Having a relationship with another believer is as much about our relationship with God as it is our understanding and walk with them.  We often worry more about how we relate to others than if our walk is a righteous walk.  Yet, the later is more important than the former according to John.  His truth above is that if we want to have "fellowship" with other believers that begins with a walk in the "light."  His point is simple, when we do sin we not only separate ourselves from God but from one another.   Couples who struggle in their relationship begin those struggles with a walk away from God ... that produces a walk away from each other.   This truth is the triangle truth.   God is at the top of the triangle and you or I are at one of the corresponding corners.   Those we have relationships with are at the other corner.  As we draw close to God at the top, we draw closer to each other.  As we fall farther from the "light" (away from God) we will fall farther from each other.   God is always at the top.    When we walk close to God we walk close to each other.   

A Life lead by the Spirit - Acts 19-20

Paul was so fully committed to Christ and the gospel he had no regard for his own life.  His simple path was to be committed to proclaiming Christ and to be fully committed to being lead by the Spirit.   Note the following two verses from this section:

Acts 19:21

Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”

Acts 20:22

And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

Paul didn't seem to have any moments that he was disconnected with the Spirit's ministry.  Maybe in Romans 7 and his confession of failure in sin, would qualify, but for the most part he was not concerned about his life but rather pursing the life of Christ and the message with Christ.   Perhaps the greatest lesson for those who follow in the steps of Paul and want to be a minister on his level, they simply need to cast off the desire for the world and put on the desire for Christ and Him magnified.   That is an easy message to write but it certainly the message we see from Paul's life.   We, on the other hand, are so caught up in this world that we fail to embrace, exclusively, the life of Christ.   One reason Satan has progressed this world into such creature comforts is that it allows us to forget, for long moments, Christ.   Paul only had Christ.   We have become so distracted by so much more.   That distraction keeps us from a life of Christ in the Spirit.