A new song

O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. (Psalm 98, NRSV)

Sing to thenLord a new song…

How many times have you been to worship and said, “why are we singing this song, I don’t know it and we have never done it before?”

Well the reason for doing something new is right here. Sing to the Lord a new song! He has done wonderful things in our world and life and we should not give Him the same old stale things we have always given Him.

But we don’t know the words or the melody. How are we suppose to praise God with things we do not know!

It says later in the psalm, make a joyful noise. Let the ocean roar and the floods clap their hands. Now is the ocean roaring always pretty? And praiseful? And is the floods clapping a pretty melodious sound? No it is not but it can be joy filled. And that is what we are told to do.

God does not say make a pretty melodious sound and only the best and those who know a song the best should sing unto me. No He says make a joyful noise!

In the words of my pastor, “if you sing good, sing loud. If you can’t sing good, sing even louder to annoy your neighbor.” God said to make a joyful noise and that is what we are to do.

So sing a new song, and do it joyfully and to God it will be the most beautiful aria ever sung!

steadfast hope…

We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12, NRSV)

It is not easy to stay steady and strong in the face of trials and tribulations. It is so much easier to give up and move on to something else.

Why is that?

We want to impress those around us we bend to the whims of society. We do not hold out for what we know is the right thing, the right way. We give up because of the pressures of those around us. We are told it is not worth maintaining the course we are on and that it would be so much easier to move over here and do this.

But God is calling us to a steadfast hope in the promises He has given us. He is asking us to follow Him and not look at the rest of the world, but to focus our sights on Him and where He is leading us.

He will walk with us through the trials and tribulations, He will always guide us and He will take care of the scoffers and nay sayers.

We must maintain our steadfast hope in our Lord who will not forget His promises to you!

without excuse…

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:18-25, NRSV)

No one can say that they do not know God or His ways.

Paul tells the Romans plainly here that ever since the creation of the world, God’s eternal power and divine nature are seen through the things He has made. All of creation sings His glory and tells of His great love and mercy!

We are without excuse when it comes to knowing God for all of creation shouts. Remember Jesus telling the Pharisees if the disciples are quiet, then the rocks and the trees will cry out! All of nature proclaims His wonder!

We have no excuse for not knowing and loving the Lord!

 

Dead man walking

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life. ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:19-29, NRSV)

We can do nothing apart from God that is good. We can do nothing apart from God that will get us to any where but 6 feet in the ground.

We are truly all dead men walking. We are the living dead.

We will be judged by Jesus for the things that we did apart from Him. Will we hear Him call and be the ones who rise from the dead and walk with Him.

God has given Him the power and the wisdom to judge all of creation and to call forth from the grave those who will hear Him call.

Are you always going to be walking dead, or will you one day rise with Him?

Listen for His voice, and know that you will not always be a dead man walking!

where are you looking?

To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud. (Psalm 123, NRSV)

Where are you looking?

Do you look for things that are not there?

Things that will not help?

We always seem to be looking for the thing that will make our lives easy.

But you know we are not promised an easy life. We are not promised a road with no sorrow.

We are promised that when we look for our master He will be there.

We are promised when we are in need His hand will be there for us.

We are promised to have a guide in the darkness, not the removal of it.

We are ones who need to turn our eyes up and look for our master, our Lord and know that He is always there!

Advent Devotional from Luther Seminary

Follow the below link to the website for the Advent Devotional from Luther Seminary. You can either download the booklet in a pdf form, or sign up for a daily email.

This is a wonderful resource!

http://www.luthersem.edu/advent/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=All+Dynamic+Links&utm_content=Advent+Devotional+2013+is+Available+Now%21&utm_campaign=20131108+-+Advent+Devo+to+God+Pause+Subscribers

What we have known

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:16-21 ESV)

Peter tells us what he has known. He tells us what he learned from his experience.

This is nothing more than we are asked to do.

We are suppose to tell our story, which is God’s story.

From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we are all part of the same story. We need to tell others what we know. Not for fact but on faith.

Share your story!