 From the Desk of the Superintendent of Christian Education |
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From the Desk of the Superintendent of Christian Education |
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 10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. In the Old Testament, we see that every time God revealed Himself to the children of Israel in their various situations, they set up an altar and spoke the name of God that suited the situation. We are going to learn about the many names of God, or Jehovah Titles, as some say, and how they are revealed in our lives. We will understand that knowing these names will help us to become more familiar with God as we see Him in the many facets of His character. It is only then, that we can have a revived and more meaningful Praise and Worship for God our Father - the Creator of all things. In our lesson on "Why Praise and Worship?", one of the definitions for Praise was, "(1) Praise is addressed to God or His ' name.' God Himself, His attributes, or His acts, are the content of our thoughts, words, and song." The first name, or Jehovah Title, that we are going to get reacquainted with is Jehovah-Elohim - The Eternal Creator (Gen.2: 4-25) Jehovah- the Eternal, the Immutable One, He who Was, and IS, and IS TO COME (Genesis 21:33; Exodus 3:13-14; Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 26:4). Elohim- Hebrew; God, Creator, (Genesis 1:1) In Genesis we learned in the very beginning that God (Elohim) created the Heavens and the Earth. As we study what the meaning of Elohim means to us, we are going to (just from that point) begin to understand who God is in our lives. El-means “mighty” or “strong” and is used as a reference to any gods, including Almighty God. "him" in Elohim is plural and in Hebrew means “more than one”. Not more than one God, but “The LORD (Jehovah) is our God (Elohim) the LORD is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4), God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - The Blessed Trinity- created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:2-3) 2. “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3.”And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. In John 1:1-5, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. So far we have learned that The Eternal, Immutable One, He who Was, and IS, AND IS TO COME - GOD -, mighty and strong, is the God who created the heavens and earth and the same God who created us. So why is it that when we face situations that we consider to be too hard to bear, or impossible to fix, we fall apart? We have the same Creator Who keeps the stars from falling, the earth in rotation, and the moon and the sun rising and setting in their proper courses. Remember, He is the One Who keeps the earth watered with rain and supplies the needs of All CREATION - yes even you and me - just by speaking it into existence. The Bible says in Revelation 4:7-11, 7 “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." 9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." This is the God whom we serve. This is the God whom we are to praise for the great and marvelous things that He has done - the Almighty One, for whom nothing is impossible or too hard. This is why we give Glory and Honor to His name. Only His name is worthy to be praised. His name denotes who he is and tells of His character, His virtues, His attributes. Knowing this, we can draw strength from Him because we know Him as Jehovah-Elohim. Only someone with a loving and kind heart could create something as beautiful as the heavens and earth. But even more awesome are you and me. When I think of the fact that God used dust to create us; and that this dust is now walking and talking, I realize how awesome this God, (the One whom we have the privilege of calling our Heavenly Father), really is! I realize that He did it all just because He loves us. This is why the Word of God stresses the fact that we are to love one another. We must remember that though we were created from dust, we were created in His image. And becausue we were created in His image, we must love because one of the characteristics of God’s image is love. In the book entitled, Treasury of God’s Virtues, the first entry is about love: Love God’s greatest attribute is love. Love describes who God is and how He feels about us-that He desires to be with us and have an eternal union with us. God commands that we love Him and one another. It is through loving Him that we discover how much we are loved by Him, and then we are able to pass that love on to others. Love is the soul’s greatest need, and even our health is better when we know we are loved. Love brings security and calms us. Every other virtue has love at its foundation. God Is Love If God has touched us with His love, the result will be love flowing through us to others. When we realize the depth of His love, our hearts long to show that kind of love to those around us. 1 John 4:7-21-“7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[2into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[3our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” When we do this we are coming in line with Revelation 4:7-11 and 1 John 4: 7-21 the will of God, the reason He created us in the first place for His glory, and His pleasure we are to live our lives as Jesus did reflecting the Glory of God in the earth, Kay Arthur, says it this way in her book The Peace & Power of Knowing God’s Name “You were created for His glory and for His pleasures. Your life is to be lived in such a way as to reflect Him to show the world the character of God-His love, His peace, His mercy, His gentleness. You are to live for Him, to accomplish His will. To miss this is to miss fulfillment. It is to have existed rather than to have lived. Today ask your self- Is the Lord your strong tower? Is His name your fortress in a time of weariness or attack or great distress? You may not understand how your situation could ever bring Him glory, but He doesn’t ask or require you to understand. He simply asks you to trust in the name of your Lord.” (Isaiah 26:4) 4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD , the LORD , is the Rock eternal.   Spiritual Rebirth - by Evangelist Sue Swinton
Many people have confidence in their own ability to control their lives. But, we must beware, because the very thing in which we place our confidence is the very thing that opens the door to Satan's attacks. The only way that we can ensure that we live lives pleasing to God is by experiencing Spiritual Rebirth. When we place our trust in anything, or anyone else, we leave ourselves open for whatever the enemy wants to do with us. In essence, we have told the Lord that we do not need Him. People whose minds are controlled by "the god of this world" will have their minds darkened and will not be able to understand the world as it really is (2 Corinthians 3:14). It is like a veil over their understanding. Only the Lord can open our minds. Examples of this are found in Luke 24:44-45, where Jesus opens the minds of the disciples who walked with Him so that they could understand the Scriptures (see Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:21-23). This process is done by letting God lead the Believer through the gentle guidance of the Voice of the Holy Spirit instead of the Believer only relying on his own understanding. Thus, the renewed person is given the ability to know God's will. Such people have new minds and have spiritual discernment (1 Corinthians 2:15-16). Some people fear becoming God's "puppets". This is far from how God leads us. He has given us all our own free wills, and we continue to have the right to choose. However, by giving Him your heart and mind, you become free to make choices without giving in to the influences of evil. (John 3:1-21) Jesus explained the importance of spiritual rebirth by expressing that people do not enter the Kingdom by living a better life, but by being spiritually reborn. (John 3:3) 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 Jesus explained that we cannot control the work of the Holy Spirit. He works in ways we cannot predict or understand. We did not control our physical births, so we cannot control our spiritual births. Spiritual life is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit. John's Gospel focuses on verses John 3:16-17. God's love is not self-centered. It reaches out and draws others in. Here, God sets the pattern of true love--the basis for all love relationships. When you love someone dearly, you are willing to pay dearly for that person's responsive love. This is exactly what God did with the life of His Son, the highest price He could pay. Jesus accepted our punishment, paid for the price of sin, and then offered us the new life that He had purchased for us. When we share the gospel with others, our love must be like Jesus'. We must be willing to give up our own comforts and security so that others might join us in receiving God's love. When a person dies to the old life and gives his life to Christ, a new life begins. An unbeliever's mind set is centered on his or her own personal gratification. Those who do not follow Christ have only their own self-determination as their source of power. By contrast, God is at the center of a Christian's life. God supplies the power for the Christian's daily living. Believers find that their whole way of looking at the world changes when they come to Christ. As a born-again Believer, you desire to forfeit your old way of thinking for "the mind of Christ". As Proverbs 3:5-6 states, you then must "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Why Praise and Worship?-by Evangelist Sue Swinton  PRAISE: Express honor and gratitude to God through Worship, words, attitudes, actions... "The Book of Psalms" (Title: The Hebrew title is Sepher-Tehillim, "THE BOOK OF PRAISES.") This Lesson is not about the Book of Psalms but about what the book of Psalms represents-- Praising God. In the Dakes Annotated Reference Bible, it states that there are 24 Psalms of Praise,(29,65, 75,95-100, 103-105, 107, 117, 134-136,145-150). The Dakes Reference Bible also states that there are 50 commands in Scripture for us to sing praises to the Lord. Then it goes on to state the reasons why we should praise the Lord. From our definition of praise, let's take each word and get to know what it means when applied to the Lord. 1. EXPRESS THROUGH WORDS: to give expression to,( as a thought, an opinion,or an emotion),sing,utter, voice, proclaim. TESTIMONY, words spoken about the goodness of the Lord and the situations that looked hopeless taken care of and blessings received. 2. EXPRESS THROUGH ATTITUDES: state of mind or feeling with regards to some matter, demeanor, position, belief, Gratefulness-Ungratefulness, Positiveness-Negativeness, Selfishness-Unselfishness. FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, displaying the characteristics of GOD. 3. EXPRESS THROUGH ACTIONS: behavior, deed, performance, reaction, submission. This goes hand and hand with attitudes because what frame of mind your in constitutes your actions as how well you display the Fruit of the Spirit. JESUS OUR EXAMPLE. HONOR In order to praise the Lord, you have to acknowledge Him (words. You have to acknowledge that He exists, and by doing this, you take yourself down a rung or two(attitude), because by acknowledging that there is a God, you are acknowledging that He is ALL MOST HIGH, and this makes him Supreme. Supremacy belongs in front, at the head, above, and first (action). Now for some, this is very hard because they have placed themsleves in this position of honor for all of their lives. Don't let me confuse you. It doesn't mean that you are religious, or sanctified, or even saved because you recognize the existence of God. It just means that you acknowledge that there is a God. From scripture, we know that the children of Israel also knew that there was a God, because He was in their lives walking and talking with them according to what we read in the book of Exodus. (Their Wilderness Experiences ). In 1 Samuel 8:5-9, we see an example that an acknowledgement is all that we are willing to give God; however, the rest, we want to do for ourselves. We have already acknowledged Him, and in doing that we aren't completely one hundred percent great. So now that God has His acknowledegments, we go on our way further and further away from the Lord. This, we know to be true, because in 1 Samuel 8:7-22, the children of Israel approach Samuel, and tell him because he's getting old, and because his sons are not like him, (they're dishonest), the children of Israel have decided that they want a King like other nations have. Samuel shares this disappointing news with God, believing that the people are rejecting him. But God informs Samuel that it's not he that is being rejected, but it's God that they no longer want to lead them. Now God, being God, tells Samuel to warn them of the things that their chosen king is going to do to them. Out of love, God allowed the children of Israel to have their King. During that time, the Israelites did not honor God through expressions of words, attitudes, or actions. No praise and no thanksgiving for granting their request for a king. But just as they had been warned, they suffered at his (King Saul's) hand. The experienced defeats, captivity, loss of homes, loss of life and enslavement to morally destitute leaders. Lesson point : where there is no Praise, (expression through words, attitudes, or actions), the devil and his bondage are present PRAISE. The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words says: "(1) Praise is addressed to God or His ' name.' God Himself, His attributes, or His acts, are the content of our thoughts, words, and song. (2) Praise is linked with the believing community's joy in the person of God. . . . Most praise comes from those who are filled with a sense of joy in who God is and how deeply He is committed to His people (3)Praise exalts the Lord. It is in praise that the believer implicitly acknowledges creaturely dependence on God and explicitly acknowledges God's greatness and goodness." Scripture references: Deuteronomy 8:18-20 Remembering Who God is- 2 Samuel 22:1-51 - David's Song of Praise -( a beautiful example of praise, which is best understood as acknowledging God or confessing Him. This psalm contains both descriptive and declarative praise, which announces what He has done (descriptive) vv. 2-3, 29, 31-32, 47-48 (declarative) vv. 7, 13-20, 34-37, 40, 44, and 51 Psalm 33 - Praise for God's Faithfulness Psalm 34 - Righteous Man's Praise for Deliverance ( Oh Taste and See) Psalm 67 - Praise for Graciousness Psalm 145 -A Psalm of Praise Psalm 146 - Lifelong Praise Psalm 148 - O Earth, Praise God Psalm 149- Praise for Salvation Psalm 150 - Praise in God's House 1 Chronicles 25:1-31 -Organization of Praise and Worship in The House of God- The Singers The Messengers "Prophesying, accompanied by harps" Often employed in the Bible to denote Respect(regard, awe, fear, reverence, adoration, worship, admire), as the act of religious reverence and homage paid to God, and is a command in Scripture. To obey, reverence, focus positive attention ( Exodus 34:14; John 4:23). To enjoy the Presence of God, any action or attitude that expresses praise, our obedience (Micah 6:8), our treatment of others (Matthew 25:37), appreciation (Matthew 6:6), LOVE, (Affection,attachment,devotion, regard, worship,delight in). Publicly or Privately for God. WORSHIP We worship God, because of who He is and what He has done, but first we have to agree that God is our creator and His plan for our lives is the only way, and this is done by excepting His son Jesus and his death on the cross for our sins. When we do this we go into partnership with Him, and that's His idea not ours. In this partnership we depend on God to be faithful to us , but we, sometimes don't keep our part of the partnership or relationship. All we have to do to keep covenant from the human side is fulfill our part of the agreement, and at the very heart of what we must do to maintain our relationship wth the Lord is Worship,so we can be ushered into the Presence of the Lord (The Holy of Holies) by the Holy Spirit. Worshipping God is not an egotistical attitude of the Lord it is an intricate part of who we are, because we were created in His image and one aspect of His image is worship. For example, How He The Father worships The Son , He tells us at Jesus' Baptism how well pleased He is with His Son (Matthew 3:17)and The Holy Spirit, and The Son worships The Father and The Holy Spirit, and The Holy Spirit worships The Father and The Son, but not only does the Trinity worship each other ,but every living creature in Heaven worships The Father. In Revelation 4:8-11, it tells how the angelic host surround the throne and cry out Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, and that there are 24 elders who every time they hear the Angelic host cry out they fall down and praise God for the great things He has done by giving Him their crowns because He's worthy. Due to the seperation of sinful man from God (Isaiah 59:2), we have been removed from this position of Praise and Worship. Now in order to get back where we belong in the presence of the Lord and High Praise and Worship, we must except the sacrifice He has made available for us in His Son Jesus Christ. Now when we do this we can thank God for saving us and restoring us to our position, so everytime we praise Him, He can reveal to us like He does the Angelic host a new revelation of His Glory. So the next time you hear someone ask why do we have to Praise and Worship God? Tell them because we are created in His image and one of His attributes is Worshipping those He loves, His Son, The Holy Spirit, and US. Now give the Lord, Glory and Honor. Sing Praises to His name and Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Tell Him, "Thank You", for your life. Be appreciative, and in all situations, be Joyful for whatever you are going through. It's only a test. Amen! Scripture readings: Isaiah 57:15-21; 59:1-21 Revelation 19:1-10 Romans 10:1121;11:1-26 Illumina Software was also used as a study reference for this article.  | S.O.S. - Supplications of the Saints | Over the Horizon | The Roman Road to Salvation | From the Desk of the Superintendent | TugBoat Times Youth Pages | From the Sheepfold | Holy Humor | |
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