Expressions of Praise ..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 Expressions of Praise

Dr. Charles Stanley

Psalms 34:1-3

Glorifying the Lord is not limited to worshipping in church. In fact, praise ought to permeate the believer’s life. 

One obvious way that we praise the Lord is with our voice. We can either speak or sing our worship. Psalm writers put adoration into words and set their love to music. True worship also flows from the mouths of believers who are focused upon God’s attributes. They desire to honor Him because of who He is, what He has done, and what He has promised for the future.

Genuine worship allows the Lord to fill our hearts and minds with His presence. But praising the Lord with wrong motives is an empty act. For example, if we’re lifting our hands and singing loud only because doing so feels good, then what we’re after is an emotional high. That kind of selfish “praise” falls far short of heaven.

Our God is praised when we serve Him. People are created for the purpose of bringing glory and honor to His name. Therefore, nothing should limit our willingness to work for the King, particularly when we have a chance to share Him with others. Christ is honored when His followers speak boldly about His grace and His work—believers’ testimonies are an amazing form of praise that magnifies God’s name.

Jesus Christ is worth more than any treasure this world offers. Loving Him and understanding what He’s done for you should be all the motivation you need to praise Him with your life. Don’t just sing; serve His kingdom and share the gospel. Help to make God’s throne room ring with worship.

Rejoicing and Weeping with Others..... Craig Denison

 Rejoicing and Weeping with Others

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

This week we’re going to take a look at seven principles found in Romans 12 that describe the marks of a true Christian. The intent of studying this passage is not to condemn or lead you to comparison. Instead, let Paul’s teaching fill you with a deep, transformative longing to wholeheartedly pursue the life God intends for you. Ask God to help you see yourself as he sees you, to see the grace he’s placed upon your life by the blood of Jesus so that you might walk more fully in the power and anointing of the Spirit. Open your heart to God, and let him do a mighty work in you. He is near to you, ready to mold and shape you into a disciple filled with and fueled by his incredible love. May you discover God’s grace and perspective this week as you examine your life in light of this powerful passage of Scripture.

Scripture:“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Romans 12:15

Devotional:  

Have you ever experienced love and compassion from someone right when you needed it? Have you laughed or rejoiced with friends or family when you wanted to celebrate something great? Or, have you ever had a friend cry with you in a time of great trial and grief? In Romans 12:15, God commands us, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus because his heart is filled with compassion for people. David exemplifies this truth in Psalm 30:11 when he says, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.” Let’s spend time today encountering God’s heart of mercy for his people and learn how we can better share the love we’ve been shown with others.

As children of God, we are called to community. We are called to step away from the path of selfish ambition and sacrifice our lives for others the way Jesus has for us. Often this sacrificial life requires simply being there for those God has placed in our lives in whatever capacity they need. Colossians 3:12-13 says, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” God calls us to clothe ourselves with his heart. He asks us to be ambassadors for him by sharing his love with others. Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Jesus counted our redemption more important than his own life and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8). And he asks us to be like him.

So, how can you and I live our lives like Jesus? How can we better “rejoice with those who rejoice [and] weep with those who weep?” It all starts with encountering the heart of God ourselves. Only in seeing the incredible compassion and love God has for you will you be able to have his heart for others.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” We’re meant to love others out of the overflow of God’s love for us. He doesn’t ask you to have compassion and mercy in your own strength. He knows those are gifts that come from the Spirit working in our lives. You and I can do nothing in and of ourselves. To truly share God’s heart we need God’s help, and that starts with simply spending time encountering God for who he is.

After being filled with the love of God, you must choose to humble yourself before others and step outside of your comfort zone to bless someone. Humility requires strength, courage, and the help of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will always help you share God’s love for someone. Follow his leading, ask him for his heart for people around you, and follow through with courage in love. If you will make it your goal to see God’s heart proclaimed through your life, you will experience more joy and purpose than you can imagine. Being a person who gives their own life for the sake of others will fill you with more peace and passion than living for yourself could ever produce. Spend time encountering God’s heart today, and walk in obedience to his command: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” If you do so, you will find yourself filled with the knowledge of God’s love today and satisfied in knowing you proclaimed God’s love through your life.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s love for you. Ask God to show you how he feels about you in this very  moment.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

2. Now ask for God’s heart for someone else today. Who needs you to rejoice with them? Who needs you to weep with them?

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Romans 12:15

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34

3. Right now in your own heart, humble yourself before the person that God has shown you. Choose in your own heart to count them as more significant than yourself. And commit to share God's love with them in whatever way the Spirit leads you.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” Colossians 3:12-13

Choose to love people today in whatever situation you find yourself. Whether you’re driving, having a conversation, working, or just relaxing with someone, you can always count others as more significant than yourself. You can always show others God’s love. And the more you encounter God’s heart for yourself, the more natural sharing his love with others will become. Share in the joy of co-laboring with God to see his kingdom, founded on love, come to earth today. There is no better life we can live than one spent working with our heavenly Father.

Extended Reading: 2 Corinthians 1

Notifications That Change Everything..... NICKI KOZIARZ

 Notifications That Change Everything

NICKI KOZIARZ

“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9b-c (ESV)

Think back to one of those moments when your life dinged with a notification that caused you to stop and ask, Do I trust God with this?

Maybe it was a text from a friend asking for prayer, a panic-inducing headline from the news or even an opportunity to do something you had never done before.

All of us have had a moment where one notification had the potential to change everything in our lives.

I can think of several defining notifications I’ve received in the last few years. A text from my dad that read: Come quick, your mom is dying. A news headline that indicated a pandemic was about to change life as I knew it. An email letting me know I was no longer needed for something I loved being a part of.

Sometimes, hard-to-believe notifications leave doubt lingering in our souls. And doubt, left undealt with, can become incredibly destructive to our faith.

There’s a man in Scripture who received a significant “notification” that was surely hard to believe. His name? Noah. But this notification came straight from God.

Noah was a husband, a father, a farmer and a preacher of righteousness. And one day, a conversation with God changed everything in his life. God told Noah there was a destructive flood coming, and Noah was to build an ark to take him, his family and many creatures on board to save. (Genesis 6)

Think about all the unbelievable factors of this notification: The earth had never seen a destructive flood like this, Noah wasn’t an ark-builder and the logistics of getting all those animals onboard.

How was Noah able to rise above the doubt this notification could have brought him?

I believe we see the answer to this question tucked into our main verse today: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9b-c). What does this mean? It doesn’t mean he was perfect, but it means he was in process with God.

A word that describes what it means to become righteous is “sanctification.” Meaning, the stepping away from the things that keep us from moving toward God. It’s allowing our steps to become in step with His. We also see in this verse that Noah made a decision: to walk with God.

This was not an “out for a few laps around the park” kind of walk. It was a place in Noah’s soul where, through a daily decision to show up before God, he became settled on who God was to him.

There was a destination in Noah’s life, and he would only reach it by walking with God.

You also have a God-given destination in your life. And all day long, doubt is in your head trying to detour you. Doubt sends you notifications that fill your mind with thoughts like: You can’t do this; you heard from God wrong; it’s too hard; give up; this is impossible.

I’m sure Noah had similar words lingering in his thoughts.

But if you decide to keep walking, God will keep working. It might feel like the enemy is following your footsteps and trying to trip you every chance he gets. Yet when you walk with God, you are always one step ahead of any scheme to take you down.

So the next time a life-changing notification comes, and it will, make the decision to walk closer to God.

Like Noah’s notification, it might not all make sense in one moment, but after a lifetime of walking with God, we will also see God’s faithfulness. We can decide today: There’s a better way; I’m walking with God.

Thank You, God, that we can hear Your voice and listen. Help us to walk closer to You today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
2 Corinthians 5:7, “… for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (ESV)

2 Corinthians 4:18, “… as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (ESV)

Trapped in the Darkness..... by Fred Alberti

 Trapped in the Darkness

by Fred Alberti

"…to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."
Acts 26:18

As I was walking through my nature trail this week I, as I normally do, asked the Lord what I should write this week. As I passed through the chapel area of the trail the sun flashed through the leaves and caught my attention. Light. I had entered the darkness of the woods but that light caught my attention. I "filed" it away and continued my travels through the trail.

Later, I was reading through various news stories of earthquake survivors in China when one particular story jumped out at me and brought back to my mind my earlier encounter with the rising sun. The story was of a middle-aged man named Mr. Shen whose quick thinking to take cover in a doorway saved him from the fate experienced by many of his co-workers.

When interviewed, Mr. Shen recalled shouting to a co-worker to join him in the doorway when the room suddenly collapsed. The next thing he remembered was the sudden darkness that enveloped him.

What struck me in his interview was his statement, "Oh, the darkness, oh, the darkness all over. I didn't know when it was going to end."

There are people that we walk past every day that, without knowing it, are spiritually in the same condition as Mr. Shen; trapped in darkness under the weight of sin.

For Mr. Shen, the darkness crumpled under the hands of the rescuers. After 146 hours his encounter with complete and utter darkness came to an end. That darkness, however, will always leave a mark on his being.

Will you forget the darkness that seeks to crush the hope of those around you?

Intersecting Faith & Life: Find a place of complete and utter darkness and spend at least 15 minutes praying for people you know who have not accepted God's free gift of salvation.

Further Reading:

Ephesians 5:8
John 12:46
1 Peter 2:9

A Lenten Prayer for God to Bring Beauty from Ashes..... By Debbie McDaniel

 A Lenten Prayer for God to Bring Beauty from Ashes

By Debbie McDaniel

“To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Isa 61:3

As we walk through this season of Lent, we’re reminded again that sometimes… life is hard.

Sometimes it hurts.

Sometimes it’s dark.

And it leaves its mark, like ashes of grief, in the deepest parts of our souls, where no one but God can really see.

Yet even in times of ashes and struggle, even when we think we’ve been forgotten in our seasons of waiting, God is still there. And He is bigger.

As believers, we can still hold on to hope.

For He never intends for us to stay stuck in our sin, pain, or deep sorrow. He heals and restores, He calls us onward, He reminds us that in Him, we have great purpose and hope.

There is beauty and greatness behind every mark of darkness. The ashes will fall away, they don’t stay forever, but His greatness and glory shine forever through every broken place and flaw we’ve struggled through.

Jesus conquered death. He lives forever. He reigns in glory. And we have victory in Him.

Take courage dear friends who are facing deep battles. He is greater than any enemy we face in this life. We overcome because He has overcome and our lives are hidden in Christ. May God cover you with peace, may He bring healing in the face of hard news, may He bring deep, abiding joy that makes no sense to the world, may He bring comfort and care as He wraps you in His arms. The God of miracles fights for you today, and He is Mighty.

There's still beauty ahead...straight out of ashes.

Christ redeems.

Grace.

Dear God,

In this season of Lent we’re reminded of our own difficulties and struggles. Sometimes the way has seemed too dark. Sometimes we feel like our lives have been marked by such grief and pain, we don’t see how our circumstances can ever change. But in the midst of our weakness, we ask that you would be strong on our behalf. Lord, rise up within us, let your Spirit shine out of every broken place we’ve walked through. Allow your power to be manifest through our own weakness, so that others will recognize it is You who is at work on our behalf. We ask that you would trade the ashes of our lives for the beauty of your Presence. Trade our mourning and grief for the oil of joy and gladness from your Spirit. Trade our despair for hope and praise. We choose to give you thanks today and believe that this season of darkness will fade away. Thank you that you are with us in whatever we face, and that you are greater than this trial. We know and recognize that you are Sovereign, we thank you for the victory that is ours because of Christ Jesus, and we are confident that you have good still in store for our future. We thank you that you are at work right now, trading our ashes for greater beauty. We praise you, for you make all things new.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Our Ultimate Hooray..... by Charles R. Swindoll

 Our Ultimate Hooray

by Charles R. Swindoll

John 11  

What gives a widow courage as she stands beside a fresh grave? What is the ultimate hope of the handicapped, the abused, the burn victim? What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?

The answer to each of these questions is the same: the hope of bodily resurrection.

We draw strength from this single truth almost every day of our lives—more than we realize. It becomes the mental glue that holds our otherwise shattered thoughts together. Impossible though it may be for us to understand the details of how God is going to pull it off, we hang our hopes on fragile, threadlike thoughts that say, "Someday, He will make it right," and "Thank God, all this will change," and "When we're with Him, we shall be like Him."

More than a few times a year I look into red, swollen eyes and remind the despairing and the grieving that "there's a land that is fairer than day" where, as John promised in the Revelation, "He shall wipe away every tear... there shall no longer be any death... any mourning or crying or pain... there shall no longer be any curse... any night... because the Lord God shall illumine them; and they shall reign forever and ever" (21:4; 22:3, 5). Hooray for such wondrous hope!

Just imagine... those who are physically disabled today will one day leap in ecstatic joy. Those who spend their lives absorbed in total darkness will see every color in the spectrum of light. In fact, the very first face they will see will be the One who gives them sight!

There's nothing like the hope of resurrection to lift the agonizing spirits of the heavyhearted. But how can we know for sure, some may ask. What gives us such assurance, such unshakable confidence? Those questions have the same answer:the fact of Christ's resurrection.

Because He has been raised, we too shall rise! No wonder we get so excited every Easter! No wonder we hold nothing back as we smile and sing and celebrate His miraculous resurrection from the grave!

Jesus Himself promised: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies" (John 11:25).

Easter is a double-barreled celebration: His triumphant hurrah over agony and our ultimate hooray of ecstasy.