Worship is noisy!

There are many traditions for worshipping God within the church today. I was reading Isaiah 6 one day and realized that worship in heaven is NOISY!

Isaiah 6:1-4 (NIV) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

That’s a powerful shout, if it’s enough to shake heaven’s doorposts.

The above passage was set about 740BC, according to the NIV Study Bible. If you fast-forward about 835 years to 95AD, the seraphs are still at it:

Revelation 4:6-8 (NLT) In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal.
In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”

We also see 24 elders speaking and the throne thundering. In Revelation 5, we see the elders with harps singing, and millions of angels singing loudly. They were declaring the worthiness of the One on the throne and the Lamb. Let’s let our own worship do the same thing.

Doug

All believers are righteous

We’re all familiar with Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (NKJV). This is one of the verses that contributes to a “sinner saved by grace” mindset, rather than a “righteousness of God” mindset.

Let’s read it in context:

Romans 3:21-24 (NIV) (21) But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. (22) This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Verse 22 says that righteousness – being in right-standing with God – is through faith in Christ Jesus, and it is to all who believe. “For there is no difference” says to me that all believers are righteous – not that some are more righteous (have better standing with God) than others – all believers have the same right-standing with God even as all have sinned.

Verse 24 says that those who believe are justified (“just as if I’d never sinned”), or “declared righteous” (paraphrase from NLT) freely by grace as a part of the plan of redemption.

Kenneth Copeland once told the story of a man – a known heavy drinker and wife-beater, but considered a member in good standing of his church. He started to see that he was righteous, and quit doing that stuff. He started telling people in his church that he was righteous, and they kicked him out of that church within 90 days! They couldn’t deal with a man saying he was righteous, I guess.

Why should we hang on to the sin tag that Christ redeemed us from?

Doug

All things are possible for believers

In my last post, I wrote about all things being possible with God. This post is the flip-side of that post.

In Mark 9, a man had asked Jesus’ disciples to cast a demon out of his son. They were unable to. Jesus asked that the son be brought to him. The father asked if Jesus could do anything about it.

Mark 9:23 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

In Matthew’s account of this story (Matt 17:9-21), Jesus follows up this deliverance with these words:

Matthew 17:20 (NLT) “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

We find statements like this throughout the gospels.

• In Matthew 9:29, Jesus told two blind men asking for healing “According to your faith will it be done to you.” (NIV)
• In Matthew 15:28, Jesus told the Syrophoenician (Canaanite) woman that her faith was great and her request to deliver her daughter from demon possession would be granted.
• In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus saw the faith of the men that opened the roof to let their friend down into the house.
• In Mark 5:34, Jesus was speaking to the woman with the issue of blood. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (NIV)
• In Luke 17:11-19, he told the leper that returned to give thanks “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” (NLT)

Where is our faith at? Who is our faith in? Do we have that mustard seed of faith?

Doug

With God, all things are possible

Two verses in particular state make the statement that nothing is impossible for God – Luke 1:37 and Mark 10:27 (both NLT here).

The first was what the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would bear Jesus. She asked how this would be possible, given she was a virgin. Gabriel said “For nothing is impossible with God.”

The second place is after the rich young ruler left Jesus (Mark 10). Jesus said it was easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to go to heaven. The disciples asked who could be saved. Verse 27

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.”

Everything is possible with God. Nothing is too big for God.

He can deliver from enemy armies (2 Chronicles 20).
He can pay off a debt (2 Kings 4:1-7).
He can make an axe head float (2 Kings 6:1-7).
He can stop time (Joshua 10:12-14) or turn it back (Isaiah 38:1-8).
He can raise the dead (John 11), heal the blind (John 9), lame (Mark 2:1-12), the leper (Mark 1:40-45), and those with crippled body parts (Mark 3:1-6).
He can feed thousands from one lunch (John 6:1-14) (Listen to my sermon “Multiplication” from 7/26/2009).
He can part the Red Sea (Exodus 14).

If God can take care of all of that, then no problem we face is too big for Him.

Doug