I really like Sundays because that is when I can gather with my brothers and sisters in Christ and worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth. It is a great thing to get together with other believers in Jesus Christ. We sing hymns together. We fellowship. We like praising the Lord. Sure we can do those things at home by ourselves, but something special happens when believers filled with the Spirit of God get together.
Sometimes if we are not careful we can see these meeting as just another routine thing that we do. It can seem like a habit and maybe for some it has become just that. We must prepare our hearts before hand and ask the Lord to speak to us during these times when we get together. We shouldn't wait until Sunday to get together either with some Christ centered friends.
Today we had a very good worship service this morning and we had our church picnic. The Lord blessed us with a great day so we could worship Him. He is indeed an Awesome God. The journey of a Christian is not an easy one. There are many times of testing and there are many trials that we all must face. The Lord Jesus told His disciples and us that we will have trouble in this world, but we should take heart and know that He has overcome the world.
Isn't a great comfort that we can trust Jesus not only for salvation, but also with our very lives. He is always there for us. There is nothing that comes our way that catches Jesus by surprise. We will never hear the Lord say, "Huh, I didn't see that coming."
The Lord knows the very beginning to the very end. There is nowhere we can go in life where He isn't already there. He knows what our future holds and He is already there. One day, we who are trusting in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, will see our Lord in Heaven. His arms will be opened wide welcoming us into His Eternal Kingdom.
What a great and blessed day that will be for we who believe on Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the Live and no one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ. He is worthy of our love. He is worthy of all our praise.
We should lift up our voices in song to Him whether we sound good or not to others. It is not to others that we sing. We are to sing to the Lord. We need to sing to Jesus, the One who died for our sins. He is worthy of our adoration.
I had another opportunity to sing with other Christians and to hear a couple of wonderful singers this afternoon at another church in the area where I live. It was a great time of fellowship. I could sense the Lord's presence in that place. It is great time to worship the Lord. It also a great time to fellowship and to call out to Him in prayer as well. We should do these things more, shouldn't we?
I know we get busy with stuff in our lives. We have jobs, families, and other stuff that takes up our time and our attention. How much attention are we giving to the Lord and trying to encourage other believers in Christ? How much time are we giving to hugging the broken hearted and telling them that Jesus is with them in their pain? How much time are we getting together as the body of Christ to cry out to the Lord in prayer and begging Him to send us a fresh faith and a fresh power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the lives of every church congregation?
What are we doing with the time that the Lord has given us? The Lord Jesus tells us plainly that we are to take the gospel message to all of the world and make disciples for Him. We who have trusted in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are the body of Christ. If we are indeed the body, why aren't our hands reaching out with the love of Christ to help the hurting, the addicted, and the afflicted.
Isn't about time for we believers in Christ to come together and trust Jesus to work in us and through us to draw more people to Himself for salvation and eternal life? We need to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow our Lord Jesus. We are strangers in this world. This world is not our home. We are to be in this world, but we are not to be of this world.
We are to be the Lord's servants. We are to serve Him. We are not to be people pleasers. We need to be pleasing the Lord our God.
Isn't time for you and I to awake from our spiritual slumber and be revived by the Holy Spirit. He wants to flow through us in a fresh way. He wants control over our lives. He won't take it by force. He wants us to surrender our wills to His. Oh, but we struggle with that so much, don't we?
We want control. We want what we want and we want it now. The Lord has His own timing. He is patient. He is still at work all around us. Isn't it time for us to join in to what He is doing all around us? Things do indeed need to change and guess what? We can't look at someone else and say, "He or She really needs to change." No, that is not what we need to do. We need to look within our very selves and ask ourselves, "what needs to change in me?"
The Lord will help us with that answer. He will give us the strength and courage to step out of our comfort zone. The Lord will do great things through us even if we see ourselves as weak. He uses, we who are weak and not very good speakers or writers, so we can't take any credit for what He has done through us. All the credit. All the glory. All the praise goes directly to the Lord our God.
Jesus needs to get all the glory, praise, and honor.
Isn't it about time we allowed Him to use us for His glory.
Let us surrender ourselves to His call on our lives and seek His will to be done.
Lord,
We praise Your name. We want to honor You with our very lives.
Help us to see the areas where we need to change.
You are an Awesome loving God.
Lead us and direct our steps.
And if we do anything for You no matter what it is may You receive all the glory.
In Jesus name,
Amen
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