It's time to Praise the Lord

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord"                          Psalm 150     NKJV

Work, play, family and friends; shopping, cleaning, football, the pub, overtime and the garden; whatever you are at, it is time to get out of the fast line and praise the Lord. We can never be too busy to do so but we come close. We have very little time to do this. Kids, breakfasts, the school run, this appointment and that interview. Slowdown, it is time to praise the Lord. If you have breath, which I hope you do, spend some time with Him. 'Yes but'. But nothing. We should never allow anything to get in the way of praising God. We owe this to Him for all He has done for each one of us.

If you can play an instrument then play it to God. If you can't, then sing to Him. You say that you can't sing in tune. That's ok, to God it sounds like a sweet melody. Alternatively, fill the house with praise by playing a CD or Christian music from the internet. Then start singing along with it. When we praise, Satan is unable to touch us; in fact, he runs away because it may be music to God's ears, but to him, it sounds like warfare. Praise stops Satan in his tracks. This is why it is so important.

When we praise and worship, like we saw yesterday in Isaiah 6, the foundations of heaven shake with passion, the Seraphim worship Him too and it is a sweet sound and fragrance to God. Praise also make us feel good too. When we are praising God, we are not thinking about the problems that are nagging away at us. There is no place for them when we approach the Throne of God. At the Throne, there is only grace and love. There is no fear at all. There can't be because we are totally in God's presence. The more time we spend in His presence, the fear and the problems of the world seem insignificant, they are redundant, not needed anymore.

Be honest, do you praise God enough, do you worship Him often? I think it is something that we all need to brush up on. The world we live in, is a busy place with stress and struggles around every corner. We can become overwhelmed with the pressures of life if we are not careful. We often say that we need time for ourselves. Why not turn this into a, 'I need to spend some time with Jesus.' It can only do you good.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

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The call of Isaiah. Part 2 - A glimpse into heaven

"Here am i. Send me"  

                                                                                                       Isaiah 6:2-8    NKJV 

Isaiah was overcome with the glory of heaven. He observed Seraphim flying around the throne of God, praising and worshiping the Almighty God. Seraphim are described as having two or three pairs of wings who focus on praising and worshiping God V2&3. They are the closest angels of God, who serve Him night and day.

As Isaiah saw this, it was awesome for him and he witnessed the foundations shaking with the power of the Seraphim's voices. The temple was also filled with smoke which is a reference to the glory of God. It was an amazing but fearful sight to see.

Isaiah was so overwhelmed by it all that he cried out, 'Woe is me for I am undone (ruined)' He felt like he was falling apart before the Holy God. He spoke again saying, 'I am a man of unclean lips' v5. He was making the statement that he was inadequate in the presence of God and confessed to being unclean. This touched God's heart and a Seraphim came and touched Isaiah's mouth with a hot coal and told him, 'Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away and your sins purged' v7. Isaiah heard the LORD saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us.' And he replied, 'Here am I! Send me'.

It would have been a painful experience for Isaiah to have the hot coal touch his lips. However, he needed to remember the pain of his old life and calling of his new life in order to carry out the work that God had planned for him.

God is amazing and He will show us things that we never thought was possible. When we open ourselves up to Him - totally, and elect to serve Him wholeheartedly, as Isaiah did here, He will make the way for us to do this. As Isaiah found, it may be painful to do so; nothing in God's Kingdom business is easy and it takes our total effort to fulfil our calling. However, it is worth it.

Has God called you to His work? Is He calling you? It is something that you should not rush into until you are confident that it is God calling you. When you are, it is a journey that has lots of bumps and hassles. However, the rewards that you feel in your heart, are well worth it. 

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

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The call of Isaiah

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple"                                    Isaiah 6:1     NKJV 

King Uzziah was not perfect, but he was a good king and had brought Judah close to believing in God again. He had brought hope, something that they needed and Isaiah had a heart for him. Now that he had died, Judah and Isaiah were in turmoil, the hope was disappearing. But when Uzziah had died, Isaiah saw the true God sitting on His throne, high and lifted up in heaven. He was totally in charge. The kingdom of God operates according to His will not, according to outward circumstances. God would bring back hope. 

Uzziah had died and Isaiah had to learn it was God he should rely on, not man. Man can be taken away in an instance. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to help us to see God clearly. Until this death, Isaiah had belonged to God but had not really seen Him. Now it would be different.

Sometimes it takes a tragedy in our lives to see God clearly, to get to know Him deeply. As long as we rely on man, we can never really become close to Jesus because we tend to rely on that other person to bring us through. This doesn't mean that we should not have people in our lives, not at all but, they are only flesh and their support is limited, whereas with Jesus, we can do anything He wants us to. In addition, if they are taken away from us, we become lost with no hope. We need to adjust our vision from the temporal to the eternal.

Isaiah had to learn all of this, as we do as well. Our hope can only be truly filled by having Jesus in our lives. He has the blue print for our lives, knows the way ahead and will bless us on the way.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

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Giving to God

"And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, 'Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."    

                                                                                                      Luke 21:1-4    NKJV

To the casual observer, it appeared that the widow gave next to nothing compared to the richer men. But to Jesus, she had put in more than all of them. They gave out of their surplus, she gave out of her poverty. The rich people's offering would have made a loud noise as they put it in the receptacle but, the widows two mites would have been heard in heaven and that's what matters.

A mite, also known as a lepton, was a Jewish coin and the smallest used in New Testament times. At that time, it would have been worth about 1/64th of a denarius, the denarius being a day's wage for the common worker. Therefore, it would have paid for six minutes of work, two being twelve minutes; and yet, today, one cannot buy one of these certified ancient coins for less than around $9000 on the internet.

The widow's offering demonstrated her total dependance on God, she gave all that she had. Jesus noticed this demonstration of faith, trust and love towards God and, He notices when we give whether it be a tithe or offering to the church or to another source. Some people are desperate for financial help and, if we can help because of our financial abundance, God is impressed and honours us. Sadly, some may say, "I'm sorry to hear about your financial status, I'll pray that you won't be evicted,'  and then walk away. If we have the resources to help a person who is desperately in need, it is something that we need to consult God with. If we have the funds perhaps He may want us to pay someone's bill, buy them a lunch or give them a gift. After all, it is God's money in the first place; He has the first call on our finances.

Let me ask you, do you tithe? It is something that God takes very seriously. Many people give a tenth of their income or some other figure. Really, whatever you give, is helpful to the kingdom of God or other organisation. We can never out give God, He will always supply back to us. The widow knew this; she knew that she could give all she had and God would honour her. Do you know this?

'Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need'. (Mal. 3:10)

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

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It will be ok

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."    Isaiah 41:10     NKJV 

The popular singer/songwriter, Keith Green before his untimely death, wrote these words in his song 'When I hear the praises start'

'My precious bride, the day is nearing, when I'll take you in My arms and hold you

I know there's many things that you've been hearing, but you just hold on to what I have told you.'                                                                                       Copyright Keith Green

The message is clear, there are so many things around us that point to hatred and ungodly actions, but just hold on to what God has told you. No matter what has happened to you or is happening all over the place, just hang on to Gods word. There are wars, famines, earthquakes, terrorism, murders, rapes and many other types of evil going on around us. However, as Jesus told us in Mark 13, this does not point to the end times, they are just the birth pains.

You may have been wronged just lately and hurt pretty badly, however God is with you and He will strengthen and help you. We are living in a time of greed where people are more concerned with themselves than with others, Take for instance when there is a rumour of a food shortage; people are in the supermarkets grabbing whatever they can and it can be close to war as they battle to do so. However, just think for a moment, you are special in God's eyes. Whatever is happening around you or directly to you, He is there right beside you and He will honour you.

Just lately, things may have been bad for you with things not going well at home, college or at work. But they are not the end for you, these are birth pains and before you know it, you will be delivered from them. People may not believe you and tell you basically, that it is stupid to believe in God. But you just hold on to what He has told you. He never lies and He is forever with you and will see you through this dilemma. 

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

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So you want to be like Jesus?

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men." v5    

                                                                                                  Philippians 2:5-11    NKJV

Often we will pray to be just like Jesus, this is our ambition, we just want to be like our Master, and this is not a bad thing. After all, Jesus has got it right, He is our mentor as well as our God, we all want to walk the earth as He did. However, have we really looked at the implications of this prayer?

To be like Jesus, we need to see that He emptied Himself, by assuming the form of a servant. He still had His deity but He took on human flesh. He was fully God and became fully man. In theology, this is know as hypostatic union - two natures in one person unmixed forever. He was secure in Himself and never lost sight of who He was. He knew His identity. What about you? Are you secure in God and yourself. When you are secure in God, you will serve Him wholeheartedly no matter what.

We can never be like Jesus when we are insecure; when we don't really know our identity. Notice that Jesus emptied Himself of who He actually was. He kept His deity but He took on the role of a servant in human flesh. In other words, He made Himself of no reputation. We all like to be a 'someone,' we like to feel that we belong and people know who we are and what we stand for. But to be truly like Jesus, we may have to give this up, if He asks. 

To be like Jesus, we must allow Him the first call on our lives and we must be willing to face any flack that may come our way. A soldier gives up everything to serve His country, a soldier of Jesus does the same and when we give up everything we have, to follow Him, it may be difficult at times. The apostle Paul suffered much hardship to serve Jesus. It was His choice and He knew the risks and the cost that it would take. When we say, 'Lord, I want to be like You,' be sure you know what you are saying because there will be a cost to pay. However, there will be blessing as well, 'If anyone serves Me let Him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour him.' John 12:26

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

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Lord, we don't know what to do! Part 2

"Thus says the Lord: 'Do not be afraid or dismayed because of this multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's.'"                                        2 Chronicles 20:15     NKJV 

This statement underpins everything that concerns us. It's the main part of the solution to our problem but, is one of the last things that we consider when we are in a crisis. Many years ago, my wife and I were faced with a problem that needed urgent attention. We had to drive unexpectedly, overnight, to London to try to resolve this. We had one praise tape in our car and continually played one track that had the words, 'Why worry, God's in charge, the Lord of the land and sea, I'll put my trust in the one who saves and He'll take care of me.' And He did. It took a few days to sort out but God came through for us big time.

This is the value of God's Word whether it be from the bible or a song; it enriches our soul and gives us peace. What these words were saying to us were, 'Don't worry, I'm in charge, I will take care of things and you will not have to do a thing.' These are the gold nuggets that God gives us when we need them so much. He is always there for us, through thick and thin.

Here Jehoshaphat after declaring a fast, needed encouragement and God gave him this through Jahaziel, who was part of this fast. To hear that the battle was not his but the Lords, greatly encouraged Jehoshaphat and gave him a fresh outlook on the problem, and He will do the same for you as well.

You may be going through a rough time at present; one in which you cannot see a way through. However, even though you cannot see a way through, God can and He is telling you to leave it to Him, it's His battle not yours.You may have sleepless nights worrying about the problem, but God doesn't. He will defeat where man will retreat. As you give the problem to God, He will give you the victory because, He is a winner and so can you be because the battle is His not yours.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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