I enjoyed reading this post over lunch today, so I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy it too rejoice always and give thanks! Praise the Lord!
God our Father’s will for us is that we partake in joy everlasting, pray to Him always and praise Him in thanksgiving. By doing these things, we are …
I happened to catch an episode of “Veggie Tales” the other morning while my children were watching it. If you are not familiar, it is a kids show starring Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber. In this particular episode, Bob had taken on a job of Chief Greeter at a local shop. He started…
— Read on andy-brown.org/2019/03/28/how-to-be-a-welcoming-church/
The season of Lent is approaching once again, with ash Wednesday next week.
Christians celebrate Lent in many different ways. Some give something up, while others try to pick up a good habit. in a previous church I belonged to, we tried to read a Christian book during Lent and discuss it as a church family.
If you wish to follow this practice, then may I humbly suggest my own book.
As you can see, it is a devotional book which you can read over the 40 days of Lent. it was written with lent in mind, and tries to think about some of the things Jesus would have considered during his time in the wilderness.
It is available to buy on Amazon, in both paperback and kindle formats.
If you decide to take the plunge, I do hope you enjoy it and that it challenges you. Please also leave an honest review on the site, as I value your feedback!
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
delighting in the Lord’s perfections
and meditating in his Temple.
Psalm 27:4 (WEB)
I recall a time when I was speaking to a group of students about what heaven might be like. One of them thought it would be like a perpetual praise service, with unending worship, music and dancing. Another student thought that sounded more like torture than paradise!
In this verse from the Psalms, King David is making a request. He does not ask for gold or silver, victory in battle nor wives and children. Instead, he requests that he might live in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.
Does that sound like something you would want?
Sometimes we are guilty of wanting the gifts more than the Giver, and for seeking God’s presents instead of His presence. The Lord Himself is our reward though, and far greater than any gift we could want.
The psalm points out two things we might do in His presence.
The first is to delight! Delight is a wonderful word, and means to have a “high degree of pleasure or enjoyment.” That sounds like something we want to do more of! Delighting in what though? In the Lord’s perfections. We might think of this as delighting in God’s character or attributes.
God is an infinite God, with wonders beyond measure. A day dwelling on who He is and enjoying His character is a day well spent in my book. How often do you set aside time to do nothing else but simply enjoy the Lord?
The second thing is meditation. Meditation is not emptying one’s mind of thought, but instead it is filling it with the wonders of God and His Word. It is said that meditation is like rumination, which is the action of a cow chewing the grass over and over again. When we meditate on God, we are deploying our thinking on all the goodness of His character and ways.
To meditate on the Lord is, I believe, to begin to delight in Him also. One leads to the other. The more we meditate, the more delighted we become, and the more delighted we are, the more we want to dwell on who He is.
Paul says, in Philippians:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
You need not think about everything that pops into your head, but can direct your thoughts on to Jesus.
You need not #think about everything that pops into your head, but can direct your thoughts on to #Jesus. #Bible
Set aside some time when you can, even if it is just fifteen minutes, and delight yourself in the Lord. Make a list of all the good things He has done for you, and note down the aspects of His character which most excite you. It will be time well spent indeed!
For more thoughts on Philippians 4:8, check out my post – Pure vs OK
I have been dabbling with a bit of poetry lately. It has never been something I was particularly good at or interested in, but perhaps the Lord is opening up something new. Perhaps not! Time will tell!
This first attempt at a poem is based around Psalm 150, and is perhaps a little trite to the experience poet. Go easy on me however, I beg you! I here post the original words from the WEB Bible.
Praise Yah!
Praise God in his sanctuary!
Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!
2 Praise him for his mighty acts!
Praise him according to his excellent greatness!
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet!
Praise him with harp and lyre!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dancing!
Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!
5 Praise him with loud cymbals!
Praise him with resounding cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise Yah!
Praise Yah!
Psalm 150 (WEB)
And my poetic version…
Praise the Lord in the temple!
Praise the Lord for His might!
Praise the Lord in the heavens!
Cease not by day or by night
Praise the Lord for His acts
Praise the Lord for His deeds
Praise our God for His greatness
Praise Him for meeting our needs
Praise the Lord with the trumpet
Praise our God with the lyre!
Praise God with the harp
And lift your voices higher!
Dance for His glory
And sing for delight
Pluck strings for His praise
To worship God is right
Crash the cymbals together
Let the bells ring out
Play the flute and the ram’s horn
And make a joyful shout!
Let everything that breathes
Worship our wonderous Lord
That all may come to know Him
And He’ll forever be adored.
Do let me know what you think, and grateful for any pointers on how to step into the daunting world of poetry! If you know of any good blogs on the subject, I’d be keen to hear about them.
I don’t want you to just take my word for it… We take a little break from our current series on Psalm 103 to discuss something important. It is an immense privilege to share God’s Word with you through this blog, and I take that responsibility very seriously. But you, the reader, have a responsibility…
— Read on andy-brown.org/2018/04/12/the-berean-approach/
Continuing my “best of “series, it seems appropriate to share this post on prayer as it goes right alongside my earlier post this morning.
I hope you enjoy reading it!
Have a very blessed 2022!
-
During the height of the lockdown in the UK, where we were only allowed out for short periods of exercise, I began to fairly regularly record prayer videos which I put out here on the blog and on my Facebook page. You can see an example here, if you’re interested. I really love to pray…
— Read on andy-brown.org/2021/06/12/a-stirring-to-pray/