VIDEO You are the Reason

Dec 10, 2012

You are the reason by Esther Mui.

You are the reason we will lift up our voice
We will shout of Your strength and Your p’wer
You’re the reason we’re here
You’re the reason we sing
To You, only You will we praise and adore

Chorus:
Jesus, Jesus, Our Lord and King
And You reign supreme
Jesus, Jesus, You are enthroned
How majestic is Your Name

Bridge:
You are the reason we sing
You are the reason we celebrate
You are the reason we sing
You are the reason we lift our voice
For You are the reason we sing
(You are the reason that we sing)
You are the reason we celebrate
(You are the One we live for)
You are the reason we sing
(You are the One we adore
You are the reason we lift our voice
(…for You we will lift our voice)

Ending:
No other name but the name of Jesus
The Name that’s high and lifted up
You are the reason that we sing

Words, Music and Video Copyrighted by Esther Mui.
Visit http://ps138.blogspot.com/ for chord charts.

For more songs by Esther, visit http://www.scripturesongsforworship.com where she and her family shares word for word Scripture songs which are suitable for worship and effective for memorizing and meditating on the Word of God.

Reaching The Margins – Love One Another

Reaching The Margins

[God] lifts the poor from the dust (1 Samuel 2:8).

In Mumbai, India, a boy named Lakhan lives with his elderly grandmother, Sakubai. Lakhan has cerebral palsy and is deaf. With no home or family to help care for him and Sakubai, they slept on the pavement behind a small bus stop. A published photo shows 9-year-old Lakhan tied to a pole—the only way his grandmother could ensure his safety when she went out to search for work. Sakubai explained her drastic action: “[Lakhan] is deaf, so he would not be able to hear the traffic coming. If he ran onto the road, he’d get killed.” Thankfully, a group that works with special-needs children heard the story, secured a room where both grandson and grandmother could live, and helped the grandmother obtain a job.

The outpouring of support was heartening. Lakhan’s story, however, brought greater awareness of the thousands of disabled children in India who are destitute.

Scripture tells us over and again that God is particularly attuned to the needs of those under severe distress who are at the margins of society. We read in 1 Samuel, “[God] lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.” While He resists the wicked who use their power and wealth unjustly, God simultaneously “sets [the poor] among princes, placing them in seats of honor” (1 Samuel 2:8).

The very ones who often seem to be the most forgotten are those on whom God’s tender care rests. God’s generosity for the struggling will never run dry because “all the earth is the LORD’s” (1 Samuel 2:8).

The One who owns everything pays particular attention to the most vulnerable among us. That’s His faithful, loving posture. As we come to see God’s world as He views it, may we be transformed into this same love and action.

—
Love One Another

…add to your…brotherly kindness love. —2 Peter 1:5, 7

Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2 Peter 1 to see them worked out in our lives.

The first thing God does is forcibly remove any insincerity, pride, and vanity from my life. And the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying, “…love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He is saying, “I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you.” This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable— it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight. Some of us may have tried to force it, but we were soon tired and frustrated.

“The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish…” (2 Peter 3:9). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God! Am I prepared to be identified so closely with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness will be continually poured out through Me? Neither natural love nor God’s divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline.

by Oswald Chambers

When We Are Lonely

Hebrews 13:1-5

God created humanity for companionship with Himself and each other. He doesn’t want people to suffer the emotional turmoil of loneliness. That’s why His Word contains pledges of His constant presence as well as instructions to prevent loneliness among church members.

The Lord stressed His unceasing presence because He knows our need for assurance, especially when we feel deserted or isolated. His vow never to forsake believers is found throughout the Bible: This comforting word was spoken to Joshua, the Israelites, and the disciples who were about to witness Jesus’ ascension (Joshua 1:5; Matthew 28:20). Some biblical saints picked up the theme in their writing as well. David often sought God’s solace (Psalms 25:16). And the apostle Paul preached that nothing compared with drawing close to Christ (Philippians 3:8). God wants every believer to trust implicitly that He is near.

The church is designed to meet our need for person-to-person connection. A spiritual body works much like a human body—parts are both independent and interdependent, each needing others in order to function well. We require support from our brothers and sisters in Christ. Knowing this, Paul admonished people to accept one another (Romans 15:7), bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and avoid judging (Romans 14:13).

Loneliness can cripple a person emotionally and spiritually. Human beings are not designed to walk through this world alone. We are made for relationship, which God gladly supplies. Lest we forget that the Lord is near, He gave the Bible this consistent theme: I love you and I am with you always.

A Righteous Desire

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33)

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were quite “religious” in their behavior, but our Lord often took them to task because “all their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matthew 23:5).

God’s Kingdom Is First Priority: The Lord’s admonition in our text was given to focus His followers beyond the “ordinary” desires and needs of their physical existence. We are expected to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). As promised, when we are rightly focused, “all these other things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Yielded to Righteousness: We become “servants” of those things that we “obey.” We obey that which we have “yielded” ourselves to (Romans 6:16). It is not possible to “serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). Our “members” (our physical bodies) can either become “instruments” (weapons) of ungodliness or of righteousness (Romans 6:13). We either “walk” after the Spirit or after the flesh (Romans 8:1).

Doggedly Pursue Godliness: “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Timothy 6:11). Even though our “new man” longs for righteousness, and we consciously yield ourselves to seek and serve God’s kingdom, “with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25).

We must never become slack in our diligence. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). HMM III

The Message Must Be Alive – Abiding

The Message Must Be Alive

Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. —Jeremiah 1:9-10

A church can wither as surely under the ministry of soulless Bible exposition as it can where no Bible is given at all. To be effective, the preacher’s message must be alive—it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God’s present voice to a particular people. Then, and not until then, is it the prophetic word and the man himself, a prophet.

To perfectly fulfill his calling, the prophet must be under the constant sway of the Holy Spirit. Further, he must be alert to moral and spiritual conditions. All spiritual teaching should relate to life. It should intrude into the daily and private living of the hearers. Without being personal, the true prophet will nevertheless pierce the conscience of each listener as if the message had been directed to him or her alone.

Lord, I pray that my preaching and teaching might never become routine. Keep me fresh; keep me under the “constant sway of the Holy Spirit;” keep me alert and alive always. Amen.

—
Abiding

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:4

Ruth Bell Graham once compared the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives to sap in a grapevine. In John 15, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (verse 5). Sap is the circulatory system of the plant. Its unseen flow draws no attention to itself but keeps the relationship healthy between branch and vine. That’s what produces the fruit.

Abiding in Christ means living in unhindered fellowship with our Lord, walking with Him, talking with Him, confessing our sins, and being filled with His Spirit. The Holy Spirit then has free recourse to take the life of Jesus and replicate it in us. He takes the work of Christ and accomplishes it through us. He enables us to bear fruit, more fruit, and much fruit (see John 15:1, 2, 5). He produces the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

When we bear fruit, it’s evidence the Lord is in us and the Holy Spirit is doing His work through us.

Oh, let us enter in and abide, and enjoy to the full all the rich supply His wondrous love has prepared for us! Andrew Murray, in Abide in Christ: 31 Days to Intimacy with Jesus

Recommended Reading: John 15:1-9

Human Suffering: Learn What God Says About It

For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18

Anything that gets as much space as the doctrine of human suffering gets in the Scriptures should certainly receive careful, reverent attention from children of the new creation.

We cannot afford to neglect it, for whether we understand it or not we are going to experience some suffering.

From the first cold shock that brings a howl of protest from the newborn infant, down to the last anguished gasp of the aged man, pain and suffering dog our footsteps as we journey here below. It will pay us to learn what God says about it so that we may know how to act and what to expect when it comes.

Because suffering is a real part of human life, Christ Himself took part in the same and learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

It should be said that there is a kind of suffering which profits no one: it is the bitter and defiant suffering of the lost. The man out of Christ may endure any degree of affliction without being any the wiser or the better for it.

There is a common suffering which we must share with all the sons of men— loss, bereavement, heartaches, disappointments, partings, betrayals and griefs of a thousand sorts.

But there is such a thing as consecrated griefs, sorrows that may be common to everyone but which take on a special character when accepted intelligently and offered to God in loving submission.

Confess Christ’s Lordship

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. COLOSSIANS 2:6

I think it is a completely wrong concept in Christian circles to look upon Jesus as a kind of divine nurse to whom we can go when sin has made us sick, and after He has helped us, to say, “Good-bye, Jesus”—and go on our own way.

Suppose I go into a hospital in need of a blood transfusion. After the staff has ministered to me and given their services, do I just slip out with a cheery “goodbye”— as though I owe them nothing and it was kind of them to help me in my
time of need?

That may sound far-out to you, but it draws a picture of attitudes among us today.

But the Bible never in any way gives us such a concept of salvation. Nowhere are we ever led to believe that we can use Jesus as a Savior and not own Him as our Lord. He is the Lord and as the Lord He saves us, because He has all of the offices of Savior, Christ, High Priest, and Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption!

He is all of these—and all of these are embodied in Him as Christ, the Lord!

Father, You are my Savior and my Lord. My debt to You is huge! I owe You my life.