VIDEO I will Praise You with My Whole Heart

Aug 1, 2012

Psalm 138 Song “I will Praise You with My Whole Heart” Music Copyrighted by Esther Mui.

Psalm 138 (NKJV)

1 I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me, And made me bold with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord, When they hear the words of Your mouth.
5 Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, For great is the glory of the Lord.
6 Though the Lord is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me.
8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

http://www.scripturesongsforworship.com (Listen and download word for word Scripture songs suitable for worship and effective for memorizing and meditating on the Word of God.)

Music Copyrighted by Esther Mui.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

Background photo © All rights reserved by publik_oberberg. Used with permission.

I Am With You

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you. Jeremiah 1:8

When I served as an intern for a Christian magazine, I wrote a story about a person who had become a Christian. In a dramatic change, he said goodbye to his former life and embraced his new Master: Jesus. A few days after the magazine hit the street, an anonymous caller threatened, “Be careful, Darmani. We are watching you! Your life is in danger in this country if you write such stories.”

That was not the only time I have been threatened for pointing people to Christ. On one occasion a man told me to vanish with the tract I was giving him or else! In both cases, I cowered. But these were only verbal threats. Many Christians have had threats carried out against them. In some cases simply living a godly lifestyle attracts mistreatment from people.

The Lord told Jeremiah, “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you” (Jer. 1:7), and Jesus told His disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves” (Matt. 10:16). Yes, we may encounter threats, hardships, and even pain. But God assures us of His presence. “I am with you,” He told Jeremiah (Jer. 1:8), and Jesus assured His followers, “I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20).

Whatever struggles we face in our attempt to live for the Lord, we can trust in the Lord’s presence.

Lord, we’re grateful that You are near to us in everything we face. Please protect Your people around the world.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10

By Lawrence Darmani

You Can Trust God

Romans 4:16-21

As we all know too well, life oftentimes confronts us with unexpected or painful circumstances. Sometimes these situations leave us feeling fearful, discouraged, and frustrated. Consequently, we may question whether the heavenly Father truly is reliable.

During such troubling moments, we can rest on this essential truth: The Lord is perfect in His love. Consider verse 5 from first John 1: “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). In other words, everything our heavenly Father does is righteous. And if He is a God of love, then it is impossible for Him to mistreat any of His children. We can be assured that whatever He places or permits in our lives is good and that His motives are pure.

Jesus demonstrated this deep care for us when He offered His blood on the cross—there exists no greater display of love than giving one’s life for someone else (John 15:13). Our sin debt could be paid only with a flawless sacrifice (Deut. 17:1). Christ, the perfect lamb, was willing to die in our place so that we could have an eternal relationship with the Father. If God gave us His Son—the most precious and amazing gift He could possibly give—to take care of our greatest need, then we can trust Him to provide for all areas of our life.

When difficulty arises, remember how much God loves you. He proved this by willingly giving His Son to take the penalty for your sin. Even when circumstances are painful, you can be confident that you are held in the capable and caring hands of your heavenly Father, because of His love for you.

Fellowship

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

Much goes on in Christian churches today under the name of “fellowship.” Usually this consists of coffee and donuts, or church socials, or sports. As delightful as these functions may be, they should not be confused with biblical fellowship.

Nowhere in the New Testament do any of the Greek words translated “fellowship” imply fun times. Rather, they talk of, for example, “the fellowship of the ministering to the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:4) as sacrificial service and financial aid. (See, for example, 1 Timothy 6:18.)

Elsewhere, Paul was thankful for the Philippian believers’ “fellowship in the gospel” (Philippians 1:5), for he knew that “inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers [same word as fellowship] of my grace” (Philippians 1:7). This sort of fellowship may even bring persecution.

We are to emulate Christ’s humility and self-sacrificial love (Philippians 2:5-8) through the “fellowship of the Spirit” (Philippians 2:1). In some way known only partially to us, we have the privilege of knowing “the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Philippians 3:10), and even “the communion [i.e., fellowship] of the blood” and “body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:16).

As we can see, this “fellowship” is serious business. As in our text and subsequent verses, fellowship should be accompanied by teaching, prayer, and ministry to the poor (Acts 2:45).

This kind of fellowship will be in “favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). JDM

God as Honored Guest

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. —Psalm 2:2-3

The old world of fallen nature is the world of human will. There man is king and his will decides events. So far as he is able in his weakness he decides how and what and when and where. He fixes values: what is to be esteemed, what despised, what received and what rejected. His will runs through everything….

Yet in their pride men assert their will and claim ownership of the earth. Well, for a time it is true, that this is man’s world. God is admitted only by man’s sufferance. He is treated as visiting royalty in a democratic country. Everyone takes His name upon his lips and (especially at certain seasons) He is feted and celebrated and hymned. But behind all this flattery men hold firmly to their right of self-determination. As long as man is allowed to play host he will honor God with his attention, but always He must remain a guest and never seek to be Lord. Man will have it understood that this is his world; he will make its laws and decide how it shall be run. God is permitted to decide nothing. Man bows to Him, and as he bows, manages with difficulty to conceal the crown upon his own head. POM034-035

Lord, I want to heed the admonition of God through the psalmist, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry…” (Psalm 2:12). Help me to give You today the supremacy, the throne, the absolute authority that You deserve. Amen.

Lonely Human

The joy of our heart is ceased; woe unto us that we have sinned” (Lamentations 5:15-16)

There is a strange contradiction in human nature all around us: the fact that a person can reek with pride, display a swollen ego and strut like a peacock—and yet be the loneliest and most miserable person in the world!

We find these people everywhere—pretending and playing a game. Deep within their beings, they are almost overwhelmed by their great loneliness, by their sense of being orphans in the final scheme of things.

The result of this strange, aching human sense of loneliness and cosmic orphanage is the inward, groping question: “What good is it to be a human being? No one cares about me!”

In the garden, Eve believed Satan’s lie—the lie that God was not concerned about her and that God had no emotional connection with her life and being. This is where the unregenerate person is in today’s world.

It is only sin and defeat that can bring this sense of orphanage, this sense of having been put out of the father’s house, and the feeling that follows when the house is burned down and the father is dead.

Our Lord Jesus most fully becomes the joy and comfort

If there be one place where our Lord Jesus most fully becomes the joy and comfort of His people, it is where He plunged deepest into the depths of woe. Come hither, gracious souls, and behold the Man in the garden of Gethsemane; behold His heart so brimming with love that He cannot hold it in—so full of sorrow that it must find a vent. Behold the Man as they drive the nails into His hands and feet. Look up, repenting sinners, and see the sorrowful image of your suffering Lord. If we would live aright, it must be by the contemplation of His death; if we would rise to dignity, it must be by considering His humiliation and His sorrow.