VIDEO Let the Valleys be Raised

Nov 19, 2013

Antiphon:
Let the valleys be raised and the mountains made low
Ev’ry meadow and field overturn
Make the pathway straight and the highway run smooth
for the coming of God in our day

1 . God has come to His people as He promised of old
He has raised up a Saviour in the sight of us all

Antiphon:
Let the valleys be raised and the mountains made low
Ev’ry meadow and field overturn
Make the pathway straight and the highway run smooth
for the coming of God in our day

2. You, little child, go before Him like the prophets of old
Bringing news of His coming by the mercy of God

Antiphon:
Let the valleys be raised and the mountains made low
Ev’ry meadow and field overturn
Make the pathway straight and the highway run smooth
for the coming of God in our day

3. God has come like the morning on the darkness of night
As a light to the people, like the breaking of day

Antiphon:
Let the valleys be raised and the mountains made low
Ev’ry meadow and field overturn
Make the pathway straight and the highway run smooth
for the coming of God in our day

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Teach Your Children Diligently

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…. Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Deuteronomy 6 is the Bible’s premier passage on parenting. It tells us we should: (1) Love the Lord our God with all our hearts; (2) Study His Word constantly; (3) Teach our children diligently when we sit at home, walk down the street, go to bed at night, and get up in the morning (verses:5-7).

Parenting can be synonymous with mentoring, and parents should provide their youngsters’ first experience with discipleship. Take Abraham Lathem of Pennsylvania, for example. He loved the Bible and could quote most of the New Testament. He taught his son, Lance, to get up every morning to memorize Scripture. Lance became a Chicago pastor who encouraged his teenagers to memorize the book of Romans. One of his students, Bert Long, did so—and later established a tremendous ministry as a missionary physician in Africa.1

Our greatest obligation as parents is to share God’s Word naturally with our children every day. When we fill ourselves with Scripture, our children get the overflow, and the effects can be lifelong and eternally lasting.

How to Deal With Unforgiveness

Matthew 18:21-22

God’s Word clearly teaches that we’re to forgive those who hurt us. So let’s identify practical ways to confront the matter of unforgiveness head-on. You may want to keep this list in your Bible or some other handy place for easy review.

Take it seriously. Unforgiveness is an issue that shouldn’t be dismissed.

Assume full responsibility. Don’t blame anyone for your feelings or actions.

Confess it honestly. Be specific and direct with God about what you feel, and acknowledge that unforgiveness is sin. Don’t “soften” the matter or let yourself off the hook.

Lay down your anger. Unless you deal with your resentment, bitterness can re-enter your life later on.

Pray for the other person. This may feel impossible or unnatural, but do it anyway. Praying is a choice to act lovingly, regardless of how you are treated. This will impact your relationship with that individual—and your outlook.

Ask that individual to forgive you. If the other person knows that you’ve been harboring bitterness, you need to ask for his or her forgiveness.

Do something nice for that person. Let a loving gesture demonstrate your desire to restore the relationship.

Don’t allow Satan to throw you back into unforgiveness. Once the matter is resolved, watch out for stray thoughts that could stir up memories of how the other person hurt you.

This process isn’t easy, but it works. If you go through these steps every time you are hurt, God will truly work miracles in your relationships.

The Christian’s Purpose

“According as he hath chosen us in him . . . that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)

In the grand purpose of our “selection” into God’s family, two key words are used:

“Holy” (Greek hagios) stresses dedication. A holy man or woman is distinctively God’s, set apart for God’s use, separated from the secular, and consecrated to God’s service. All who are “chosen” are chosen to be holy.

The Colossian Christians were told to “mortify” the physical appetites, to “put off” their sinful mental attitudes and habits, and to “put on the new man . . . as the elect of God, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:5-12). The focus is character.

“Without blame” refers to our reputations. This character will only be fully realized in heaven (1 Corinthians 1:8), but there is a present responsibility to “present your bodies a living sacrifice. . . . And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2).

The character of holiness will become the cause of a lifestyle of blamelessness. We are to be the “sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).

This holy and blameless condition will result in “the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6), where God will someday “gather together in one all things in Christ” (v. 10).

What a magnificent thought! The purpose for which we have been chosen, predestined, redeemed, and forgiven is to be holy in character and blameless in reputation, so that when God gathers us all together in Christ, we will be the praise of the glorious grace of God! HMM III

An Awesomeness about God

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. —Psalm 72:18-19

Worship also means to “express in some appropriate manner” what you feel. Now, expressing in some appropriate manner doesn’t mean that we always all express it in the same way all the time. And it doesn’t mean that you will always express your worship in the same manner. But it does mean that it will be expressed in some manner.

And what will be expressed? “A humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder.” It is delightful to worship God, but it is also a humbling thing; and the man who has not been humbled in the presence of God will never be a worshiper of God at all. He may be a church member who keeps the rules and obeys the discipline, and who tithes and goes to conference, but he’ll never be a worshiper unless he is deeply humbled. “A humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe.” There’s an awesomeness about God which is missing in our day altogether; there’s little sense of admiring awe in the Church of Christ these days.

Great God, I do indeed stand in admiring awe at the wondrous things You do. Remind me today of that awesomeness about You that I so often forget in my hurried life. Amen.

Yes, Everyone May Come

Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17)

There is a strange beauty in the ways of God with men. He sends salvation to the world in the person of a Man and sends that Man to walk the byways, saying, “If any man will come after Me!” No fanfare; no tramp of marching feet!

A kindly Stranger walks through the earth, and so quiet is His voice that it is sometimes lost in the hurly-burly; but it is the last voice of God, and until we become quiet to hear it, we have no authentic message.

“If any man,” He says, and teaches at once the universal inclusiveness of His invitation and the freedom of the human will. Everyone may come; no one need come, and whoever does come, comes because he chooses to.

Every man thus holds his future in his hand. Not the dominant world leader only, but the inarticulate man lost in anonymity is “a man of destiny!” He decides which way his soul shall go. He chooses, and destiny waits on the nod of his head. He decides, and hell enlarges itself, or heaven prepares another mansion!

So much of Himself has God given to man!

We shall never sing Gloria in excelsis except…..

We shall never sing Gloria in excelsis except we pray to God De profundis: out of the depths must we cry, or we shall never behold glory in the highest. Prayer should be perfumed with love, saturated with love—love to our fellow-saints, and love to Christ. A man prevails in prayer only as he believes. The Holy Spirit is the author of faith, and strengthens it so that we pray believing God’s promise. Oh that this blessed combination of excellent graces, priceless, and sweet as the spices of the merchant, might be fragrant within us because the Holy Ghost is in our hearts! Most blessed Comforter, exert thy mighty power within us, helping our infirmities in prayer.