Tag Archives: worship

December 23, 2018

Celebrating His Coming: Thoughts for the 4th Week of Advent

Welcome to the fourth week of Advent!

Tradition holds that the final week of Advent is all about Love and Adoration for our Lord and Savior.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Philippians 2:9-11, KJV

christmas holly beside white painting concrete wall

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com

Jesus, the God-Man, came and lived as one of us to redeem us from death into life. Because of this, He has been exalted by the Father. How much more should we make Jesus famous around the world?

The day is quickly coming when the choice to love and worship Jesus will be taken away. We will either be in the group that gets to love and worship Him for eternity or the group that is in anguish and hates Him, so may we go out to help convince as many as we can to follow Him now!

Exalted Lord, thank You for loving us and coming for us. Help us to spread Your love to our world.

5 Comments | tags: Adoration, Advent, Christ, Christmas, Christmas Hope, Coming, Desire, Jesus, love, praise, Second Coming, worship | posted in desire, Jesus, Love

December 15, 2018

Celebrating His Coming: Thoughts for the 2nd Week of Advent – Day 7

By Daniel M. Klem

Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands. -Isaiah 42:10-12

Photo by Blue Ox Studio on Pexels.com

For many, calling out sin may not seem like the most important part of Advent and wonder where more of the joy is.

When you discover you are under punishment and then someone takes the punishment for you, you would naturally be quite happy.

When looking at John the Baptizer, it can be easy to forget that he was preacher of righteousness . . . which includes praising God!

Let this be a reminder to us that, yes, we are to call out sin where we see it, and, yes, we are to show people who Christ is and what He has done for us, but we should also show the world the joy that comes in being the redeemed of the Lord.

We sing a new song, a song of our salvation and gratitude to our Savior, and we should sing them for the world to hear and learn. They can help to point to Jesus while teaching the faithful to worship with all of our being.

Heavenly Father, give us a new song, and teach us to share it with the world.

1 Comment | tags: Advent, Christ, Christmas, Coming, Jesus, John the Baptist, John the Baptizer, New Song, Second Coming, sharing, Sing, Singing, Song, worship | posted in Faithfulness

October 19, 2018

Has Grace Got You?

By Daniel M. Klem

In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice. –Proverbs 29:6, KJV

When we get in trouble for doing something we should not have been doing, we sure do feel bad.

When we get away with something wrong, we are relieved, but the snare of guilt refuses to let us relax completely.

When we are forgiven, golly gee, are we happy!

It is just like MercyMe’s song, Grace Got You.

It combines these last two points and explains them very poetically, and it is how Christians should feel!

Sing,
So the back row hears you.
Glide,
‘Cause walking just won’t do.
Dance,
You don’t have to know how to,
Ever since, ever since grace got you.

Laugh,
‘Till your whole side’s hurting.
Smile,
Like you just got away with something,
Why?
‘Cause you just got away with something,
Ever since, ever since grace got you.

We essentially get away with all of the times we rubbed our sin in God’s face, all because He sent His Son to die on a cross in our place of punishment.

The question then becomes, how do we respond when others wrong us?

Just as God forgave us, we ought to forgive others. This is one of the greatest works we can do in Christ’s name. The hope is that they will see this (and other good works) and turn to Christ.

Then, we can all sing together the praise of the One who created and forgives us, rejoicing in His grace and love.

May we sing God’s praises continually. (Colossians 3:16-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18)

3 Comments | tags: Book of Proverbs, grace, Grace Got You, MercyMe, praise, Rejoicing, Reward, Singing, Works, worship | posted in Reward, Work

August 17, 2018

Worshipful Interaction, or Taste and See

By Daniel M. Klem

The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. -Proverbs 20:12, KJV

There are two main things this verse tells us:

We can know the Creator God is watching over us and listening to us, for he created us with the ability interact with our surroundings.
We should be thankful to and give glory to God for our ability to interact with each other, our world, and God.

Please take note of how this has been worded: interact with.

Why?

I can hear the arguments from others, “But what about those who can’t see or hear?” And these arguments can include the question of suffering.

A) We must remember that we live in a fallen world, corrupted and tainted by our sin. Sometimes, people lose some ability to interact in this world, and we have no one to blame but ourselves (humanity, not necessarily the individual, say, the one who was abused).

B) Sometimes God ordains a malady to bring glory to Himself by bringing someone to faith. Look at those Jesus healed during His earthly ministry.

But, again, read the first two points! The fact that we inherently are able to interact with others including our God who knows us, we should be moved to worship!

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8

Leave a comment | tags: Book of Proverbs, Creation, Creator, Ear, Eye, hear, Hearing, praise, Relationship, relationships, Seeing, worship | posted in Creation, Relationships

April 8, 2018

Where to Go to Find Wisdom

By Anthony Baker

In Psalm 122 King David said, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” The man who reared the wisest man to ever live – the writer/compiler of most of the book of Proverbs – loved going to the house of worship.

There is wisdom to be found in a good church.

Depending on where you go, you may even hear about Jesus as the Wisdom of Proverbs (As a matter of fact, I’m going to be preaching from Proverbs 2 this morning).

Do you desire to have more faith? The apostle Paul told the Romans, “So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Hearing the Bible taught and preached is a good way to build and strengthen your faith.

So, be like Solomon’s father and develop a love for church. If you need to find a good one, just let me know.

church glad to go