In our own homes – let us praise our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

We thank You, Lord, that You have opened up for us a great future.

What glory awaits us in Your eternal Kingdom! What encouragement this gives to us when we’re going through a hard time! Help us, Lord, to lift up our eyes, to catch a glimpse of Your glory, to be changed by Your glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Help us to “turn our eyes upon Jesus”, to “look full in His wonderful face.” As we look upon Jesus, may “the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

When our faith is being sorely tested, help us, Lord, to turn to You.

Help us to know that, through it all, You are there with us – suffering with us, leading us into Your joy. Teach us, in our suffering, to wait for the day when You will “restore our fortunes”, when You will answer our prayer: “O that salvation … would come”, when we will, again, “rejoice” and be “glad” in You (Psalm 14:7).

We thank You, Lord, that Jesus has “come to us.”

They never wear out – God’s love, God’s power and God’s glory. God loves us. His power is at work in us. He’s preparing us for his eternal glory – where we will see the fullness of his love and his power. This is our God. This is his salvation. He’s the eternal God. His salvation is eternal. We’re learning to worship him. We look forward to worshipping him with fullness of joy.

Whenever we speak of God’s holiness…

Whenever we speak of God’s holiness, we must, also, speak of his love. Holiness shows us where we’ve gone wrong – but it’s love that forgives our sins. Let’s thank God that He did not, because of his holiness and our sin, keep his distance from us. He has reached out to us in love. In Christ, he has come to us, showing us that he is not only the God of holiness. He’s also the God of love.

Quiet trust and loud praise

Everything changes?

We live in a changing world. Everything changes. Nothing remains the same. This is life – as we know it; but what if there’s something else, something that’s unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable! You may ask the question, “Is such a thing possible?” In the Bible – in the heart of the Old Testament, there’s a long Psalm, containing twenty-six verses. It’s Psalm 136. The second part of every single one of these twenty-six verses says this: “God’s love endures forever.” Some things are worth repeating – again and again and again … We read the same thing, again, in Lamentations 3:22 – “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” Here, we read something else about the enduring love of God, the “forever” love of God –  “His mercies … are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22). New! That’s the word many people like to hear. In our ever-changing world, the old is thrown away. It’s out-of-date. Here, we have God’s unchanging love described as new! When we’re reading Psalm 136 and Lamentations 3, we’re reading words from a very long time ago – but they are words that speak to us of something that doesn’t grow old, something that’s always new – the love of God. In today’s world, something that starts off new, very soon, becomes old. The love of God isn’t like that – His “mercies never come to an end.” (Lamentations 3:22). When everything else is going past its “sell by date”, the love of God remains the same. His love is for today – not just yesterday. His love is not only for today. It’s for tomorrow. It’s for every tomorrow. His love is a faithful love – “Great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23). “New every morning” – Day-by-day, God chooses to be faithful. He chooses to keep on loving us. He chooses to never stop loving us. Love – this is His eternal choice, the choice that He affirms to us, again and again and again…

“Love is God” or “God is Love”?

Sometimes, we wonder, “What’s the world coming to?”

We stand between the past and the future. What kind of people will we be as we move out of our past and into God’s future? God calls us to be His people. He calls us to do His work. Let us commit ourselves to being His people and doing His work. Sometimes, in God’s work, we wonder what is going on. We wonder, “Where is God in all of this?” We need the encouragement of God’s Word: “He knows the way that I take” (Job 23:10). We need to be assured of the faithfulness of God (Lamentations 3:23). We need to look up – and see Jesus. He is our Saviour. He died for our sins. He gives us true and lasting joy. How does His joy fill our hearts? We return to Him. We are revived by Him. We rejoice in Him. His joy gives us strength for serving Him.

If no-one joins me – still I will worship.

“Praise the Lord” (Psalm 134:1). “Praise the Name of the Lord” (Psalm 135:1). “Give thanks to the Lord” (Psalm 136:1). God is calling us to worship Him. In a world where worshipping the Lord has been abandoned by so many people, it isn’t easy to keep on worshipping Him – “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4). Even though many people have stopped worshipping God, we must renew our commitment to Him: “I will give thanks to you with all my heart” (Psalm 138:1). “If no-one joins, still I will worship. No turning back.”

Lord – You are holy…

Lord, You are holy. We are sinners. You see our sin – and You keep on loving us. We see Jesus – and we know that You will never stop loving us. Help us, Lord, to confess our sin and to receive Your forgiveness. Lead us out of our sin and into Your holiness – and help us to give all the glory to You.

We thank You, Lord, that Jesus comes to us in love: “the voice of my Beloved! Look! Here He comes” (Song of Solomon 2:8).

This is something we must never forget. When we are conscious of being helped by the Lord, we can say with confidence in Him: “Those who trust the Lord are like Mount Zion, which can never be shaken” (Psalm 125:1). Knowing the blessing of God in our lives, we have this joyful testimony: “The Lord has done spectacular things for us. We are overjoyed” (Psalm 126:3). The Lord “builds the house” of our life (Psalm 127:1) – This is the blessing which He promises to those who walk with Him: “Blessed are all who fear the Lord and live his way” (Psalm 128:1).

 

It is not easy to keep on worshipping the Lord when so many show no interest in worshipping Him.

Through Christ our Saviour, we are led ‘in the way everlasting’: ‘God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son’ (Psalm 139:24; 1 John 5:11).

God’s great purpose of eternal salvation seems ‘too wonderful’- ‘too good to be true’! ‘It is a thing most wonderful, almost too wonderful to be, that God’s own Son should come from heaven and die to save a child like me, and yet I know that it is true…’ (Psalm139:6; Church Hymnary, 385). God has a glorious future planned for us. We can hardly even begin to take it in: ‘Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain’. We know that ‘no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him’ yet we rejoice in this: ‘God has revealed it to us by His Spirit’ (Psalm 139:6; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10). ‘Lead me in the way everlasting!’(24).

May God help us to keep on praying for our troubled world.

“Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8).

“To him that o’ercometh, God giveth a crown. Through faith we shall conquer, though often cast down. He who is our Saviour, our strength will renew. Look ever to Jesus. He will carry you through’ (Church Hymnary, 482).

God bless you all.

Charlie

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