Just Because

There is great joy in the house of God in Australia and P. Brian Houston has ably tweeted that
joy to the whole world in CAPITAL LETTERS! A new baby is coming to the Houston family through their daughter, and Brian is positive it's a boy.

How generous our God is, gifts upon gifts and Grandpa Houston gets to SHOUT it out to the entire world through technology! The baby isn't here yet and already he knows how a grandpa acts! Shout it out! In a simple connection, we sign up and we get to share in their joy, scripture fulfilled! Marvelous God!

We serve the only generous God. There is no other God like Him. He continually gives gifts out of His treasuries to His people. Even though we are undeserving. We are a people most loved, highly loved, eternally loved! As long as we live, we will never have enough time to do enough good deeds to deserve any gift from God. That's why God is so full of wisdom. He knows we would take the credit for what happens, but it's all from Him

God gives just because He is a generous God, just because. Thank Him today for His gifts. If we start with the bed we sleep on...it could go on forever. Always be thankful.

Worship

This morning I woke up worshiping. "Glory in the highest, glory in the highest, glory in the highest, to You." Too bad blogs don't have automatic sound, you could have joined in too. Life changes when we worship. In fact it's never the same again. God created us at His pleasure and for His pleasure. Imagine, God gets pleasure from us!

All of Israel knew where their strength was, that's why they had the tribe of Judah (praise) at the head. No fear in praise here, the desert was filled with loud praise, because God alone is worthy. The world is being filled with praise again. Powerful praise and TRC is part of that!

One of the experiences the Apostle John had while on Patmos was vision. One vision after another. After the messages to the churches, John's eyes are opened to heavenly worship. In Rev. 4:7-8 there are four living beings who did not stop worshiping the Lord, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

One of the wonders of worship is it spreads like fire. Now the twenty-four elders fall down before God, Rev. 4:10-11. They give their crowns to God and say, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Have you ever wondered why you were born? Verse 11 tells us why we are born, why God created us. To worship Him. He alone is worthy of all worship.

Rev. 5:8-14 The four living beings and twenty-four elders sing praise to Jesus, the Lamb of God for His gift of redemption. Verse 11 describes the number of creatures and angels who join in worship of the King, (it's spreading again) "...the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands and thousands."

Rev. 5:13 "And EVERY creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard...Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

And the four living creatures said, "Amen."

So how does this worship translate to us in the twenty-first century? Next blog.

More on Tears

Just because the tears come, doesn't mean the joy of the Lord has gone away. God made us emotional beings and one of the ways we show that emotion is through tears. So, it's ok.

The shortest verse in the Bible is about Jesus and His tears. John 11:35 "Then Jesus wept." In previous verses it says that Jesus was angry in His spirit after seeing and hearing the unbelief around Him. In fact, it says in verse 33 that Jesus was "deeply troubled." Even as they walk along to the grave of Lazarus, "...Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb..." I think there is a blog here for later.

Jesus isn't the only person that wept, we can read of many who have shed tears. Psalm 69, David, the King of all Israel wept, many times! Another King, Hezekiah cried, Isa. 38:3. Now we come to the fishermen. We've known many fishermen, loggers, construction guys and the entire 25 years we lived in Alaska I never saw one fisherman, logger or builder shed a tear. Doesn't mean they didn't!

Peter, the great fisher of men spent three and a half years with Jesus, but in the end when he was tested, he failed because he denied his friend, the Son of God, Jesus. Matthew 26:75 "Peter wept bitterly." What bitter tears to have because of betrayal. God wasn't through with Peter though. God is the Author and Finisher of our faith and He faithfully did that job in Peter's life and now we have the epistles and life of Peter to be blessed by.

Others, the remaining disciples wept at the death of Jesus, Mk. 16:10, Mary washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, Luke 7:44. Paul serving the Lord with many tears, Acts 20:19. In Acts 20:31 because of Paul's constant watch care over the church, he cried night and day. Toward the end of his journey here on earth, Paul wrote that he had many tears for the church at Corinth because of the love he had for them.

So while we are here on earth, we will have tears. If tears don't come out of your eyes, they may have gotten stuck at the top of your throat. It's ok. One of these days we will be released from tears. But, in the meantime they are important enough to God that He stores them all in a bottle.

"I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." Rev.21:3-4 NLT

Heros

Thinking about my list of heros. It's a big one! Over the years it changed, but many of the old heros have remained.

When we were kids our big heros were the soldiers, marines, navy, the whole bunch. Four of my uncles served the entire time of WWII. There were the baseball heros, Brooklyn Dodgers all the way! No, I didn't make a mistake, I know they are the LA Dodgers now!

When I got saved in 1960, my #1 Hero on the list was Jesus, and remains the same today. Jim was replaced as #1 for Jesus! Second on my list is Jim, he's my hero everyday too. Jesus is my Hero because He gave His life for me when I deserved nothing from Him. Family members are my heros!

Bible heros. Ordinary people who say yes to the Lord and change the world they lived in. In spite of great adversity. By His power, they got the job done. Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, Gideon, Esther, Deborah, Nehemiah, Ezra, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul. God calls ordinary people who are sure they can do nothing on their own, but with the God of the universe, can do all things.

Church heros. Early saints and martyrs who lived and died for Christ. His name the most important thing to them. Every pastor and Church leader today that keep their eyes on Jesus and the vision He has for the Church are my heros. No adversity will ever stop the work of the Church. We have some heros in TRC!

Who do you have on your list??

Tears

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Psalms 56:8

We try so hard to keep those tears back sometimes. So hard in fact, some of us have been taught to not cry! Problem with that is, the tears get stuck somewhere in us. God has a solution for everything! The only thing we have to do is let them come, and He will do the rest. When our tears are collected, God is telling us He cares about those things. He keeps them as a memorial so we don't have to.

I first wrote about tears in 1977. They still keep coming! The past two weeks had many tears for many people. Last weekend was one of those times. I've had to wait until today to be able to write anything about the events. The Memorial weekend for Joe and Linda Knight didn't have the edge to the tears that has been there before. In fact, the Gala night was a night of resoration and healing. We never met Joe and Linda but we love the church that has come out of their legacy. New strength is here. Some old things passed away and the vision for the Church is ahead. The Lord isn't the only One saying, "Go, go!"

We saw and heard tears on Saturday night, but it was time. It was meant to be. Now there are more tears in the bottle.

I wonder if God intends our collected tears to be His river in heaven? Rev. 22:1-2

This I Know...

Two little words, "you know" or "I know". Everything can have its up and down times but when we say "I know..." these are the words from the Bible that makes everything steady. I started looking up verses with "I know" and "you know," or "we know" and discovered that God has caused His people to "know" some very important, stablizing truths for all times and especially during rocky times.Here are a few of them. Add to your list when you run across them in your study of the Bible.

"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand on the earth at last." Job19:25

"Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you." Ps.9:10

"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." Ps. 46:10

"We believe, and we know you are the holy one of God." John 6:69

"... I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return." 2Tim.1:12

"And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments." 1John2:3

"This is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." 1John2:6

"...the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth." 1John2:20

"We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us." 1John3:16

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him." 1John3:18-19

"Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us." 1John3:24

"We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are the children of God and the world around us is under the control of the evil one." 1John5:18-19

Have you noticed the epistle of John seems to be the book of "know?"

Here's another, do you know this one?

"Jesus loves me this I know,
for the Bible tells me so..."

All Bible verses are taken from KJV or NLT