Wonderful Jesus!

Tag: worship

• Who is Like You, O Lord?

  Posted at 10:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on March 5, 2021

  Exodus 15:11 – “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? NKJV

  

  I was in New York at a conference when I heard Chris Tomlin’s song, “Our God”. I couldn’t get enough of that song! We sang it in every meeting, and when I came home, the first thing I wanted to know was, who wrote that song and how could I get it! Here are the words to the chorus:

  Our God is greater, our God is stronger
  God You are higher, than any other
  Our God is Healer, awesome in power
  Our God, Our God!

  The prayer of praise and worship is another prayer that focuses solely on God! Even greater than the prayer of thanksgiving is this time of pouring our love and affection on the Master.

  Some of the things that we can worship Him for are His holiness, His glory, His greatness, His majesty, His power, His creation and His faithfulness, to name a few!

  Our text is a verse that focuses on His greatness. After God delivered the children of Israel from Pharaoh, Moses sang this in a song:

  Exodus 15:11 – “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? NKJV

  Is that the echo of your heart? Who is like our God? Who can do the wonders He does? Who is more glorious? There is no other! No, not one!

  Nehemiah uttered these words of worship to God:

  You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You. Nehemiah 9:6 – NKJV

  It’s appropriate that at some point in our life we worship Him for the angels spend time worshipping Him, and He hasn’t saved them! Sooner rather than later! More often, than not! He’s worthy!

  Jonah, while in the belly of the great fish spoke these words to the Father:

  “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. Jonah 2:7-8 – NKJV

  Jonah worshipped the merciful God when His soul was faint! Anytime, is a good time to stop and worship the Lord or give Him praise. When you do so, it’s praying, conversing with God, on another level! Here are some scriptures to get you started:

  Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Psalm 48:1 – NKJV

  He is so great! He is awesome! Worthy to be praised! Worthy of honor!

  Psalm 77:13- Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as our God?

  No one! Our God is the only true God! You’ll not find another! He’s greater! He’s stronger! He’s wiser! Our God!

  A personal favorite of my brother-in-law, Pastor Eric and one that comes to mind is:

  Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25 – NKJV

  Can’t you hear yourself worshipping Him and saying: You, O Lord, are the only One who can keep me from stumbling, and only You can present me before the Father, faultless! I worship You God my Savior, who alone is wise… and then throw some of this in there:

  O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! Psalm 8:1 – NKJV

  Go ahead and worship Him for His excellent Name! The Name that is above every name!

  For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Psalm 95:3-5 -NKJV

  If I had to stop and worship Him right now, I couldn’t do it without telling Him how good He is. I couldn’t go far with my words without saying how great is His love towards me. I would have to mention His faithfulness throughout my life!

  Sometimes in thinking about prayer, we can over complicate the manner. We can accomplish so much in prayer when we spend time in worship, adoring Him, offering Him praise, throwing in some gratefulness, and basically focusing on Him. Is He insecure and needs words of affirmation to get through His day? Not hardly! But He is God, Creator of the Universe! The Living God, Who was, and Is, and Is to Come! He is worthy! He deserves to be worshipped and honored. And as I blog, I realize I haven’t done it enough! Who is like our God? No one, that’s who? No one is greater, no one is stronger, no one is higher. I am overwhelmed with His love! I am awed by His creation! I am touched by His heart towards us! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in God, praise, Prayer, worship | 0 Comments | Tagged adoration, Attitude, faithfulness, God, holiness, Honor, Jonah, love, Moses, praise, Prayer, the Exodus, worship, worthy

• Lord, I Thank You!

  Posted at 10:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on March 1, 2021

  Ephesians 6:18 – praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—NKJV

  

  lord_-i-thank-you_.mp3

  This week I am turning my focus to prayer. I’ve blogged before on the subject of praying always, but I don’t recall addressing the many types of ways we can pray. I look at the picture of the young girl and her posture, and I think, I know that posture. Do we have to have a certain type of posture? No! But sometimes a posture say more than our words ever could!

  Paul encourages us in this verse to pray with all prayer. That word “all” causes me to infer that there is more than one way to pray. Of course, I know it to be true, but for the sake of beginnings, I want to make that point. There are all kinds of prayers, and therefore there are all kinds of way to pray.

  One of my favorite ways to pray, is the prayer of thanksgiving! This time of conversing with the Lord can be short and to the point: Thank you Lord for not allowing that car to hit me! Or it can be longer, where we give Him thanks for any number of reasons!

  Something I see in the Old Testament, is that people were chosen to give thanks to God:

  And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites according to their divisions, each man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to serve, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 31:2 – NKJV

  Can you imagine living life without the privilege of thanking God for who He is in your life, and for all He has done? Can you imagine being in a time and place when someone else was designated to be in His presence thanking Him, and you weren’t that someone?

  And with them Heman and Jeduthun and the rest who were chosen, who were designated by name, to give thanks to the Lord, because His mercy endures forever; 1 Chronicles 16:41 -NKJV

  Or maybe it wasn’t like that all! Maybe, they were chosen to set the atmosphere of worship in the house of the Lord! For that is exactly, what the prayer of thanksgiving leads to. Worship!

  What are some of the things we should find ourselves giving Him thanks for?

  • We should thank Him because He is good! 1 Corinthians 16:34
  • We should thank Him for His great name! Psalm 35:18
  • We should give Him thanks because we are His people Psalm 79:13
  • We should thank Him because it’s the right thing to do! Psalm 92:1
  • We should thank Him for His wonderful works to other people! Psalm 107:8
  • We should thank Him for His word! Psalm 119:62
  • We should thank Him for His mercy that endures forever! Psalm 136:26
  • We should give thanks for His Blood that was shed for us! Mark 14:23
  • We should give thanks for His Body that was given for us! Luke 22:19
  • We should give thanks for what He does for us! Luke 17:16
  • We should give thanks for Him giving us the victory through our Lord! 1 Corinthians 15:57
  • We should thank Him for those who are a part of the Body of Christ! Ephesians 1:16
  • We should thank Him for grace! 2 Corinthians 9:15

  And if that is not enough to take you to the place of worship, thanks should be given for Jesus! And thanks for this beautiful land that we live in, and for life, and for health, and for strength! And for family, and jobs, and friends, and vehicles, and homes…and I think you get the picture!

  This is my favorite type of prayer, as I said, because it leads to worship. It leads to us remembering who God is and all He has done and can do for us! It has a way of refreshing me and causing me to get my mind off of the negative issues in life, or the stress of the day. As a matter of fact, it gets me in the right frame of mind to blog.

  Anyone can be become an expert at talking to God with the prayer of thanksgiving! The leper who was cleansed, immediately knew exactly what words to say and what posture to take after he was healed. You don’t need an example, or further explanation. No need for the Greek or the Hebrew words to break it down! Just know that it’s an excellent way to talk to the Everlasting God and that you will most certainly get His attention!! Then when you finish giving Him thanks, you can just bask in His presence! Wonderful Jesus!

  prayer-for-salvation.mp3

  Posted in God, Prayer, Thanksgiving | 2 Comments | Tagged Christian, David, giving of thanks, God, leper, miraculous, Paul, Prayer, psalm, Thanksgiving, victory, worship

• The Weapon of Praise!

  Posted at 4:33 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on August 1, 2020

  Psalm 8:2 – Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. NIV

  

  the-weapon-of-praise_-2.mp3

  prayer-for-salvation-2.m4a

  I’ve been blogging about weapons that are effective in stopping the enemy! I have blogged about the weapon of our salvation, the weapon of the Blood of Jesus, and the weapon of holiness. In this blog, I want to talk about the weapon of praise!

  The psalmist, David, stated that praise establishes a stronghold (a tower) against our enemies. Can you imagine yourself building a tower, with your praise, that the enemy cannot get over? Hopefully, when you finish reading this blog, you will do just that! In the KJV of the Bible the translators used the word “strength” and not “praise” in this verse. However, to be clear that the psalmist is referring to praise, in this verse, let’s look at how Jesus quoted it in the book of Matthew. In Matthew 21:16 – “And (the Pharisees)said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” NKJV

  When I think of both of these words, (praise and strength) it causes me to draw the conclusion that our strength against the enemy lies in our praise! Get this picture in your mind: The enemy is on the attack, in some form or fashion, then you begin to praise God, and you start constructing a tower with your praise! The longer you praise, the higher the tower, the higher the tower, the harder it is for the enemy to access you! I like that picture!!

  The word praise is sometimes translated as “boast” meaning to boast in the Lord and what He has done, and to boast in who He is! Praise can be carried out in a number of ways:

  • We can praise Him in the dance!
  • We call praise Him with song!
  • We can just walk around and praise Him for who He is
  • We can sit and praise Him for what He has done in our lives
  • We can bow before Him and give Him praise just because we feel like it
  • We can praise Him at church or at home
  • We can praise Him with or without music
  • We can praise Him in the Spirit

  Choose one! Better yet, try them all! The next time the enemy goes on a rampage, praise God like never before!

  The Old Testament reference that comes to mind involves Jehoshaphat! There was an army of people who came up against the king and the people of Judah. When the king heard, he called a fast and prayed. The Lord gave the king a promise, a prophetic word, that he would not have to fight in the battle, and Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah, gave Him praise. The next morning, when they got up, Jehoshaphat called for another time of praise. Here’s what verse 22 states: “Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated!” Now how powerful of an example is that? Yes, they had fasted and prayed, and that caused them to hear from God! But when they began to praise Him, God defeated their enemies!

  Now, if you have been following me, you know I have to give you at least one more scriptural proof of praise silencing the enemy!

  The verse that keeps resonating in my heart and spirit is found in Isaiah 61. Although these are the words that Jesus said He fulfilled in Luke 4, there is a part that illustrates the victory through praise. Isaiah wrote, “put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”. What is the spirit of heaviness but an oppressive spirit from the devil? Isaiah said, when it comes, clothe yourself in praise! Get up from your place of “woe is me” and get in a position of “Lord, You are good! You’ve been better than good!” Hallelujah!

  Everyone may not be able to “apply the Blood of Jesus” in faith as soon as you learn about it, but you can start praising Him right now and be extremely effective against the attacks of your enemy!

  In Psalm 30:12, the psalmist wrote, “You have turned for me mourning into dancing; you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent. O lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” What was David mourning over? Why was he in sackcloth? Who knows? Much had happened in his life before this point. It could have simply been that God had denied him the honor of building His temple because he had so much blood on his hands. Yet, when David was dedicating his home to the Lord, he began to give God praise and said, “you have turned my mourning into dancing”.

  My sister died many years ago. I hadn’t seen her in decades. One day I was just talking to the Lord when I said, “Father, I don’t want the next time I see Jeannie to be at her funeral.” That’s it! That’s all I said. Not long after that, Jeannie contacted me, came and spent a couple weeks with my family and I, and went back to California. She died shortly after. As I was beginning to allow grief to set in, God reminded me of what He had just done for me. I want you to know, I had such a spirit of praise in my heart at the funeral, it was almost embarrassing. However, I shared with my family that day about why my heart was not heavy, and I had to leave it there! He turned my mourning into dancing!

  I can give you example after example of the power of praise over the enemy. When we are praising God, the enemy runs away, because he can’t stand to be in a place where praise to God is going on. Also, when you praise God, you don’t have time to think about what the enemy is saying and doing, thereby, silencing him! And don’t forget that tower that is built when you give God praise! It’s blocks the enemy’s access to you!

  Let’s say that you are not in a place to even give Him praise right now. It happens! At this time, you just put on some praise music, and just be in the atmosphere of praise. It worked for Saul. When the evil spirit came upon him, David was called in to play some music for him. It was probably one of David’s psalms that he played for Saul, because the enemy left. He didn’t want to hear it. Not even in instrumental form!

  David wrote, “Let the poor and needy praise your name,” in Psalm 74. There is no state, no condition, in which we cannot give God praise. The best praise will come from your lips. Sometimes, it will have to be a sacrifice of praise more than a praise party. However it starts out, know that your praise is a powerful weapon against the enemy! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Deliverance, praise, the devil, weapons of warfare | 0 Comments | Tagged attacks, David, Deliverance, encouragement, hard times, Jehoshaphat, Jesus, praise, Spiritual warfare, the devil, the enemy, victory, worship

• An Amazing Opportunity!

  Posted at 4:20 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on March 30, 2020

  Genesis 5:21-24 -When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. ESV

  I’ve set for myself a new challenge. I want to see how long it will take me to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, no listening, just reading. On my last challenge I wanted to see how many times I could read the Bible in a year and I read it three times, about four months each time. So I started tonight in Genesis, because I’m on my “stay at home-cation” and as I was reading, something jumped out at me. So I am stopping to blog!

  The Bible tells us that after Enoch fathered Methuselah, he walked with God. I took a look at my Logos commentary of Genesis and discovered that the phrase “walked with God” literally means, “pleased God”. This correlates with Hebrews 11:6 that tells us that Enoch pleased God, for 300 years! He had no Bible, no church, no pastor, and he wasn’t baptized with the Holy Spirit and yet for 300 years, he pleased God.

  The time that God had with Enoch was so sweet, that He just took Enoch with Him. He was, and then he wasn’t! He was in a sense “raptured” or “caught away” to be with the Father! Now this isn’t news to me about Enoch walking with God and being taken by God and it probably isn’t news to you either. But let’s see what might be news.

  First, God was so blessed by Enoch’s decision to walk with Him after having Methuselah, that Methuselah is recorded as the longest living individual in the word. When we were growing up we all knew who the oldest person in the world was because we would often say that someone was as old as Methuselah. We may not have known who either of them were, but we knew he was the oldest person to live!

  Here’s another one I didn’t connect with. Enoch lived 365 years. We live 365 days in a year. Now, I found that to be interesting. One may have nothing to do with the other, but I think so. I think those 365 years of Enoch’s life blessed God so much that He made a memorial to him by making the year 365 days! Again, I can’t prove it, but it jumped out at me as I was reading.

  I wish I knew what caused Enoch to be able to walk so steadfastly with the Lord for so long. There is no record. I have seen people struggle to walk with God for weeks, or months at a time, so this is monumental for someone without an example. Adam didn’t do it! But in the midst of the genealogies in Genesis, the writer stopped at Enoch and made note of his pleasing God. There are no miracles noted and nothing he accomplished in this life, but he got God’s attention and kept it! What could it have been?

  When we read Hebrews 11, because it begins with the word “by faith” we automatically think that Enoch had great faith. I won’t even try and change our thinking on that. What I will say is this, I believe it was their relationship! It had to be! Enoch obviously decided after Methuselah was born that he was going to take every opportunity to get to know God. We see no evidence of Enoch moving mountains. We have no evidence that he saw, received, or did one miracle. (Although in 300 years there may have been plenty). But he walked with God in such a way that He was pleased and just took him to be with Him forever!

  When I think of walking with God, I think of Him walking in the cool of day with Adam and Eve. Surely it was for fellowship. And when I think of the ultimate purpose of salvation, to restore our fellowship with the Father, I again think, Enoch understood true fellowship! When the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, the first thing God said was, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And Jesus hadn’t done a single thing at that point that is recorded in God’s word.

  I think we spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to please God. We know that it pleases Him when we read the Bible, when we pray, when we obey Him, and even when we fellowship together. But I think that He is simply pleased by our continual fellowship. Today it is called, cultivating the Presence the Lord. Simply put, acknowledging His Presence throughout the day, every day. Talking to Him at every opportunity without having a need to bring to His attention, or even a desire. Just enjoying the reality of Him! Singing a song to Him, listening to what He has to share.

  I’m going to spend more time just being with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I want to please Him. Not by my works, or how fast I can read through the Bible, but by my love for Him! What will you do with this “amazing” opportunity? Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Believers, Christian, Fellowship with God | 5 Comments | Tagged Believer, encouragement, Enoch, fellowship, Genesis 5, Jesus, love, obedience, Presence of the Lord, trust in God, worship

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