Spirit Led Living

Ps 42:7 Deep calls to deep Our walk with God is a walk is a progression that should lead us to a deeper walk with Him. However, there are times when we, much like the Psalmist go through our dark nights of the soul when our desperation seems to go so deep that we can never reach the bottom. It would be nice if our walk with the Lord progressed in a straight line where we moved to ever increasing heights of joy in His presence. The fact is that our lives more resemble the graph of a volatile stock with peaks and valleys along the way. David himself recalls those peaks when he, “ used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.” (Ps 42:4) If we’ve given our lives over to our Lord and Savior we have all experienced the sublime ecstasy of His grace the presence of His Spirit. We have tasted of the goodness of our God. Even the healthiest Christian is tested. Even the most stalwart is

Ps 95:6-7 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;   7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. There are times in my life when I lose focus.   The cares of the day press in on me and my thoughts turn inward. Navel gazing, I call it. It is during these times when I begin to think, “Woe is me”. Usually these times occur when I start comparing. I compare myself to my vision of myself and where I thought I would be at this stage in my life; what I should have accomplished. I compare myself to others. I see where they are and what they have accomplished with their lives.   I see the recognition that they   get for their accomplishments and I see the lack in mine. I compare myself to the way I think others view me and what they think I should have accomplished.   One of my great weaknesses is that I care what other people think of me. In any and all of these comparisons I find myself lacking. I thi

Job 1:20-21 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Job is writing this on the heels of learning that everything he held dear had been taken away from him. I get tearing his robe and shaving his head, those are signs of grief; but bowing down in worship? I don’t know about you, but the first thing that pops into my head when I get bad news is not worshipping God. Turning to Him in prayer, yes, but not worship. And maybe that is the problem; m y first reaction is not worship.   If I say the God is my King and my Lord and that I “trust” in Him, why shouldn’t it be worship? Why shouldn’t my first reaction be “God, you’ve got this under control so I am going to worship you”? To make all of this more poignant we have to understand the concept of

2 Sam 6:16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart. Some of us may be familiar with this passage. I have written before that worship, especially exuberant worship, exposes the heart; both of the worshipper and the observer. We can see it so clearly these days where Tim Tebow, the former quarterback from Florida, is derided in public because of his clear stance regarding his relationship to Jesus Christ. While others are celebrated for the sexual exploits, any young man or woman who professes chastity and abstinence are looked at as freaks, liars and hypocrites. To be a Christian and stand by Biblical values is to be intolerant, judgmental, an oppressor and guilty of hates crimes.   Nothing new. David’s wife despised him in her heart. The Jew’s, the people Jesus came to save, crucified Him. What was David’s respo

Gen 22:5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." If you grew up in the church then you know the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham, an old man, was promised by God that he would be the father of nations and that his descendants would be as innumerable as the stars in the sky. He and Sarah, well beyond child-bearing age, conceive and Isaac is born. As a test, unknown to him at the time, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Out of obedience, Abraham set out to do just that. In the midst of all of this drama is the passage that I have quoted that often gets lost in the larger story of obedience. Lost in all of this is the first record of anyone worshipping God in the Bible.  Now, we know that God was worshipped before this, but this is the first time that the word appears in Scripture. Anyone who has been to Bible College knows the law of first occurrences. 

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever . So says the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Rev 4:11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." I love to worship. Worship makes time and space fold and I find myself immediately before the throne of God and I am transfixed by His presence. When others think about what they will do when they get to heaven, they talk about exploring the streets of gold, checking out their mansions or talking to some of the greats of the faith. Not me, I want to make a bee-line for the throne and I want to spend the first couple of millennia on my face before the Father worshipping Him. However, as much as I know that worship is all about Him, the truth is that I come into worship with certain expectations. In talking about worship, John Wimber used to say, "