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Episodes
Saturday May 04, 2024
Saturday May 04, 2024
Psalm 117
Praise God, everybody!
Applaud God, all people!
His love has taken over our lives;
God's faithful ways are eternal.
Hallelujah!
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Friday May 03, 2024
Friday May 03, 2024
Psalm 141
A psalm of David.
1-2 God, come close. Come quickly! Open your ears-it's my voice you're hearing! Treat my prayer as sweet incense rising; my raised hands are my evening prayers.
3-7 Post a guard at my mouth, God, set a watch at the door of my lips.
Don't let me so much as dream of evil or thoughtlessly fall into bad company.
And these people who only do wrong- don't let them lure me with their sweet talk!
May the Just One set me straight! May the Kind One correct me!
Don't let sin anoint my head. I'm praying hard against their evil ways!
Oh, let their leaders be pushed off a high rock cliff; make them face the music.
Like a rock pulverized by a maul, let their bones be scattered at the gates of hell.
8-10 But God, dear Lord, I only have eyes for you.
Since I've run for dear life to you, take good care of me.
Protect me from their evil scheming, from all their demonic subterfuge.
Let the wicked fall flat on their faces, while I walk off without a scratch.
(From the Message)
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Thursday May 02, 2024
Thursday May 02, 2024
Psalm 139
For the choir director: A psalm of David.
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away.
3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
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7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the deepest hell, you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night-
12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
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13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
18 I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
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19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers!
20 They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name.
21 O Lord, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I despise those who oppose you?
22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
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Wednesday May 01, 2024
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Psalm 36
36:1 An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes.”
36:2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to detect and hate his sin.
36:3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
36:4 He plots iniquity on his bed.
He sets himself in a way that is not good.
He doesn’t abhor evil.
36:5 Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
36:6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.
Your judgments are like a great deep.
Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
36:7 How precious is your loving kindness, God!
The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.
36:8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house.
You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
36:9 For with you is the spring of life.
In your light shall we see light.
36:10 Oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you,
your righteousness to the upright in heart.
36:11 Don’t let the foot of pride come against me.
Don’t let the hand of the wicked drive me away.
36:12 There the workers of iniquity are fallen.
They are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise.
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Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Worship
I often hear people say that their church has the best worship and that other church worship services are inferior! Or I hear that a person has moved churches, because the experience is different and better there! What are we to think as Christians in the twenty first century about biblical worship?
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 105:1-6: "Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given, you children of his servant Abraham, you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones."
Today there are many different churches using different worship styles to worship the one True and Living God! We can even think of different churches in the New Testament worshipping differently, such as the church of Philippi church being more liturgical and ordered, while the church of Corinth is more free and less controlled! As His followers and His worshippers, we are required to worship God and to worship Him publicly and with others! There is a meaning of worship, whereby our very life is to be a spiritual act of worship according to Paul in Romans 12. Paul meant that every aspect of our life is to be an act of worship, where our life is to be for the majesty and honour of God! However, the definition of worship I want to talk about today is about public acts of worship, such as in a church or chapel service. Where worshipping is to give respect, honour and glory to God! When this is done in reverence, in truth and in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, then the Christian Disciple continues to mature and grow spiritually. Let us look at the what, why and how of Biblical worship!
What is worship?
Worship is, by way of act, attitude, or thought, a way of giving supreme honour and reverence to God! As Christian Disciples, God Almighty alone is worthy of our reverence, submission and worship. There are many other things that are worshipped and thus are ‘gods', with a small ‘g'. Money, careers, possessions, other people are 21st century examples of things which are worshipped by humans. Thus the threat of materialism is a huge danger to Christian Disciples, because the worship of material possessions takes the supreme place of worship to God, and some Christian Disciples have been duped by it! But the Bible clearly states that God alone is to be worshipped. For God is to carry the worshipping Christian Disciple, and not the Christian Disciple to carry the god.
Why worship?
Perhaps the greatest reason that we worship is because God commands it! The 10 Commandments (Exodus 21v1-3) insist that God alone is worshipped, adored and paid homage to! As humans we are made in His image and as Christian Disciples, He owns us because we claim Jesus to be our Lord and Master! So it is right and just that we give worship to this God who paid the penalty for sin, so that we may be His children, and wants us to call Him Father! As Christian Disciples, we discover an inner personal satisfaction when God is worshipped and adored, both for the present and in the future (Romans 12v2; Col 3v24)! Another reason to give worship is that God deserves our worship! All of God's attributes demand that we revere and worship Him! His holiness, goodness, love, mercy and providence are but a beginning as to why He, and He alone, is worthy of our worship. It is by His grace, and through His grace alone, that we worship Him!
How are we to worship?
In some church services, a general confession of sin comes at the start. This is because before engaging in exultant praise, Christian Disciples should approach with penitence and examine their inner selves just as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6. We also gather in expectation of meeting God and that He will receive the worship! Worship services should consist of more than just singing songs. The church is 2000 years old and in that time a lot of resources can be found to help people worship, apart from singing songs! There are items like responsive prayers and psalms, whereby prayers and psalms are spoken between the congregation to each other and to the leader!
There are times of silence, or times of spoken liturgy where truths of God are both spoken and heard. Saying the Apostles Creed or Nicene Creed help build the body in affirming their belief in an awesome God worthy of worship! Times of worship should be more diverse than just singing songs and should express the cultural and personality diversity of the people worshipping! Remember, Jesus and certainly the early church participated in services which would certainly have contained liturgy, Scripture reading and songs! Other core parts of some worship services are the Holy Communion and Baptism!
These were fundamental in churches in the New Testament period and are just as important today!
- Holy Communion is where we as Christian Disciples remember Jesus' death for our sin, acceptance of His death for us, and our dependence on Him for our spiritual life.
- Baptism is where Christian Disciples identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- The third element of worship is the reading and preaching of the Bible! This where God's word is read in public! This is where God's Word is preached so as to that God's word can be applied to the hearer's lives!
- Sermons can be the pinnacle of a worship service as God's revealed word is expounded, talked about and explained! Yet, sadly, for a lot of people its not considered worship! It most certainly is!
The whole of a church worship service should be where the spiritually comfortable are discomforted and those spiritually uncomfortable are comforted! From 1 Corinthians 14:25, worship should be where non-Christians present can proclaim, "God is really among you". So often our church worship services are flat, feeble and weak spiritually. At one extreme in churches, we have worship services that are flippant and no consideration to make worship an awe-inspiring time of devotion to an awesome God! At the other extreme, we have worship services where everybody looks like they have been sucking on lemons and where grace is obviously lacking. Somewhere in between, is where public worship should be.
In the broad spectrum of being neither trivialized nor grace-less, is where our church worship services should be! Sometimes we need to worship, even if we don't feel like it and pray for God to help us worship Him. Over all this, is 1 Corinthians 14v26, which plainly states: "Everything that is done must be useful to all and build them up in the Lord".
Public worship is for the encouragement of the gathered worshipping group of believers and not for the individual worshipper. The modern construct of only worshipping when its enjoyable or because the experience feels right is not a biblical construct. When you find yourself in a worship service with others, as long as what is being said and sung is biblical, keep worshipping. Even if the style or method is not to your own personal taste! Just because the church down the road from you worships in a different style to you, doesn't make their worship in valid! We have a God worthy of all types of worship!
Don't grieve the Holy Spirit by trying to validate your own style over a different style, by saying your church worships better than any other! The Holy Spirit works in different places in different ways! Stop limiting the Holy Spirit! Through the energy and power of the Holy Spirit, any and all acts of church worship are done in reverence, in truth and in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. Done regardless of our own personal taste, enjoyment level or experience. Main thing is to worship in Spirit and in truth, and that is surely to be a cause of joy, regardless of worship style! Let us use the diversity of worship styles to worship the One True Living God!
For more to think about please do read 1 Corinthians 14v26-39.
Ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.
Q1. When I attend worship services, is it for the encouragement of others or just for myself?
Q2. What are my favourite elements of worship and how should I react to those elements I don't like?
Q3. Does my life of following Jesus Christ, match the words I sing and words I speak in church worship services?
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Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Why I am a Christian?
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The Apostle John, writing in 1 John 5:9-12 - "We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
Why Is It So?
Why I am a Christian?
God had been pursuing me
In my more smug moments I used to congratulate myself for being a Christian. How proud I was that I, was a Christian and that God was a jolly lucky God that I had decided to follow Him. It was during one of my less self-deluded moments, that I examined myself and I found God pricking my conscience and correcting me, and I read the New Testament "For the Son of Man came, not to be served but to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark10:45).
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Sunday Apr 14, 2024
Sunday Apr 14, 2024
Nicene Creed
What we believe as Christians...
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray and profess together!
We believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all that is,
seen and unseen.
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We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
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Through Him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
He came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
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For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered death and was buried.
On the third day He rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures:
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
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We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son,
He is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
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We believe in one, holy,
catholic (universal), and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
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Amen
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Friday Apr 12, 2024
Friday Apr 12, 2024
Partakers Friday Prayers!
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
Let us pray earnestly this prayer together to our great God!
Look upon us, O Lord,
and let all the darkness of our souls
vanish before the beams of Your brightness.
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Fill us with holy love,
and open to us the treasures of Your wisdom.
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All our desire is known by You,
therefore perfect what You have begun,
and what the Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer.
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We seek Your face,
turn Your face toward us
and show us Your glory.
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Then shall our longing be satisfied,
and our peace shall be perfect.
Amen
Augustine (354-430AD)
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Sunday Mar 10, 2024
Sunday Mar 10, 2024
WOW Word - Idolatry
Images of Idolatry
I wonder if you are like me and when you hear the word idolatry, you imagine somebody bowing before a statue and worshipping it. A good example is the story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, as recorded by Moses in Exodus 32. Or perhaps in our own time when seeing people bow down to the statue of the Buddha or one of the many Hindu gods.
Therefore, we tend to think that idolatry is worshipping statues or worshipping in other religions such as Islam, Jainism and Zoroastrianism. However, the Bible is very clear, certainly Jesus was, that idolatry is a threat to living and partaking of the Christian life. How can that be, you may very well ask?
Christian Idolatry
As a Christian, you are to love God and love others. Anything that replaces your love of God as your first priority, is an idol, and therefore, is idolatry. For idolatry is not merely worshipping statues. Idolatry is the transference of allegiance to something apart from God. It is worshipping created things, and not worshipping God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Idolatry can be anything! For anything can take first place in your life! It may be your computer, your car, your books, your family, your church, a Christian leader, entertainment, celebrities and even love of yourself! These are all good things, in and of themselves, but they are not good things if they remove God from first priority in your life. These things can turn out to be idols, because they relegate your thinking of Almighty God to below first place.
Idolatry is the mind’s sin
Paul writes to the Roman church in Romans 1:18-25
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is for ever praised. Amen."
In that passage of scripture, Paul links idolatry with immorality. Immorality is the outer sins and idolatry is the inward sin. Idolatry is an attitude inside you that says to God “You are not first place, this other thing is”. Somebody who commits the sin of idolatry is a slave to that something else, and is not a slave to God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, idolatry is not just worshipping in another religion and bowing down to statues. Idolatry is relegating God to second place, in both actions and attitudes. Therefore cast off anything that is blocking your relationship with Almighty God. As idolatry is primarily the sin of the mind, those depraved ideas turn to sins of lusts and idolatrous physical pleasures. Be renewed in your thinking and have a renewed mind, so that you can worship Almighty God through Jesus Christ the Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
How’s that for a WOW Word?
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Thursday Feb 22, 2024
Thursday Feb 22, 2024
So Great A Salvation
Part 12 - Overcoming Doubt
Confess
Confess your doubt as sin to God, and He will listen and cleanse you (1 John 1:9). If doubts persist, try talking to somebody whom you trust and confess to them your doubts, and they may well be able to help you (James 5:16).
Salvation
Have assurance of salvation. Be assured and let your mind be controlled by the Holy Spirit, so that you are not led astray. Your salvation rests on nothing apart from God’s promises and Jesus’ righteousness! Test yourself as Paul exhorts in 2 Corinthians 13:5.
Righteousness
Live a righteous life. Live the truth! When we started as Christian Disciples, before God we were given the righteousness of Jesus! But that righteousness needs to be lived out in the lives of Christian Disciples. Living right helps overcome any doubts!
Faith
Show total trust in God for your life. The faith we have is a defensive weapon against the mistruths, the doubts, that enter our minds. By maintaining our trust in God’s promises and God’s power, doubts are extinguished.
Bible
Read and study God’s Word so as to know, understand and live truth. Our lives are to be controlled by truth as revealed in Bible. When we know truth really well, we can recognize the lies that we are told! The Word of God, the Bible, is there to be studied diligently so that by trusting in the Holy Spirit to lead and reveal it to us, we get to know God and His promises! We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus according to 2 Peter 3:18 and that is only achieved through studying the Bible! Then when we hear that nagging little voice that says “God didn’t say that”, we can say “Oh yes, He did!!”
Prayer
Talk to God. This is how we are energized! Fighting doubt in our own power is useless! Ask Him to help you overcome your doubts, and He will help you! When we talk to God, we strengthen our relationship with Him! When we ask other Christian Disciples to pray for us, Church unity is strengthened! When we see God answer prayer, our faith is matured and doubts are easily cast aside.