Oh, praise the name of the Lord, our God!
Oh, praise His name, forever!
For endless days we will sing Your praise,
oh Lord, oh Lord, our God!
We give glory and praise to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We acknowledge His goodness and grace, and His presence in all things seen and unseen. We recognize His greatness and His glory – We are led to see, behold and be in awe of the signature of the Creator in all of creation.
We are in constant awe of the Lord – He is infinitely powerful and eternally wise, and He loves us with an everlasting love.
It is because of this love that we give all thanks and gratitude to Him, in accompaniment with our praises. Yes, in our praising, we could not help but thank Him as well! We thank God and praise God, just as much as we praise God and thank God!
In our proclaiming His magnificent power, we are brought to give thanks because of His power seen and demonstrated in our own lives.
In our giving thanks to His timeless wisdom applied in our own situations, we naturally give Him praise!
We give thanks, first and foremost, for the total, complete, absolute and timeless forgiveness He has given to us. Because of the infinitely superior forgiveness we received from our Lord, we ourselves are able to forgive, sometimes in a way that seems inhuman to the common man.
We have a grateful heart primarily because it is a heart that has received God’s forgiveness and atonement.
Yes, we give thanks and praise, just as we give praise and thanks, all from a heart made new, out of the forgiveness we received from the Lord – which is, again, total, complete, absolute and timeless.
We praise God. We thank God. We are aware of our forgiveness…
and we are sure of our forgiveness, because it was by no means because of anything we have done;
No, we are forgiven because Christ’s finished work has declared us forgiven.
Our sins have been separated from us as the east is naturally separated from the west.
We have died to sin, and by our being forgiven, have consequently been brought to eternal life.
We have been brought from darkness into the kingdom of Christ.
Sin no longer has dominion over us, because we have been set free from the Law, and into grace.
…and the forgiveness given to us is part and parcel of the righteousness Christ declares that we are.
We’ve been delivered FROM sin that once separated us from God, dooming us to oblivion and entropy…
and it just follows that we’ve been delivered TO righteousness – that is, we’ve been brought back to right-standing with God, and into eternal Life with Him.
And as we continue to meditate on this, and as the Lord continues to reveal more facets and perspectives of this wonderful grace through His Word…
…we would naturally keep praising and thanking God, grounded in our forgiveness and righteousness – given to us through Christ, guaranteed in us by the Holy Spirit.
…and I believe that it is this cycle that we’re in, as members of the body of Christ, that bring us in a constant state of repentance, a constant state of learning, unlearning and relearning.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.Philippians 4:8-9
Give thanks and praise. Give praise and thanks. Remember Christ, and the forgiveness you have by His finished work…
…and I have reason to believe that what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy will naturally be integrated into our minds, and consequently, into the rest of our beings.
We give thanks to God, for the constant transformation, for the continuous repentance… all because of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever shall be. Amen.
Restore to me the joy of my salvation.
Restore to me the joy of my salvation. That sounds like the prayer for me and for my sphere of influence (or lack thereof) this season.
I have reason to observe that we aren’t moving at peak efficiency because we are more dragged under by what we’re going through, than we are encouraged.
I’m not doing all I can, nor am I actually wanting to do all I set off to do, preferring to do things for comfort… because I’m more enticed by said ‘things’, than I am encouraged.
I think it was just timely that we were reminded yesterday of how we are absolutely, completely, totally forgiven by the One that matters. I say explicitly that God’s the only One whose forgiveness we need, because as we are still in this world, there will be those who will not forgive us. I take comfort now in the Truth that the everlasting forgiveness that we have, then and now and forever, from the everlasting One, is everlasting-ly, infinitely superior to the scorn, bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness in the world.
The forgiveness that Christ bought for us with all of Himself, down to His body and blood – that’s infinitely superior to the resentment that the world gives against us.
God’s forgiveness and mercy is infinitely superior to the condemnation we bring towards ourselves, capable of coming back fresh each and every time we’re brought to see the consequences of our mistakes.
It’s done. It’s once and for all. And I personally have to keep reminding myself of this, day after day. I am forgiven. I am ABSOLUTELY, COMPLETELY forgiven.
I am forgiven by Christ, through Christ, in Christ; It has been finished by Christ’s work, and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (the Proof of our salvation), who is alive in us, poured into us.
My shame is taken away,
may pain is healed in His’ name,
I believe, I believe!
I’ll raise the banner, for my Lord has conquered the grave!
My Redeemer lives!
I could close it out here, but there’s something else in this season – something more personal, something closer to me.
There remains the need for me to continue to unlearn the trauma, to unlearn the obsolete; I should not be forgetting that I need to unlearn the lies, the deception, the temptation.
Consequently, I need to learn a whole lot more, literally. As in an AI model, I need to take in a large dataset – for work, for business, for ministry, in my own personal life and how I do things.
Right about now I remember a fellow Pastor in Jerusalem who prophesied last 2018. Here are some notes from that:
Daniel and Carol prayed for me
Daniel’s word for me:
Revelation 4:1-2 The Throne in Heaven After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.
Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Carol’s reminder:
Isaiah 41:10fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
At this time I could say that it was really more of Isaiah 30:21 that stuck to me… and considering all we’re talking about here, it’s clear that whatever I do take in has to – no, not HAS TO but WILL BE constantly ‘audited’ but more to the point RENEWED by the Way, a Word behind me (no less than Christ Himself), ESPECIALLY when I turn to the right or turn to the left.
Perhaps it’s less of me unloading the dataset of what I don’t need and what I think harms me, more than it is me focusing on the relearning. The renewal of my mind. Focus on the Way, Jesus Christ – whose mind I have. Involve the Way in my way, or rather recognize that He IS my Way no matter what way I take – and by His Spirit, the Truth is constantly communicated to my being, and Life ensues.
And here are some notes I want to share, in recalling and reflecting on the same declaration, at a later time (2022, to be exact):
The Tribe
I remember Pastor Daniel from Israel talking to me after praying for me. He says I need a tribe. He says I’ll get a tribe, a Joshua, and I’m pretty sure he mentioned a wife and kids as well.
Sorry. I just wanted that there as well. You know, lest I forget.
Oh, and also, I guess I want this here as well. What the hell, right? I saw a post on a social media site that flat out asked folks why they were still single… and I suppose I ‘indulged’ myself by responding:
Bar was set pretty high. Lack of opportunity. Hang ups from who set the bar high. Financial insecurity (but literally working on it).
Me. I am the reason. Constantly praying, giving thanks and renewing my mind.
I’m sharing all this here because I want to go ahead and acknowledge the Way in these words I chose to make public, these words I declared. For I may have my own standards, but I thank God, because He’s still the One who knows best, and whatever ‘standards’ remain shall pass through the mind of Christ, which I possess. I thank God, for His scope of opportunity goes far and beyond my own senses and flawed, finite reasoning, and He is for me, and not against me. I thank God, because according to His word, He is able to take everything – including the self-inflicted pain and condemnation, the confusion and the unanswered questions, the what-ifs and the if-onlys of the past – and He is able to make it all work for the good.
I thank God for the second chances, the opportunities elsewhere – to redeem myself of all that was lost, all that was taken away, and all that I’ve wasted. I thank God for this platform and this opportunity to declare and proclaim the glory and grace of our Lord. May He continue to be glorified and worshipped to the maximum, may His goodness continue be seen and propagated, now and forever, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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