Be Glad, Rejoice!

Make music for your Creator

Last week I wrote a little about prayer and thankfulness. We all have reasons to be thankful but often we struggle a bit in expressing our feelings to God. Why is that? Think about it; we cry or laugh watching tv, we open our hearts when talking on the phone, we reveal our inner feelings chatting away on the computer, we jump up and down at a football game and we scream our heads off when our favorite band is performing. But when it comes to God.... Maybe religion taught us that silence and shyness is the way to come before our God. Maybe tradition taught us that being quiet and reserved is the way to show Him how thankfull we are. You know what, I am utterly thankful for the Word! The Word tells me how the Lord likes it. For example in Psalm 149:1-3

Praise the Lord, Sing a new song to the Lord; praise Him in the assembly of His faithful people! Be glad, Israel [fill in your own name], because of your Creator; rejoice, people of Zion [fill in your own group or church], because of your King! Praise His name with dancing; play drums and harps in praise of Him.

Maybe this cannot be done in your church, well find a group of faithful people and do what the Bible tells you to do. The next verse says that the Lord takes pleasure in His people. Don't be afraid to express yourself. He loves it!

Unbelievable?

The truth about our prayers

The other day I was reading some interesting words about prayer in Colossians 4:2,

Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God.

I've always put emphasis on the part about being thankful. This time my eyes caught the part about being alert. Keep alert as you pray... This week I have been listening to my own prayers and the prayers of others as well and I started to wonder: do we believe in what we pray? Are we indeed alert in case our prayers get answered? Ever so often prayers do get answered and we can hear people exclaim: I don't believe this ... this is unbelievable ... etc. How come we act surprised if something we asked for actually comes to pass? Why use that word (of all words) 'unbelievable' so easily? Praying is connected to believing. It does not make sense to pray for healing for example and an hour later tell someone you have something incurable. It does not make sense to pray for peace of mind and an hour later tell someone how stressed out you are. That way our prayers are futile. We cannot pray one thing and say another! Please, let us be alert as we pray, realizing that what we are asking will eventually be answered by God. We do have a true reason to be thankful!

Roar Of The Ocean

We're flying to California

This week we'll cross the Atlantic, on our way to the Pacific. It is breathtaking to see God's creation from the air, while flying from one side of the world to the other. We will see oceans, mountains and deserts from our little window as we cross timezone after timezone. We are thankful for the opportunity to travel between the continents, using human technology. We know there is One, greater than everything we can possibly imagine. Psalm 93:4 says

The Lord rules supreme in heaven,greater than the roar of the ocean,
more powerful than the waves of the sea.

Our Proper Place in the Universe

Are you in union with Jesus?

Not so long ago I was talking with a friend about evolution and creation philosophy. Our earth, the heavens, the universe, it all seems so complex to us, how can everything has it proper place and function? I smiled when I thought about the time in my life when I questioned the reason for our existence, a time when nothing made sense! I smiled at the joy I finally found in God's Word! I finally laughed wholeheartedly when thinking about my union with Jesus, an event that gave me my proper place in the universe!

I found answers in Colossians 1:15-17:

Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God.
He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things.
For through Him God created everything in heaven and on earth,
the seen and the unseen things,
including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities.
God created the whole universe through Him and for Him.
Christ existed before all things,
and in union with Him all things have their proper place.

My questions for you today is: are you where you want to be?

Bible Teaching Not Popular?

The key to the secrets of life

A little while ago I had a talk with the owner of a Christian book store and she told me that most of the books that are being sold are fiction books. Anything from thriller to romance to fantasy. Books about Bible interpretation and application are not so popular, so she explained to me, most readers don't like study books, they want to be entertained. Her words made me feel a little uncomfortable, they reminded me of something I wrote in my first book Sacred Sabbath.

Our society is one that is proud of her independence and self-help structure. We can figure it all out if given enough time and money! I think that a result of this same society is the fact that we find it very difficult to accept correction and guidance. After all, we want to find out ourselves. We do not like to be taken by the hand and guided into a different direction. We are self-supporting, and in case we really need help in certain troubled areas in our lives, we can always seek professional help. There seems to be a therapy for about everything, but then again, we switch doctors and therapists as if they were a pair of jeans. If we don't like the direction they are sending us in, we leave. We keep looking for someone or something who will tell us what we want to hear! We go from yoga, to pilates, to massage therapy, to psychics, even from church to church, searching for anything or anyone who will agree with the way we already think. Yes, we want our help to come from a direction that we choose. We want our help to come from a direction that we are comfortable with, something we can feel at peace with.This attitude has already been foreseen in God's Word. In 2 Timothy 4:3, we can read the following warning:

The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear.

From there on the chapter goes on to explain more about the Biblical principle of giving one day a week back to God, as in giving a certain percentage of our income back to God. Yes, my books are about the teachings of the Bible and how to apply them to our daily life. Life is not all about entertainment and feeling good! It is certainly also about growth, development, learning and finding direction. Where do we come from, why are we here and where are we going? Believe it or not, but the Bible is the key to discovering the secrets of life! To be more precise I want to use the words as written in Colossians 2:3 Christ is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.

Now, if you want to learn more about Him, start reading your Bible!