Sue J Love
Loyal
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2015
- Messages
- 2,756
“Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalms 96:7-9 ESV)
Reading this takes me back to Romans 1:18-32. There it teaches us that what can be known about God He has made plain to the people of the earth. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Yet, although God has shown himself to us through his created works, many people do not honor him for who He is, but they exchange the truth about God for a lie and they end up worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. This is happening big time in our world today. Thus, God gives them up to their dishonorable passions. And from heaven the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of humans, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth about who God is.
So many people who want to live according to the lusts of their sinful flesh are engaged in diluting and altering the character of God (Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit), and the character of his church (the body of Christ), and the character of his gospel message of salvation and death to sin. Many have turned God into a doting grandfather in the sky, or to a genie in a bottle there to grant our every request and desire regardless of whether or not we honor him with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands.
So, they create their own god and their own gospel of salvation and their own image of what Christ’s church should look like in order to appease human flesh, and so that they can continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord without conscience, convinced that their sins are all forgiven and so God will no longer judge them for their sinful acts. And they do this also to attract the ungodly to their gatherings so that they can grow their “churches” (businesses) numerically, for they want large crowds.
So, what this Psalm is saying to us is that we need to give God the credit and the glory and the honor due his name for all that he is and for all that he has done for us, and for all that he will yet do on behalf of those who love him (who obey him), who have been called according to his purpose. And his purpose is that we should die with Christ to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, and to now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, for the glory and honor of God.
And the offering that we are to bring to the Lord is our lives on his altar as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our reasonable and acceptable worship of God. For worship of God is not just singing songs and raising our hands in the air and swaying back and forth to the music. For we can do all that and still not worship God in truth and in righteousness. True worship of God involves self-denial, dying to sin daily, and walking in obedience to our Lord in doing what he has called us to do as his people.
For, if all we do is give lip service to the Lord while we continue to live our lives according to our own will and purpose, and according to our own fleshly and worldly desires, we will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. It won’t matter what our lips professed or what some preacher promised us. We need to ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name by surrendering our lives to him, and by submitting to his will and purpose and, by the Spirit, daily dying to sin and walking in obedience to his commands.
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Living Sacrifices
An Original Work / September 14, 2012
Based off Romans 12:1-2; Romans 6:11-14 NIV
Oh, holy ones, I counsel you,
In view of God’s mercy,
To give yourselves to God in love
As living offerings,
Pleasing to God, holy in love.
This is your true worship.
Do not conform to worldly lives.
Let God transform you today.
Then you’ll be able to
Test and approve of what
God’s will is – His pleasing
And perfect will. Oh, holy ones,
I counsel you – Offer yourselves unto God.
Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –
Do not be conceited.
Humble yourselves before your God.
Do not be self-righteous.
The strength you have to live in love
Comes from your Lord God, so
Live your new lives in pow’r of God.
Be changed in heart, mind and will.
Do this because of what
Christ did for you when
He died on the cross to save
The world from sin. Oh, holy ones,
I counsel you – Humble yourselves before God.
Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –
Count yourselves dead to sin,
But be alive to God in Christ.
Do not let sin reign in
Your earthly lives so you
Obey its evil desires.
Offer yourselves unto your God
As those who’ve been born again.
For sin shall no longer be
Your lord and master.
Give of yourselves to God
For righteousness. Oh, holy ones,
I counsel you – Be alive to God in Christ.
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalms 96:7-9 ESV)
Reading this takes me back to Romans 1:18-32. There it teaches us that what can be known about God He has made plain to the people of the earth. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Yet, although God has shown himself to us through his created works, many people do not honor him for who He is, but they exchange the truth about God for a lie and they end up worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. This is happening big time in our world today. Thus, God gives them up to their dishonorable passions. And from heaven the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of humans, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth about who God is.
So many people who want to live according to the lusts of their sinful flesh are engaged in diluting and altering the character of God (Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit), and the character of his church (the body of Christ), and the character of his gospel message of salvation and death to sin. Many have turned God into a doting grandfather in the sky, or to a genie in a bottle there to grant our every request and desire regardless of whether or not we honor him with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands.
So, they create their own god and their own gospel of salvation and their own image of what Christ’s church should look like in order to appease human flesh, and so that they can continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord without conscience, convinced that their sins are all forgiven and so God will no longer judge them for their sinful acts. And they do this also to attract the ungodly to their gatherings so that they can grow their “churches” (businesses) numerically, for they want large crowds.
So, what this Psalm is saying to us is that we need to give God the credit and the glory and the honor due his name for all that he is and for all that he has done for us, and for all that he will yet do on behalf of those who love him (who obey him), who have been called according to his purpose. And his purpose is that we should die with Christ to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, and to now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, for the glory and honor of God.
And the offering that we are to bring to the Lord is our lives on his altar as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our reasonable and acceptable worship of God. For worship of God is not just singing songs and raising our hands in the air and swaying back and forth to the music. For we can do all that and still not worship God in truth and in righteousness. True worship of God involves self-denial, dying to sin daily, and walking in obedience to our Lord in doing what he has called us to do as his people.
For, if all we do is give lip service to the Lord while we continue to live our lives according to our own will and purpose, and according to our own fleshly and worldly desires, we will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. It won’t matter what our lips professed or what some preacher promised us. We need to ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name by surrendering our lives to him, and by submitting to his will and purpose and, by the Spirit, daily dying to sin and walking in obedience to his commands.
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Living Sacrifices
An Original Work / September 14, 2012
Based off Romans 12:1-2; Romans 6:11-14 NIV
Oh, holy ones, I counsel you,
In view of God’s mercy,
To give yourselves to God in love
As living offerings,
Pleasing to God, holy in love.
This is your true worship.
Do not conform to worldly lives.
Let God transform you today.
Then you’ll be able to
Test and approve of what
God’s will is – His pleasing
And perfect will. Oh, holy ones,
I counsel you – Offer yourselves unto God.
Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –
Do not be conceited.
Humble yourselves before your God.
Do not be self-righteous.
The strength you have to live in love
Comes from your Lord God, so
Live your new lives in pow’r of God.
Be changed in heart, mind and will.
Do this because of what
Christ did for you when
He died on the cross to save
The world from sin. Oh, holy ones,
I counsel you – Humble yourselves before God.
Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –
Count yourselves dead to sin,
But be alive to God in Christ.
Do not let sin reign in
Your earthly lives so you
Obey its evil desires.
Offer yourselves unto your God
As those who’ve been born again.
For sin shall no longer be
Your lord and master.
Give of yourselves to God
For righteousness. Oh, holy ones,
I counsel you – Be alive to God in Christ.
