Praise

Fireside Fellowship

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Quite some time back the church we attended decided members should offer to host a family based worship, thus Fireside fellowships were born

Hosting these meeting is purely voluntary and in the past we have hosted several, however for assorted reasons which I won’t go into we had not offered to do any for quite a long time

Until last Tuesday night when we opened our home once again as hosts, as we have a smallish living room we could only offer to seat six other church members

Although only three members turned up, there was another who was coming had difficulty finding our home, so he went back to his house
As to the actual fellowship, we as hosts we were asked to pick a praise song we wanted sung as part of the meeting

My wife chose “Bind us together” which is her favourite, which we had all had to sing from memory as it wasn’t included in the edited booklet brought to our house

I chose “I surrend all” which recently found comfort in the words as well as release from my self-indulgence habit that had persisted for too many years

I had previously been listening to it being sung on a YouTube video, and the words tugged at my heart and pricked my conscious so strongly that night when I prayed and surrened all to Jesus even my own free will

 

 

 

Christmas without Christ

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This year of 2018 is fast on its way out and for many Christmas day is fading memory of opening presents and overindulging in all ways possible

Without a single thought to who this day would not be a day of celebration, for without Jesus Christ there would be no Christmas day

Whatever say you believe He was born, December 25th or earlier in the year as Jehovah Witnesses teach, the day in the past was called the Mass of Christ

As the Hymn goes” Every day you give me breath I will sing your praises” so in effect every day can be Christmas day

Christmas day is way more than opening presents or even regretting spending too much money

Even though most people theses say Merry Christmas, it was and still should be a day of Celebrating the birth of Jesus

The singing of carols became an important part of Christmas, and in their way are praise songs, and even before the big day many churches held carol services

They also held street corner carol services as the Salvation Army has done for many years

Let us not grow cold or be persuaded to proclaim the good news of the extra special day, but instead, raise our voices in joy and hope and bring the spirit of joy and happiness to those who may not have yet heard the real reason for Christmas day

Stand up and be Counted

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Christians it is way over due to stand up and be counted, by professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

As for myself I know for too many years I refrained from even telling anyone I was a Christian, let alone spreading the good news.

I’m sorry to say I gave up reading the Bible, not because I didn’t believe anymore, but rather because other things crowded in on my spare time – life happens.

So little by little my Christian life drifted on aimlessly and I allowed myself to become far too self-indulgent to even care.

Until the day my mind was so tormentedly full of images from my constant addiction, I couldn’t bear the dominating power it had over me.

I cried out in silent prayer about my anguish and tormented mind and asked Jesus to forgive my sins and surrendered everything including my free will.

As I was unable to control my thought or self-indulgent nature.

Praise The Lord! He answered both parts of my prayers, He forgave me and took away my addiction by giving me a new heart.

If you have yet to be “Born Again” the experience is beyond mere words to express

But since that wonderful day of my new birth, my life is more full and joyful than ever before

I will give praise to you oh! Lord

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Let men say what they will about me, I care not for their empty praise or slanderous remarks

For with every breath even my dying breath I will give praise to you oh Lord

Even though I’m still a vile sinner I shall not allow them to speak ill of you oh Lord

I shall raise my voice against all who deny you or utter deceitful words against you

Whatever lies they spin or false teaching they preach against you

I will speak of your love your passion your sacrifice, whether they listen or not

Whether they believe my words or not, even if they threaten my very life in attempts to persuade me to disown you

I may falter in my human weakness and for a moment be taken in by their lies and twisting of the truth, but as for me I have known you from the days of my youth

When you became a much needed friend, someone who knew me better than I knew myself

I was drawn to you as you touch my heart with your compassionate love, not once did you chastise or rebuke me even though I strayed far from you in my later years

Never once did toss me to one side, but with much patience you came in search of me refusing to forsake me

Ready to comfort me when life became unbearable, ready to uplift me with your love when I became lonely, to fill me with your joy when I became sorrowful

As you reached out to me time after time in the darkest of places, where I had foolishly allowed myself to become entangled in my arrogance

Then late one night while I was asleep, you reached out to me reminding me of your love for me, filling my very soul with such joy I could not contain it within and awoke with joyous laughter

How could I have forgotten the depth of your love, the sublime peace, the exquisite joy, the richness?

Even though this lasted for a short moment of our time, I knew it was but a brief foretaste of the glory of your kingdom

Whatever the rest of my days hold in store for me, I must share this and declare that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour and my dearest friend

Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Let us pierce the darkness with our praise

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Inspired by comments on a YouTube Praise video

The praise video was wonderfully uplifting, which made it all the sadder to read too many criticism comments, which began to darken the light of praise

There are many forms of darkness not just the darkness of the night, one of the deepest darkness is depression, which wraps itself around your life force and sucks all the joy out of your very being

Dragging you downwards into a spiral of self-criticism – self-doubt along with self-pity, which uses our own weaknesses against us

Clouding our vision so we begin only seeing the lies of the darkness, exaggerating even our smallest faults and allowing them to grow into nightmarish monsters

 Much of the darkness inflicted upon us can be beyond our control, while some are self-inflicted because they offer false pleasure but become easily addictive

Our enemy weaves such a web of deceit all around us; we can so easily become trapped as a fly stuck fast upon its sticky strands we soon grow weaker through the struggle and succumb to its power over us until we accept the situation as a normal part of life

There are those who are born with bodies or minds that are far short of what they should be; but can they can fulfil God’s purpose if they allow His will to be done

While others with no defeats who inherit bad habits or similar traits from their parents

Without even realizing they can easily slip into the same ways as others before they have done, for many modern-day people view the commandments as outdated and even unnecessary or unfair of God to expect us to adhere to these strict rules

Uncontrollable anger rages – a sense of hopelessness – self-doubt – self-pity and maybe the worse one of all self-indulgent as this we shrug off with excuses “I’m only human” “you have to have some pleasure in life”

But self-indulgent through bad habits lead us into indulging in further self-indulgent, as enough is never enough, blocking out their ability to see the need of others

Let us instead fight back and pierce the darkness with praise and raise ourselves up above the enemy’s clutches and help others to free themselves too

Let us continue to watch those praise videos and sing along where the spirit moves, let us keep them in our hearts too so we can offer up praise wherever we are

Let us pierce the darkness with praise so that we are up above the enemy’s clutches and help other sinners to become free through the grace of Jesus Christ

With our praise let our little light shine and with God’s power, we will shine brighter than the sun

Music I love Listening to

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My favourite music has to be Praise and good old classic Hymns

It Is Well with My Soul, this always touches my heart and soul, not just because it’s beautiful, but I was also impressed by the writer of this piece

Who went through many testing traumatic events and yet wrote theses praise words to this wonderful Hymn

 

Down To The River To Pray

 

None Christian music I enjoy listening to

Bee Gees Massaxchusetts

 Dolly Parton Jolene

Don McLean – Vincent ( Starry, Starry Night [youtube

Gilbert O’Sullivan – Alone Again

Carpenters -We’ve Only Just Begun

Terry Jacks Seasons In The Sun

Monkees – Daydream Believer

A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum

Paul Potts “Nessun Dorma”