The LORD is on high forevermore

"The LORD is on high forevermore." 

In another place we read, "He is highly exalted." 

He is still sustaining all things.

He has shown us wonderful things and we should praise Him for them. 

I think these verses are a great reminder of how faithful the LORD is to His promises. 

Is your heart heavy, troubled by life's circumstances? 

Look up friend; our Heavenly Father is still on His throne. He is on high forevermore.

I'm not saying life won't be tough, but if we keep looking to Jesus and continually remember our blessed hope of eternity with Jesus, He will strengthen us to be able to bear the troubles that will come.

Because He is faithful and has shown such great lovingkindness to us, we can choose to sing His praise with glad hearts.

He has been very good to me. 

I will choose to remember His mercies;

 I will sing praises to the LORD who reigns on high forever. 

Who is like You, O Lord?

There's a short answer to these questions: no one!

There is only One who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.

Do you know Him as your God? 

This is the way Moses knew Him as he had seen many amazing instances of the Lord's provision and deliverances out of some very difficult circumstances.

Can you look back on the years of your life and see how He has led and guided? 

What a privilege!

"Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen."

Psalm 72:18-19

Sing praise

I'm not aware of any actual statistics but I think most people enjoy hearing the birds sing. I'm sure God loves hearing all His creatures praise Him in joyful song. 

We have so much for which to give Him thanks, He has blessed us so richly in calling us His children.

So let's get singing His praise! 

Those He has redeemed have a very special song to sing!

K...

Obviously we all know we can't physically, literally kiss the Son. There may be lots of other interpretations of this, but I heard years ago that it's a term meaning to worship. Do we who are blessed because we trust in Jesus live our lives in a constant attitude of worship? Or do we so often "forget" or become busy doing too many other things He never intended us to do and relegate worship to Sunday mornings?
In case you need the reminder, here it is.
We have been given the awesome privilege of being His children, and He has richly blessed us in countless ways. He saved us from our sins which would have led us to destruction. He gave us the glorious hope of eternal life with Him, which will be far more wonderful than you or I can imagine. For all this and so much more, He alone is worthy of all praise, glory, honour, and our lives should be completely dedicated to Him for His good pleasure.

(I'm definitely preaching to myself here, I think typing it out helps me process it better.)

God is great.

Well, this verse doesn't need explaining. I believe I should meditate on it more and start praising more too! We're never going to be able to plumb the depths and heights of just how great He is, but for what we do know of Him and all His goodness towards us, we should be eternally grateful. I think in Heaven we'll have a better understanding of all the ways He's been so wonderful to us; we might not even have known about many of them. But let's trust Him without seeing all the evidence.

Aren't you glad that God is so faithful? Excerpt from Traveling toward sunrise

"For I AM the LORD, I change not." Malachi 3:6

..."let this be our ceaseless joy: that God is ever with us. Always the same Gospel. He, who year in, year out, sends the shower and the sunbeam, dresses highway and byway with beauty... will not forget the least of us.
His goodness is ever new; His kindness always outpoured, His tenderness greater than our uttermost demand, and the same springtime over and over is sent by the same dear Lord and Father."

It was these three phrases that caught my attention: "His goodness is ever new, His kindness always outpoured, His tenderness greater than our uttermost demand."

Will you join me in praising Abba Father today for His amazing mercy and faithfulness to His children?
None of us deserve any of it.

Selected verses from Psalm 66

Don't you just love the Psalms?
I usually find them very comforting and encouraging.
How about you?

A few encouraging quotes from D.L. Moody

"Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live. The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out."

"God doesn't expect the impossible from us. He wants us to expect the impossible from Him!"

"Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray that He would empty us."

"We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining- they just shine."

"The work of the Spirit is to impart life, to implant hope, to give liberty, to testify of Christ, to guide us into all truth, to teach us all things, to comfort the believer, and to convict the world of sin."

"If a man just stops to think what he has to praise God for, he will find there is enough to keep him singing praises for a week."

"The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation."

"Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody; forty years learning he was nobody; and forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody."


"Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink."

http://www.azquotes.com/author/10304-Dwight_L_Moody

Come Thou Fount

I've known this lovely old hymn for years but when I looked it up I found two extra verses I didn't know previously, and they're rather good. 

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

 Robert Robinson (1758)

found at http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/comethou.htm

More Tozer. Prayer and praise and promises

Today I finished one of Tozer's books: "God's Power for your life: How the Holy Spirit transforms you through God's Word." It contains some great challenges and encouragements, including,

"I love Thee, for I can trust Thee to always keep Thy Word. All around me are those who fail to keep their promises for one reason or another. Everyone at some time has disappointed me, but Thou, O Christ, hast never disappointed me. Thou hast been as good as Thy Word, and Thy Word hath been good to me. May I commit myself this day and surrender my heart, mind and life to the promises that have flowed into my heart. In Jesus' name. Amen."

"The man of God says that we "have fled for refuge", and I can just see myself, with the devil one hot jump behind me, racing for the cross of Jesus, racing for Calvary's holy mountain. Just as I come panting in, the doors let down behind me, and the devil runs head-on into the gate and bounces off. He does not get me, because I have found the refuge and I am safe."

"So, says the Spirit, go on; keep on believing. You are not mistaken in fleeing to Christ. Our hope is sure, our consolation is strong, and our forerunner has already entered. The anchor grips the rock. Everything is all right in our Father's house. So, arouse you. Pursue holiness. "Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Hebrews 6:12). Show diligence and full assurance of hope unto the end."

"Christians ought to be the most delighted, happy people in the world. It is strange that we are not - but I know why we are not. The devil is out after us. The flesh is out after us. The world is out after us. In fighting these three enemies, sometimes we do not have time to be happy. We do not have time to remember that we are as safe in the arms of Jesus as if we had been in heaven a thousand years - if we will only believe, go on, and not disgrace ourselves in the kingdom of God by turning back to the beggarly elements of the world...
We have a promise we can count on, because we have a Promiser who has never and can never fail."

Praise the Lord!

Wow!! I saw a stoat this afternoon, so I looked up the differences between polecats, stoats, weasels and ferrets etc. Then I came across this picture!
All things really do praise the Lord!! How amazing is that!

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

(interesting fact: I have since been told that polecats and prairie dogs do this when they are in awe of the hawk or crow that is about to swoop down and eat them up.)I still think it may well have been praising the Lord anyway!:)