Worship for Today: The Lord is worthy our undivided worship!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Zephaniah 1:4b-5

 

"I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests- those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech..."

 

Israel had a problem of remaining true to the Lord. Apparently they paid lip-service to the Lord and yet would turn around and follow another. Due to this they faced God's jealous anger. God has repeatedly told us he is a jealous God. "The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger." Zephaniah 3:8b.

 

To our own peril do we fail to acknowledge the legacy of Israel's history with the Lord. Our God is a jealous God. He was with Israel and he is with the church. In Israel's past they attempted to share their allegiance due only to the Lord with a false god and found themselves on the business end of his judgment. The church has had her challenges with this as well. In Revelation 3:15-16, we read a letter from the Lord himself. In it he says to the church in Laodicea, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Israel acted in the same way and were warned by the Lord, "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, 'The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.'" Zephaniah 2:12

 

Paul's solemn warning to the church in Corinth is just as important today as when he wrote it, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" 1 Corinthians 10:21-22.

 

Our Savior is due our complete and total love and devotion. He sought us out and paid the penalty for our sins. We are not our own any longer as we have been bought with this price. The Lord is due our undivided worship- he is worthy of every bit of it.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Our wrathful God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Zephaniah 1:2-3,

 

"'I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,' declares the Lord. 'I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth', declares the Lord."

 

Idolatry is a pervasive sin these days. Where we don't pull our Buck knives out and carve little statues we place on our mantles to worship, we nevertheless fashion a God who doesn't exist from our imaginations and worship it. Churches are full of people who worship a God other than the one true God who has revealed himself in the pages of Scripture. He has decided to reveal himself in the Scriptures and told us what he is like. This is the God to worship - not the one we think he ought to be.

 

God has told us he is both loving, kind and merciful, as well as judgmental and wrathful. In Jeremiah 9:24, "Let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight."

 

The writer of Hebrews says, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31. Yes, God loves the world so much he sent his Son to die as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. Woe to the man who passes on God's offer through the gospel! As the Lord tells us later in Zephaniah, "The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger." Zephaniah 3:8.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: The Scriptures are God's communication.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in 1 Corinthians 2:13,

 

"This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words."

 

When I pick up my Bible to read it, what confidence do I have in what I read of it? Is what I read merely the thoughts of some men who lived millenia ago? What if they were wrong in what they had to say? How do I know what they did say is trustworthy and true? When I read in the Scriptures that all who die in their sin will spend eternity in a fiery lake of burning sulfur, is that really the case? When I read that all I need do is trust in Jesus Christ for my eternal salvation and that I will be a co-heir with Jesus Christ, how can I know it is true?

 

Here in this passage, Paul points to the source of what he had to say. What Paul says, what all of the writers of Scripture had to say was not of human origin. Paul says what they spoke were "words taught by the Spirit". Peter speaks to this issue as well. He placed Paul's writings on the same bookshelf as the rest of the Scriptures when he said, "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."

 

Peter acknowledged that Paul wrote what he did "with wisdom that God have him." Elsewhere Peter spoke of all the writers of Scripture when he said, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21.

 

The Scriptures are what God has to tell us. They were produced by men, not of their own initiative or interpretation, but as they were "carried along by the Holy Spirit." When I pick up my Bible to read, I have total and complete confidence in what it has to say. It is God's very communication to us. Everything contained within its pages is trustworthy and true. How I thank my God he has chosen to speak to us!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God's indescribable gift!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 2:3-10,

 

"All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

 

Here is a passage that many are very familiar with. It is often looked to in an effort to ensure we have our theology "right". We look to it to learn that becoming a child of God is not something that we can earn. It is a gift given to all who believe. Further, it is used to point to the reality that as God's children, we are God's workmanship created "to do good works" and not sit on our duffs.

 

While all of this is certainly true and appropriate, there is a sweeping dimension to this passage that is breath-taking as we consider God, the One who has done these things for us. Here Paul tells us that it was while we were objects of God's wrath for the sin we pursued in our lives that God acted on our behalf. Paul tells us God is rich in mercy and that it is by his inexplicable kindness toward us that we are saved. It is by the "incomparable riches of his grace" expressed in God's kindness to us that he has given us a place with his Son, Jesus Christ, seating us together with him in the heavenly realms. What a thought to consider! The salvation we enjoy is the gift of God. God has given it to us through his love for us, his "grace" expressed to us. Where many, over the ages have attempted to achieve a good standing with God through their hard efforts, it turns out to be a free gift, availed simply by trusting in God, trusting in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that brings us this indescribable gift!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God provides all that is needed!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in John 16:7-8,

 

"It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment..."

 

As Jesus tells his disciples about his coming death and ascension into heaven, they are "filled with grief". As an encouragement to them he tells them about how he will send the Holy Spirit when he gets to heaven and about the Holy Spirit's activity in the world. The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt. This guilt will be a three-fold conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment.

 

The importance of this cannot be overstated. In John 12:32 Jesus said, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." Jesus Christ wants all to come to him. He presents himself as the atoning sacrifice of all mankind, "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:2. Additionally, he sends the Holy Spirit into the world to bring the conviction that all in the world are in need of this atoning sacrifice. Mankind is sinful, lacking righteousness and stands under the judgment of God - facing a lake of fire for all eternity.

 

After all, who would reach out for a life vest unless they were convinced they needed it? So, the Holy Spirit convicts unsaved man of sin, of unsaved man's need of a savior. All that anyone could possibly need to be brought into God's family has been provided by him! What a wonderful God who has gone to great lengths to bring us all into his family!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Salvation by grace!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in John 1:12,

 

"To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

 

Over the years many have worked hard to be good enough to get into heaven. Sensing the sin in their lives, they have sought to establish a right standing with God by living a life "good enough" to earn their place at the table of God. The people of Israel are an example of this. Paul speaks of it in Romans 9 and 10.

 

In Romans 10:1-2 we read, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge." The Israelites kept many laws in their efforts to not sin and establish their righteousness before God. Paul goes on to say, "Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own..." This they did through their oral laws and traditions handed down that had their origin in the law Moses had given them.

 

But the gospel declares our right standing with God is only available through Jesus Christ, embracing him in faith. Paul goes on to say in the Romans 10 passage, "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." Conforming our lives in an ethical manner will never earn us a place at God's table. Receiving a place at his table is a wonderful gift that we receive as a result of us embracing him in faith. This is why we say salvation is by God's grace. "if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace." Romans 11:6.

 

I find this to be a marvelous expression of God's loving, kind and merciful heart: he offers us a place in his family by simply embracing him in faith, trusting him!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Jesus Christ is my advocate.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Proverbs 15:3,

 

"The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good."

 

Here is a very sobering proverb. It speaks to the watchful omnipresence of the Lord, his seeing of all we think, do and say. This is an ever present reality that exists, whether we sense it or not. Paul describes God as "he who searches our hearts", Romans 8:27. This isn't simply a matter of recording data for God. One day all will have to face God and give an account. In 1 Corinthians 4:5 we read, "He [the Lord] will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts." Also, we read in Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

 

I shudder the thought! As I think over my life, it literally scares the hell out of me to think God has a record of all I have ever thought, felt, said and done! He knows it all, every little bit! Has the realization of that reality troubled me, concerned me? I hang my head!

 

As I read on in the fifteenth chapter of Proverbs, in verse 9, "The Lord detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness." Also in verse 26 I read, "The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but those of the pure are pleasing to him." God is pleased with the righteous and displeased with the wicked. My life has plenty to place me in the group he is not happy with.

 

The gospel provides a wonderful solution to this horrible dilemma for me. In Psalm 103:8-12 we read, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

 

How is this possible? The writer of Hebrews observes, "Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, "Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God."' First he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them' (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrews 10:5-10.

 

What could be better? As I stand before our heavenly Father, I will have Jesus Christ at my side. I have an advocate as I stand before the great judge! What mercy, kindness and compassion from the one who has paid the penalty for my sin!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com