Worship for Today: God's unsurpassed kindness!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 2:6-7,

 

"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."

 

Here is an amazing thought: there will be ages coming, and in those ages we will be God's very own children, adopted by him, brought into his family through the price Jesus Christ paid on our behalf. Having satisfied the justice of God the Father, Jesus Christ has made it possible that we be seated together with him in his lofty place in heaven!

 

All of this is just amazing to me as I consider it. And yet, there is more! We will be the very objects that demonstrate God's unsurpassed, transcendent kindness! We will be the living proof of the riches of God's grace! It is beyond my comprehension that those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith, who all have been born into a lost and fallen world, cursed by God, the offspring of a race of people who live in sin and rebellion against him should find themselves the recipients of such wonderful favor from our loving and merciful God!

 

It simply staggers the mind, doesn't 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

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

 

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."

 

I have to admit that when it comes to contemporary concepts of worship, I am lost. We live in a day where, at many churches, the congregation shows up to be motivated by a well rehearsed "worship team" whose job it is to move every one's heart. If they get the folks pumped up for God, the team has accomplished its mission, if they fail to do so, they fail in their mission. There they are, up on the platform, talented, practiced and, for the most part, flawless in their performance. My hat is off to them, they are capable of doing things I never could. But... look at who is up on the stage? Shouldn't it be God? Isn't sincere and genuine worship generated within us as we gaze upon our wonderful God himself, rather than us needing cheerleaders to get us pumped up about him? What is it God is missing that he requires others to whip up our interest in him? Perhaps it is our attention... 

 

And then we have others amongst us who note that, sadly, worship has become all about us, rather than God. We learn and sing shallow songs in our "worship services" (since when is worship a service, anyway? Romans 12:1-2 speaks of our service as that which should come from our worship, not the other way around!) that reflect on how God moves me, how God makes me feel, what God has done for me. It is all about I, me and mine. I have to agree with much said here. I do note, however, that Paul's reflections in these chapters are about what God has done for us. He does it in such a way, though, that his focus isn't on the goodies I get, but on the wonderful things God has done. Perhaps I am just splitting hair here...

 

We also have the theologians who tell us our worship is stunted and stilted because we fail to worship "in Christ". We fail to acknowledge our identification with Christ in our worship and so we don't somehow enter into worship the right way. I guess I just get lost in the prepositions here - I just don't get it. From my perspective, when they have finished speaking, I'm not really sure they have said anything.

 

How about we take a tip from Paul and just be fascinated with God all by himself. Who he is, what he is like and what he has done? That is what Paul does here. Many of the scenes of worship I find in the Scriptures lack the performance of others to pump up the worshipper. I find accounts of those who had some kind of encounter with God and the seeming resulting extemporaneous response that became their expression of worship a demonstration that true worship comes from being awestruck by God. Whether it is Abraham's servant finding a wife for Isaac, Genesis 24:26-27 or Job's horrific encounter with God, Job 42:1-6 or the shepherds and angels that attended the announcement of Jesus' birth, Luke 2:8-20 or the scenes in heaven we find in Revelation 5:11-14; 7:9-12; 11:16-18; 15:3-4, etc.

 

In any event, I find Paul's worship very compelling here: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." What a wonderful God we have who has done such marvelous deeds!

 

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: Lavishly exquisite change!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 6:23-24,

 

"Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love."

 

In his closing of this letter, Paul offers this benediction to his readers. He expresses his desire for peace, love and grace to those of his readers who love Jesus Christ with "an undying love". All these from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

While in the past I have often sifted through these kinds of salutations, benedictions and doxologies as just so much "window-dressing" (how could I ever have done so?!) in order to get past them to get to the "meat of the text", I have now learned a very important truth. These kinds of statements are all here in the Scriptures for a very important reason. They express both the very heart of God as well as the hearts of those who are animated by him.

 

There was a time when Paul, then known as Saul, a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin and a pupil of Gamaliel, was a violent man and a blasphemer, 1 Timothy 1:13. In his misguided attempt to do "the Lord's work" he persecuted those who had given themselves to Jesus Christ, raping the bride of Christ, so to speak. But now, look at what kind of man Paul has become! It is not Paul that astonishes me, however, it is the One who has brought such a change to such a hardened heart as Paul's!

 

This is the nature of our Lord. He changes us from within. Not just that, but the nature of the change is lavishly exquisite. Paul emulates the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control) as he wishes wonderful things for those who love the Lord: peace, love and grace.

 

Here in these two verses we see the very heart of our loving Savior and our heavenly Father on full display as the Holy Spirit does his work!

 

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 us parents!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 6:1,

 

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

 

When God asks us to obey our parents, it is by his design. In a lost and fallen world many things can happen. But in normative life, we are to obey our parents. Unlike our spouses, God determines who our parents will be. We often think of the baby the Lord gives to a happy couple, but likewise, the Lord has given this baby its parents. The newborn is to obey its parents as he or she grows into childhood and beyond. God gives us our parents and he wants us to obey them.

 

This is not a minor issue to God. In the law God gave Israel, there were severe consequences for a child who was found to be disobedient to his parents. It is an important point.

 

From this I conclude the best place to go for direction in life is our parents. Over the years I have heard every imaginable shenanigan folks have used to determine "the will of God" for their lives. We see folks go to their friends, go to the pastor or elders in the church, go to a counselor or other professional for direction, but rarely do folks seem to go to their parents. I realize the above verse is addressed to children, and in Proverbs we see the counsel of our parents continues to be an asset as we grow older.

 

God has given us our parents. He knew we needed them and he provides us his counsel to us through them.

 

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: When it hits the fan, God is with us!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 6:13,

 

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

 

I note in this verse that Paul says his readers are to make an effort, expend energy, pursue a direction here in order to accomplish something: spiritual warfare. In that Paul tells us to do it, being the simple man I am, I assume God is not going to do it for me. Not that he won't help me in it, provide the tools, the weapons, for me, and be a collaborator and counselor in it, but that as God does his part, I will have to do my own. He isn't going to do it for me. I do know the outcome for all of us, however. All of us believers will share in the victory through Jesus Christ. Paul says elsewhere, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Because of God's great love for us, we all will share in a successful outcome in this warfare.

 

I also see in this verse that I need to prepare myself for "when" the day of evil comes, not "if". Spiritual forces are going to come at us, they are relentlessly headed our way. Peter tells his readers, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." 1 Peter 5:8-9. It is not a question of whether we will have evil come our way, but when. I realize there are many churches that teach something different, that when we become God's children he will do it all for us, we won't get sick anymore, we won't have financial troubles, he will save our marriages and insure our children all turn out right. In short, many are told God will prevent evil from coming our way altogether. Sometimes we get confused thinking what is ours only in the resurrection is somehow ours in this life.

 

What I worship our God for today is that in this hostile environment, living in this lost and fallen world that exists in sin and rebellion against God, in this spiritual combat zone where the devil is a very active adversary with many who would seek our harm simply because we are identified with Jesus Christ, God is with us. He provides all we need in this world. He takes care of us as his very own children, providing us spiritual armor and strength. God does his part and he asks us to do ours as he provides for 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 word is truth!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 6:14-17,

 

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

 

This enumeration of spiritual armor by Paul begins with "the belt of truth buckled around your waist". If we were to take Paul's order of things here, it could be said spiritual warfare begins with truth. I also note his listing ends with Scripture, "the sword of the Spirit." Like warriors back to back, God's truth is the beginning and end of all that is needed for either defensive or aggressive action in the spiritual realm.

 

The one who neglects the imperative of spending time in Scripture will pay for it on the field of  spiritual battle. When praying to the Father, Jesus acknowledged that it is God's word that is the truth, "your word is truth." John 17:17. God wants all men to come to the knowledge of it, "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3-4. Unfortunately many simply will not embrace God's truth and be rescued from his coming wrath, "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." 1 Thessalonians 2:10.

 

The wonderful thing to me is that God decided to speak truth to us, that we not be continually led astray, but to know him. The Holy Spirit carried certain men along that they might speak from God to provide what we have in the pages of our Bibles. 2 Peter 1:21.

 

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 power of God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 6:10,

 

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power."

 

As an encouragement to his readers, Paul exhorts them to tap into the "mighty power" of the Lord by donning spiritual armor. To me, the effectiveness of this spiritual armor lays in the "mighty power" of the Lord. Just how mighty is the power of the Lord?

 

In reference to theology, we say that God is omnipotent, all-powerful. From a practical standpoint we recognize God as the One who created all there is. His power is evident in his great acts of creation. As we gaze at the marvels of the universe and the world around us we catch a glimpse of his mighty power.

 

We see his power displayed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No matter how strong a foe death is, as God's judgment for sin, God has power over it.

 

We also see that the enemies of God are hopeless and helpless before the mighty power of God. No matter how malevolent the intentions are of those who oppose God and his people, they are simply no match for the mighty power of God. All the schemes his enemies devise only work to serve the purposes of God himself. The passion of Jesus Christ is a an example of this.

 

It was Abraham's belief in the power of God that brought him a standing of righteousness before God. Paul tells us, "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.'" Romans 4:19-22.

 

Another place God's power is demonstrated is the gospel message itself. Of this message Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Romans 1:16.

 

Truly, the power of God is immeasurable and a resource we can depend on.

 

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