The Lord is In His Holy Temple

 

Habakkuk 2:19,20

Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all in the midst of it. 

“But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

Psalm 11:4

The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

    There is no God but our God. Wooden idols cannot breathe, speak or move under their own power. Stone carvings cannot move under their own strength, for they have none. They are empty gods and have no power.

     Only God is Holy. Only God breathes. Only God speaks. Only God moves. For He is GOD. He is JEHOVAH. And His very presence demands a holy, sanctified people. 

    There will be a day when all peoples everywhere will take a knee in His presence. Every tongue, every nation, every language will praise God. Isaiah spoke of this event first - Isaiah 45:23 - and Paul repeated it when teaching the church, the believers, in Rome - Romans 14:11. 

    To God be the glory. To God be the praise. To God, and to God alone, our worship is directed. It's why we look to the skies, for He is above the heavens. It's why we lift our hands and raise our arms: we long for His embrace. It's why we fall to the ground, when we worship: for we awed when He extends Himself to be with us where we are. We revere our God for He IS GOD. 

The Lord Is King of Glory

 

Psalm 24:8

Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

Psalm 93:1

The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith He has girded Himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved. 

Psalm 10:16

The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations perish from His land.

Revelation 19:16

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

    We are to throw open the doors of our hearts and welcome, embrace The King Who has declared His great love for us, when He died on the cross, fought death, hell and the grave: overcoming all three by rising from the dead and walking out of the grave with a new body, the firstfruits of the new kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 15:23.

    Revelation 3:20 tells us that Jesus Christ knocks on the door and waits to be let in, where He can dine with us. Psalm 23:5 reminds us that God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies: when the enemies of God have nothing, the people of God have everything and lack nothing (Psalm 23:1). The King of Glory desires only the best for those people who recognize Him as their King. 

    Who is this King of Glory? Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God. He is The Anointed One. Anointed to suffer, anointed to die, anointed to rule as King by God His Father. He is Chosen out of all of heaven and earth to fulfill God's plan of salvation and redemption. He is The Lion of the tribe of Judah, The Root of Israel. Revelation 5:1-5. And He is to be praised. 

    Who is this King of Glory? He is The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world - John 1:29. He is The Word of God wrapped in flesh - John 1:14. He is King forever. And this King of Glory is MY KING OF GLORY. He called me out of darkness into His marvelous LIGHT - 1 Peter 2:9. And I answered Him by running to the foot of His cross, repenting of my sins, weeping and heartbroken I knelt at His feet and He forgave me, wrapped me in His arms and carried me away with Him.

    Who is this King of Glory? He is the Bridegroom in search of a Bride who is without blemish and without stain - Matthew 25:6,10; 1 Peter 1:19 - a Bride who is pure and undefiled. He is coming soon to gather His Bride, His Church. 

    Now is the time to get ready for The King of Glory's return. Now is the time to prepare our hearts. Now is the time to hear The Word of God, believe The Word of God is True and Faithful and receive The Word of God into our hearts and lives. Now is the time to be baptized by The Holy Spirit of God. Now, before Christ returns to get His Bride and leaves with both her and His best friend: The Holy Spirit Who has been preparing the Bride of Christ to be with Him forever. 

    So I pray: Lord, send a revival and let it begin in me. 

REVIVAL IN BELFAST

The Lord Is My Light

 

Psalm 27:1

The LORD is My Light and My Salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is The Strength of My Life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

    God reminds several times in His Word (the Holy Bible) that there is no one and no thing to be afraid of. In fact, He encourages us to remain in Him and in His Word, for therein is our safety and our salvation. 

    God is, after all, our only means of survival if we want to make it out of this world alive. Even if my bones turn to dust before The Lord returns to get me, I will live. Live eternally with Him, forever in His home. 

    Fear not. Words to live by. He told Joshua several times to "Be strong and courageous". To do this Joshua would have to push past fear and walk into God's blessing. So, I'm pushing past fear and doubt and walking into God's blessing for me.

    The Lord is MY LIGHT and MY SALVATION. His Word guides my steps and shows me where to walk on this Way of Holiness in which His people live out their daily lives. As My Salvation, He is My Savior, My Kinsman Redeemer. My Deliverer: The ONE Who purchased my soul from death, hell and the grave when He died on the cross in my place. The ONE Who rose from the dead and walked out of the grave restored and so much more. For He was unrecognizable to His closest friends until He revealed Himself to them. 

    The Lord is MY Strength of Life. Without Him I have no life. Without Jesus I am nothing. As the song says, "Like a ship without a sail". I would just be drifting in a life without purpose. But with Jesus in my heart and The Holy Spirit in my life, the wind has shifted me from a downward spiral up to the heavenly portal where He waits for me and intercedes for me to His Father. I am His and He is mine. 

    The Lord is My Light that shines in the darkness. He searches out the deep roots of sin and pulls them out, sometimes gently, sometimes not so much. But sin must go that I might be found without stain and without blemish when Christ returns to bring me home with Him. 

PSALM 27:1

The Lord Is Strength to The Upright

 

Proverbs 10:29

The Way of The LORD is Strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.

Who are the upright? and What is this Way wherein is our strength?

THE UPRIGHT 

    To be upright is to be a person of integrity. Such people are not given to hypocrisy. What they speak, they also live. The intent behind their actions is neither malicious nor malevolent; it is love which motivates them. 

      To be upright is to live a life of good reputation. It is to be known even without knowing those who hold us so. The Bible tells us that a good name is better than riches. Proverbs 22:1. 

        To be upright is to live in wisdom, the wisdom of The LORD. Proverbs 1:1-7; 10:8,9. 

    Uprightness is righteousness. Righteousness is gained when we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior to us; only then is His righteousness applied to our hearts; only then is He covering us with Himself, for Christ Jesus IS Righteousness. Therefore the upright are they who believe that Jesus Christ is God's only begotten Son; that He died on the cross; that He rose from the dead and walked out of the grave and ascended into heaven forty days later. (for it was fifty days or seven weeks after the Passover feast that the disciples of Christ were gathered together in the upper room to receive The Holy Spirit). 

These are the upright. 

THE WAY OF THE LORD

    What is this Way of The LORD which is our Strength? He is The Way. John 14:6 'Jesus said to him, “I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." The Way is a His life applied to our life, which is an undertaking we cannot do alone but The Holy Spirit of God can, which is why we need both Christ and The Spirit working in us. 

     The Way is life. John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am The Resurrection and The Life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies."

    The Way of The LORD is a lifestyle change. It is a spiritual road which takes us to our final destiny: eternal residence in God's kingdom. Isaiah 35:8 (the road) and John 14:2 (the destination). 

    

    As The Holy Spirit of God works in our lives, changing us and molding us into the pattern of holiness which God has prepared for us, we walk The Way of Holiness. It is the sanctification process by which we are changed from a carnal nature to a holy nature; from self-centeredness to God-centeredness.

     I'm not perfect, nor do I consider myself a 'holier-than-thou' person. I am walking in The Way of Holiness and The Way of Holiness is living in me. 

Famine In The Land

 

There's a famine for the hearing of The Word. See this Bible? It's never been used. Never opened. Never read. Never loved. No one ever preached from it, nor shared the love of God from it. It's just window dressing in some homes. 

Amos 8:11

Behold, the days come, says The Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing The Word of The Lord. 

The only thing we can do to prepare for this famine is get into The Truth of The Word of God. But why is God sending this type of famine throughout the land? 

Famines happen because there is no food. There is no food because there is a drought. There is a drought because there is no rain. There is no rain because there is no gratitude, no worship of the One True God.

Everyone is right in there own eyes but not in the eyes of God. We need to get right with God the Way God wants us to get right with Him. In Isaiah 1:18, The Lord God calls to His people, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." 

A famine for the hearing of The Word will come because there are few preachers of The full gospel Truth of The Word of God. Many will preach only the sweet and not the bitter Truth. Those who preach in this manner are not seeking God, seeking to hear God's Voice and receive from Him what He has to give. There hearts are empty, though they appear to be in the understanding, they too, are in the dark. 

There is no Holy Spirit rain to fall on these preachers of empty words because they do not allow Him to sanctify them and prepare them to be in God's eternal presence. There is no power to their words, nor are the hearts of the people changed. 

It is the Truth of God's Word that changes a person's eternal destination when that person hears The Word, believes The Word, receives The Word and The Word gets applied to their heart. Romans 10:16,17 "But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by The Word of God. 

Many many who need to hear The Truth of The Word of God will refuse to do so. For this Truth reveals The Message of the Love of God to all the world. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

To refuse such an invitation from God is to send one's self to hell. For hell exists though it was not created to punish people, but to punish one-third of heaven's angels for rebelling against GOD and to punish Satan, the archangel formerly known as Lucifer. 

There is a famine for the hearing of The Word of God. How is it going to affect you? 

The Lord's Voice Is Powerful

 

Psalm 29:4

The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

Psalm 68:33

To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old! Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice. 

    The Voice of God is as a sound of thunder to those who cannot hear Him clearly:

1 Samuel 7:10

As the Philistines drew near to fight against Israel, Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering. But that day The LORD thundered loudly against the Philistines and threw them into such confusion that they fled before Israel.

Exodus 20:18,19

Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

    The Voice of The Lord can be soft, too, and still be powerful. It is heard with the spirit of the one who hears Him speak. God spoke the world and everything in it, on it, under it, over it and around it into existence. That's a powerful Voice.

    God's Voice is the Voice of Wisdom in The Book of Proverbs. It is the sound of the wind rushing into the upper room, the sound of confusion to His enemies, the sound of comfort to the grieving and mournful. The Voice of The Lord still speaks.

    He speaks in our hearts if we are willing to open up our hearts and listen to His Voice. He is speaking even now. Are you going to open up your hearts and let Him in so He can speak as Friend to friend?? Or are you going to shut the door of your hearts and not let Him in? Your choice. Choose wisely. For the days are short and getting shorter. 

    Revelation 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.

INDIE FOLK WORSHIP 2

The Lord Is A Mighty Warrior

 

Exodus 15:3

The LORD is a Warrior, the LORD is His Name. 

Revelation 19:11

Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war.

Exodus 14:14

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Psalm 50:3

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.

YOU DELIVER ME - Selah

    In Exodus 15:3 Miriam is singing to The Lord because she has seen firsthand how God delivers His people. Are we singing to The Lord with such abandonment and joy? Perhaps we have forgotten who we are in Christ and Who CHRIST IS in us. 

    Who am I in Christ? I can say, speaking only in reference to myself, that I am His songwriter and His singer. I am His student and His friend. I am His adopted sister and His bride. I am a voice in the wilderness crying out, as John the Baptist did, "Prepare you the way of The Lord!" No matter what or who I am in Christ, the point is: I AM IN CHRIST AND I AM HIS.

    Christ in me is: Redeemer, Savior, King, Friend, Deliverer, Anchor, Hope, Peace, Strength and so much, much more. 

    I tell you now, as the voice in the wilderness, and beg you in all earnestness, today just might be your day of salvation. From one moment to the next we are sure of nothing other than: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS. And He died on the cross for you and I, taking the punishment each of us should have had. But He didn't stay in the grave. He rose from the dead and walked out of the grave...changed, changed to a new life which is what He promises each person who believes Him and receives Him into their hearts and their lives. We call this salvation and the next person who gets saved could be you.

    The next time Christ arrives on this planet Earth will be when God sends Him to fetch His bride and bring her to the place He has prepared for her. 

    Then, after a period of time, Christ will return to set up His thousand-year reign, more commonly referred to as the millennial kingdom. 

    Not until after those thousand years have passed will Christ return as The Rider on the White Horse. Then, the people who are left who still refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is LORD will perish in their foolishness and wickedness. For it is wicked to not believe God and God's Faithful and True Word. 

REDEEMER SAVIOR FRIEND 

The Lord Is Strength

 

The LORD is STRENGTH

Proverbs 10:29

The Way of the LORD is Strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.

Hosea 14:9

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.

Isaiah 30:21

And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is The Way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

Isaiah 35:8

A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Even the fool will not go astray.

To walk in The Way of The LORD is to walk in The Way of Holiness; it  is to allow God's Holy Spirit into our lives to sanctify us and make us holy: without blemish, without stain that we may be presentable to God and remain in His presence. For our God is a Holy God and His very self demands holiness in His people. We cannot make ourselves holy, just as the pot on the potter's wheel does not make itself a beautiful useful pot. 

To walk in The Way of The LORD is to walk in integrity, maintaining a constant vigil and remaining consistent in our faith that our words would match our actions. To walk in The Way of The LORD is to walk humbly before The LORD and surrender ourselves to His Way. 

To Walk in The Way of The LORD is to live in His Strength and His Wisdom, knowing that He keeps His Word, that His words are True and Faithful. Revelation 21:5.

To Walk in The Way of The LORD is to walk the acknowledgement of His Strength and the admission of our weakness, our inability to walk the way He wants us to walk, to live out our daily lives. 

The LORD is MY STRENGTH 

2 Corinthians 12:9

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

AUTHOR/PERFECTOR - Rivers & Robots 

SO IN LOVE - Isla Vista Worship

The Lord Is With You

 

The Lord Is With You

ISAIAH 43:2

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you go through the rivers,

they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be scorched;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

Because the believer is called by The Lord's Name there is no cause to be afraid, nor is there any reason to be fearful of anything or anyone.

Exodus 3:12 "I will be with you."

Deuteronomy 31: 6 "Be strong and courageous."

Psalm 23:4 "The Lord is with me."

Psalm 73:23 "I am always with You."

Matthew 28:20 "I am with you always."

    Just because you may not be hearing God's voice when you want to does not mean He is not right there with you while you go through dark or shadowy valleys. He is always with us. He is our Good Shepherd, The One Who leads us beside still waters where we can drink freely in peace. The One Who guides us along rock strewn paths and dry deserts: He is still with us. The One Who feeds us from His own table in the presence of our enemies.

    The One Who fills our cups so full with the richness of His generosity that our cups overflow. The One Who feeds us from His staff of life, His heavenly Bread. The One Who guards us from all evil with His rod of justice and judgment; always watching out for us on the left and on the right. The One Who is always aware of His flock and where they are, even the untrained sheep who wander The Lord brings back to His fold.

    Even when The Lord Jesus Christ was first laid in the manger, the angels who spoke to the shepherds on the hillsides just outside of Bethlehem informed them that there was no need to fear, but to have great joy: for now The Lord Who would rule the City of David had arrived. Fear left their hearts as they journeyed to the place where the prophesied King of Israel now lay peacefully in the manger.

    Still the words go out to each and every one of us: Fear not, for I am with you always.

FEAR NOT - Carman

    We are to look not on our circumstances but focus our eyes on His Word, seeking Him out. We are to set ourselves into His Word, as He is The Foundation of our life and all of our blessings flow from His hand. We will move ahead and not look back because we are following our Shepherd our Friend. We must not let our bodies dictate our commitment levels. Yes, we are in pain. Yes, we ache and hurt and groan when we move, but move we must and follow Him we will. For He has called us to follow Him and serve Him in whatsoever capacity He places us. I serve Him from here.

    I love these little Bible studies and look forward to interactive responses. We are to encourage one another in The Word until Jesus returns to bring us home. Let us begin to do so even now.

I WILL SERvE THE LORD - Carman

    

God Forgives, Forgets

 

Isaiah 43:25

I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.

FORGIVEN

WHEN WE REPENT and TURN TO HIM Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool." Psalm 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD. Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him out from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

FORGOTTEN

Hebrews 8:12

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Psalm 103:12

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.Isaiah 44:22

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return to Me; for I have redeemed you.