Serve The Lord Your God

 

2 Chronicles 30:8
Now do not be stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto The LORD, and enter into His sanctuary, which He has sanctified for ever: and serve The LORD your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you.

Stiffnecked: stubborn,hard

    In other words, don't be hard-hearted towards The LORD God. Don't be stubborn and disobedient to The LORD your God.
    Yield willingly our hearts and our minds and our lives to The LORD our God. Then we can enter His sacred place. Anyone can go to church, but unless we submit to God's Authority, and hear The Word of The Lord, and allow His Holy Spirit to apply The Word of The Lord to our hearts, nothing is going to change within us.
    1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
    It is the willing heart that works with God, accepting God's perfect will for their lives. As Jesus prayed in the garden, "Not My will, but Your be done," we, too, need to be willing to set aside what we want and accept what God wants.
    Luke 22:42

“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

    We yield to God in Christ through The Holy Spirit. To yield is to give. To give personally to. To give willingly to. To give generously to. To knowingly and unconditionally designate an object or one's self to another.

     It is better for ourselves to yield to God than it is to yield to the devil. For God is Creator and the devil is destroyer. Serving God is Life. Serving Satan is death. Choose Life. This word 'yield' occurs more than 2,000 times in Scripture in just the Old Testament alone. This tells us it is a vital characteristic in the heart of the ones who want to serve God. 

    Submissiveness in God's kingdom comes from a heart that knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Lord of its life, Savior of its soul. It is not a submission that arises from terror and abject fear of repercussions. The fear of The Lord that the heart of the believer knows is reverent fear: awe and wonder at this Holy God Who came down from heaven to die on the cross for us, so we wouldn't have to die in our sins. 

    We are living in the age of grace. A time of repentance and forgiveness. A time of positive transformation through The Holy Spirit of God. A time of learning The Word of God and having this same Word growing within us. [Ephesians 2:1-10; 2 Corinthians 3:18].

    Beware! for the days are shortened [Matthew 24:22] and the time is coming when this age of grace ends and the age of tribulation enters [1 Thessalonians 4:16,17]. Days like we have never seen before, and which many of us hope we never see. For, as persecuted as the church is now, the worst is not yet to come. Yet, we pray that the salvation of God would be in the hearts of every person we pray for, even if we never meet them on this side of heaven. 

    Choose now to Serve The Lord Your God. With gladness. With your whole heart (generously). With a perfect and willing heart. With fear and rejoicing. With humility. 

    Yielding our allegiance to God on this side of heaven has great rewards on the other side of heaven. 

Amazing Grace - Undeserved Favor of God

 Psalm 27:9

Hide not Your face far from me; put not Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of My Salvation.

Jeremiah 10:24

Correct me, O LORD, but only with justice—not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

We are very thankful that our Lord does not mete out His wrath on us when we deserve it. That's Grace.

We are thankful that 'The Lord is My Helper' is more than just a Name or Title of our God. That He really is our Helper, helping us in this new life He has given us through the blood which He has shed on the cross, and the empty grave in which He once had lain. That's Grace, too.

He has promised to never leave us, nor forsake us. Grace.

Though we stumble or even fall, He picks us back up, stands us upright and guides us on this narrow path in which we walk. Grace.

God is with us in the beginning of our born-again life, remains with us as we remain faithful in our new life in Christ, and brings us through death's threshold into His eternal kingdom. Grace.

Psalm 30:5

For His anger endures but a moment; in His favor is Life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

This, too, is Grace.

❤

AMAZING GRACE

{John Newton-1779}

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound

that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

was blind, but now I see.

'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,

and grace my fears relieved;

how precious did that grace appear

the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

'tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

and grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,

His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be,

as long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

and mortal life shall cease,

I shall possess, within the veil,

a life of joy and peace.

When we've been there ten thousand years,

bright shining as the sun,

we've no less days to sing God's praise

than when we first begun.

The Age of Grace

 

 

1 CORINTHIANS 16:23

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 

The age of grace began at the cross of Jesus Christ. Until then, a strict adherent faithfulness to the laws of God had to be met: with a love for God in their hearts and an expectant longing for His Savior, Whom He had promised several times over would arrive and reign on David's throne. 

But what is grace? And why do we need it? 

Grace is the extension of God's love toward mankind because He wants to be near us. We need His grace because without it we cannot enter His eternal dwelling place, nor can we stand in His holy presence. 

How do we get this wonderful grace which has been proffered to us?

Through Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son; Who obediently suffered and died for sinners everywhere and in every time period. Ephesians 2:8 tells us, "It is by grace you have been saved, it is The Gift of God." We didn't earn this grace: it is freely given to all who put their faith in The Name of Jesus Christ for their salvation. It is saving grace and Christ Jesus is the only way to obtain it. 

God's grace will not end until after the millennial reign which Christ will set up at the end of the tribulation years. Sin will still exist, as well as death. For Isaiah says, " No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed." 

It is amazing to me that when Christ is on His throne during that time, that people will not only see His loving face and hear His beautiful voice, but will choose to believe that He is not The Only Begotten Son of God and live their lives without Him in it. They will have the same opportunities you and I have now, except for one thing: the churches will be gone. 

And my heart is sad and burdened, even now, for the people in this day and age who choose to disbelieve The Written Word of God, who deny His existence and, again, prefer to live their lives without Him in it. 

Please don't be one of those people who lives without Christ. Come to Jesus. And enjoy a close, personal relationship like you've never experienced before. 

JUST AS I AM (I COME BROKEN) - Travis Cottrell 

LIVE IN ME, JESUS - Calvin B. Rhone 

COME TO THE ALTAR - Elevation Worship