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. 

The Lord Is Ever Present

 

Psalm 139:7-10

Where shall I go from your Spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. 

Proverbs 15:3

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

2 Chronicles 16:9a

For the eyes of The LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. 

Ezekiel 1:15-21 speaks of the four wheels within wheels, covered with eyes, that goes where The Spirit goes. 

Jeremiah 23:24

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? said the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? said the LORD. 

Hebrews 4:13

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.

Job 34:22

There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.

Revelation 6:16

And they said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."

Colossians 1:15-17

The Son is the image of The invisible God, The Firstborn over all creation.

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

God even sees us when we are being created in our mothers' wombs. He is with us from the beginnings of life to the end of life.

Psalm 139:13-16

For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well. 

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be. 

Nothing Else - Cody Carnes 

Storm (All Around You) - Jon Thurlow @Forerunner Music

Spirit Lead Me - Michael Ketterer 

A Crucified Life - - Answers The Call to Serve Faithfully

 

    2 Chronicles 19:9

He commanded them, saying, "You must Serve Faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of The LORD."

    As stated in yesterday's study, God requires wholehearted service. But He also requires of us faithfulness. Many of us long to hear those precious words someday, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21). 

    To serve faithfully is to be steadfast. 

1 Corinthians 15:58

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Steadfast: morally fixed; firmly, securely positioned; not given to fluctuation (does not pay heed to lesser doctrines; is not doubleminded {James 1:8})

    To serve God faithfully is to serve with fidelity. His Name is Jealous and He desires to be first in our lives: in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our desires. As a husband and wife demand fidelity in the marriage, so, too does God demand it in His relationship with His people. It is faithfulness in every aspect of service to The LORD.

Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith."

    When we love with the Love of The LORD, we love wholeheartedly. When we serve in the Love of The LORD, we serve faithfully. Let us then serve The LORD with every part of us that we may receive such a blessing as the servant who invested the master's wealth and doubled it. Let us bless The LORD with our talents and our gifts that He would receive the glory and honor from them. 

CALLED TO SERVE FAITHFULLY 

Faithful Now - Vertical Worship

Find Me Faithful - The Perrys

Faithful - Ryan Stevenson

Belong To You - Here Be Lions

Walk By Faith - Jeremy Camp

My God Is All I Need - CityAlight

The Lord God Is ... Month of July

 

JEHOVAH ELOHIM CHANNUN

THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GRACIOUS

2 Chronicles 30:9

"For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and sons will receive mercy in the presence of their captors and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful; He will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

    JEHOVAH EL RACHUN

THE LORD GOD IS COMPASSIONATE

Exodus 34:6a

Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness."

JEHOVAH EL QEREN YESHA

THE LORD GOD IS THE HORN OF MY SALVATION

Psalm 18:2

The LORD is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer. My God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my Salvation, my Stronghold.

JEHOVAH ELOHIM SEMES MAGEN

THE LORD GOD IS SUN AND SHIELD

Psalm 84:11

For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

The Color of Worship ~ Beryl

We hear and see reasons why we, as a united earth, should "Go Green". Save the planet for future generations. Save the whales, the dolphins, the owls. Save, save, save; ignore, ignore, ignore.

What about save the people? The reason Christ was born was to save the people. He didn't die on the cross and rise from the grave to save the polar bears. He died for me and for you and for him and for her.

You want to "Go Green"? Okay. Let's "Go Light Green". In science, the color light green is associated with new growth, spring, new life. Flowers blossoming, trees budding and the first little blades of grass rising through the wet black dirt.

Zechariah 8:12 For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.

2 Chronicles 31:21 And in every service work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Let's "Go Light Green"! This isn't about $$. This isn't about "Earth Day". This prosperity is prosperity of our soul: My Soul Prospers before the LORD. God wants us to be blessed with "every good and perfect gift from above." Money is not perfect. 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many arrows. You want true prosperity as outlined in the Word of God? Seek God. Seek His face, His will, His way. Read His Word, Believe His Word, Obey His Word.

Growth requires the four seasons: spring (seed time), summer (sunshine, rainy days), autumn (harvest time) and winter (dormancy, rest). In order for the seed to grow, it needs to take root. The seed requires sunlight and rain. Once the seed has budded and blossomed, new seeds are released. And then they are harvested. And the root of the seed rests until the next season arrives and begins the cycle again.

Psalm 1:3 "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper."

You and I are the seeds. Our roots reach deep into the Word of God, where we are grounded. Our hearts and minds and souls push forward through the darkness of this world into the Light of God's Love and Mercy. We stretch forth our hands and wave our arms in the breeze of His Holy Spirit. We receive and embrace the reign (rain) of Authority over us. Our thirst for the presence of God is satisfied when we open our hearts to Him. And when we share the Love of Christ, then more seeds are released to dig into the Word and take root. And so, the garden grows. We grow. We prosper.

While light green is not mentioned as such in Scripture, beryl is. Beryl is a mineral 'with gemstone varieties'. Aquamarine, Morganite, Heliodor and Emerald are all forms of Beryl. It is the darker green shades of Beryl that we associate with emeralds, but it is the lighter green, the pale, translucent greens that we associate with Beryl. A lighter shade of green.

It is the 8th gemstone layer in the wall around the new Jerusalem. While Beryl takes on many shades and colors, the color intimated here is sea-green: Revelation 21:19,20 "The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone: The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst."

Beryl is on the Breastplate of Judgment worn by the high priest (Exodus 28:20), signifying one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This beryl, though, is thought to be yellow jasper in color, which can also be construed as being a lighter shade of green, depending on the hue of such a stone.
Ezekiel 1:16 states that 'the appearance of the wheel was like unto beryl'.

When the bride describes her bridegroom, in Song of Solomon 5:14, she says, "His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires."

I love the many colors mentioned in The Holy Bible. It is hard to choose a favorite, but I like that this pale green, this beryl, tells me that 'my soul prospers'.  My spirit is transformed and my soul is uplifted.