Heart & Soul - - Love God Only

 

Deuteronomy 32:39

'Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.'

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No.

Deliver:  to strip, plunder, deliver oneself, be delivered, snatch away, take away, pluck, defend, escape

From the Hebrew word 'natsal' (pronounced naw-tsal'). 

ONE GOD & ONLY ONE

    Psalm 18:31

For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?

    Exodus 15:11

Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You--majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

    

    Who defines you? You or the people around you? Whose words describe who you really are? God tells us Who He is by His own Word. Here are a few examples of Who God Is:

>He's a Jealous God: Exodus 34:14

>He's a Consuming Fire: Hebrews 12:29

>He's a Forgiving God: Exodus 34:6, 7

>He's a Righteous Judge: Psalm 7:11 

>God Is Spirit: John 4:24

>God is Exalted in Power: Job 36:22

>God is Merciful: Daniel 9:9

    No other god can do what our GOD can do. No other god can speak, can say what our GOD can say. No other GOD has the mobility to be in all places at once: our GOD is omnipresent. No other GOD knows everything about everything and everyone: our GOD is omniscient. No other GOD is a god like our GOD: our GOD is omnipotent. 

    All other gods are incapable of doing anything for anyone. They are clay and wood, gold and silver; images and icons of animals and people and the heavenlies (stars, sun, moon, planets). They cannot because they are not. 

GOD MADE US TO BE HIS PEOPLE

Created by God - Genesis 1:27

Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Psalm 100:3 

Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me? Job 10:8

GOD WANTS US

Job 22:21 Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you.

Psalm 34:10; Isaiah 27:5; John 17:3; Romans 6:19; Romans 12:1, 2; Isaiah 1:18

GOD WANTS OUR WORSHIP

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth."

Exodus 23:25; Psalm 96:9; 2 Kings 17:39; John 4:24; Luke 4:8; Psalm 68:4.

GOD WANTS OUR PRAISE

Psalm 66:8 Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of His praise be heard.

1 Kings 10:9; 1 Peter 4:16; Psalm 68:19; Ephesians 1:6; Psalm 47:6

GOD WANTS OUR LOVE

Psalm 31:23 Love the LORD, all His saints. The LORD preserves the faithful, but fully repays the arrogant.

Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27; Psalm 29:2

    Uncle Sam may want you to join his army, but THE LORD HE IS GOD wants you for Himself. He wants to delight in you even more than we want to delight in Him. He desires us to be with Him in eternity, but He won't force us. He waits to be asked, to be let in to the inner recesses of our heart. He knows our hearts aren't clean enough for His glory.  (Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone should hear My voice and open the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.")

    When The LORD God makes His home with us, when our hearts become His tabernacle, He cleans us up through the washing away of our sins by the blood of His perfect Lamb: The LAMB of GOD Which Takes Away The Sins of The World. He removes the darkness in us by shining His eternal LIGHT in our hearts, highlighting that which needs to be removed and polishing that which will remain. (2 Corinthians 9:5 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.)

    His fire burns in us, burning up all that is not of Him as He goes about His work within us. We shine because our GOD shines in us, through us and around us. He covers us with His glory, and the fear of GOD emanates from us to the world around us; which is why some are drawn to us and many are against us. 

Deuteronomy 4:35 "You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him."

ABOVE ALL 

Hosanna

Raise A Hallelujah

The More I Seek You

Good, Good Father

How Great Is Our God

Even When It Hurts

Breathe

Waymaker

Gratitude

Lead Me To The Cross

King of My Heart

    

Intelligent Worship -- Worship God -- Part 4

 

Here we are on Part 4 of our Intelligent Worship Series. You get them in the order I was given them by the Spirit: all of are equal value in our study Intelligent Worship. 

DON'T WORSHIP OTHER (manmade) GODS

Exodus 23:24-25

You shall not bow down to worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do [anything] in accordance with their practices. You shall completely overthrow them and break down their [sacred] pillars and images [of pagan worship]. You shall serve [only] the LORD your God, and He shall bless your bread and water. I will also remove sickness from among you. 

WORSHIP GOD and none other. We have already read that God's name is Jealous. He desires our worship. When we worship God, we are acknowledging that only He Is God and that all that we have comes from Him, even the air we breathe and how we breathe it. 
We can cross reference this passage with Exodus 20:1-6 where God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses. While verses one and two are God reminding us Who He Is, verses 3-6 are the First Commandment: Worship God and none other.

1. And God spoke all these words:
2. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3. You shall have no other gods before Me.
4. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
5. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6. but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Psalm 29:2 tells us to "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 113:3 reminds us "From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised." Worship of God should be ever in our hearts (gratitude attitude) and on our lips. 

You and I like to be praised for what we do. Why are you surprised that God likes to be praised? "The LORD inhabits (dwells, lives in) the praises of His people." (Psalm 22:3 "But You are holy, O You that inhabits the praises of Israel." Other versions use the word "sit" or "enthroned upon". Knowing God is not limited by time or space we know He is not limited to just dwelling on our praises. We can consider our praises to be one of His thrones, for He has a few. 

WORSHIP GOD ONLY

Matthew 4:10

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’”

 Deuteronomy 6:13

Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.

1 Samuel 7:3

Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines."

Isaiah 30:22

So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, "Be gone!"

Joshua 24:14

Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve the LORD.

Pretty plain and vivid speaking here, wouldn't you say? If we put anything or anyone else first in our lives instead of God, His wrath and His judgments will fall on us, too. Other gods are not always idols, sometimes it's ideologies (doctrine, myth, belief that guides a person or the society in which they live) or cultures (civilization, education) or traditions (that's the way we've always done it mentality). 

When we put what we want ahead of what God wants for us, then we are making ourselves gods and serving our needs and desires instead of His. That's not right. We can justify our argument all we want but we're still wrong in our decision process. 

1 Samuel 12:14-15

If you will fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king (governmental authority) who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well. 

But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you and your king.

Nobody speaks plainer than God. As Joshua wrote, "And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.