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Weekly Reminder...
The Weekly Reminder is an informative tool to help people who read it consider what the man of God has said. This weekend’s articles are based on what was heard on April 4 & 5, 2009 in the Westbury assembly.written by Br. Samuel Philogene
It is a privilege to be able to praise the mighty God of heaven. When we think about how pure and holy our God is, everybody should understand this amazing grace of God to accept praises from sinful men (Revelation 4:8). When we know that God has angels giving Him glory day and night (Isaiah 6:1-4), every time we come to the house of the Lord we should always remember this great privilege to be able to worship His Holy name. We have to come with a spirit of thanksgiving to give an acceptable sacrifice (Psalms 51:17-19). As we saw in Psalms 95:6, we have to come into the house of the Lord, bow down before His majesty, because He is great and greatly to be praised.
In Isaiah 53, we saw how Jesus endured all just to save us from the curse of sin, “He was despised, rejected of men, He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” We have to remember that and come to Him with tears; He took our death and gave us life, He is worthy of all our praises, blessed be the name of the Lord. This must be an attitude not only with an external manifestation of worship; it is good to raise our hand, to sing, to shout unto God but all has to come from the very inside of a regenerated heart acknowledging the fact that we are sinners but God in His mercy, through the blood of Jesus Christ, allows us now to come to Him and receive forgiveness for all our sins. Like that women in Luc 7:37-50, who bowed at the feet of Jesus, weeping, and began to wash His feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hairs of her head, kissing His feet, and anointing them with ointment; she received forgiveness for her sins.
Nevertheless, God does not accept any sacrifice throughout the whole Bible God always gives instructions how we should appear before Him and which kind of sacrifice to bring. We have the example of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-6). God didn’t accept the sacrifice of Cain because he didn’t do it according to the principles of the burn offering. This brings us back to the lesson of the week, before we serve God we have to get the knowledge of His will: what does God want, how does He want it. The sacrifice must be holy, in time past it had to be an animal without infirmities or sicknesses (Deuteronomy 17:1); the sacrifices had to be with an agreeable odor, in order to be accepted by God (Leviticus 2:13). For us today Paul says it is no longer burn offering but it is our life we have to present as a living sacrifice pure, holy and acceptable unto God (Romans 12:1).
Many times instead of worshiping God, we worship ourselves or something we like. Br. Antoine reminded us as children of God our worship must be only unto God, to not be idolaters but worship the true God (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3, Ezekiel 8:16-18). Let us be very careful in how we approach before God because today our idol may not be something people can see; now it can be in our hearts (Ezekiel 14:3, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart).
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written by Br. Jean Leonidas
“O come Let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). This should be our purpose every day of our lives and over the weekend we were being reminded of that. Br. Antoine expounded to us on knowing God in order to worship Him the right way. He mentioned that our belief should only be on God and not on His creations.
Br. Antoine gave us the scripture in Isaiah 53:1-3, explaining to us that we should believe in God in order for us to worship Him. In verse one the question was asked, "Who have believe our report?" Br. Antoine said “many times we come to the house God and don’t believe enough for that belief to help us worship God properly". He continued in saying “Christians should be able to worship God in any situation; we should not only want to worship God in good times”. I was thinking as he was speaking how sometimes we come to the church and not worship God because we are having a bad day. Our emotions can take control of our senses and we are not able to discern our responsibility in giving all honor to God.
Br. Antoine continued in showing us how important it is for us to know who God is and how He works. He quoted John 10:14, where Christ said “I am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.” Br. Antoine said “we must have the understanding of God if we are His children”. He also said “the reason why people are serving other gods out there is because they don’t know the true God”. He quoted Deuteronomy 17:4, showing us that we should not serve other gods. From the time of Moses God did not want His people to serve other gods and until now things haven’t changed. God wants us to be able to worship Him and Him only. In our day, today we managed to come to the church but neglect to worship God the right way. The problem is not that we don't worship at all because I can testify of seeing many people worship. I see people lift their hands with their eyes close and shouting as loud as they can. But thru all that there can be a big possibility that the heart is not in all of that. Christ once said "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me" (Mathew 15:8).
Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:22 “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship”, He was showing her that she was not worshiping God the right way because she did not know God. Her lifestyle proved it because she was ashamed to even fetch water earlier in the day. She came to the fountain at noon day (sixth hour) because she did not want to be seen by people. In order to worship God she needed to know Christ and have her personal relationship with Him. This is no different for us in this day and age. We must know exactly who God is and what is expected of us on a daily basis. In our day Christ is meeting us with His spirit and by His words must be abiding in us leading us in every decision we take. Our worship can be acceptable to God when we start doing God’s will in obeying His words. The word of God can show us the way to live before Him and teach us His ways. Every day we live we should confirm that His spirit is leading us. Without obeying His words, praying and seeking His will, our worship won't be profitable. Our weekend worship is only proof of how we were living our lives during the week.
MAY GOD HELP US TO BE THAT TRUE WORSHIPER.
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