Month: October 2018

The Kingdom of God has several meaning according to different Scriptural passages.

In one sense, since God is the Creator of the whole universe, the Kingdom of God is His rule over all the whole universe.

In another sense, it is the rule over the hearts and minds of believers who submit to God’s authority. Those who defy are simply not of this Kingdom. And it can only be entered into by being born again.

Yet another, it can refer to the millennium rule of Christ when He returns.

Christ’s present hidden spiritual reign in our hearts and minds, the Kingdom of grace, will culminate in His future physical reign, the Kingdom of glory, when He returns.

The 7 mountain mandate popularized by the NAR is an unbiblical movement to re-define the Kingdom of God. It preaches that all Christians are required to create a worldwide kingdom for the glory of Christ through dominating education, religion, family, business, government & military, arts & entertainment, and media.

Our Lord did not come to overthrow the Roman empire. He made it clear that His kingdom was not of this world at that time but in the hearts and minds of those who would follow Him. He will rule the whole world when He returns.

In Luke 19:11-12,  when Jesus was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the Kingdom of Israel would be restored, He answered with a parable that the nobleman would go away to a distant country to be appointed king first and then return.  In Acts 1:3-8, He appeared over 40 days to the apostles and spoke about the kingdom of God.  The apostles also asked the same question as to when the kingdom of Israel would be restored.  He replied that only God the Father set the date and time by His own authority.

Meanwhile, He warned that we will be hated because the world hated Him first and we will have persecution and a great falling away instead. Luke 21;  2 Thess 2:1-3;  John 15:18-21.

It is the believer’s ultimate priority to give the Lord the glory due His name and worship Him in the beauty of His holiness.  Ps 29:2.  Music is just one medium of worship and so it is not limited to just singing praises on Sunday.

Worship is THE way of life and it should touch all areas of our lives.  We are saved to worship.  John 4:23-24.

Only the Word of God can tell us exactly how to worship God acceptably and please Him.

Worship. God is seeking the true worshipers to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We can only worship God when we have true and accurate knowledge of God from His Word.  We must also worship Him in spirit.  It is not about physical posture but require something in our innermost being.  We must be born again and be given the Holy Spirit to energize our new spirit to glorify Him.   John 4:23-24

Obedience.  Scripture clearly says if we love God, we will obey His commandments.  If we do not obey His commandments, we cannot claim to love Him.  And how can we worship Him if we do not love Him ?  John 14:15, 24

Reverence. We must worship God with reverence and awe. Our God is a jealous God and His righteous anger demands that He destroys all idolatry as He will not share His glory with idols. Heb 12:28.

Service.  We must do good to others.  It is a pleasing worship sacrifice to God.   Heb 13:16.

Holy Living. We must present our bodies as a holy living sacrifice. Rom 12:1.

Inward Transformation. We worship God with our renewed and cleansed minds, not with our emotions.  Rom 12:2

Praise. We should always offer up sacrifice of praise with our lips that acknowledge His name for that is pleasing to God.   Heb 13:15.

All thanks be to God for giving me the worship acronym to remind me of the true meaning of worship.  All honor and glory to the Lord of Lords !

Why singing matters in praising God ?

Eph 5:18-19

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart…

Col 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Acts 16:25

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them…

Singing and making melody to the Lord with our hearts is evidence of a Spirit-filled life.

Singing helps to imbibe the word of Christ in our hearts as it is easily memorized.

Singing praises to God corporately helps to build up one another as we are hearing confession of faith from one another.  And also witness to the unbelievers when they realize how joyful we are in the Lord in our exuberant singing of praises and confession of faith.

Singing strengthens our faith in the midst of trials and suffering.

(Thanks be to God for giving me another ACRONYM to remember to sing praises exuberantly to Him every time.)

To love God and one another perfectly in a perfect world – Love or Christlikeness – is the ultimate meaning of human existence.

Love is the virtue of all virtues for God is Love.  It is patient, kind, temperate and rejoices with truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  1 Cor 13:4-7.

As I was meditating on this virtue this morning, I thanked the Lord for the illuminating work of His Spirit again in giving me an acronym in which I could remind myself every day to live out all virtues of love for all eternity.

All glory to our Lord and God.

When I was younger in faith, I was taught to pray according to the acronym ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication – which is a very good gist of the things that should go into a prayer which was taught by our Lord in Matt 6:9-13.

As I was meditating on what could bring me to pour my heart before God without drawing a blank in my mind with an even easier acronym,  suddenly the acronym PRAY came to my mind.

All thanks and glory to our Lord for another testimony of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.