"Devoted Faith" -Too

"Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp." (Psalms 150:3)

  Do not think that God does not have a part in this, as if He cannot turn anything and everything into something that is good. No matter what might come against His church, His purposes are always going to be fulfilled, and His everything is going to work towards the good! Besides, I feel as though most of us have secretly been praying for something to make us more devoted, if not more serious in our relationship with God; it might not have even been clear in our minds what we were asking, it is more something we have felt in our hearts, that something needed to grab hold of our easy life and make us look a little deeper. But then again, maybe it is just me. If so, then I will welcome it with open arms and bended knees! The most important thing that I feel we need right now, is that we be united in the victory that has already been won. All of these little issues that divide all of our members, they are simply that, little issues! The bigger issues are the things that bring us together and keep us together; anything that come into that arena most be disregarded and kept apart. There is a little message that Matthew Henry has about this, although brief, it is straight to the point: "That, various instruments being used in praising God, it should be done with an exact and perfect harmony; they must not hinder, but help one another." Paul had some things to say regarding this, as he watched the places where he had ministered the simple message of the truth, be turned inside out by twisted messages of discourse and division. The human heart is still the same; as it was in the days of Jeremiah, as it was in the days of Paul, it remains true today: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) If there was anything that I failed to say yesterday, it is most likely that which is the hardest to express: The constant battle that wages inside my heart! We truly are not as strong as we think that we are: the more we count upon that strength we think that we might have, the more we realize just how weak we really are. But with God, weakness is something that we need! We must realize our weakness and we must believe in God's strength! As much as I would like to say I have learned, I continually see how little I have been taught; learning is something that we hear and take in, being taught is something that is experienced and lived out...

"What! came the word of God out from you? or came it out from you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." (1 Corinthians 14:36- 15:2)