Oh Praise the Lord( celebration devotion)
Psalm 117:1 " O praise the Lord, all ye nations:
Praise him, all ye people.
2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us:
And the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.
Praise ye the Lord."
First I would like to thank God for using my friend Nate Francis in our celebration Sunday and Preaching this powerful passage of the word of God.
Yesterday was Vision Baptist Church's 11 year Anniversary. 11 years, the church is still a kid. Since coming to Vision I have watched people come and go. Families form and break. More importantly I have seen God work in the lives of the people here at this Church. From the mind and heart of Missionary (Pastor Austin Gardner)(If you don't know who he is then you need to come to Vision and come hear him be used by God) and one of his friends and supporters (John Pearson) God has done amazing work with this Church. Missionaries get trained here, some get married here, but they all hear the call to serve God here. It has been two years and I still call them all A bunch of crazy people. Because I was of the world and serving God non-stop was crazy in my eyes. Now it is different. I say we are crazy because we haven't done enough for God. The need is still great and the desire is still in our hearts to do the work.
I want to thank Vision Baptist Church for all it has done for me. You took a kid, no father figure, no life goals really, no sense of direction. You sat him down with the word of God, you prayed with you and you turned him in to the man of God God wanted him to be. Not because you wanted more diversity in the Church, but because you know that when the bible says "all nations" it means "all nations" So I thank you for all you do in the name of Jesus.
Now for the actual devotion.
I will not lie to you there are time when I feel like it is hard to praise the Lord. It is tough to see the joy that we should be thankful for. When you're at your lowest, Things in your mind are not going how they are suppose to go. Stresses in life get to you. Relationships are stretched and tested. You are pushed to the brink of just breaking down and you ask yourself. "God why should I even bother?"
I'm speaking to myself of course. But you see that the beauty of my God, the God in heaven that at my lowest point in my life, pulled me out of that hell fire that was going to consume my soul. He dusted me off, clothe me in his son's righteousness and now I am his forever. That should make you praise him til your lung are sore and your voice is gone out your throat because you know where you were before Christ and you know where you were going to go. But now, oh but now you have a new Master, you have a new teacher, you are a new creature. The ties that sin had on you are gone and are dead and you are alive in the warm embrace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He will never let God and leave there in the cold. I want you to remember this and I'll close this post like this. Take a moment(ripping off my friends sermon a bit) take a moment, in a car during traffic, at work or even like myself, in the middle of service yesterday and give God all the glory and thank you for what he has done for you and praise him all the time.
God is good.
Praise him, all ye people.
2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us:
And the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.
Praise ye the Lord."
First I would like to thank God for using my friend Nate Francis in our celebration Sunday and Preaching this powerful passage of the word of God.
Yesterday was Vision Baptist Church's 11 year Anniversary. 11 years, the church is still a kid. Since coming to Vision I have watched people come and go. Families form and break. More importantly I have seen God work in the lives of the people here at this Church. From the mind and heart of Missionary (Pastor Austin Gardner)(If you don't know who he is then you need to come to Vision and come hear him be used by God) and one of his friends and supporters (John Pearson) God has done amazing work with this Church. Missionaries get trained here, some get married here, but they all hear the call to serve God here. It has been two years and I still call them all A bunch of crazy people. Because I was of the world and serving God non-stop was crazy in my eyes. Now it is different. I say we are crazy because we haven't done enough for God. The need is still great and the desire is still in our hearts to do the work.
I want to thank Vision Baptist Church for all it has done for me. You took a kid, no father figure, no life goals really, no sense of direction. You sat him down with the word of God, you prayed with you and you turned him in to the man of God God wanted him to be. Not because you wanted more diversity in the Church, but because you know that when the bible says "all nations" it means "all nations" So I thank you for all you do in the name of Jesus.
Now for the actual devotion.
I will not lie to you there are time when I feel like it is hard to praise the Lord. It is tough to see the joy that we should be thankful for. When you're at your lowest, Things in your mind are not going how they are suppose to go. Stresses in life get to you. Relationships are stretched and tested. You are pushed to the brink of just breaking down and you ask yourself. "God why should I even bother?"
I'm speaking to myself of course. But you see that the beauty of my God, the God in heaven that at my lowest point in my life, pulled me out of that hell fire that was going to consume my soul. He dusted me off, clothe me in his son's righteousness and now I am his forever. That should make you praise him til your lung are sore and your voice is gone out your throat because you know where you were before Christ and you know where you were going to go. But now, oh but now you have a new Master, you have a new teacher, you are a new creature. The ties that sin had on you are gone and are dead and you are alive in the warm embrace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He will never let God and leave there in the cold. I want you to remember this and I'll close this post like this. Take a moment(ripping off my friends sermon a bit) take a moment, in a car during traffic, at work or even like myself, in the middle of service yesterday and give God all the glory and thank you for what he has done for you and praise him all the time.
God is good.
What a great reminder, because it's true...so easy to get our eyes off the Lord and all He's done and is doing and will do for us. You're so right - we should shout His praises until we have no more voice left :-)
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