Sing Praise

Music. One of the most powerful languages on earth. It's a language that everyone can speak mindless of where you are from. Together people from all around the world can sing praises to God and lift up his name on high.

Psalm 150:
Praise the LORD.

Praise God in His sanctuary;
   praise Him in his mighty heavens.
Praise Him for his acts of power;
   praise Him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet,
   praise Him with the harp and lyre,
praise Him with timbrel and dancing,
  praise Him with strings and pipe,
praise Him with the clash of cymbals,
  praise Him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD

Praise the LORD.

There is so much that we have reason to praise the Lord for and as Psalm 150 says, music and musical instruments are such a great way that we can express this praise and joy for His wondrous works.

How are you singing praises to God today?

Mentoring

I haven't posted on here in a very long while. I don't have any sort of excuse for that, it's just happened but I do think that maybe I should take this up again. I should start spending more time meditating on Gods word and also sharing my thoughts, it helps me process what I read a bit better.

Just now I read an article published in the Reformed Perspective, a magazine published in Canada that we get here a month or two after the publishing date. The article itself was on the topic of mentoring. 

As younger members of the church and society, we have access to a lot of information. Information that we can gain via a quick google search, or by spending time soaking up the incredibly informative information found on Wikipedia. Information is at out finger tips, but this information doesn't always help us in our walk of life. 

The article, written by Michael J. Schout and titled Be Mentored, emphasises the necessity of turning to others who are more experienced in their faith and more mature, spending time with them an learning form them. It was a really great article and I suggest that if you can get your hands on it have a read of the wisdom that it has to offer. 

Reading the fine print at the end of the article now, it was originally published in The Outlook (which can be found at www.refromedfellowship.net) in the Novermber/December edition hopefully that can help you find it.

Love one Another

Love. It's a theme that comes back every now and then through my blog posts, but it is also a theme that is central to our lives as a Christian. God has shown us Amazing love and grace, (as we read in Romans 5:8 - God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us), and because we live in that love we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We know what love is because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our bothers and sisters (1 John 3:16)

We respond to the love of God with love ourselves. Our hearts should overflow with thankfulness and love for Him and we show that in our actions. One example of the actions that we do would be in keeping the 10 commandments. These are summarised in Matthew 22 where Jesus says: Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. (vs 37-39). We love God and our neighbour. The two go together. Love for God for what he has done for us, and love for our neighbour because of what God has done for us.

In his book Generous Justice, Timothy Keller speaks about how it is only through our understanding of God's grace and in receiving of his love that we can give that same love to our neighbours. This is said in the context of providing justice and mercy to those in need but applies even more so to our church family. We have been shown the most amazing love, love that we didn't deserve, we must accept and understand that love so that we can show it to others.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34