WEEK SIX -- DAY TWENTY SIX

EXPRESSION

"Each of us was created by God for relationship with Him,

but we can only enjoy that relationship by God's grace.

God's great love for us, demonstrated in Christ Jesus,

initiates our response.

The only reasonable and adequate response

is our expression of worship."

___________________

It's our sixth week!....It is my continued hope and prayer that you have been gaining much wisdom and practice in the topic of worship through the past five weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed going through this study again with you. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and what you have been learning as well as words of wisdom. Leave a comment anytime!

TODAY'S MAIN IDEA:

God delights in our unique expressions of worship in response to His revelation!

Harland tells us that "once we understand our human position relative to God's omnipotence and greatness, we are ready to become true worshipers...

...Our willingness to spend time in His presence and invite Him into every aspect of our lives--surrendering ourselves as a living sacrifice--dictates how we respond as we encounter God."

(p. 117, workbook)

Our worship expression is a clear indicator of the depth and quality of

our relationship with God.

"When we live a surrendered life in response to who He is and what He has done, our response as we encounter God is free and unhindered. What someone else might think about our response really doesn't matter. Worship is truly all about Him!" (p. 118, workbook)

Wow -- those last two sentences really hit home because as Baptists, we tend to worry about what others will think if we truly express our love to God in worship. We seem so concerned about clapping, kneeling, lifting up hands, and expressing our praise, that in corporate worship, much is lost due to worrying about others. Thankfully, God evaluates the heart of the worshiper. Yet, "God wants to see and hear our unique expressions of worship."

Remember folks, the issue is not the style of worship...

"Each believer must raise his or her own expression of worship to the King of kings in response to what He alone has done."

As long as one makes the Bible their worship standard, and not by our comfort level based on previous experiences, we will keep our priority on God and what He says about worship.

Look to the Bible as our "standard" when it comes to expressing worship...His word must be our guideline as we worship.

Once we understand our human position relative to God's omnipotence and greatness, we are ready to become true worshipers!

I praise God that He wants to hear my unique expressions of praise; all from a heart fully dedicated and devoted to Him.

As it flows from your heart, express your love to God today in your own unique way.

Blessings,

Ken

DAY TWENTY FIVE

Happy Day After Thanksgiving....hope you had a great day giving thanks to the Lord and to all the special people who make your life so full! (I'm sure I don't have to mention having all of your favorite foods, right? I bet you're still full from your feast!)

(I spoke about the wrong bible study yesterday, but have fixed it so yesterday and today are now correct...sorry)

Worship begins with love--God's love for us and our love for God. I praise God that not only does He love me, but that He took the initiative to love me first. In the study, Harland asked for you to list as many words as you can think of that describes God's love for you. Here's a few of mine:

Amazing

Humbling

Awesome

Incomprehensible

Eternal

Overwhelming

Unmatched

Non-reciprocating

Unconditional

Never-ending

How should we respond to God's love?

Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)

³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

The Bible also tells us to be imitators of God and to walk in love. Spend moments throughout the busy Thanksgiving holiday, giving Him thanks and thanking others for being an important part of your life.

I want to thank each of you, my dear church family. You are truly an important part of my life and the life of every member of my family. The Montgomery's appreciate your love, support, kindness, friendship, openness, care, compassion, and faithfulness to our Lord. We are so blessed by knowing and serving our Lord with you. Thank you for the privilege of knowing you and allowing us to be a part of your family. God bless you!

_____________________

FREEDOM IN WORSHIP

Today's Main Idea:

God wants us to worship Him with all our heart and soul.

Harland tells us that God is really a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

A few thoughts that I want to be sure are reread again from today's lesson are as follows:

1. Whether we are worshiping corporately or privately, our response to God should be biblically based and unhindered.

2. The style of worship, the volume of worship, and the elements of worship are not the issue. The issue is that each believer must raise his or her own unhindered expression of worship to the King of kings in response to what He alone has done.

3. The Bible is full of specific activities of worship, including those listed below.

Kneeling/bowing

Singing

Praying

Shouting

Clapping

Prostrating

Raising hands

Dancing

Playing instruments

Meditating/listening

Giving

Serving

Taking communion

Fasting

Please take time over the weekend and look up a few of these in your bible. Harland gives you several verses for each of the worship activities listed above.

Lord, Jesus, may we each be unhindered in our praise to you! Amen.

Bless you as you worship Him today. See you Sunday morning.

Ken

DAY TWENTY FOUR

I hope that you are having a wonderful day, giving thanks to our Lord for who He is and what He has done in your life! As we come together with friends and family each year, I often think throughout the day that this day has become more about the food than of giving thanks to God for the true blessings we receive from Him daily! Have you ever thought that way too?

WORSHIPING WHILE WE WAIT

Today's main idea:

Worshiping God while we are waiting for Him to act opens a place for Him to intervene.

We were made for relationship with God...We have seen God wants us to respond to His love by worshiping Him.

What do we need to do while waiting on the Lord?

WORSHIP!

Hebrews 4:15-16

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Thank you, Father, for your mercy and grace. I thank You for allowing me to seek Your face and to specifically pray for answers and solutions to problems and situations in my life. I trust You and know that You alone are my Savior and Lord, the One who cares for me and always wants the best for my life. May I always allow you to direct my path from day to day.

Amen.

Giving thanks for the great things are God has done!

Ken

DAY TWENTY THREE

Good Morning friends....

I hope that you're having a great Wednesday. Anne and I thank you for your continued prayers as we looked for a home after ours sold so quickly. Good news -- we found one and are able to close by Dec. 15th --

Have you had a great time of worship with the Lord today? I hope so. But if not, then take some time during this Thanksgiving holiday and spend time in His Word -- giving thanks and praise for who He is and what He has done for you.

_________________________

TODAY'S MAIN IDEA:

Worship strengthens the Word in us.

A sentence stuck out right away in today's study. It said: "We can always expect resistance." Wow -- that was an aha moment again for me today. "Worship is our response to the revelation of God, and there is a heavenly battle that always centers around worship" (p. 104, workbook).

A POWERFUL COMBINATION:

God's Word and worship

Worship and the Word of God go hand in hand; it's crucial to living the abundant life. We always worship something and the enemy wants nothing more than to entice us to worship anything or anyone else other than the Lord Jehovah!

Thank you God for overcoming every temptation that we all have faced and will face. You did it through the Word of God. May I meditate and memorize God's Word so that I may resist the devil and his schemes. In the name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

My girls and I have begun listening to Bible CD's. During a portion of our morning Bible study together, we listen to others reading the Bible and follow along. Hannah and Sarah Jordan have really enjoyed hearing and reading it at the same time. We're still in Genesis, so we have a long way, but my goal is that we'll be through the entire bible by the end of May. I'll keep you informed as we progress along.

I hope and pray that God's Word is a lamp and light for you! Take time during the Thanksgiving holiday to read the Bible as a family and then let me know how it went!

Bless you,

Ken

DAY TWENTY TWO

A LIFESTYLE OF WORSHIP

A lifestyle of worship is essential if we are to overcome in order to "become."

Worship must be part of our everyday lives if we are to become living sacrifices.

Romans 12:1

Living Sacrifices

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers,

in view of God's mercy,

to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—

this is your spiritual act of worship.

Harland says that "the battleground is clear: our bodies will become a living sacrifice on one altar or the other--either to God or to the world system. God so loved the world that He gave all we need to overcome, but we must do our part, and this involves two things. First, we must recognize and acknowledge the battle for the conformity of our minds and our lives. Second, we must be equipped to overcome those powers and principalities that assault us and our families, fellow believers around the world, and our nation" (p. 101-102, workbook).

Today's study also speaks about our battle and states that we are equipped for the battle through:

- prayer

- fasting

- worship

- the Word of God

How are you doing with your equipment? Let me know your thoughts.

Have a blessed Tuesday.

Ken

WEEK FIVE -- DAY TWENTY ONE

Serving Others

week five:

RESPONSE

"Each of us was created by God for relationship with Him,

but we can only enjoy that relationship by God's grace.

God's great love for us,

demonstrated in Christ Jesus,

initiates our response."

DAY 1 -

Wow -- we're on to week five. I hope that your week is beginning well. It's been a bit crazy with Anne and I....have looked at 30 houses so far....Anyway, I'm glad that we're back with the blog...

Our Reponse:

Service and Surrender

How do we respond to God? --

By Loving Him and loving others; we must put our love into action (laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters).

If a brother has a need, we must help; serving others in tangible ways.

"Our response to God's love is to express love, which requires action" (p. 98, workbook)

Do you think that sacrifice is a choice?

Jesus said:

Matthew 16:25

²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Harland says that "we must choose to surrender or yield our own unredeemed bodies as instruments of righteousness, rather than instruments of our own selfish desires" (p. 99, workbook).

We must train our minds and bodies to respond to God in every circumstance. This involves renewing...

"The Word of God is the only thing that can renew our minds, and it will contradict our typical thought life regularly" (p. 100, workbook).

Tell me your thoughts on this week's new subject....

Have a great day loving and serving the Lord and others!

Bless you,

Ken

DAY TWENTY

(Sorry folks for the delay with this blog...I have been busy preparing for Christmas as well as looking for a home -- we have to be out of ours by Dec. 15th 'cause it's sold....)

Thank you, Chad, for your great contribution yesterday. I appreciate you sharing your heart and thoughts with us. You have definitely blessed me and I'm pretty sure others as well!

Finishing up this week on love .... read this statement:

"What is in our hearts determines what comes out of our mouths." ... It makes you think about how healthy our [God size] heart is . . .

It is up to us to be sure that our hearts are filled up with words of faith, hope, and love!

_____________________

Day 5 of this week:

LET WORSHIP BEGIN HERE AND NOW!

Today's Main idea:

God wants us to allow His love to flow through us.

This day has brought about a lot of thoughts about relationships. It's amazing to me how we, as christians, can treat others poorly sometimes. In fact, it has been said that some of the meanest people around are so called "christians;" no doubt non believers see us as hypocrites.

I see this often with teenagers--pettiness, rude, and intolerant to other believers. In fact, there is often two sides to many believers--one they show at church and the other they show at work. Many teenagers see this with christians at church speaking to them and then not saying a word or ignoring them at school. The world sees this too.

How can we overcome this? By following God's unconditional love, forgiveness, acceptance, kindness, patience, and humility. (You could say a lot more descriptive words as well.) In other words, to allow God to show His love to others through us as we accept them as He does.

"As we allow God's love for us to flow through us without hesitation and limitation, we are responding to God's revelation of who He is and what He has done. Love Himself compels us to worship. Let us put our response of love into action toward God and one another" (p. 92, workbook).

Have a wonderful day showing God's love toward everyone you see!

Blessings,

Ken

DAY NINETEEN

Hello all this is Chad Plummer adding to the blog today.

Today in our study we are talking about the "Passageway to the Heart". My own spiritual journey over the last several years has been full of ups and downs and God has slowly been teaching me great truths that have impacted my heart and mind and helped me to see the Passageway of God's love to my heart.

I have struggled in my christian walk with doubt about truly being saved. What does this really mean? Have I done enough, does my life really reflect that of a true christian? Do I need to walk the aisle again? Usually this these feelings would come up when a guest evangelist would show up and preach a good old fiery sermon. I struggled in my heart many times and would always come back to the day I was saved and what God has done in my life. I knew that I was a christian but I would always have in the back of my mind, did I really know what I was doing when I was seven? Well satan would use this to steal my joy as a christian and put me in a state of limbo and I would be consumed with thoughts about me and not about God.There is nothing worse than living in a state of limbo about your salvation.

You probably asking yourself what does this have to do with the Passageway to the heart? Just hang on a minute I promise there is a point to the story.

Well these feelings would come up off and on over the years usually when I was not walking with the Lord as I should have been. Different preachers would say the distance between heaven and hell is only 18 inches! The distance between your head and your heart. I have come to the opinion that this is not true, although well intentioned. God opened my eyes again to His great love for me and how it revolves around TRUTH!!

Bro Phillip has made the statement many times while standing at the pulpit that he knows more than the pulpit under his hand that he is saved. I use to hate it when he would say that. I would say how in the world can you say that with out an ounce of doubt. It didn't make sense to me. It would bug me every time he said it. I have recently been thorough a program called the truth project by focus on the family. In the program we discovered what truth is. Truth is Reality as Defined by God. This was an aha moment for me. You see Bro. Philip can say that he knows that he is saved more than he knows the pulpit is under his hand because Gods reality is more real than this reality ever will be. You see Gods truth (aka His word) is reality. What he says in His word is the way it really is, no matter what feeling or circumstance we may be going through. There are times that we may not feel saved or we are going through an unfair circumstance but what God says about us and His promises towards us will never be revoked. I can stand on Christ promises and claim them and have the victory and have joy no matter what is going on in my life. Because I am who the bible tells me I am.

Now before you go accusing of being Joel Osteen. I am not saying that if you just believe that everything will be OK and you are not going to suffer and you will have all the money you want, the name it claim it theology. THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM SAYING!! I am saying that no matter where you may find yourself you can say blessed be the name of the Lord whether in blessing or a situation of suffering because of the great love and promises that He has made to us. One day all will be made right, it might not be in this life but make no mistake Gods word (His reality) will be fulfilled.

Colossians 2:2-3 says "2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." You see God is the ultimate source of Wisdom, Knowledge and Truth. apart from His word we cannot know truth.

Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death."

Does this not sound like or country today. We have our own wisdom, we can save ourselves we don't need the bible anymore. (Sorry that was a side note).

OK now to my main point. The passageway to the heart is through Gods word. Just like my revelation that my salvation is dependent on God and I just need to trust in His truth. When we recognize Gods truth this brings forth revelation to us about God which in turn causes us to worship Him. Its like hearing a song about a struggle you have been through and the words of that song mean so much to you because you know that it is true. That's what worship is, that's why words are important (Worship tunes need to speak the word of God not just lyrics that kinda sound good, that's how we get crazy ideas when things just sound good) they communicate Gods truth and we in turn respond to that truth and worship the Lord because He is worthy. I think about Casting Crowns song "Praise You in this Storm" its hard not to start crying when you hear this song because of what God has taken you through or maybe even what you are going through right now.

On page 88 of our book the author says "There is no shortage of revelation or any lingering doubts about the love of God in heaven. God is present in all His glory, and His love for His people cannot be denied. Perhaps this is why worship continues night and day in heaven!"

What an awesome thought when we are presented with the truth of God, His full revelation we cannot help but to worship Him. Doesn't that make you want to run to the word!

I hope you all have a blessed day and thanks for letting me rant and rave on the blog.

Chad <><

DAY EIGHTEEN

A special thanks to Dave for writing yesterday's blog. I appreciate you and your walk with the Lord. Thank you for giving us some great insights into His Word. We all look forward to another blog writing from you in the near future.

LOVE

Week four, day 3 --

Love One Another

TODAY'S MAIN IDEA:

God's love for us empowers us to love one another.

"We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). We are both commanded and qualified to love God and one another.

1 John 4:7-8

God's Love and Ours

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

It's easy to love some people, isn't it? God tells us to love all people, and sometimes in our human weakness, this is not always simple and sometimes difficult, taking much effort. Even though, He still commands us to do it. Why? I believe that He wants us to show the same kind of love that He has shown us--unconditional love--not by merit but because of who He is: love. This study today shows us that we can show this same kind of love to others because God's love for us empowers us to be able to love others. As believers, how can we NOT love others when our Lord and Savior loves them and us and has forgiven all?

Galatians 5:22-23

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Lord, help me to show kindness, love, mercy, forgiveness, acceptance and grace to everyone that I meet today. May the fruits of the spirit continue to be living and active in my life everyday as I grow in You and serve you with all my heart. In Jesus name, Amen.

Have a blessed day loving others!

Ken

NOTE:

Chad Plummer will be writing tomorrow's blog. I'm looking forward to hearing from Chad and hope that you will join me in reading what he shares from God's Word.

WEEK FOUR --DAY SEVENTEEN

Good Morning/Afternoon!

This is Dave adding to the blog today.

Hopefully you all have been encouraged during this study.

I often think about a quote I heard somewhere that we are not to learn the "how's" of worship, yet we need to learn the "why's". This study shows us why we worship!

This week we're looking at God's Love. This is something that in itself is hard to wrap my mind around. I think about His Love and think about Paul's letter to the church at Ephasus. In it he

says:

"And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous LOVE. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his LOVE really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God."

Ephesians 3:17-18

His love is infinite, given freely to all men. A free, unmerited love which we do not deserve. Not only is God's nature Love, but He Is Love according to 1 John 4:16. According to our study today, God's love elicits a response of love from us---worship!

Reading through today's lesson, we looked at the story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, which happened in 445 BC. God gave Nehemiah the vision to rebuild the walls which were desolate after years of captivity of the nation of Israel. The decree was given that the Jews could return from captivity about 90 years before, and even the Temple was being rebuilt. Nehemiah's reason for rebuilding the wall was obviously for protection against outside attacks, but also for those Jews in the city who had been influenced by Pagan religions, as they had been freely associating with those outside the walls. God in his love allowed the walls to be first completed and or repaired in 52 days, which is a miracle in it's own! This was completed in the face of ridicule, discouragement, fear, and internal strife. Once the walls were done, a list of geneology was compiled and Ezra read the Book of The Law and helped the people understand.

The people began to weep, showing as it is in Hebrews 4:12.."For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Nehemiah's Wall of Jerusalem was recently uncovered in Jerusalem in 2007

The people then reestablished the Feast of Tabernacles, and confessed their sin. Then the dedication of the wall was a great time of worship as the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off! What a great picture of the Christian Life, as sin unconfessed can hinder first our relationship with God, but also our worship to Him! It all starts with the hearing and understanding of the Word of God, bringing us to the knowledge of our sin, repenting of that sin, and drawing close to Him.

The Song of Mary

As we're coming up our celebration of the birth of Christ, we looked today at Mary and the months leading up to the birth of Christ. As Mary was affirmed and blessed by Elizabeth, she responded in worship. The Song of Mary is a picture of exactly what Jesus came to do, it was in a sense a prophecy of what was to soon come! By the way, I found out the Zacharias means "God Remembers" and Elizabeth means "His Oath"...

46 Mary responded,

“Oh, how I praise the Lord.

47 How I rejoice in God my Savior!

48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,

and now generation after generation

will call me blessed.

49 For he, the Mighty One, is holy,

and he has done great things for me.

50 His mercy goes on from generation to generation,

to all who fear him.

51 His mighty arm does tremendous things!

How he scatters the proud and haughty ones!

52 He has taken princes from their thrones

and exalted the lowly.

53 He has satisfied the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away with empty hands.

54 And how he has helped his servant Israel!

He has not forgotten his promise to be merciful.

55 For he promised our ancestors–Abraham and his children–

to be merciful to them forever.”

God still remembered His oath to His people, Israel and has given His gift to the world (both Jew and Gentile) of salvation through them. For He so Loved The World that He sent His Son! He has saved us from the curse of sin! We are deserving of an eternity seperated from Him, but he has shown his Love to us by bearing His holy arm.

As Mary states in her praise, and as Isaiah 52:10 says, " The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." Have you noticed that in order to bring about creation, God simply spoke, and it was, but in order to bring about salvation, he had to bear His holy arm! God's gift of salvation is greater and mightier than all of His creation, and it was finished on the cross! After that revelation, our response and reaction should be none other than worship!

Thanks for reading this!

Have a good rest of your day, and God Bless!

dave