Springs in the Valley - Devotional January 15

" And he said unto me, It is done"
Revelation 21:6

How many persons are everlastingly doing, but how few ever get through with it! How few settle a thing and know that it is accomplished and can say "it is done"!

The moment we really believe we are conscious that there is power. We can touch God at such times, and the fire in our souls makes us sure that soemthing is settled forever.

Faith must be a clear -cut taking hold of God; a grasping Him with fingers of iron, with an uncompromising commitment of all to God. In learning to float you must utterly abandon yourself to the water; you must believe that the water is able to hold you up: so you must take this steps of commitment, and then look up to God with confidence and say "it is done." Our part is to commit; God's part is to work. The very moment that we commit, that  very moment He undertakes. We must believe that He has undertaken what we have commited. Faith must re-echo God's promise and dare to say "it is done."

The thing is as good as done, since He has taken it in hand. 

Step out upon a bare promise right now, and "count the things that be not as though they were," and God will make your reckoning real. It will be done by actual experience.
-----Days of Heaven upon Earth.

My olf professor, Lord Kelvin, once said in class a very striking thing. He said that there came a point in all his great discoveries when he had to take a leap into the dark.  And nobody who is afraid of such a leap from the solid ground of what is demonstrated, will know the exhilaration of believing!

To commit ourselves unresevedly to Christ is just the biggest venture in the world!  The wonderful thing is that wehn, with a certain dring, we take Lord Kelvin's  "leap into the dark" we discover it is not dark at all, but life abundant, and liberty and peace.    ----George H. Morrison, D. D

Believe that it is settled becasue God says so!

"God said, and it happened." (Genesis 1:2-7, Finnish trans.)

MY TWO CENTS

I was told by an elder in 2006 that the whole gospel and everything all the apostles are teaching us can be summed up in "live by faith and do not go beyond the moment and if I can do that, then my life would be a prayer to God."

All I cared about that day was the depth of what was said to me. I knew such a life could only be pleasing to Him and I could trust Him with the rest. I went home and committed myself to learn to live moment by moment. I gave it to God as the desire of my heart and trusted Him to make it real in my life. I sort of let go when I found out, even a life of practicing His presence does not help me live every moment for Him the way I wanted to. What I mean by that, even when you practice God’s presence daily and all the time, there are moments during the days that are yours and the flesh flairs up easily.

Here we are in 2016, although, the past few weeks, He has been giving me hints here and there about this need to live moment by moment, but, two days ago, I was interrupted by the Spirit of God while reading the Bible and He confirmed to me that this year is the year that we are going to learn to apply this promise. It was a great moment that makes me feel the need to live with anticipation because He showed me how much living moment by moment with God is a life where there is no such thing as trivial matters to God and He showed me the most trivial thing that I can think of or say with my mouth, matters a great deal to Him.  

Right then and there, I experienced another side of the meaning of God’s word when He says "apart from me you can do nothing."  The anticipation in my heart came from the fact that through this tidbit of revelation, He showed me that He is the one who has to live every moment in me in order to make it a reality in me and in my life. I could also see that the past ten years, He has been laying the foundation of my claim. So, when we claim something from God, we must continue the path as guided by the Spirit, and trust that God is never late and what we entrust in His hands is safe. 

My point here is that, real commitment to the indwelling Christ in us is much harder than we think. In fact, true commitment to Him makes you feel like you have worked so hard for your salvation that you are tempted to believe just that.  But, in reality, all we are doing is committing to Him.  How do I know that? He showed me.

There was a time in the wilderness I was so sure I have worked like crazy to reach where I was with Him.  The Holy Spirit was upset at me for the first time. Then, He told me that I was appropriating what belongs to God.  He then showed me all the time that I felt as if I have been working so hard for my salvation, so much so that I felt truly tired, the spirit said to me "all those years, all you have been doing is committing yourself to me, to the work being done in you and agreeing with me."

When He showed it to me, I could see the effort it takes to agree with God, remain down on your knees and under His mighty hands while He is doing His work in you. IT TAKES EVERYTHING WE GET!

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, don't be content with an easy Christianity while you go glibly through life thinking you actually get it. Be careful of those who keep telling you that you are okay when inside of you, you know something is wrong. Misery loves company.  Those who are working hard at telling you to go forward, have nothing to gain, except your contempt for no allowing you to feel comfortable with your choices. 

Isaiah 55:8 "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."



2 Timothy 1:12  "..... I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return."

LISTEN TO PAUL WASHER'S WIFE TESTIMONY

WE NEED GOD’S STAMP OF APPROVAL IN THE WAY WE BELIEVE

This morning I had such an awesome time with God during my meditation time and even though there is no need for now to share all that He has revealed to me but I still want to share a tidbit of it with you.

If we go back to the scriptures, we see that Christ praised some people for their faith, even though what they said to Him seems banal. One of the examples is the thief on the cross. Another one is the centurion that impressed Him so much that He even said in Mark 8:10 ‘“Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Yet, we see His interaction with the rich man in Mark 10. Christ told Him what needs to be done and left it at that. He did not force him, nor ran after him to force him to understand what he was offering. Of course, most of us tend to focus on what is obvious, which is the riches that he possessed caused the man to miss out on what was being offered to him. But, as we grow in the Lord, and this life becomes more and more about the interior life than anything else we realize that this situation was recorded in the Bible for our benefit. The more we grow the more we can see Christ’s tender heart for us in what has transpired with the rich man.

As I read the Bible I realize that Christ had a pattern in the way He interacted with people. He preached boldly to those who despised Him and those who followed in their own interests. He had a way of telling them what is what and left it at that. This is because Christ knew what is in our hearts and what is real or not.  In the same way, Christ has left the Spirit of God to help us, convince us and to verify for us when we truly believe in Him or not. So, not only we can see that we are growing “spiritually”, but the Holy Spirit Himself will always witness to us in order to help us and encourage us in the path we are in. The amount of time He chooses to witness to us can be once in a blue moon and for some this happens weekly or monthly. The quantity is not what is important here.  What is important is that we know directly from Him that we are “right with Him”.

Here is why it is important that our beliefs are confirmed to us by Him. These days we hear almost daily how people are dying left right and center in every corner of the world, and all is done in the name of God. It is easy for you and I to ask ourselves ‘ how in the world someone could kill even one human being without thinking of the damages left behind’? Let alone killing a dozen of twelve dozen all at once.

The truth is, these people doing the killing in the name of Allah are acting out their own beliefs. They truly believe they are acting in the best interest of God and trying to tell them otherwise would be like hitting a brick wall. You and I would make a grave mistake to think that we are above them in their beliefs if the spirit of God has never confirmed anything to us and we have been taking a stab at Christianity through our rituals and the laws. Their beliefs and their version of the Bible, which is the Quran is as sacred to them as ours are to us. In the same way we think we are 100 % right that we are following the right religion, they feel the same way too. How then do we KNOW that we KNOW what we KNOW? How then do we know that we are truly His heirs? How do we know we are truly right with Him? The reality is, when we are not right with God, our religion do not matter. Whether we are nicer than someone else, do not matter either. Like God has taught me, there are only two sides and all those that are not “right” with Him, are all lumped on one side. It is not a question of who is more evil than the other. So, if you are counting on your common sense and rituals to confirm to yourself that you are a child of God, I suggest you wrestle with Him like Jacob did, until you KNOW that you are right with Him. Remain at His feet, surrender yourself and ask Him to change your heart.  There is nothing wrong in asking God to confirm your path to you.

Some would say that you should not doubt, because you go to church, you said the sinner’s prayer, you have been baptized and you read your Bible, you are part of ministry, you are even a leader. Well, the Muslim who is killing in the name of Allah has his version of rituals down path too and he is as convince as you that he is right with God too.

Did the Spirit of God who left the Holy Spirit for this very purpose has confirmed things to you? Don’t say I did not share with you…..

Abraham’s Life of Faith — Faith Always Bring with it Radical Changes!

He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8

Oswald Chambers said  "Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason—a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world."

God has been keeping me on this holding and waiting pattern for so long that it is truly discouraging for any human being. If God has not put your whole life on hold to the point where you can see that your life is literally passing away right in front of your eyes, yet nothing, I mean absolutely nothing that you do works, then you have no idea what it means to wait on, upon and for God. For the past 15 years that I have been a Christian, any normal person would let go of Christianity. For me Christianity has been a synonym for being a “looser” big time. Sometimes, I feel I can’t even find the strength to think that God has not forgotten me. Sometimes I console myself with the idea that He put me on a fast track mode for a reason, because I cannot justify the lost, and the unending holding pattern. But, even when He shuts me out after I obey Him, I keep going forward with Him because I know too much to go back. When nothing makes sense and I feel like the biggest loser who has walked this earth, I keep going. When all my life is screaming that He has abandoned me, I keep going, knowing in His time, He will make everything right.

I have gone through phases with Him where He increased my faith more than I can imagine. You see, God has a pattern where He tests you and if you pass the test which means you make use of the amount of faith He allocates you, then He increases your faith. But lately, I have been asking Him, how come you stopped increasing my faith? Have I reached a plateau where I am not in your will or not trusting you enough? He did not answer me, however, a while after I inquired about my faith, He kept giving me a vision which I truly enjoy because it is so soothing to my soul. Today, as I read the devotional, I realized that He actually did answer my question. The visions that I have been getting are my answer to the question. The only thing is, through the vision, what I have been living in my soul is similar to some sort of higher sanctification stage. It is soothing because I can see how I am mellowing in His hands like I am disappearing slowly as He is increasing tenfold.  I can feel that the increase portion is His character being worked in me and I talked about that in my most recent posts.

Today, God opened my eyes to see that Oswald Chambers used the words that express all that I have been experiencing. I did not know this was the final stage of faith. I had tears of joy in my heart because as I reflect back, I know without the shadow of a doubt, that even when everyone told me that my situation could not be of God.  Even when I was told by leaders that I should take matters in my hands and make things happens, I always run things through God’s process and what I knew in my heart was right with the Holy Spirit. So today, I understand with a heart full of excitement, joy and gratitude what it means to walk a steadfast walk.

 True faith will always take us to a place where God calls us friend. This will not be a vague idea that you read about in the Bible or glibly repeat in a song. But the Holy Spirit will take pleasure to witness to your heart that you are now a friend of His. God, will not stop there, He will find an opportunity to share things with you that He would only share with a friend and when He does that, He will tell you that it is the privilege of being a friend of His.

True faith will lead you to a place where you know that it is not up to you to apply the characteristics of Christ within, but up to the Holy Spirit to do it. True faith will bring a radical change in your life and your heart. If it is not working out this radical change, then it is okay for you to question to what extend do you believe in God. A life of radical obedience will always lead you to a place where you can understand through your bones, every word of Christ’s crucifixion. True faith will always take you to a place where you stop imagining what God’s word means because you have become a living protagonist is the play. Until you become a protagonist, you have no idea what true faith means. Faith in God cannot be a vague idea and it cannot be our idea of what faith means. It has to be alive and leading your life because this faith we are called to live out in Him, is not our faith but Christ’s faith in us. Hence why, true faith will always take you through the same process that Christ went through and the same road. Anything short of that, then we can be sure that our faith is a blind faith. If it is a blind faith, it is not anchored in Christ.  Abraham started as a coward, yet he became the father of faith. TRUE FAITH WILL ALWAYS BRING WITH IT A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION.

OSWALD CHAMBERS "The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day—in and day—out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God. . .” (Romans 4:3)."

Quotes

A.W. Tozer “ God is a being of supreme moral excellence, possessing in infinite perfection all the qualities that constitute holy character. He deserves and invites the unreserved confidence of every moral creature, including man. Any proper relation to Him must be by confidence, that is, by faith. Where there is no faith it is impossible to please God.”

Hebrews 1:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we live by faith, not by sight.”

A.W. Tozer “Outside of the will of God, there's nothing I want, and in the will of God there's nothing I fear”

Charles Spurgeon “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”
 

Charles Spurgeon “We must expect great troubles before we shall attain to much faith.”

A.W. Tozer “Faith is simply the bringing of our minds into accord with the truth. It is adjusting our expectations to the promises of God in complete assurance that the God of the whole earth cannot lie… The believing man accepts a promise of God as a fact as solid as a mountain and vastly more enduring. His faith changes nothing except his own personal relation to the word of promise. God’s Word is true whether we believe it or not. Human unbelief cannot alter the character of God.”

Charles Spurgeon “The way in which most men get their faith increased is by great trouble. We do not grow strong in faith in sunshiny days. It is in stormy weather that faith grows stronger.”

Charles Spurgon “Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace.”

 A.W. Tozer "It will cost you everything to follow the Lord. And it will cost you even more to be His man for this hour."

Charles Spurgeon “Faith is not an attainment that drops like the gentle dew from heaven; it generally comes in the whirlwind and the storm. Look at the old oaks; how is it that they have become so deeply rooted in the earth? Ask the March winds, and they will tell you. It was not the April shower that did it, or the sweet May sunshine, but the rough wind shaking the tree to and fro, causing its roots to strike deeper and to take a firmer hold. And so must it be with us.”

A.W. Tozer “Hardly anything else reveals so well the fear and uncertainty among men as the length to which they will go to hide their true selves from each other and even from their own eyes.”

Charles Spurgeon  “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”
 

A.W. Tozer "God gets leftovers...We tend to give Him that which we don't need instead of giving Him that which we need."

Charles Spurgeon “Neglect of prayer: Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.”

A.W. Tozer  "If we try to obey without faith, we get nowhere. If we try to have faith without obedience, it ends in nothing."

Charles Spurgeon “There is no more blessed way of living, than the life of faith based upon a covenant-keeping God - to know that we have no care, for He cares for us; that we need have no fear, except to fear Him; that we need have no troubles, because we have cast our burdens upon the Lord, and are conscience that He will sustain us.”

A.W. Tozer "What has the church gained if it is popular but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" 

Charles Spurgeon “Joy: The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ.”

A.W. Tozer "The degree of blessing we enjoy will correspond directly with the completeness of God's victory over us."  

A.W. Tozer “A robust faith requires that we grasp this truth firmly, yet we know how seldom such a thought enters our minds. We habitually stand in our now and look back in faith to see our past filled with God. We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future; but our now is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus we are guilty of a kind of temporary atheism which leave us alone in the universe, while for a time, God is not.”

Charles Spurgeon “God’s wrath: If there be a man before me who says that the wrath of God is too heavy a punishment for his little sin, I ask him, if the sin be little, why does he not give it up?”

Charles Spurgeon “Worship: All places are places of worship to a Christian. Wherever he is, he ought to be in a worshiping frame of mind”

A.W. Tozer "Many Christians are satisfied with their destination but they neglect the journey." 

A.W. Tozer “What our Lord taught was this: when we obey the words of Jesus, in faith and in love proving that we love Him, He shows Himself to us. There are two subjects acting here–we and He. When we obey His Word we prove that we love Him, and He shows Himself to us. Who is this He that I am talking about? Jesus Christ our Lord. There are, then, two divinely constituted means: faith–the right kind of faith, in our Lord Jesus Christ–and obedience to His Word. Jesus said, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1 KJV). Faith in Jesus Christ, the right kind of faith, the only kind of faith that matters, is irrevocable, total commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ Himself. You cannot go back on it, and if it is total, there is nothing that is not included. Faith in Jesus is not gulping twice and saying, “I accept Jesus.” It is getting into a state where you have totally committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is irrevocable commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ.”

A.W. Tozer "Come to the Word with a spirit of longing with devotion and humble expectation. Be determined to know God." 

A.W. Tozer "Prophets never retired, so I'm not retiring except to put on new tires to go a little faster and farther."

Charles Spurgeon “Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.”

Charles Spurgeon “Holiness: If your religion does not make you holy, it will damn you. It is simply painted pageantry to go to hell in.”

A.W. Tozer "Unselfish love does not exploit its object and it does not ask for anything in return." 

A.W. Tozer “To many Christians Christ is little more than and idea, or at best an ideal; He is not a fact. Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if He were not. And always our actual position is to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.”

A.W. Tozer
"Christ calls us to carry the Cross; churches call us to have fun in His name."

A.W. Tozer "Let God elevate you above all external [circumstances] so that you can find His heart and worship Him."

A.W. Tozer "When we are enjoying the conscious presence of God, we are fulfilling the tenets of our salvation."

A.W. Tozer  "How utterly terrible is the current idea that Christians can serve God at their own convenience."

A.W. Tozer "True and authentic Christianity is revealed by God; not discovered or conscripted by man."

A.W. Tozer "If all your faith depends upon a pastor’s preaching, then you are a long way from being where God wants you to be."

A.W. Tozer "Too often we are Christians by assumption, manipulation or instruction, rather than Christians by regeneration."  

A.W. Tozer "The inner life must overcome the flesh or the flesh will overcome and destroy the inner life."

- 

Faith - Part 5

Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.”

Today I have been feeling so lousy I cannot even sit down for a long period of time. I thought about not putting a post out today, but the Lord confirmed in my heart that it was not an option. This morning He gave one of the verses that is pleasing to His heart and all my meditation was on this verse. As I read Hebrews 13:15 (even though I am reading the book of James right now, but I keep going back to Hebrews just to see what God wants to speak to me about and God did speak to my heart about this verse. He confirmed how this verse brings Him lots of joy when His little puny beings understand it and put it into practice.  My next question to God was, what does it mean to you personally? In the way I formulated the question, I was thinking, how do you want us to live it out God? God knew what I meant because He can see my heart and He also knows what I am thinking.

But when I asked the question, I felt that I asked it for you guys as well, those people that I know He is using my blog to reach out to. At the same time, I asked the hard question, not because I am trying to poke the bear, (one of the pastor’s wives made a comment about me and said  that I have that bad habit with God, I cannot leave well enough alone.)  Call it whatever you want, but I feel the need to go and get it straight from His mouth. Secondly, I do not want the fear of pain to hold me back and deprive me from the joy of ministering to Him or the joy of knowing that He is pleased with me and I bring a smile on His face so to speak. It is a priority in my life.  It was an awesome thing to hear God said to me “you already know how to grab hold of this verse, but it felt as if He was saying, you already put it into practice in your life. Then He showed me those 2 verses of surrender that I know so well and already talked about in several of my past posts: Romans 6:13 & Romans 12:1 He said just link them to your post.

So, I set out to look for a sermon on Hebrews 13:5 since it is so pleasing to God. I found few sermons but they mostly focus on part of the message that is in verse 15. Praising God with our lips He loves that, but He wants us to start from the beginning so that we can avoid dead works. He not only taught me that personally and the hard way, but it is right there in verse 15, one single word makes all the difference. He is asking for a continual “sacrifice” of praise. A sacrifice to God does not have to be an extravagant gesture, it could be something as simple as denying the self for the day and spend the whole day thinking about Him. This is something we can learn to do in the spirit, which means we do not have to stop moving around living our lives. Anyway, I finally found one sermon that represents what I have been taught by Him and I am leaving you with Charles Spurgeon’s words.

 A Life-Long Occupation

Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name"

Kindle $0.99

It is instructive to notice where this verse stands. The connection is a golden setting to the gem of the text. Here we have a description of the believer's position before God. He has done with all carnal ordinances, and has no interest in the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. What then? Are we to offer no sacrifice? Very far from it. We are called upon to offer to God a continual sacrifice. Having done with the outward, we now give ourselves entirely to the inward and to the spiritual. Moreover, the believer is now, if he is where he ought to be, like his Master, "without the camp." What then? If we are without the camp, have we nothing to do? On the contrary, let us the more ardently pursue higher objects, and yield up our disentangled spirits to the praise and glory of God. Do we come under contempt, as the Master did? Is it so, that we are "bearing His reproach"? Shall we sit down in despair? Nay, verily; while we lose honour ourselves, we will ascribe honour to our God. We will count it all joy that we are counted worthy to be reproached for Christ's sake. Moreover, the apostle says that "Here we have no continuing city." Well, then, we will transfer the continuance from the city to the praise — "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." If everything here is going, let it go; but we will not cease to sing. If the end of all things is at hand, let them end; but our praises of the living God shall abide world without end.

I. First, then, concerning a believer, let me DESCRIBE HIS SACRIFICE. "By Him therefore."

1. See, at the very threshold of all offering of sacrifice to God, we begin with Christ. We cannot go a step without Jesus. Without a Mediator we can make no advance to God. He is that altar which sanctifies both gift and giver; by Him, therefore, let our sacrifices both of praise and of almsgiving be presented unto God.

2. Next, observe that this sacrifice is to be presented continually. Not only in this place or that place, but in every place, we are to praise the Lord our God. Not only when we are in a happy frame of mind, but when we are cast down and troubled. The perfumed smoke from the altar of incense is to rise towards heaven both day and night, from the beginning of the year to the year's end.

3. The apostle goes on to tell us what the sacrifice is — the sacrifice of praise. Praise, that is, heart-worship, or adoration. Adoration is the grandest form of earthly service. We ascribe unto Jehovah, the one living and true God, all honour and glory. Praise is heart-trust and heart-content with God. Trust is adoration applied to practical purposes. Praise is heart-enjoyment; the indulgence of gratitude and wonder. The Lord has done so much for me that I must praise Him, or feel as if I had a fire shut up within me.

4. The text evidently deals with spoken praise — "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name"; or, as the Revised Version has it, "the fruit of lips which make confession to His name." So, then, we are to utter the praises of God, and it is not sufficient to feel adoring emotions. "Well," saith one, "I cannot force myself to praise," I do not want you to force yourself to it: this praise is to be natural. It is called the fruit of the lips. Fruit is a natural product: it grows without force, the free outcome of the plant. So let praise grow out of your lips at its own sweet will. Let it be as natural to you, as regenerated men, to praise God as it seems to be natural to profane men to blaspheme the sacred name. This praise is to be sincere and real. The next verse tells us we are to do good and communicate, and joins this with praise to God. Many will give God a cataract of words, but scarce a drop of true gratitude in the form of substance consecrated. This practical praising of the Lord is the life-office of every true believer. See ye to it.

II. We will, secondly, EXAMINE THE SUBSTANCE OF THIS SACRIFICE. "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually."

1. To praise God continually will need a childlike faith in Him. You must believe His word, or you will not praise His name. Doubt snaps the harp-strings. Question mars all melody. Unbelief is the deadly enemy of praise.

2. Faith must lead you into personal communion with the Lord. It is to Him that the praise is offered, and not to our fellow-men.

3. You must have also an overflowing content, a real joy in Him. Be sure that you do not lose your joy Rejoice in the Lord, that you may praise Him.

4. There must also be a holy earnestness about this. Praise is called a sacrifice because it is a very sacred thing. When life is real, life is earnest: and it must be both real and earnest when it is spent to the praise of the great and ever-blessed God.

5. To praise God continually, you need to cultivate perpetual gratitude, and surely it cannot be hard to do that! Remember, every misery averted is a mercy bestowed; every sin forgiven is a favour granted; every duty performed is also a grace received. Let the stream leap up to heaven in bursts of enthusiasm; let it fall to earth again in showers of beneficence; let it fill the basin of your daily life, and run over into the lives of others, and thence again in a cataract of glittering joy let it still descend.

6. In order to this praise you will need a deep and ardent admiration of the Lord God. Admire the Father — think much of His love; acquaint yourself with His perfections. Admire the Son of God, the altogether lovely One; and as you mark His gentleness, self-denial, love, and grace, suffer your heart to be wholly enamoured of Him. Admire the patience and condescension of the Holy Ghost, that He should visit you, and dwell in you, and bear with you.

III. I want, in the third place, to COMMEND THIS BLESSED EXERCISE.

1. "Offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually," because in so doing you will answer the end of your being. Every creature is happiest when it is doing what it is made for. Christians are made to glorify God; and we are never in our element till we are praising Him. Do not degrade yourself by a less Divine employ.

2. Praise God again, because it is His due. Should Jehovah be left unpraised? Praise is the quit-rent which He asks of us for the enjoyment of all things; shall we be slow to pay?

3. Praise Him continually, for it will help you in everything else. A man full of praise is ready for all other holy exercises. The praises of God put wings upon pilgrims' heels, so that they not only run, but fly.

4. This will preserve us from many evils. When the heart is full of the praise of God, it has not time to find fault and grow proudly angry with its fellows. We cannot fear while we can praise. Neither can we be bribed by the world's favour, nor cowed by its frown. Praise makes men, yea, angels of us: let us abound in it.

5. Let us praise God because it will be a means of usefulness. I believe that a life spent in God's praise would in itself be a missionary life. A praiseful heart is eloquent for God.

6. Praise God, because this is what God loves. Notice how the next verse puts it: "With such sacrifices God is well pleased."

7. To close this commendation, remember that this will fit you for heaven. You can begin the music here — begin the hallelujahs of glory by praising God here below.

IV. LET US COMMENCE AT ONCE. What does the text say? It says, "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually." The apostle does not say, "By and by get to this work, when you are able to give up business, and have retired to the country, or when you are near to die"; but now, at once, he says, "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise." Let us stir one another up to praise. Let us spend to-day, and to-morrow, and all the rest of our days in praising God. If we catch one another a little grumbling, or coldly silent, let us, in kindness to each other, give the needful rebuke. It will not do; we must praise the Lord. Just as the leader of an orchestra taps his baton to call all to attention, and then to begin singing, so I bestir you to offer the sacrifice of praise unto the Lord. The apostle has put us rather in a fix: he compels us to offer sacrifice. Did you notice what he said in the tenth verse? He says, "We have an altar." Can we imagine that this altar is given us of the Lord to be never used? Is no sacrifice to be presented on the best of altars? If we have an altar, do not allow it to be neglected, deserted, unused. It is not for spiders to spin their webs upon; it is not meet that it should be smothered with the dust of neglect. "We have an altar." What then? "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." Do you not see the force of the argument? Practically obey it. Beside the altar we have a High Priest. Shall He stand there, and have nothing to do? What would you think of our great High Priest waiting at the altar, with nothing to present which His redeemed had brought to God? No, "by Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." Bring hither abundantly, ye people of God, your praises, your prayers, your thank-offerings, and present them to the Ever-blessed!