December Simply Praise

The Greatest Gift

Love is the greatest gift we can give and receive. God’s love is expressed to mankind in so many ways that we are unable to grasp even a thimble full of its vastness. We claim to love and yet at times we bite and devour one another. We make vows as easily as wiping the dew from our brow, and just as easily flick them away. Love is a gift to give and give and give, even to those who “We” believe are undeserving. [1 John 2:5] says; But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: herby know we that we are in him. [Romans 13:10] Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Did you catch that? Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Wow! Hereby know we that we are in him. I can not stress hard enough the importance of this fact. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. I’m not saying we are to be doormats, and allow ourselves to be walked upon; all in the “name” of love. The kind of love I am talking about is manifested when we are keeping God’s word. This world is so full of hate, and selfishness, and every vile thing associated with it, that it has lost and perverted the meaning of love, and it makes me steamed especially when I hear it in the church body among “Professing Believers”. If you are claiming to love God and treat your family like someone who doesn’t know Christ, then you need a reality check. [1 John 4:20] If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Very powerful and stern admonition. [1 John 4:21] And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. The greatest gift we can give or receive is love that stems from keeping Gods word and abiding in Christ, for then it will be His love we share and not our selfish, tainted facsimile of love. Our example of real love is found in [John 3:16], and that is the greatest gift to receive.


For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

There are 12 words before the word (Son) and 12 after. The Son is the center of Gods love and salvation, and should be the center of our lives as believers. What an awesome gift God gave to man!

Life-style Inventory

It is helpful to ask ourselves penetrating questions about our Christian faith, to examine ourselves to see just how much of the truth of the gospel and the experience of the living, indwelling Christ have affected our character and life-style. In Colossians 3:12-17, Paul has given affirmations of the love of God and admonitions of how to express it in our relationships. You may wish to evaluate the extent to which you have received what God offers, and the depth to which you have expressed what you have received in actual, living practice. We will consider the motive and mandate of Christian living. On a scale of one to ten, rate the level of your receptivity under Part I, and the degree of your reproduction under Part II. Total each section. The degree of difference between the total of Part I with Part II will help you discern the relationship between what you believe and what you are living out in daily experience.
Part I The Motive of the Christian Life.
_____A.I realize I have been chosen by God. I belong to Him.
_____B. I have received the gift of a new life in Christ. That new life began when I received His indwelling life in me.
_____C. I know His deep love and concern for me.
_____D. I have let God forgive me and heal my memories of the past.
_____E. I have received and feel the peace of Christ.
_____F. I have found the message of Christ to be the answer to my questions and the basis of my understanding of life, death and eternal hope.
_____G. Thanksgiving for all the Lord has done and given fills me with awe, gratitude and a new openness to Him for the future.
_____Total of our receptivity.
Part II The Mandate of Christian Living.
The extent to which our receptivity has equaled reproductive responsibility in our life-style as a representative of Christ.
_____A. I feel a tender-hearted mercy and kindness toward the people in my life. _____B. I am free of the necessity of making a good impression. I can be authentically myself without projecting an image. _____C. I am able to suffer quietly and patiently with others without demanding recognition and reward.
_____D. I am gentle in judgments and ready to forgive. _____E. Love is the dominant guide for what I say and do. _____F. I am able to express the peace of Christ I have experienced by being a peacemaker with and between others.
_____G. The people around me are aware that I am thankful for the gift of life; sense that I am delighted to be me; know that I acknowledge with praise all I have and am has come from our Lord; feel my appreciation for them; witness my gratitude as my key to facing life’s problems. _____Total of our reproductive responsibility. _____Difference between total of Part I and Part II.
The gospel is relational. It declares a dramatic, new way to live in our relationships with God and one another. We are related to God by the grace of Christ’s death and resurrection. Through His indwelling power we have been enabled to reproduce that grace in our love, forgiveness and acceptance of others. The test of our relationship with God will be in our relationships we have with people. (Loved & Forgiven, Lloyd John Ogilvie)

Tyndale on Love & Marriage

“Our Savior Christ hath commanded nothing so straitly, as to love one another...then how much more should the man and wife love together? But there are but few that know how to love the one the other as they ought to do. If thou love thy wife only because she is thy wife, and because she serveth, and pleaseth thee after the flesh, for beauty, birth, riches, and such-like, this is no love before God. Of such love speaketh not Paul, for such love is among the harlots, yea among the brute beasts: but thou shalt love her because she is thy sister in the Christian faith; and because she is inheritor together with thee in the glory of God; and because ye serve together one God...Thou shalt love her for her virtues, as shamefastness, chastity, and diligence, sadness, patience, temperance, secrecy, obedience, and other godly virtues” (Foxe, vol. 5 p. 598)

Of the Father’s love begotten

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
evermore and evermore!
At His Word the worlds were framèd; He commanded; it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean in their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the moon and burning sun,
evermore and evermore!
He is found in human fashion, death and sorrow here to know,
That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe,
May not henceforth die and perish
In the dreadful gulf below,
evermore and evermore!
O that birth forever blessèd, when the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
evermore and evermore!
This is He Whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord,
evermore and evermore!
O ye heights of heaven adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing,
evermore and evermore!
Righteous judge of souls departed, righteous King of them that live,
On the Father’s throne exalted none in might with Thee may strive;
Who at last in vengeance coming
Sinners from Thy face shalt drive, evermore and evermore!
Thee let old men, thee let young men, thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens, with glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
evermore and evermore!
Christ, to Thee with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving, and unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
evermore and evermore!

Words: Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, 5th Century (Corde natus ex parentis); translated from Latin to to English by John Mason Neale, 1854, and Henry Williams Baker, 1859.


Christian Love
Lonely hearts long for love,
While each day rushes by.
Weary souls have no love,
Yet each day rushes by.
Take a smile, pass it on,
When you go hurrying by.
Say a prayer, do a deed,
For each day rushes by.
(When I’m Praising God. P.186)

When love is given, so comes the joy!

I am so glad You love me, heavenly Father. Thank You for loving me just the way I am. I’m not all that great. I don’t possess any remarkable status or money in this world. I’m just an ordinary person who wants to love and serve You.I love You with all my heart. I’m ashamed to admit, though, that it was because You first loved me. I praise You, Father, and give You my life, for You adopted me into Your family as one of Your own.Thank You for having so much love that You gave Your Son who died and rose again for me. I am grateful for Jesus. He is able to bring me into Your holy presence, where I may share my little and big concerns with You. Thank You for listening to me, walking with me, and guiding me each day. You are not only my Father, You are my dearest Friend. I praise You, Father, for the way Your love shines on me and on all of humankind. It is so wonderful how You created everything and regulate it all. Great are Your works. Great is Your love, O Father.
(When I’m Praising God. P.176)

Greater love hath no man!

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them also that love thy name be joyful.
Psa. 5:11 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
Psa.40:16 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Psa. 119:165 Keep your selves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Jud.1:21 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. Jud. 1:2 Amen!


Lord, a Savior’s love displaying,
Show the heathen lands Thy way;
Thousands still like sheep are straying
In the dark and cloudy day.
Shades of death are gathering o’er them,
Lord, they perish from Thy sight!
Let Thine angel go before them;
Bring the Gentiles to Thy Light.
Fetch them home from every nation,
From the islands of the sea;
By the word of Thy salvation
Call the wanderers back to Thee.
Thou their pasture hast provided,
Grant the blessing long foretold;
Let Thy sheep, divinely guided,
Find at last the one true Fold.

Words: Ernest Hawkins,
Music: “Merton (Monk)” William Henry Monk (1823-1889)

Goodnight! Goodnight!

The alpine shepherds have a beautiful custom of ending the day by singing to one another an evening farewell. The air is so crystalline that the song will carry long distances. As the dusk begins to fall, they gather their flocks and begin to lead them down the mountain paths, singing, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Let us praise His name!” And at last with sweet courtesy, they sing to one another the friendly farewell: “Goodnight! Goodnight!” The words are taken up by the echoes, and from side to side the song goes reverberating sweetly and softly until the music dies away in the distance. So let us call out to one another through the darkness, till the gloom becomes vocal with many voices, encouraging the pilgrim host. Let the echoes gather till a vary storm of Hallelujahs break in thundering waves around the sapphire throne, and then as the morning breaks we shall find ourselves at the margin of the sea of glass, crying, with the redeemed host, “Blessing and honor and glory be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!
This my song through endless ages, Jesus led me all the way.
AND AGAIN THEY SAID,
HALLELUJAH! (Rev. 19:3 RV).
{Pg.398; Streams in the Desert}
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
John 10:11;15


Lord Jesus, thank You for Your unfailing love towards us, may our hearts ever grow deeper in love with Thee. As the new year approaches with all its uncertainties help us remain watchful unto prayer, with thanksgiving and praise, for You are worthy. Help us keep our eyes set straight ahead focused upon You Lord, our triumphant soon coming King