Simply Praise September 2009

Simply Praise
1 Ch. 29:13 “Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
(A monthly meditation considering our God)

Overcoming Shame

Just recently I was faced with a question to which I could not answer. This troubled me for days. “How do I overcome the feeling of shame when its right there staring me in the face?”. Even though I had repented and God had restored me from my stepping into sin nearly three years ago, and even though I was putting those things behind me and pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil.3:14), shame crept up on me like a thick fog limiting my view. This drove me to my knees for answers. What is shame? Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary gives this definition: SHAME— A negative emotion caused by an awareness of wrongdoing, hurt ego, or guilt. Then I thought, “who is accusing me?” Job 1:7; Job 1:9; Job 2:5; Zech 3:1-2; and Luke 22:31, all conclude, it’s Satan. Rev.12:10b states, “for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night”. Isaiah 50:6 says, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” When I understood what God was revealing to me, that by carrying my shame, thinking my shoulders were equal to the task of such a load, I was making Christ’s sacrifice of little importance, all I could say was, how foolish my heart and mind. Jesus Christ took all my sin and shame. Heb. 12:2 says,” Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. When you and I carry burdens of guilt and shame beyond the point of repentance and redemption, we are not fully trusting or believing in the precious blood of Jesus nor His sacrifice. Instead what we are doing is believing the lies of the accuser. O Christ what burdens bowed Thy head! Our load was laid on Thee; Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead, didst bear all ill for me. A victim led, Thy blood was shed; Now there’s no load for me. So the answer to overcoming the feeling of shame is through the blood of Jesus, accepting that I have been redeemed. Bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned He stood; sealed my pardon with His blood: hallelujah! What a Saviour!...( italics from pg.198 Knowing God) Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”. We are all guilty of sin. But when we truly repent (and I mean truly!!), than all of our guilt and shame is covered by the blood of Jesus, and all our sin is cast as far as the east is from the west. What peace we often forfeit and oh what needles pain we bare, when we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
(DEM)

Christ the Way Out for the Sinner

Hear that wretched man crying out, “For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I”. In that up and down life, resolving and failing, at last he cries: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?..I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What is the way out for the wretched man? It’s an apprehending of Christ, not his struggles, his resolution, his efforts in making up his mind that today he is going to be better, and coming back and having to repent at the end of the day. No, no! it is our faith-hold on Christ which is the way out, the positive ground of victory. You try that way. God honors His Son, and God honors our faith in His Son. “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again.” triumphant. And, “Christ in you.” “...the head of all principality and power.” This, for the unsaved, is a necessary fact. If we had been converted on the strength of this we would have been stronger believers from the beginning. If only we had known this when first we were saved we would have leaped into something that came to us many years afterward. Oh for the preaching of salvation to the full. You get a different kind of convert altogether when you carry the work of Christ to its full issue; when it is not only preached that your sins will be forgiven and you will go to heaven and not hell—perhaps a little more than that. But it is infinitely more than that, and if only we preached the fullness of Christ’s work, we would have converts that went ahead, apace, and reached maturity much sooner than the majority are doing. Glad and regretful, confident and calm, then through all life and what is after living thrill to the tireless music of a psalm. Yea; through life, death, thro’ sorrow and thro’ sinning, He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed: Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning: Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ.
(The Refiner’s Fire)

Grow Up In Me

O My people, I have purposes for thee that embrace eternity. Before the creation of the worlds, I planned for thy redemption, for it is written of the Lord Jesus Christ that He was the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world. (1 Peter 1:20) Yea, and I have manifested Him to you, so that ye have believed in Him and have been born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, even that which liveth and abideth forever. So then, now that ye are in Christ, ye have My life abiding in you, and ye have become a new creation. Grow up in Me now, so that ye may develop in the process of time into the full stature of a men and women—even unto the measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph.4:13) For I have not purposed simply to bring you into My family and have you remain as babes or children. I am concerned with your maturity: your growth in wisdom and knowledge of things pertaining to Myself; with the perfection of your ministry; and with the producing of the fruits of the Spirit in your life. And so to this end, I have provided for you the ministries and gifts of My Holy Spirit. As ye receive these by faith, and as ye walk in these by faith, so that I am allowed to manifest Myself through you in this way, ye will find that ye will grow in Me,. Yea, grow in grace and in your knowledge of Me, and ye will find the fruits of the Spirit will begin to appear in thy life quite naturally, even as apples appear on the apple tree, though the tree takes no thought and experiences no effort or anxiety. Commit to Me thy sanctification. Bring thy thoughts into captivity and let thy mind be under the control of the Mind of Christ. Do not curb the impulses of the Spirit within you, neither refuse to allow Me the freedom to manifest Myself through you by means of the gifts. Ye may resist Me, because ye feel unworthy or ‘unready’ to be used. This is a delusion of mind. I do not use you when you ‘feel prepared’ but when I need you and you are yielded. Even as I use you, ye will discover that in the process of being used, I shall do a work in you yourself to the edification of your own heart and life. So then, ye block the way to your own spiritual development if ye hold Me back when I would minister through you. (Ephesians 4:12 & 16) Indeed, if the time should ever come that ye ‘feel ready’, I would then be completely blocked by your pride, and would be forced to use someone else.

The God of the Second Chance

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a women caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this women was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the women still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Women, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:3-11 This women’s story, like ours, was unfinished. We do not know how she lived the rest of her days, but what we do know is that she experienced the gift of the second chance. Jesus could grant her forgiveness because He was on His way to the cross; soon He would die for sinners, this women included. There, her shame, like ours, would be taken away. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2, emphasis added). Jesus endured shame so that we can be free from its stain and power. No one has to be bound by a past that has been forgiven by the Lawmaker and Judge of the universe. Many a women, humiliated and shamed, has discovered that Christ alone stands by her. Friends walk out.. She is abandoned, desolate, branded, and forsaken. The accusers carry their whispers into the church. But in the presence of Jesus she finds a listening ear, a compassionate heart, and forgiveness. Jesus doesn’t listen to our accusers. He already knows our sin and waits for us to come into His presence voluntarily. In love and compassion He speaks the same words He did so long ago, “Neither do I condemn you.” No sin is too great to be forgiven. With the same authority He sets us free to begin again by saying, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” No one else can give us that kind of help and hope.
For This
I’ve been looking for a fire to burn my sin away. I’ve been looking for a flood to cleanse my vilest ways. I’ve been looking for a knife to cut out my iniquity.
I’ve been looking for a death to die to set my spirit free. My shame is not my glory instead it is my noose.
Held tightly by the reigns of sin it will not let me loose.
But now I see my search as vain and in sheer futility,
For I’ve been looking to remove what’s stained the whole of me.
What hope have I of future love—knowing what I know?
The stench of my sin is vast and foul; I deserve the lowest of the low.
Yet even as I ponder, I am adding to my shame, For have I not found the fire, the flood, the knife—is it not plain? Have I forgotten the price ’twas paid to remove the debt I owe? Could it be that I’ve ignored the grace that I’ve been shown?
For on the cross my sin was burned,
my transgression washed asea.
My wicked heart was carved anew—a death to set me free!
Sorrow no more, oh heart of guilt—your Savior has redeemed.
Your sin has been removed and cleansed, washed under Calvary’s stream.
Hope in God for He has bought what you could never buy.
You’ve been forgiven, changed, renewed!
For this the Savior died.
Anonymous

All who have been involved in sexual sin can find forgiveness and cleansing in the presence of Jesus. To all He says, “Go and sin no more.” who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:33-34)
(Jesus Lover of A Women’s Soul)

The Rock of Refuge
O sometimes the shadows are deep,
And rough seems the path to the goal,
And sorrows, sometimes how they sweep
Like tempests down over the soul.
Refrain
O then to the Rock let me fly
To the Rock that is higher than I
O then to the Rock let me fly
To the Rock that is higher than I!

O sometimes how long seems the day,
And sometimes how weary my feet;
But toiling in life’s dusty way,
The Rock’s blessèd shadow, how sweet!
Refrain
O near to the Rock let me keep
If blessings or sorrows prevail,
Or climbing the mountain way steep,
Or walking the shadowy vale.

William Gustavus Fischer (1835-1912)

Romans
8:1-2

There is therefore now no condem-nation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Gone Is The Night

One day I traveled a toilsome road
Over the hills of despair;
One day I carried a weary load,
Cumbered with toil and with care.
The burden that once I carried is gone, is gone
Of all my sins there remaineth not one, not one.
Jesus, the Savior, hath ransomed me,
Bearing my sins upon Calvary,
Giving me glorious liberty;
My burden of sin is gone.
Gone is the night with its shadows drear;
Morning hath dawned upon me.
Gone is the burden of anxious fear;
Freedom my portion shall be.
No more the burden of guilt is mine;
No more in bondage I dwell.
Unto my glorious King divine
Jubilant praises shall swell.

(Words & Music: Haldor Lillenas, 1923)

Psalm 139:1-6

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsetting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compasset my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, and thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightiest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine alter.