Kelly J. Grace

connect the truth you believe to the life you live

Worship

What God Remembers And I Keep Forgetting

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woman at a window

 

 I love how David talked to his own soul.

He speaks words of instruction and encouragement and reminders about the things that we are so prone to forget.
At least I am.
Until my selfishness and entitlement bubble up and seep out through the holes in my faith making a mess of everything.

Then I remember what God never forgets.

For He knows my frame.
He remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:14

That beautiful Psalm is the place to run when you’ve failed and you know it.

 

The first back step is worship.
Don’t you love that?
It’s not beating yourself up over your weakness, it’s refocusing your heart and mind on God.   Even His name is holy!

Yet He forgives all my iniquity.
Not in little bits measured out and rationed.  He forgives all and keeps forgiving.
He heals all our diseases, He redeems our lives and crowns us with steadfast love and mercy.

Thinking about Him calls my heart back to Him.  I’m drawn in again to His perfection, assured of His loving acceptance by His own description of Himself as my father.  He speaks to me of His compassion and tells me He understands my innate weakness.

I am not yet what He knows I will one day be.

I love how Paul Tripp has described our experience as believers.
He says we are living between the already and the not yet.

I’m born again by the Spirit, a new creation in Christ.
And I still live in a body fashioned of dust; the already and the not yet.

Knowing that I’m suppose to look not just to my own interest, but also to the interests of others—I still let the dust dictate.

But He forgives and His steadfast love, His Father love pulls me back in close so that I feel no distance between us.  There is no rejection, no denial, no holding me at arms length.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Photo by Milada Vigerova
https://unsplash.com

I Will Worship You

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back of woman with her head bowed

I Will Worship You

 

Without the eloquence of a David
the fiery passion of an Isaiah
or the intimate knowledge of a Paul
In my own way

I will worship You

 

For the world and everything in it
declare divine design and infinite power
An incomparable mind
offering itself and all to us

I will worship You

 

See the lowly fern as fronds unfurl and hint of majestic robes
Rollicking Humpbacks make fluid play of strength
Birdsong a melody of grace
Whispered words from a bowed low face

I will worship You

 

Shadowed glimpses of Who You are
The gift hints of goodness beyond imagination
Power without limits says hello
Peerless wisdom extends an invitation to come and dine

I will Worship You

 

Photo Volkan Olmez https://unsplash.com

Knowing Who You Worship

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. . .there is a man in heaven. . .

Today I read this in an old yellowed copy of Man, The Dwelling Place of God, by A.W. Tozer.

“The teaching of the New Testament is that now, at this very moment, there is a man in heaven appearing in the presence of God for us. He is certainly a man as was Adam or Moses or Paul. He is a man glorified, but His glorification did not dehumanize Him.”

Resurrection didn’t cause Jesus to cease being the Son of Man. Just as coming in the form of man didn’t strip Him of His deity. How could God cease to be God? He was born of Mary and the seed that grew in her was of the Holy Spirit. But He lived as a man among us. He grew, he toiled, he ate and slept, and when the time came He began to preach the gospel.

We can see Him that way, imagine Him doing those things. That’s all familiar and relatable to us.

How do you picture Him now when you worship or pray?

Tozer goes on to round out the picture lest we forget and our worship be stunted by an abbreviated consciousness of Him.

“. . .a visible and audible man whom any of us would recognize instantly as one of us.
But more than this, He is heir of all things, Lord of all worlds, head of the church and the first-born of the new creation. He is the way to God, the life of the believer, the hope of Israel and the high priest of every true worshiper. He holds the keys of death and hell and stands as advocate and surety for everyone who believes on Him in truth.

This is not all that can be said about Him . . .”

John said he supposed even the world couldn’t contain the books if everything that could be written was written. (John 21:25)

How is man saved? By what miracle is salvation obtained?
In a most beautiful and concise paragraph Tozer describes it.

“Salvation comes not by “accepting the finished work” or “deciding for Christ”. It comes by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole, living, victorious Lord who, as God and man, fought our fight and won it, accepted our debt as His own and paid it, took our sins and died under them and rose to set us free.
This is the true Christ, and nothing less will do.”

Worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Bow your head or fall on your face, but think of Him as He is, remember Him for what He did and why He did it.

Out of a divine love for you.
Determined to cleanse you, to set you free, to give you a living hope, and an incorruptible inheritance.
Teaching you to be a fisher of men, to walk on water, to push back the Devil, and to carry truth wherever you go.

Come let us worship and bow down. Psalm 95:6

What God Wants You To Ask From Him

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What do you want from God?
If you could ask anything from Him, what would it be?

Moses talked with God.
A lot.
Since the day he saw the burning bush on the back side of the desert, Moses had been meeting and talking with God.

So I’m a little curious, a little intrigued that Moses wanted more.
How much more could a person want than to talk with God face to face?

I think there’s a truth inside this mystery.

. . .Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.
Exodus 33:12-13

The Bible tells us Moses was the most humble man on earth.
But here he seems pretty bold, don’t you think?
He’s reasoning with God saying, “You say you know me personally, by name, and that I’m in Your good graces—if that’s true, then show me what you want me to do and let me know You.”

So a person can be humble and bold at the same time.
God said OK.
Well, He didn’t say the word OK , but He did agree to let Moses get to know Him better.

All through the Bible God reveals Himself to regular people.

There aren’t any other kind of people.
Moses was a great prophet, a servant of God, but he was a sinful man like every other person that ever lived.


God said yes to Moses and He’s invited you and me to come close and get a better look.
To draw near to Him and He’ll draw near to us.

Have you found that rock?
That place where God can tuck you into a hallowed place and show you His glory.

And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
Exodus 33:21-23

Close your eyes and imagine yourself on a high mountain sheltered by the two sides of a split in the rock.
You feel God’s presence draw near and His hand covers you, shielding your eyes from the full force of divine glory.
Now as He is just past, His hand slips away and you see a trail of glory, like the blazing light of a comet still 14 million miles away.
And God describes Himself to Moses.

He proclaims His name by revealing the way He acts toward people.

  • First, He’s merciful and gracious.
    He doesn’t give us what we deserve, He gives us what we can never deserve, never earn, never be worthy of receiving from Him.
  • Second, He is exceedingly patient with us.
    He suffers our sins, our ignorance, our blaspheme, our arrogance, our callousness, our indifference with a constant goodwill and an open longing for our friendship.
  • Third, He shows us goodness in the simple things like rain and the earth’s bounty.
    He’s told us the truth about Himself, about us, and about His plan for mankind.
  • Fourth, He forgives sin and iniquity for those who ask, but His holiness demanded a sacrifice.
    Which is why Jesus had to die on the cross.
  • Fifth, He limits the influence of sin in family lines to several generations.
    Do you know someone who is the first Christian in their family. That’s a work of God. His love seeks to disrupt a heritage of unbelief and beginning with one person His love slowly captures heart after heart. Faith displaces unbelief and sinners become saints.

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people;
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Exodus 34:5-9

Have you seen it there in your Bible?
Look for His mercy and grace, His patience and goodness, His forgiveness and love.
It’s all there, a trail of glory that should make us fall on our faces before Him in worship.

Morning Devotions

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Morning Meeting with God
Morning Meeting with God

Our Fall Women’s Retreat is coming up. I was asked to write several Morning Devotions.
It made me think about the WHY of devotions.
Is it Bible Study?
Prayer?
What’s it all about?

Devotions have been a part of my mornings for many years, but have I forgotten the primary purpose?
Is the main thing still the main thing in my Morning Devotions?

David wrote,
Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord;
in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Psalm 5:1-3

What did David say on those mornings?
We know some of what he said from the other Psalms.
Sometimes a lament, sometimes a praise, other times a request.

But, some days it was just worship.
Just pure worship.
Meditating on God Himself.
His perfection, power, and purpose.

That’s what I thought we should begin with first.
Here is our Saturday Morning Devotion.
You may not be joining us on the shores of Lake Tahoe, but God is wherever you are.
And He is listening for your voice.

Saturday Morning Devotion

In the practice of devotion you and I have the opportunity to offer something truly meaningful to God.

That’s not a small thing.
It’s not something to think about for a moment and then let drift from your thoughts like a feather on the wind.

In this little truth is bound up the magnificent eternal purpose behind God’s mighty work of salvation.

The purpose of God in salvation is to restore our communion with Him.
Our sins had separated us from God.
In Jesus Christ we have forgiveness of sins and a new relationship, by faith, with God.
We have, as Romans 5:1-2 says, peace with God and access to the grace in which we stand.

When we neglect devotion we diminish the fruitfulness of God’s redemptive work in our lives.
Enough neglect and we run dry.

Throughout the Scriptures we see men and women of God occupied in devotion.
Their hearts are aflame with a holy passion for God.
They know Him and in response they worship Him.

After a miraculous deliverance from God’s judgment on sinners, Noah left the ark and returned to dry land.
His first recorded action was an offering to God.

And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the Lord smelled a sweet savour;
Genesis 8:20-21a
Noah had witnessed first-hand the destruction and death that he and his family had escaped.
He knew God as gracious, but also as holy.
He responded in faith to God’s warning and accepted the deliverance God offered.
Now Noah offers a sacrifice by faith.
His offering is a declaration of God’s holiness and his own need, of God’s sufficiency and his dependency.

And the Lord smelled a sweet savor.
This word sweet has such deep meaning.
It can be translated an odor of satisfaction.
Other definitions are soothing, quieting, and tranquilizing.
This fragrance is sweetly agreeable to God.
That’s our desire this morning.
We want God to be pleased by the fragrance of our worship.
This morning is about God, not about us.

Kindle a fire in your own heart this morning.

How?
Gather recollections of God’s holiness and majesty,
His kindness and love,
His mercy and forgiveness
His provision and your need
And His longing for your communion.

The gift of His Son is the greatest evidence that He desires communion with you.

The Psalmist shares his intention to speak to God.

My voice shall you hear in the morning,
O LORD,
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And will look up.
Psalm 5:3

Let God hear your voice and enjoy the worship welling up from deep within your soul.

Too often we come into His presence rushed and harried.
We’re driven by duty not motivated by love.
We’re focused on getting rather than giving.

So, this morning ask nothing.
Simply give.
Let your heart speak of your love for Him.

Maybe the words to this Worship song will inspire your praise and worship.

No one is good except God alone, no one is holy as He.
So we should love Him for who He is, as well as the things He has done.
We glorify God alone.
Kelly Willard

“Today, if we will hear His voice, today, this morning, if we will draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. In the hush of that nearness we shall not seek anything for ourselves, not even help, or light, or comfort; we shall forget ourselves, ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’.”
Amy Carmichael
Edges of His Ways

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