Coffee With The Lord

I’m a visual guy I guess… When I read the following words this morning from Psalm 9 I imagined a person standing up on Sunday morning in a worship service (Sunday is incidentally two days away) and using verses 1-2 as “a call to worship” … I saw that person in a loud, dramatic, and animated way proclaiming the following…

“I will praise You, O Lord, with my WHOLE HEART!  I will tell of your MARVELOUS WORKS!  I will be GLAD and REJOICE in You!  I will SING PRAISE to Your name, O MOST HIGH!!!”

Now, you could also make that “call to worship” collective as well by simply making the personal pronoun collective… “WE will praise You, O Lord with OUR WHOLE HEART! …”

Can you imagine an entire sports stadium declaring those words at the top of their lungs and the explosive expression that would follow (I’m “Pentecostal” after all!)?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful – nearly “Heavenly!”  Forget waiting until Sunday… I’d love to do it right now!!!  (I am in my heart – but I don’t want to disturb the neighbors!)  Oh let’s Praise the Lord!  He’s worthy of it!!!

Sometimes, as time passes we forget things that are important and we need reminders.  I wish we’d never forget, but sometimes we do.  Where did we put that item?  What did that person tell us?  What was that telephone number?  How did I do that?  When did that happen? And names!!!… You’ve had a few “forgets” too, I can see! J  What’s frustrating is they tell me it gets worse as you as you get older! J

Thought about all of that as I read these words from the Bible this morning during “coffee with the Lord”…

“Listen to me! … Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He!  I am He who will sustain you!  I have made you and I will carry you!  I will sustain you and I will rescue you! … Remember this! Keep it in mind!  Take it to heart! … I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.  I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please… What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do!’” (from Isaiah 46)

God said that!  I can’t afford to forget it!  (And most of all, I’m very grateful for His reminder!!)  Don’t let me EVER forget this Lord!!

What a wonderful, powerful, ALMIGHTY God we serve! 

Every time I read Isaiah 44:24-28 in the Bible I am encouraged.  This prophecy, given before Jerusalem was destroyed and the Babylonian captivity – 150 years before Cyrus lived and became king of Persia – predicted how God would use this Persian king to bring His people back to their homeland after His judgment, and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple!!  Awesome!!  Now, go ahead and read the prophecy below, and worship!!  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing is too hard for the Lord!!  He knows the end from the beginning!!

“This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners… who carries out the words of His servants and fulfills the predictions of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited!’  Of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt!’ And of their ruins, ‘I will restore them!” … Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please!” (notice He is called by name 150 years before he is even born!) He (Cyrus) will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt! And of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid!’” (from Isaiah 44.24-28)

Wow!!  Praise the Lord!!