Praise
the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens! Praise
him from the skies! Praise him, all his angels! Praise
him, all the armies of heaven! Praise him, sun and moon! Praise
him, all you twinkling stars! Praise him, skies above! Praise
him, vapors high above the clouds! Let every created thing give praise to the
LORD, for he issued his command, and they came into being. He set them in place forever and ever. His
decree will never be revoked. Praise the LORD from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths, fire
and hail, snow and clouds, wind
and weather that obey him, mountains
and all hills, fruit
trees and all cedars, wild
animals and all livestock, small
scurrying animals and birds, kings
of the earth and all people, rulers
and judges of the earth, young
men and young women, old
men and children. Let them all praise the name of the LORD. For
his name is very great; his
glory towers over the earth and heaven! He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones— the
people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the LORD! Psalms 148:1 - 14 (NLT)
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Colossians 3:12 - 17 (NLT)
Do you like disaster movies?
Not my favorite! Give me “Meet Me
in St Louis” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” –There’s already too much reality on
the daily news for me to be interested in end of the world scenarios.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many of those “disaster
movies” produced? It’s because there is
so much disaster and “shaking” of this world.
Frankly, underneath it all people are nervous and unsure of what’s going
to happen to this old world; so much is uncertain.
Herbert O’Driscoll is a retired Anglican priest who served in
Ireland. In the 1970’s he watched the
terrible earthquakes in Northern Italy.
Someone with a home movie camera captured an outdoor worship scene after
the quake hit:
On a
hillside a rough altar of stones had been assembled and an elderly priest was
about to elevate the chalice when an aftershock came. The tremor rippled through the crowd until it
reached the priest. He staggered but succeeded
in keeping the chalice aloft with one hand while supporting himself on the
altar with his other hand.
[O’Driscoll
continued that he]…immediately identified with the scene. I understood my priesthood as being in such a
world, a world in which foundations were being shaken but where my task was to
reach for and hang on to what remained solid and lasting….Why does God shake
the earth?....God shakes the earth so that what cannot be shaken may remain….To
serve in an age of earthquake is to be forced to decide what it is, for each
one of us, that cannot be shaken.[1]
The cross of Christ is, for me, what cannot be shaken. This cross represents the love of God, and
the life Russell should lead.
For these few moments let’s focus on the solid, unshakeable ways
we can praise the LORD with our lives.
The Psalmist told us why – that God is creator and
sustainer of all there is, and therefore entirely worthy of our praise.
Paul, in Colossians, tells us the how – living each day of our
lives in a manner that is a worthy offering, a life in the character of Jesus
Christ. Paul shows us about 11
characteristics of a Christ-like life.
It’s not exactly New Year’s resolution time, but let’s go over the
list.
1.
Live With Compassion
Compassion is pretty straightforward; when somebody else is
hurting, you do something! It may only
be a word, or it may mean sacrifice beyond what you ever could imagine – but
compassionate people act!
2.
Live With Kindness
Kindness is a matter of seeing the weakness in another person and
deciding against exploiting; rather deciding to help the other to overcome. It is the picture of lifting someone out of
the pit.
3.
Live With Humility
Humility isn’t merely a lack of “tooting your own horn” or the
opposite of pride. It is more a matter
of simply thinking of others before you consider your own needs or wants. That’s rare today; very rare!
4.
Live With Meekness
Meekness is not being soft-spoken
or “wimpish”. The Bible word suggests
great power under control. The image is
like a huge stallion – 2,000 pounds of incredible strength, gently responding
to the reins held by a ten year old girl.
Jesus was characterized as meek, but he had great strength. His prayer from the cross could have been,
“Father, wipe ‘em all out and get me off this planet!” But Jesus’ meekness, his
strength-under-control, was to instead say, “Father, forgive them.”
5.
Live With Patience
Do you enjoy department store return
lines? How about traffic jams? Do you have any patience left when you get
cut-off on the interstate?
For thousands of years God sent
his messengers of love, the prophets; one after the other they were murdered by
the very ones God intended to save.
Finally God sent his own beloved Son – and we put him on a cross
too. That is patience!
6.
Live With Forgiveness
How are you at forgiving? Do you make others come to you, groveling,
before you’ll even consider it? Do you say
you forgive, and then keep bringing it up, rolling it around in conversation or
just thinking about it until you unravel whatever forgiveness you might have
given? Have you not learned to forget to
talk about another’s wrong towards you?
7.
Live in Harmony
Harmony is not when everybody
learns to think and act alike; it is much harder to achieve harmony than
uniformity. It takes different notes to
make a harmonious sound. But, harmony IS
your target. So, are you committed to
listening so you can understand others – so you can work together towards
harmony?
8.
Live With Christ’s Peace
Ruling in Your Heart
Paul said in his letter to the
church at Philippi that worry shouldn’t rule over our lives, but our prayers
and needs are to be lifted to God above.
When we leave our cares and needs with God, he sends the peace of Christ
to guard our hearts.
9.
Live With Thankfulness
This should be the easiest of Paul’s
list. When you have a God who has
promised an exchange, where we give Him our anxieties and tell Him our needs, and
He gives us his peace and supplies our needs, what more does it take to be
thankful?
10.
Live Teaching Each Other
Wisdom
Wisdom is not a matter of IQ or
degrees earned from colleges. Knowing
God is the beginning and sum total of true wisdom. When it comes to teaching each other Godly
wisdom, we are like so many beggars sharing with each other where we found
bread.
A major problem these days is
that too many spiritual beggars have decided not to look for bread any
more. Bible Study is, of course, the
implication here.
We get our Bible study in many
ways – worship is introductory; holy conferencing with other believers takes
learning spiritual wisdom to a deeper level (if the topic is scripture and
serving, not ball game scores).
But the deepest of all is
personal Bible study, so that you learn to share God’s good ways with
others. Nobody learns like one preparing
to teach!
11. Live With a Song of Praise
There is enough about which you
can complain these days. The life of a
believer who honors God in a worthy manner is a person whose lips are filled
with praise. Unfortunately there is no
shortage of people who want to constantly dwell on the negative. They can’t wait to tell you the latest bad
news. They feel compelled to the down
side like a junkyard dog feels called to devour a mailman.
Christian – your life is in-Christ,
not in the dump! Pull up thy chin!
Amen, or “Oh Me”?
Does your life fall just a little
short of all these wonderful characteristics?
Do you feel like you don’t hit on all those cylinders? Perhaps you felt like you got a perfect score
– ZERO out of 11!
Let’s go back to Herbert
O’Driscoll. It’s an earthquake kind of world. Of all that which we do today, the cross of
Christ is secure. No matter what your
score on Paul’s list, God loves you.
You can count on that, praise the
Lord!
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