Oh For a Thousand

Sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Psalm 66:2 ESV

It is not up to us whether we should praise God. Praise is God’s most rightful due, and every Christian, as the recipient of His grace, is bound to praise God every day. It is true we have no authoritative guide for daily praise—we have no commandment prescribing certain hours of song and thanksgiving. But the law in our hearts teaches us that it is right to praise God, and this unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it had been recorded on tablets of stone or handed down to us from the top of a thundering Mount Sinai. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

O For a Thousand Tongues 

O for a thousand tongues to sing
  My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
  The triumphs of His grace.
Gracious Master and my God,

Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad,
  The honors of Thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,

That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
  ’Tis life, and health, and peace.
love my heart has captive made,

  His captive would I be,
For He was bound, and scourged and died,
  My captive soul to free.
breaks the power of canceled sin,

  He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
  His blood availed for me.
So now Thy blessed Name I love,

  Thy will would e’er be mine.
Had I a thousand hearts to give,
  My Lord, they all were Thine!

These seem to be brought together this morning.  In this world in which we live, where corporations and sports figures,  movie characters all are craving our praise, our honor and yes, I will say it, our worship, it belongs to nobody else but Jesus.

It's very disturbing and disheartening to see Christians so caught up in their fervor for things other than God that it sometimes makes me physically ill.

We were never created to worship anything or anyone else but Jesus.

Yet that's exactly what people are doing that are taking the praise due God and give it to another.

Oh there will be those reading this saying that I am taking this too far. That God can't be that serious.  Hmm.  Go read Isaiah.  Look at the wrath that came upon Israel from God due to their taking the praise due Him and giving it to idolatry.

Read the other books of the Old Testament.  In dozens of books you find where God shows He is serious about this.

So it's not about harping on people, it's about getting people to return the praise due God back to God.

It was in my memories part of Facebook today of a quote from the movie Concussion.  Of how Sunday's used to be the Churches and now it belongs to the NFL.  And Hollywood owns the rest of the weekend. 

People live their lives, both Christians and non-Christians like they are children at a fair.  All the lights and sounds and smells attract them off the thoroughfare of life.
Enticing them to come and play, it won't hurt. It'll be ok. It's all in fun, right?  Nobody's gonna get hurt. 

Spurgeon goes on to say that it matters not what the believer is going through, all praise belongs to Him.  We who are not of this world find our healing of our souls in obedience to God.  If we mourn, we need to remember to still praise Jesus.  As Blackaby pointed out this morning too, only God knows every single thing about everyone.  Of what would have happened if they went left instead of right. If they had been on time versus being late a few minutes.  Of whether or not what caused their illness or death had more to do with secret sins than physical illness.

Look to the 4 Gospels.  There were only two kinds of people Jesus healed.  Demon possessed or those just physically ill.  Nothing else. 

Yet to those whom He healed, most couldn't contain their praise for God.

It's mostly those still in darkness that wanted Jesus to leave the area.

He ruined my business.  He ruined my family.  He ruined...really? 

God shows up and does miraculous things and the people of the day want Him dead or just plain gone!

Newsflash:  the people of today's world would do no different.

They cry out to God for help in their afflictions but when He does they want nothing to do with Him.  They forget His mercy towards them.

The more I let go of the baggage in my life the more I realize how deep my heart gave into the lies of this world.

Everyone has baggage they were convinced they could handle but didn't see it for what it truly was.  Sin in disguise.

Return this day to prayer and praising Jesus.  Turn your hearts and minds to that today and reap the true joy that will come.

But it will hurt if I let go!
What will people think?

Consider this: who cares what people think.  What does God think about it?