05/20/14 LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO

05/20/14 LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO

I think that a normal, healthy Christian walk with God is having stories of personal victories, ministry opportunities, answered prayer, every week. Even if it is not every week, how often do you have a vibrant testimony of up to date, personal, miraculous, Divine intervention in your life? Once every two weeks? Once a month? Once every three months? Once a year?

Or maybe God is doing awesome things in your life on a regular basis, but you don't share it with others. In either case, there is something lacking in your Christian experience. Either you need to be more available to God, so that He can work in you or you need to be more vocal about the things God is doing in your life.

OK, this is Tuesday; you have until Sunday to figure it out and correct it. This Sunday should be a day of great praise.

In fact, God demonstrated the balanced life for us in the the High Priest's robe. There were embroidered pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet hanging alternately with golden bells, around the hem of the High Priest's robe. This symbolized the "profession" and the "possession" of a right relationship with God.

For each pomegranate there was a bell. The pomegranate, a fruit that is covered with juicy seeds, represented the spiritual life and fruitfulness that was possessed by the High Priest and the bells symbolized the verbal witnesses that he professed. There should be a balance between the fruit and the witness. If the fruit of the life is lacking, then the sound of the bells is an empty witness. If the bells are silent, then God is not getting the glory.

The Bible says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. The songs of praise do not always have music notes. Sometimes they are the words we speak. God expects us to come before His presence with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

Too often we have such little true praise on Sunday because we have so little faithful living the other six days of the week. We have so little victory because we either are not obedient to His leading or we are blind to His leading. We have not because we ask not. If we live as we ought to live during the week, we will not be able to keep from praising Him when we gather together. If we open our mouths in praise on the Lord's day, after having played the hypocrite during the week, our praise is for our own glory and not His.

Jesus said that God is looking for people to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. The churches in America need a return to holy living so that we will lift up holy hands and voices in praise, petition and proclamation.

Psalms 107:2

2  Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;