Sweet Words

Praise isn't worship. Praise is what we do because of worship. Worship is a study of God's character. We get glimpses of grace and those glimpses produce praise.

People can worship other people. It happens all the time in fact. Our eyes move to the things we see and true worship ceases. A little convenient editing while wearing rose colored glasses gives us praise for people.

Worship of God is true worship. The deeper we go into who God Is the more cause there is for praise and further exploration. Man made in the image of God also has a depth but we aren't going to like what we see if we dig too deep.

"You shall have no other gods before me." - Exodus 20:3 ESV

"Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips." - Exodus 23:13 ESV

God is jealous this way. Any other God must be a lie because He Is the only God. He is the God of all grace.

How many 'sweet words' have been lost (see Proverbs 23:8) because we realize the flaws in people. It might just take as little as a drive on our local highway or in your downtown center to lose sweet words and trade then for sour ones.

It is a paradox. When we worship God we can love people because God loves people. When we worship people we can't love God because we have forsaken the fountain of living waters..

Praise is not an activity for me. If I don't have praise on my lips then something has happened. It means my spiritual vision is either obscured or misplaced. I either can't really see who God Is or I have stopped looking at Him and started looking at something else for my happiness, provision and focus.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith" - Hebrews 12:1-2a ESV

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:1-3 ESV

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." - 2 Timothy 1:6-7 ESV

Oh, I love that translation of 2 Timothy 1 verse 6. Fan into flame the gift of grace. If you are born from above that fire can not die. The embers may be small but they are alive. Fan them. Fan the gift of your calling... fan the gift of salvation... be with people who are alive and get close to their fire... listen to a preacher who burns with the fire of grace and is not consumed... let the reality of grace have the air that it needs to be reignited in your life and feed scripture and concentration into that fire and praise will just come. It will spring from your lips as God comes into view in the face of Jesus Christ.

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