Jeremiah Griffin

I got an email from my father that was pretty neat for a son to get.  It was a testimony of God’s working in his life.  God continues to move even though we are old.  Way old.   It is interesting that  I still wrestle with Dispensational vs. Covenant Theology… yeah probably not on many people’s radar but it is something that has caused me to dig deeper into scripture.  Oh for perfect knowledge and understanding… Lord, come quick!  No matter what you believe the fact is we are MADE for worship (thank’s to Toby Mac for making that known to my generation) Today, let us sing the same song of the ages.

Robert E Griffin
Studying on “Worship” and how we “Praise” God, I was more than a little shaken in my strong dispensational thinking to see a continuing worship from the days of Moses to David to Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah to the end of Revelation’s scene in heaven.  It was the SAME!

I always wanted to compartmentalize praise and worship, and divide the Church from anyone else. But from beginning to end, IT IS THE SAME SONG for all of God’s people. And God’s people are the same – from beginning to end!

While God may have given differing commands and requirements for people in different ages, ALL of God’s people are one, and ALL are singing the same song!  We are the Church of the Firstborn, God’s people!

 Exodus 15:1-2 “I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously.

The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

 Psalm 118:14 “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.”

 Isaiah 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid:
for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.”

 Revelation 15:3, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints”

 From beginning to end, we see the “Church” (ALL of God’s people of ALL ages) singing the same song that is nothing more or less than the Gospel elucidations that we experience now!

 Published w/o permission

Have we missed the point of worship?  Have we gone the way of the “Mc Church” rapidly serving millions with a trademark presentation of church?  Have we gotten so far away from worship that we can no longer “see God” in the worship?

Eph 5:18-20
…Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Col 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God

1. True Worship is Spirit Filled.
2. True Worship is singing
   • Singing Psalms (Scripture)
   • Music in the Heart
3. True Worship is Expressive
   • Gives Thanks
   • Reading the Word
4. True Worship is God Centered
   • Instructions
   • Wisdom
   • Thankfulness

How far off are we in our “worship” when we over-focus on one element and do not follow the instructions and examples of the church.  Have we run so far from the rituals of “the church” that we have forgotten the true sense of worship? We sing songs, we pray we read scripture, we give, we do the things that are good… but do we worship?

As we prepare for tomorrow’s worship, let us not bog down in the trappings that man has put on it, let us return the focus of Worship to our Holy God.

Matthew 7:11
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Continue reading

This morning as I watched the news I counted 5 ads for attorney’s offering mercy from everything from bill collectors to the “evil drug companies.”  I listened to the commentary of  the news anchors telling me how the economy was in an up swing and that it would soon create more jobs.  I listened to the rhetoric of the politicians telling me that congress had done this great thing to provide healthcare for me and my family and it only needed a little more push to get it through the Senate and we would all be taken care of.  Everyone was there offering me mercy from the ills around me.

Psalm 123
I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help.  Like servants, alert to their master’s commands, like a maiden attending her lady,
We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy. Continue reading

“the covenant of works was broken by sin and was unable to confer life”
 – Baptist Confession of Faith 1689

What a different way of looking at the covenant. Often we think of the covenants as something the God must keep, we focus on the fact that His promises never fail… to think that a promise made by God was broken, not by God but by man’s failure to KEEP the covenant. 

Romans 4:13
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith (emphasis mine)

We are left with a massive shortfall of righteousness on our side of the covenant.  We have broken the Laws of God with no hope of making it right.   More evidence of grace that has been planned from the beginning.

2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Before time began, God knew we would fail our side of the promise.  God knew we would never achieve the Glory of  Himself.  It is in the gospel that we are made righteous.

We must proclaim this Good News.  That God would choose us to make His call known is still beyond the reaches of my imagination.

I was editing some code and I always like to have some rather loud music going to help me keep focused on resolving the problem I am working through. Today I had Demon Hunter The Triptych CD in going loud and the lyrics of one of the songs caught my attention.

RELENTLESS INTOLERANCE

These eyes, they will gaze and reflect
And gauge every thought I reject
No sway of stance in changing times
Just a narrow mind commanding respect
We stand on the words of the wise
And languish every call to despise
We know the hollow sound of their lies

No reformed edition
Never losing vision
Now into forever
Only getting Better
Ways of now, spiral down
How much more we allow

Keeping sight of the vow we made (Never changing)
Holding fast to the hope (Never losing ground)
So when we stand in the line of wrath (Never changing)
The true and righteous will know (Never losing ground)

The foundations that we used to uphold
Now regarded as the madness of old
Every alteration made to the standard of truth
Is a nail in the coffin we hold
We embody everything they despise
Because they see us through degenerate eyes
So when they cast you down as intolerant filth
Stand firm, never bow to the lies

See the scorn inside my eyes

I am purposed to follow the Word, but does my daily walk suffer from the influance of a politically correct society on my life?  It is difficult to walk in the path of the righteous after all and it is possible to stumble or fall from that path (although not from the hand of God).

Proverbs 28:10
Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit…

My thinking is influenced by the world that I work and live in.  My culture, my music, my friends all affect my thinking and my attitude.  These are the things that I bring into my life… all affect my walk with God.

God knew that we could not live a life without the influence of our world and our culture.  The psalmist defines it well and then declares it a mystery that he can not possibly know or understand(Psalm 139:1-6).

Psalm 139:4-5
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways,
before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether

In a world full of compromise our senses are dulled to the little changes that are/have been made in the very fabric of the “church (global).” Perhaps it is because of this tolerance that we asked to adopt…  Perhaps it is because of our sin….

No matter how we slice it, the facts are we utterly fail  to make our own paths to righteousness.  We fail to keep our view of God untainted by the culture and life that surrounds us.

I love the first phrase of the last verse of that song:

“The foundations that we used to uphold, Now regarded as the madness of old”

Are we willing to stand up for God’s Word in our world today?  Are we willing to stand up for God’s Word in our churches today?  Are we willing to be called “mad” for following the Word that we believe.

We must hold forth the Light for all to see.

Ex33:19 “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”

It is a really good thing that God is gracious to this world that constantly rejects him. It is our duty as Disciples of Christ to preach the Gospel with the compassion that was shown to us. That we would be privilaged to be even a small part of God’s display of compassion. This is grace.

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Matthew Henry’s commentary says about the call of God to the saints, “It is an effectual call, from self and earth to God, and Christ, and heaven, as our end; from sin and vanity to grace and holiness, as our way. This is the gospel call. The love of God, ruling in the hearts of those who once were enemies to him, proves that they have been called according to his purpose.

It is  amazing that we sat close the the brink of  a destruction of our own making.  Then comes “the call.”  Left to our own we would not give a thought to the call to repentance…yet we hear a different call,  a purpose.  It is  God that brings this call to us.  We do nothing on our own.

John 6: 43-44 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End.  (The Message)

I love this translation!  He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come.

One of the most difficult things to face is that we on our own can do nothing to achieve the Holiness that is required to come near to God.  We can not even get close.  Add to this that, we on our own we would be happy to just sit and perhaps even mock God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines the “Effectual calling” as follows:

“Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills, He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.”

God has purposed His call to us.  Humbling, but at the same time liberating.   We do nothing.  God  convicts.  God works.  God  changes.

Romans 9:11 What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative.

God keeps. God chooses. God has a purpose that is beyond our minds, beyond our control.  Romans 9:11 calls that purpose “a sure thing.”

How  awesome is our God.  The mystery of God’s grace as one grows in its knowledge  continues to deepen and it is a wonderful thing… “a sure thing!”

II Timothy1:9-10 We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.

The world today tells us that there is no God, it tells us that there is no Truth, that there is no answer to Life.  The world tells us to seek pleasure and fulfillment in things.  As Christians we are implored to turn to God for our meaning, our purpose, our hope, our wisdom.   The world has quite the opposit and in turn fills the scripture “professing to be wise, became fools”

Rom 1:20-25   For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Jesus said in Mat 22:37 ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

2.  Today the unbeliever is called to look at their purpose their meaning their wisdom. (where is your honor, love, praise)

Psa 14:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God.  They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. Oh that today we would not be counted among those foolish enough to claim that there is no God.  There is nothing good with in us.  We can do good deeds, we can have good effect, we can make good our promises… but still our best deeds are corrupt and can not compare with the Glory and Holiness that Jesus brings to our lives.

What is your purpose?  Whom do you honor, love and praise?  Today if that answer is Jesus **GET TO IT!!** if it is yourself…