Fourth Woe

PRAYER: LORD, I rebuke the spirit of wavering from over my life and those around me. Like Your prophet Elijah asked so boldly before Your people; "How long will (we) waver between two opinions?" How long will we think that we're able to serve 2 masters? How long will we try to be of this world, instead of being of God and just living in this world? I pray that we learn and hold tight to Your Truth LORD. Your mighty Word, that is so powerful and without fault, no matter what others may say. You are a perfect God. And I'm not lucky to know You. It's not luck that brought You into my life. It was purpose, Your loving desire that brought me to You. Thank You LORD! Just thank You for being with me always. For bringing me out of darkness, confusion and misconceptions -- and replacing it with sound wisdom and great discernment. To not accept everything and anything that comes my way. To lay down my emotions and the way I want things to go. And to just surrender to You LORD. To let everything go. Not when I'm ready but right now! Whatever I am holding on to. Show me how to let it go, to make way for what You have for me. LORD, let me hear Your voice. Let it be known today, through what You do and have done in my life that You are God, that I am Your servant and am doing all things at Your command. As it is written in the book of Psalm, I know that the LORD is great, that our LORD is greater than all gods. That You do whatever pleases You and that we should consciously decide to do what pleases You in everything that we do; from our thoughts to our actions. Your Name, O LORD endures forever, your renown, O LORD through all generations. For You, LORD, will vindicate Your people and have compassion on Your servants. I praise You LORD! In Jesus' name. Amen (1 Kings 18/Psalm 135

The following song came to my spirit, when meditating on the prayer above. If you know it, sing it. If you have it, turn it on. If you don't know it, just say the words. Praise the LORD!

Praise is what I do
When I want to be close to You,
I lift my hands in praise.
Praise is who I am,
I will praise Him while I can.
I'll bless Him at all times.

Chorus
I vow to praise You
Through the good and the bad.
I'll praise You,
Whether happy or sad.
I'll praise You

(this is my testimony)
In all that I go through,
(somebody said why)
Because praise is what I do,
Cause I owe it all to You.

Verse 1
(come on church)
Praise is what I do
(come on church)
When I want to be close to You,
(I lift my hands-somebody lift Him)
I lift my hands in praise.
(somebody say it so the devil will hear you)
Praise is who I am,
(come on praise the Lord)
I will praise Him while I can.
I'll bless Him at all times.

Chorus
And I vow to praise You
Through the good and the bad.
I'll praise You,
Whether happy or sad.
I'll praise You
(Somebody lift your voice and say)

Verse 2
Praise is what I do,
Even when I am going through,
(see I've learned...)
I've learned to worship You.
(see I want to let the devil know tonight, even though...)
Though my circumstance doesn't even stand a chance,
My praise out weighs the bad.

(so I vow to praise)

Repeat Chorus

Now somebody lift your voice
And just go to praising him right now
Somebody lift your voice in this place
Lift up your voice in this place.

MATTHEW 23 part 7

SEVEN WOES:

4th Woe-

^{Jesus speaking to the crowds and to his disciples:}

²³ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

In this world, we're trained to just go through the motions. How many of you go to a job that you hate, yet you go through the motions to get that paycheck? How many of you are in a relationship that makes you feel horrible, but you've been in it so long-you just go through the motions because you don't know what else to do? How many of you, hang with someone who gets on your nerves and doesn't treat you like a friend, but you continue to go through the motions of "friendship" in order to not hurt anyone's feelings or because of the longevity of it. How many of you, just go through the motions of life because you don't know what else to do? When we only go through the motions, we lack what God is about. And that is purpose. We don't act by whims, wishes, or miracles. We are suppose to move with purpose. We get discouraged because we don't know the whole picture, but we do get pieces of information that are suppose to help us make purposeful decisions. And yet, we don't even use that. Faith is not just a feeling of hope. It's making moves. For when you have faith, you are not just hoping and praying. You are making decisions based on the hope for things which are not seen, but which are true and centered in Jesus Christ. True faith requires that we believe everything God has said about Himself and what He will do in our lives and for the people in this fallen world.

The Pharisees strained their water so they wouldn't accidentally swallow a gnat-an unclean insect according to the law. Meticulous about the details of ceremonial cleanliness, going through the motions of outward appearance; they nevertheless had lost their perspective on inner purity. They were ceremonially clean on the outside but had corrupt hearts. It is possible to obey the details of the laws but still be disobedient in our general behavior. For example, we could be very precise and faithful about giving 10% of our money to God but refuse to give one minute of our time in helping others. This doesn't make tithing any less important, but giving a tithe or saying a prayer or going to church does not exempt us from fulfilling God's other directives. Directives that usually concern other people. Directives that would have us step out on faith and make what seem like ridiculous decisions. We're too busy trying to understand everything, trying to make sense out of things. Because God usually only gives us things in pieces (read the Bible, He rarely gave a person the entire picture), we have to step out of the motions and act, regardless of if it makes sense or not. Your testimony will not be the same as mine-but it will give all the glory to God when you begin to really trust Him...what are you waiting for?

IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE BOLD ABOUT ANYTHING... BE BOLD FOR GOD AND IN WHAT HE HAS PLACED BEFORE YOU.