HEAVENSREEF

FIRST before I begin, I want to thank you all who follow and read HEAVENSREEF.  I know GOD has HIS hand here and if the words written each week are an encouragement to anyone……then HEAVENSREEF serves a purpose.  I am thankful for all sweet souls who come to read this page and especially those who leave heartfelt comments! I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

I am learning (there is that word again) in more recent months what it means to praise and magnify the LORD!  I am so thankful GOD is showing me the best way to respond to HIM.  Every Sunday my Church has worship music that truly glorifies JESUS and the many songs sung before the message move me and my soul to think vertically.  Scripture is often read in addition to the songs and all of it helps me realize that our GOD is bigger and more magnificent than any of us can imagine.  I am learning to lose myself in that worship time!

In my current body of believers, I watch my brothers and sisters glorify and magnify the LORD…….I see it and feel it all around me, as we raise our hands and sing with all our might.  JESUS is praised and raised above all else.  

ISAIAH 42:10 “SING A NEW SONG TO THE LORD; SING HIS PRAISE FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH……”

To magnify means to: make larger, especially with a lens or microscope.  Magnify can also mean to esteem greatly, to extol, to elevate and to see as noble.

Do you see GOD for HIS bigness?  Are you viewing HIM from a temporal lens or an eternal lens?   Do you see HIM as larger and more excellent than anything you know?  Because when you glorify HIM and HIM alone, you put GOD in HIS rightful place – a place of LORDSHIP……..

Let your praise be your best response to the KING!

Every week as we sit in Church, we should be overwhelmed by the greatness of our GOD.  Does this happen for you?  GOD will not be put into a neat little box……..HE is beyond that and will always amaze us with HIS grandeur and majesty, and HIS wonder and infinite possibilities.  When we humble ourselves and stop putting self in the equation, then we can truly view HIM for who HE is.

Because we come as paupers like the woman with the least coin……..we have nothing to give at all really, except our vertical attention and our open hearts.  Church was always meant to be a place where we meet HIM on a grand scale.  Our worship should be grand…….all year long!  

PSALM 34: 3 “OH, MAGNIFY THE LORD WITH ME, AND LET US EXALT HIS NAME TOGETHER.”

I think some churches try to downplay GOD.  They try to turn JESUS into a best friend and when they do, they remove HIM from HIS rightful place…….a royal throne.  There are churches where JESUS is marginalized instead of being magnified! I have personally experienced this and honestly it did not feel right……something seemed off.

So in your worship of HIM, don’t let your worship become familiar.  Don’t take GOD for granted because you know HE is always by your side…….delight in HIS bigness, glorify and adore HIM.

Our GOD is not interested in a Christian who is lukewarm either because…….

a lukewarm Christian is an ineffective Christian.

I am afraid that sometimes we go through the motions.  We say the right buzz words, or pray a quick prayer and even get in the habit of going through the same door each Sunday.  Don’t let anything related to GOD become familiar!  Don’t view Sunday as a day to check off your list……make each Sunday a day of wonder and awe and reverence.  Our culture will tell you your Sunday is for errands……..the LORD tells us our Sabbath is to remain a holy one.  

If we magnify HIM, we keep GOD in HIS rightful place…….the Sovereign ONE of the universe!  And in our gratefulness, our knees should bend, our heads should bow and our hearts should change as we glorify, extol and magnify our glorious big GOD!  Let us remember too, that this glorious GOD of wonder, with all of HIS lofty attributes and all of HIS majesty, wants more than anything for us to personally call HIM: “Glorious FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE.”

ISAIAH 49: 26 “THEN ALL THE PEOPLE WILL KNOW THAT I, THE LORD, AM YOUR SAVIOR, AND YOUR REDEEMER, THE MIGHTY ONE OF JACOB.”