September 30
It is good to praise the Lord and forever will His praise be on my lips. I will rise up in the morning with songs of praise and lie down with a grateful heart. It was because of His love that I was not consumed. Father, I bow before Your majesty, let all the glory and honour be ascribed unto You alone Who is worthy of my praise.
Finally we are at it; the Lord has done great things for us wherefore we were glad. Peradventure, you were unable to achieve or actualized all that you have proposed this month, I will encourage you to count your blessings one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
He gave us His Words at the beginning of the month that He will “remember” us and I can say that He did remembered me, He was too faithful to me as an individual, as a family and in the ministry. He manifested Himself so mighty and am sure you have your testimony to share also and our camp will forever be full of testimonies and His wondrous works.
We will be rounding up the month with praise and worship. I believed that when we worship Him in His glory, it will ascend as a sweet smelling sacrifice unto Him and all that seemeth impossible before now will become possible. He will show you a way out of that situation, solution to that problem; for you will hear a voice behind saying, this is way follow it.
Are you set for praise concert? Don’t mind the sound of your voice; it does not matter how you pronounce the wordings but you know the lyrics, just sing and glorify His Name. Remember, He alone receives praise; no angel is delegated to it. Halleluiah! Praise sets the captives free, someone is asking how? Just come along and discover it yourself:
“Sing forth the honour of His name, make His praise glorious.” Psalm 66:2
It is not left to our own option whether we shall praise God or not. Praise is God’s most righteous due, and every Christian, as the recipient of His grace, is bound to praise God from day to day. It is true we have no authoritative rubric for daily praise; we have no commandment prescribing certain hours of song and thanksgiving: but the law written upon the heart teaches us that it is right to praise God; and the unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it had been recorded on the tables of stone, or handed to us from the top of thundering Sinai. Yes, it is the Christian’s duty to praise God.
It is not only a pleasurable exercise, but it is the absolute obligation of his life. Think not ye who are always mourning, that ye are guiltless in this respect, or imagine that ye can discharge your duty to your God without songs of praise. You are bound by the bonds of His love to bless His name so long as you live, and His praise should continually be in your mouth, for you are blessed, in order that you may bless Him; “this people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise”; and if you do not praise God, you are not bringing forth the fruit which He, as the Divine Husbandman, has a right to expect at your hands.
Let not your harp then hang upon the willows, but take it down, and strive, with a grateful heart, to bring forth its loudest music. Arise and chant His praise. With every morning’s dawn, lift up your notes of thanksgiving, and let every setting sun be followed with your song. Girdle the earth with your praises; surround it with an atmosphere of melody, and God Himself will hearken from heaven and accept your music.
“E’en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing,
Because Thou art my loving God,
And my redeeming King.”
Do you remember King Saul and Brother Paul? No power resist the power of praise, maybe what that situation is waiting for, is that melodious sound that will drive it away like in the case of Saul or loose that chains like in the case of Paul and Silas. Are you aware of this popular saying below, read it and be blessed.
“A living dog is better than a dead lion.” Ecclesiastes 9:4
Life is a precious thing, and in its humblest form it is superior to death. This truth is eminently certain in spiritual things. It is better to be the least in the kingdom of heaven than the greatest out of it. The lowest degree of grace is superior to the noblest development of unregenerate nature.
Where the Holy Ghost implants divine life in the soul, there is a precious deposit which none of the refinements of education can equal. The thief on the cross excels Caesar on his throne; Lazarus among the dogs is better than Cicero among the senators; and the most unlettered Christian is in the sight of God superior to Plato.
Life is the badge of nobility in the realm of spiritual things, and men without it are only coarser or finer specimens of the same lifeless material, needing to be quickened, for they are dead in trespasses and sins.
A living, loving, gospel sermon, however unlearned in matter and uncouth in style, is better than the finest discourse devoid of unction and power. A living dog keeps better watch than a dead lion, and is of more service to his master; and so the poorest spiritual preacher is infinitely to be preferred to the exquisite orator who has no wisdom but that of words, no energy but that of sound.
The like holds good of our prayers and other religious exercises; if we are quickened in them by the Holy Spirit, they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, though we may think them to be worthless things; while our grand performances in which our hearts were absent, like dead lions, are mere carrion in the sight of the living God.
O for living groans, living sighs, living despondencies, rather than lifeless songs and dead calms. Better anything than death. The snarlings of the dog of hell will at least keep us awake, but dead faith and dead profession, what greater curses can a man have? Quicken us, quicken us, O Lord! That we will not be dead lions in the kingdom but living dogs; am sure someone is agreeing with me.
Have you visited the home page on the website recently? If not, please do for the ministry’s focus is expanding as the Lord lays it in our hearts and expands our visions to His kingdom’s work. Come the month of October, something great is happening and the Lord will use you and I to actualize it. Be ready for the master’s use.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu
