Psalm 8: 1Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

David wrote this psalm as a praise and worship song to the Lord. In the whole psalm each verse exalts the Lord.

In the first four verses, David wrote;

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you are for him?

What David has written about God described how majestic God truly is. There is no little detail that God has left out in all His creation. Everything that He created is perfect and flawless. This speaks of the perfection and the ability of God. If He is not totally perfect and able, then he is not god but Yahweh our God is perfect and complete.

There is no other God like Him; He is the God who is Omnipresence, Omnipotent and Omniscience. This means He is everywhere at all times, He is able to do all things and He knows all things. He is the author and finisher of all things. He is above all living things whether in heaven, on earth or beneath the earth.

The scripture tells us that every knee shall bow whether in heaven, on earth or beneath the earth and every tongue confess that He is God. This would mean that everything that has breathe would praise the Lord including human, animal and plant life would all have to praise the Lord. We may not be able to hear them but they do. Recent discovery by scientist tells us that even the universe makes sounds in the seeming silence of outer space.

These sounds have been recorded using very sophisticated equipment. In their own way the whole universe is also praising God continuously.

David in his earthly understanding wrote this psalm to exalt God the way that He knows best. Today we have all the equipment and facilities that would make our praise and worship easier and better. We can make a joyful noise to the Lord each time we gather to worship Him.

Let us not forget to worship our God for He is worthy to be worshiped.

Phip 1: 23-24

I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary that I remain in the body.

This is a very powerful confession of Paul, before he encountered Jesus he was a vehement persecutor of Christians. His whole purpose in life was to arrest Christians and torture and kill them. He was notoriously well known but now after his miraculous transformation he is writing a confession totally opposite.

After Jesus Christ had called him personally and having been taught by the Holy Spirit personally for three years, now Paul has become the chose vessel of God called to be an apostle to the gentiles. Paul was fully aware of the responsibility of receiving the doctrine of the gospel. It was given to him so that he can write and send out his teaching to the various churches in the region.

In addition, these letters of Paul has been recorded in the bible to be the authoritative word of God on the doctrine of salvation and Christian living.

In today’s verse, Paul says that he yearns to leave this wretched world and to go into the presence of Jesus our Lord. He knew what heaven is like as he has also mentioned that he had visited heaven before and have seen the glory of heaven. That is now his only desire to be in the presence of Jesus Christ and the Father and to spend eternity with the saints and God in heaven forever.

This is the promise of the scriptures that we have an eternal hope that we can go to be with God and Jesus when we leave this earth. Paul said though he yearns to leave but he knew that his work is still incomplete as he was given a mission to train and build fellow workers and leaders for the Churches.

Likewise, we today need to grow spiritually as well as to build others spiritually so that the kingdom of God would be full of spiritual warriors and not spiritual babies.

The end time anointing and harvest is at our door steps, how can God use us if we are still spiritual babies and not warriors. Therefore we need to rise up and be trained and equipped for this end time revival.

Joshua 1:9The lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, they had to journey through unknown territories. Imagine that the Israelites have been staying within the safe boundary of Egypt all their lives and now Moses has led them into the wilderness which is harsh and dangerous.

Not only are they journeying across the desert which is hot and without water, there were many dangerous wild animals and also warring enemies that came and attacked them. The Israelites were slaves before and now they are required to become warriors defending themselves as well as having to attack and defeat the enemies.

Now Moses has been taken and hidden by God and Joshua is left to lead the Israelites. It would have been a very challenging task for Joshua as he suddenly found himself leading over 2 million of his people. Joshua has been through all the challenges with Moses, he had also fought all the wars alongside Moses.

Now to obey God’s instruction to take the people into the Promised Land is indeed something that is above Joshua. Now we see God assuring him that ‘God will indeed be with him’ as they obey and follow His directions. God promised Joshua that wherever he may go, God will surely be with him.

What a great assurance that Joshua had received. There are no nations or dangers that are greater than the Almighty God. This is the assurance that Joshua was given.

Our God who led Moses and the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years is the same. Today in Israel where the soldiers are also facing the same harsh conditions and also the same hostile enemies, we continue to see that God is still protecting His people against their enemies.

Our God never changes, His promise to Joshua was not only for him at that time but it is also for all the Israelites until today. Our God is the same yesterday, today and forever. 

John 1: 7

John came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.

John who wrote this gospel identified John the Baptist as being the witness or testimony to the coming of the Messiah. A witness is someone who appears in court to give evidence for any fact to be established and their testimony must be the truth.

Likewise the apostle John recorded that John the Baptist came to proclaim the truth about the coming of the Messiah. John also said that the Messiah is the light to the world. The world has been overcome by evil and spiritually the world was living in darkness under the bondage of evil witchcraft all over the world.

The world was so evil that it was going to be totally judged and condemned; everyone would be cast into the pits of hell. The plan of God was that Jesus was sent to save all sinners from falling into Hell. Jesus brought the gospel which is the salvation plan of God to the world.

Now that Jesus had finished His work on this earth, He has now called us to be this light. What is this light for? In the present day the usage of light is more defined as we can see that it is used to warn us of dangers. The light from the light house warns ships of the dangers of rocks. The lights along road constructions warn us of the dangers that are there.

Another effective use of light is the use of it to tell a message like during festive seasons where there are commercial events happening or coming attractions.

Then there are the uses of lights as in road signs giving directions in the dark. It can point the travelers to the right direction and to the right destinations they want to go.

When John wrote about this and when Jesus commanded that we are to be the light to the world, our functions would be like those lights that warn people of the danger of falling into hell and we are also the lights to point and direct the people towards Jesus and the Father.

This is our mission that Jesus had given to the Church that we must be this guiding light to the lost in the world. Is our light shining bright or is our light very dim?

When we are hot for Jesus then our light is bright but when we are no so hot for Jesus then our light would be very dim and would be of no help to the people. Let’s keep our light bright and burning for Jesus.

Psalm 90: 12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

This is a reminder that our days on earth are short. God had designated that man should live up to 70 years and if we are healthy and blessed by God then we can live for another ten to twenty years.

In sum the years that we spend on earth are very short as compared to eternity when we leave this earth. Eternity is a very long time, in fact it is immeasurable and it means forever and ever.

I belong to a FaceBook group of our old alma mater and we are trying to reconnect with some of our child hood friends. Some of my friends have been able to keep their school class photos for over 60 years and I connected with a former classmate from secondary three class. We are both over seventy now but unfortunately some of our former classmate have left this earth.

Looking back 60 odd years seem like a short moment, we can still remember some of our old days where we were, what we did, who we were with. Now we are into our twilight years and soon we will also go on the way of our ancestors.

What is today’s passage telling us? Our days on this earth are short and therefore we have only a short window to live right with God. We have to align ourselves in His word, walk according to His teaching and be in His grace and mercies all the time. When the time comes for us to leave this temporary home, then we are ready to move over to spend eternity in the presence of our heavenly Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Heb 13: 15

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

The plan of God when he created the angels was for them to praise and worship Him. The scriptures tell us that Lucifer was the chief worship leader. He was in fact created as such a beautiful and glorious angel because he had an important role which was the leader of all the angels who would gather and worship God.

That was what the angels were created for and when Lucifer saw the glory and the pageantry of worship that happens in heaven, he because jealous and wanted all that for himself. That was when he said in his heart that he wants to take over the throne of God and receive all that worship and praise for himself.

This was the first sin and it was the sin of rebellion. We can say that both pride and rebellion that came together was the mother of all sin and every other sin came as a result after that. The rest we know already that God caste Lucifer down from heaven and he took one third of the heavenly angels with him.

Lucifer became Satan and the fallen angels became the principalities and demons that are in the world today.

Likewise God created man to worship Him and to have interaction with God. At the beginning when God created man, both were interacting and fellowshipping freely. In fact God used to come down to earth to fellowship with man. Then all these beautiful relationship were broken because of sin and God did not come down on a personal level to interact and fellowship with man anymore.

However, he commanded that man must worship Him and that is the true plan and purpose of God. He desires and delights in our praises and our worship. This is the thing that pleases God. There is nothing else that pleases Him for He created all things and He owns all things. They belong to Him in the first place and we cannot give Him anything.

The only thing that we can give Him is our praises and our worship. The writer of Hebrew also tells us in today’s scripture that we must continually offer the fruit of our lips which are the praises of our heart and lips. When our lives are holy and righteous, then our praises will be like sweet aroma to God. The offerings that we offer up would be holy offering which would please and delight God.

Therefore when God has already redeemed and saved us, the only thing that we should do and can do is to praise and worship Him sincerely and faithfully.

Therefore the writer of Hebrews tells us; let us be faithfully in discharging this responsibility so that we can draw near to our God daily. 

Col 3:13

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

When Paul ask that we forgive others just as God has forgiven us, this does not mean that sins are condone and wrong doings against us are being excused. There have been many wrongs and sinful acts that may have been committed against us. While the person who did all those things may not even have repented or they may have determined not to apologise or repent, nevertheless Paul is saying that it is upon us to release them and still forgive them.

When we are interacting with people and especially when we are working with co-workers, irrespective of culture, nationality and society sooner or later there will be differences, jealousy, enmity in the relationship among the workers. There will arise gossip, slander, back biting among even the most senior people. Until and unless everyone has grown into maturity, petty jealousy and differences will arise.

The enemy will sow seeds of discourse among the flock and also among the workers. Soon without our awareness there would be groups and cliques that would rise up taking sides and championing their leader or hero. They would want to stand up for the ones they support.

These have happened even in mega Churches where different groups have emerged and they began to tear each other down. This is the work of the flesh and instigated by the devil who wants to split the body of believers. Sometimes the situation becomes so strain that brothers would take each other to court.

If not then the whole Church would be split and the whole congregation destroyed. I have seen many mega Churches and also some other bigger Churches going in this direction. This is because the sin of pride and self-righteousness would come into the hearts of the believers and each will justify their own words and deeds putting themselves above others.

This is so sad and all through the Church history this had happened even during the times of the early Church between even the disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus. Similarly the early Church in the book of Acts also had to deal with some of these problems.

The apostles had also experienced personal attack from others. Therefore what Paul and the other apostles taught not surprising as the human sin nature never left man and they are unable to control this sin nature on their own efforts.

We need the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit to overcome all these challenges and temptation of the flesh. We need to cover our lives with prayers and the meditation of the scriptures to be able to grow into the stature of spiritual maturity.