Shalom,


Psalm 149:3-4:


3 Let them praise His Name in chorus and choir and with the [single or group] dance; let them sing praises to Him with the tambourine and lyre! 4 For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation and adorn the wretched with victory.


We are to praise Him in any and every way! Use every gift and talent you have to bring glory to His Name! Why? Because it pleases Him! There is something else interesting about the word "pleasure" in verse 4. It is the Hebrew word "ratsah", which means: to be pleased with; to approve; AND to satisfy a debt! We owe Him a very great debt and this is one way that we can repay Him! Then verses 6-9 say this:


6 let the high praises of God be in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands, 7 To wreak vengeance upon the nations and chastisement upon the peoples, 8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. 9 To execute upon them the judgment written. he [the LORD] is the honor of all His saints. Praise the LORD! (Hallelujah!)


Warfare is another part of our responsibilities as believers. Look at this from the Bible Exposition Commentary:

Worship and warfare go together, as the book of Revelation makes very clear. Satan has always wanted to be worshiped (Isa 14:12-15), and he is willing to pay for it (Matt 4:8-11). Satan is constantly at work enticing the world to worship him (Rev 13), for he does not mind if people are "religious" so long as they leave out Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel. In recent years, some denominations have eliminated the "militant songs" from their hymnals and their worship, and this is disappointing. Whether we like it or not, the church is an army, this world is a battlefield, and there is a struggle going on for the souls of lost sinners (Matt 16:17-18; Eph 6:10 ff; 2 Tim 2:3-4; 2 Cor 10:3-5). Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), is also the Conquering Warrior (45:3-7; Rev 19:11-21), and like the workers in Nehemiah's day, we must have both tools for building and swords for battling (Neh 4:17-18). Our weapons are prayer, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12), and hymns of praise to the Lord. Worship is warfare, for we are singing soldiers! Did not our Lord sing before He went out to the cross to do battle against the devil? (See Matt 26:30; John 12:31-32; and Col 2:13-15.)

So let's fight the good fight of faith, all the while praising the One, True, Most High, Living, Almighty God of the Bible for Who He is and for all that He has done! Amen! Join Hillsong with "Everything That Has Breath":

Revelation 5 speaks of a time that we have heard about, but have yet to see. That is the time when ALL beings will bow their knee to Jesus of Nazareth! Verse 11-13:

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels on every side of the throne and of the living creatures and the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin], and they numbered ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, 12 Saying in a loud voice, Deserving is the Lamb, Who was sacrificed, to receive all the power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and majesty (glory, splendor) and blessing! 13 And I heard every created thing in heaven and on earth and under the earth [in Hades, the place of the departed spirits] and on the sea and all that is in it, crying out together, To Him Who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb be ascribed the blessing and the honor and the majesty (glory, splendor) and the power (might and dominion) forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities)!

Every knee WILL bow, and every tongue WILL say that JESUS IS LORD! Make YOUR choice to say it  begin NOW! Amen!

Jeremiah 21 and 34 both speak of the judgment of Israel and Judah. This judgment came to them as a result of their continued disobedience to God's Word! There is one section from the Bible Exposition Commentary that explains this concerning the church of today!

The message to the nation was clear. If the command of a mere man, Jonadab, was respected and obeyed by his family for over two centuries, why didn't the people of Israel and Judah obey the command of Almighty God — a command that the prophets had repeated over and over again? If a family tradition was preserved with such dedication, why was the very Law of God treated with such disrespect? Obeying Jonadab's words had only a limited and temporal significance, but disobeying God's Word had eternal consequences!

How often God's people are put to shame by the devotion and discipline of people who don't even know the Lord but who are intensely loyal to their family, their religion, or their personal pursuits. Even people who want nothing to do with the Word of God can be loyal to traditions and man-made codes. If Christians were putting into their spiritual walk the kind of discipline that athletes put into their chosen sport, the church would he pulsating with revival life. 

Can YOU get THAT picture of how the church will look when we all make loving and obeying HIM the first priority in our lives? Then let's get back to our first love and please Him again!

Shalom in Him!