Christmas Songs

“I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord.”

Psalm 104:33-34 NIV -- http://bible.com/111/psa.104.33-34.niv

Sometimes you just need to sing. Christmas is a great time to remember to sing to the Lord. So many radio stations have nothing but Christmas music right now. I can't get enough during this month long celebration. I'm. It sure what my favorite is. There are so many great classics and new songs it's hard to say. But, all my favorites are on WBCL. That's my go to station during the year. It's a Christian supported station that just lights up my life. Right now there is a lot of wonderful praise music, classic Christmas songs, and joyous sounds celebrating the birth of Jesus on this wonderful station.

It's not just during the Christmas season that we need to sing to the Lord. Our Lord is present in our lives 365 days a year. Through stress, strife, hurt, illness, and loss he is to be e praised. We need to celebrate the Lord in prayer and praise! ALWAYS!

Thank You!

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:1-5 NIV. 

http://bible.com/111/psa.100.1-5.niv

What a wonderful passage of scripture. Thank you Lord for your songs of joy. I am so amazed with your power and strength together with your unending love. I am yours. You are my God and I start this day praising you. You have been, you are, and you will always be great and wonderful. 

I don't think we praise God enough. Most spend NO time praying to the Lord and when people do it is usually a litany of needs and wants. I know you can come to the Lord with anything, but sometimes we just need to drop the Christmas list and just spend time praising God! We need to worship God with gladness, sing songs of praise and leave the world behind. Come on followers of Jesus! Raise his name on high, exalt him to your friends, coworkers, family, ENEMIES! He deserves our love and praise. 

Dea Lord, forgive me for my neglect of your unfailing love. Forgive me for being so selfish and ignoring your greatness. I truly love you. I wake up every day the most blessed man in the world. None of my wondeful life is due to my greatness, it's all due to you. Thank you Lord forever and ever Amen!

God! Let people thank and enjoy you!

God, mark us with grace and blessing! Smile! The whole country will see how you work, all the godless nations see how you save. God! Let people thank and enjoy you. Let all people thank and enjoy you. Let all far-flung people become happy and shout their happiness because You judge them fair and square, you tend the far-flung peoples. God! Let people thank and enjoy you. Let all people thank and enjoy you. Earth, display your exuberance! You mark us with blessing, O God, our God. You mark us with blessing, O God. Earth’s four corners—honor him! (Psalm 67:1-7 MSG)

Do you enjoy God. The writer of the message chose those very interesting words. As a matter of fact the statement, "Let people thank and enjoy you" is repeated often. Can you argue with its purpose? Should you NOT thank and enjoy God? My life, all that I am, all that I have, and all I'm going to be is specific to the grace of my loving God! My God has yielded a magnificent harvest of grace in my life. I can not repeat enough the simple saying, Thank you Lord! He has not judged me fairly. I have recieved a judgement immensely less severe than I deserve. Praise God for that wonderful majesty! Praise God for his saving grace! I truly enjoy your presence. I enjoy you through your word, your intervention on my behalf, and your amazing love. To say I enjoy you is not enough. I can not imagine a day without you. I praise you Lord!

Let's get a little Crazy!

I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land. (Psalm 143:6 NIV)

Have you ever noticed what happens the moment someone discovers they have won the championship in a competition? My students were doing some research on body language and found this simple, obvious response to victory.

This researcher went on to say that even blind people who have never seen this physical response, do the same thing upon obtaining victory. As a matter of fact, even animals have the same response. The act of stretching yourself skyward, with your head raised to the heavens is an act we see in nature all the time. Why is that? 

For me, the answer is easy. 

We are responding to our Heavenly Father who is victorious over all things. We are naturally, subconsciously, praising God. We should praise him more, not in an unconscience act, but a deliberate response to his unfailing love for us. If we could just take it a step further, we should raise our hands to him even when we feel defeated. How awkward would it be to see a defeated member of a losing team, lift his hands and raise his head to the heavens? We would think that's crazy. 

Let's get a little crazy. God wants us to praise him through all things and even if we feel defeated in the moment, we are NOT defeated, EVER, through Christ. When we are traveling through the dry and parched land, we must destroy Satan who feeds us thoughts that we are defeated. He is wrong!

Lord we praise you. Even through our weakness, we are victorious through you. Our hands are lifted to you and know we can not lose with you at our side. I praise you. You are worthy of all honor and praise! Amen!