BECAUSE OF THE LORD GOD WE LIVE MOVE AND EXIST

Proclamation:

“For in Him we live and move and have our being.  As some of your poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’”  Acts 17:28 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written by Luke, the physician, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  Luke records that Paul and Silas had to leave Thessalonica because after they preached that Jesus was the Messiah, the non-believing Jews had formed a mob there and were looking for them. (Acts 17:1-10)  They went to Berea but the non-believing Jews from Thessalonica heard that they were preaching there and came to Berea and stirred up the crowd against them. (Acts 17:10-15)  Paul then went to Athens and noticed that the city was full of idols and was disturbed. (Acts 17:16-18)  While there he found an altar with the inscription, “To The Unknown God”, and he preached to them about Him. (Acts 17:22-23)  While he was speaking to them he said that it was because of The Lord God that we live, move, and have our very being.

Application:

There are a lot of intelligent and well educated people who believe in scientific things but do not believe in Jesus, The Christ, or His death, burial, and resurrection.  They do not believe that God created the earth and all things therein. (Revelation 10:6)  They do not believe that man was made from the dust of the earth and God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)  It is because of The Lord God that we live, move, and have our being.  When we die, our soul will return to The Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8) and our bodies will return to the dust from which it came. (Genesis 3:19, Psalm 104:29, and Ecclesiastes 12:7)  Our souls will not die but will spend eternity somewhere. (Matthew 25:46)  Where will you spend eternity?

THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND WAS GOD AND BECAME FLESH

Proclamation:

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”  John 1:1-4 (NIV)  “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…”  John 1:14 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Apostle John.  Here, “The Word” refers to The Lord Jesus, The Christ, and not some written word on a page.  John clearly states that The Word, Jesus, was with God when everything began, and that The Word, meaning Jesus, was God.  To further clarify this he also said that The Word “became flesh” and dwelt among us, referring to the birth of Christ and His life on earth.  John states that “The Word” is Jesus, The Christ, and He is God. (John 1:1)  Jesus said that I and my Father are one. (John 10:30 and 1 John 5:7)  The Lord Jesus Christ is The Creator and everything that was made was made by Him. (Genesis 1:1 and John 1:3)  The Lord Jesus, The Christ, is the life and the light of all mankind. (John 1:4)  He gave life to mankind (Genesis 2:7) and He is the light of the world. (John 8:12 and 9:5)  He then goes on to say that The Word, The Lord Jesus Christ, put on human flesh and lived among us as a human being. (John 1:14)  The Bible documents the glorious and miraculous things that He did as The Son of God while He was here on earth in human flesh.

Application:

The gospel according to the Apostle John is an asynoptic gospel.  It  does not record the life of Christ in order as  sequential events but it focuses on several miracles which Jesus, The Christ, performed.  His purpose for writing this Book this way was so that all would believe. (John 1:7)  We know that Jesus, The Christ, is The Son of God and that we were created in His image. (Genesis 1:26)  We are alive because He breathed into us the breath of life and we became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)  Our bodies were formed from the dust of the earth and one day to the dust they shall return. (Ecclesiastes 3:20)  Just as Christ put on flesh and dwelt among us in human form, our bodies are just the house where we, our souls, live while we are on earth.  One day, we will leave our house of flesh and return to our Creator. (2 Corinthian 5:1)  Our souls are eternal and believers will spend eternity with Christ.  Where will you spend eternity?

THE LORD GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT US

Proclamation:

“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place …Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”  Psalm 139:14-16 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  This psalm presents the omniscience of God.  David made it personal but the same applies to each and every one of us.  The Lord God knows his thoughts, his actions, his going out and his coming in. (Psalm 139:1-3)  He knows every word that David was going to speak before he spoke it. (Psalm 139:4)  The Lord God is all around him and there is no place that he can go where God is not already there. (Psalm 139:5-12)  The Lord God created him, formed him in his mother’s womb, and knew every part of him before he existed. (Psalm 139:13-16)

Application:

The Lord God is omniscient.  He knows everything that there is to know about each one of us, and He knew it before any of us ever existed.  He created us from the union of our mother and father, and guided our formation in our mother’s womb.  He knew our thoughts before we had them, our words before we spoke them, and our actions before we committed them.  He knows all, He is all powerful, and He is everywhere all at the same time.  He is worthy of our praise and worship.

GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD AND PRAISE HIM

Proclamation:

“To Him who alone does great wonders … who by His understanding made the heavens … who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.”   Psalm 136:4-6 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God and given to the Levites to sing every day. (1 Chronicles 16:40-42)  The song was designed to show every kind of blessing which The Lord God had given them.  It begins with the work of creation (Psalm 136:5-9) and ends with the provision of food for every creature. (Psalm 136:25)  Each of the twenty-six verses in this psalm ends with the phrase, “…His love endures forever.”

Application:

As the children of Israel were reminded to remember all of the blessings that The Lord God had bestowed upon them, we need to remember all of our blessings.  We need to thank and praise The Lord God for all that He has done for us, for all that He has brought us through, for all that He has kept us from, and for all that He has provided for us.  His love and mercy endures forever.  We take so much for granted, let us not be ungrateful.

THE LORD GOD DOES WHATEVER HE PLEASES

Proclamation:

“The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.  He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses.”  Psalm 135:6-7 (NIV)

Explanation:

This psalm was written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by an unknown human author.  It is thought to have been written by King David because the beginning is similar to Psalm 134, and it begins and ends with “hallelujah” like Psalm 113.  This is another one of the hallelujah psalms, a song of praise.  After exhorting the saints to praise The Lord and presenting the justification for doing so, (Psalm 135:3-5) the psalmist presents the awesomeness of God. And His power. (Psalm 135:6-7)  He follows this with several examples of things which The Lord God did. (Psalm 135:8-12)  Then he repeats the description of the idol gods and the people who worship them. (Psalm 115:4-11 and 135:15-18)  He ends the psalm by encouraging the people of God to praise The Lord. (Psalm 135:19-21)

Application:

Believers are encouraged to praise The Lord for He is good and He is great. (Psalm 135:3 and 5)  It is He who controls the weather and not Mother Nature. (Psalm 135:6-7)  Do not give credit which belongs to Him to anyone or anything.  This world is His, He made it. (Genesis 1:1)  We should not put anything ahead of God.  Nothing should be more important to us than The Lord God.  Most of us spend more time watching television than we do praising The Lord.  He is all powerful and deserves our praise and worship.

THE LORD REMEMBERS US AND HE WILL BLESS US

Proclamation:

“The Lord remembers us and will bless us; He will bless His people … He will bless those who fear The Lord, small and great alike.  May The Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children.  May you be blessed by The Lord, The Maker of heaven and earth.”  Psalm 115:12-15 (NIV)

Explanation:

The name of the human author of this psalm is unknown, however, it is clear that it was written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  This is another one of the “Hallelujah psalms” (Psalms 112 through 118) which was sung during the feasts celebrated by the children of Israel.  The Lord is ever mindful of us and His covenant with us.  He blesses us with all kinds of blessings, temporal, physical, and spiritual, and by protecting us and providing for us.  Those of us who fear The Lord are blessed including the young and the old, the rich and the poor.  Additionally, because of His love for us He will also bless our children.

Application:

We may be only a number to the government, on our job, or at school, but The Lord God knows each of us individually, personally, and intimately.  He not only knows our name, He knows all about us including our thoughts and motives.  He made us, He knows us, He loves us, and because of that He blesses us.  While we live and breathe, and while we are able to do so, we ought to praise and thank The Lord for all that He has done.  Let everything that breathes praise The Lord.  Praise The Lord! (Psalm 150:6)

OH LORD HOW EXCELLENT IS YOUR NAME

Proclamation:

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!  You have set Your glory in the heavens.”  Psalm 8:1 (NIV)  The King James version of The Bible for this verse reads: “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!  Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens.”

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  In this psalm David reflects upon the greatness of God and puts his thoughts into a song.  He considers the things which God has made, the heavens, the moon, and the stars, and then he wonders why God even gives a thought to man. (Psalm 8:3-4)  God created man and gave him the honor of having dominion over the things which He created and placed on earth. (Psalm 8:5-8)  As he continues to reflect on the awesomeness of God, David ends this psalm the way that he began it, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth.” (Psalm 8:9)

Application:

Man has struggled for a long time trying to “figure out” how the earth, and life upon the earth, came to exist.  Man cannot explain the stars in this galaxy or the other galaxies which he can see.  The problem is that man refuses to believe in God.  As logical as he is about most things, in this regard he is totally illogical.  Patterns do not just randomly repeat themselves, where there is a design, there must have been a designer.  The pattern of our solar system and others, with planets revolving around a sun, is repeated on a grander scale with galaxies.  It is also repeated on a microscopic scale with atoms having electrons revolving around a nucleus.  As David pondered the planets and the stars, he reflected on the awesomeness of God.  If we think about these things, we should also be impressed with the awesomeness of our God.  The fact that we began our life as one cell, a zygote, which was formed by the union of two cells, a sperm and an ovum which is a miracle in itself, which then grew into a mass of cells with differentiation and specialization that made us a functioning human being.  We should all praise God for our very existence, and for giving us the capacity to even think about the planets and the stars.  Without the breath of life that we received from Him we would be nothing but the dust of the earth with dominion over nothing. (Genesis 2:7 and Ecclesiastes 3:20)  Our God is an awesome God, praise His holy and righteous name.  Oh Lord, how excellent is Thy name!

JESUS IS GOD

Proclamation:

"In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God." John 1:1

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Apostle John, the youngest of the twelve disciples and the one who refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. (John 13:23)  The Book of The Bible entitled “John”, or “The Gospel According to John”, was written to believers so that they would know that Jesus is God. (John 20:31)  Here John states that in the beginning of everything was The Word.  The Word was there at the beginning with God, and in fact he states that The Word was God.  To make sure that the people understood that he was referring to Jesus, he later said that The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)  This verse refers to The Son of God and His human birth via the virgin Mary.  Some Bible scholars believe that The Son of God is called “The Word” because we use our words explain our minds to others and He was sent to us to reveal the mind of God, The Father, to the world.

Application:

God is.  He exists, He is real, and He is alive.  God was, God is, and God always will be.  He existed before time began and He will exist after time ends.  He created time. (Genesis 1:14)  Everything that was made He created by speaking it into existence. (Genesis 1:3 and John 1:3)  Jesus was there with God at the very beginning.  “The Word” refers to Jesus, The Christ, The Son of God.  Jesus is God.  "For there are three that bear witness in heaven, The Father, The Word, and The Holy Ghost; and these three are one." (1 John 5:7)  Jesus said, “I and My Father are one.” (Matthew 10:30)  There exists God, The Father, The Word of God, and The Spirit of God, three attributes of one God.  As human beings we have only a limited capacity for understanding and some things about God we just don’t understand.  However, we are blessed for believing without seeing for ourselves. (John 20:29)  Jesus is God.  The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it!

Wait Upon The Lord

"Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, The Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in The LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)

Thus said the prophet Isaiah, speaking about The Lord God to the chosen people of God who had turned from God to empty ritualism and idolatry.  He had prophesied regarding their coming captivity by the Babylonians and their subsequent delivery.  Here he was reminding the people who The Lord God was, and what He had done.  He spoke of power, knowledge, and strength of God.  Then he encouraged them to be patient, to wait upon The Lord, and to maintain their faith in Him.

How quickly we seem to forget about all that The Lord has done for us.  We forget that He is all powerful, all knowing, and every where all at the same time.  We act like He doesn't see us when we engage in our sinful activities.  We call ourselves "Christians" but we have not turned from our sinful wicked ways.  The Bible says that when He comes back, there will be those calling to Him saying, "Lord, Lord", but He will say to them depart from Me for I know you not. (Matthew 7:21-23 and Luke 13:24-27)  We need to recognize who He is, humble ourselves, and pray, and turn from our wicked ways, so that He will hear us and bless us. (2 Chronicles 7:14)  We need to wait patiently upon The Lord and keep the faith, because our trials and temptations are only tests. (1 Peter 1:7)  God can strengthen us and help us get through any situation. (Philippians 4:13)  We just have to believe and obey His Word.  When judgement day comes, we want to hear Him say "Well done", we do not want to hear "Depart from me." 

We All Belong To The Lord

"The earth is The Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;"  Psalms 24:1 (NIV)

King David told the people that they belong to God.  He said that the world, and everything in it, including the people, all belong to God.

God not only made each one of us, He also made the stuff that we are made of by speaking in it into existence.  God said "Let there be ... " and it was, and it was good.  (Genesis 1:1-31)  The creation belongs to the creator.  He knew us before we existed, even before we were formed in our mother's womb.  (Psalms 139:13-16)  He is the potter and we are the clay.  (Isaiah 64:8)  Woe be unto him who would argue with his maker.  (Isaiah 45:9)  We ought to thank Him for allowing us to exist, and each day we ought to thank Him for allowing us to exist for one more day.