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As you read through both the Old Testament and the New Testament, you will find the writers repeatedly reminding their readers about what God has done for them. For example, I recently read through the book of Joshua.In chapters 23 and 24 he gives his final exhortation to the people and farewell address. It’s a long narrative, reminding the Israelites first of their history with God (chapter 23) and then of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites since the time of Abraham (chapter 24). At the conclusion of this long reminder, Joshua challenges the people for a commitment to “honor the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly.” (24:14) They agree. He ends the discussion with a visual aid: “As a reminder of their agreement, he [Joshua] took a huge stone and rolled it beneath the oak tree beside the Tabernacle of the LORD.” (24:25b)

Do you purposefully remind yourself of the things the Lord has done for you? Do you know enough of your family’s spiritual history that you are able to remind yourself of the things God has done in for your ancestors that has impact on your life? You can use these memories to encourage yourself, as Joshua encouraged the Israelites, and as opportunities to recommit yourself to loving and serving God. Like Joshua, you can create a visual that reminds you of the goodness of God and your commitment to Him.

I find these reminders especially helpful when I am tempted to be discouraged or to sin. I can remember what God has done in the past for me and it encourages me to trust Him with my present and my future. I can remember what He has done in the past and it encourages me to remain faithful to Him.

Let’s get practical - how could you do this? There are lots of ways to approach your “rememberings.”

• Journaling is my favorite - when I am discouraged or otherwise out-of-sorts during my devotions, I often re-read entries from my journal. It’s always surprising to me how much I forget about my life and what I experienced in the past. Re-reading my journal reassures me that God met in those times and He will meet me again.
• If you’re not much of a writer, you can still be a “list maker” - start a “God’s Blessings” list and develop the habit of daily or weekly adding to your list.
• Are you a scrapbooker? Create a spiritual scrapbook. I would love to have a spiritual scrapbook, commemorating all the wonderful things God has done in my life, but it doesn’t work for me. Journaling works for me. Scrapbooking is too much like work for me, so it never happens.
• Create a digital scrapbook - if you’re not into the cut and paste approach, create a digital scrapbook. Scan in photos or other images, add your “God’s Blessing” list to it and a few journal-like entries and you’ve got a wonderful memory aid.
• Collect things that serve as visual reminders of God’s goodness. The Israelites were always collecting and piling up rocks to remind themselves of the things God had done for them. God says in Genesis 9 that He put the rainbow in the sky as a reminder to Himself of His covenant with the Israelites. Wow! Surely God doesn’t need a reminder, but it’s pretty cool that He made one anyway! I have a variety of paintings, knick-knacks, photos and other memorabilia around our house that remind me of God’s faithfulness to me. (I even have the screws & plates from when I shattered my elbow – they remind me of how God healed me well beyond any doctor’s expectation.)
• Create traditions that remind you of God’s goodness. The holidays will be upon us soon. If you don’t already have a “God has been good to us” tradition in your family, start one. Perhaps your conversation around the Thanksgiving table will be about God’s goodness to your family. Perhaps a Christmas Eve family devotional will be extended to include a time of remembrance. (Add some Christmas cookies & milk to make it a celebration!)
• Be purposeful in creating times of remembrance in your family. For example, I own a small business and at least once a year we have a full day prayer meeting that all employees are invited to. The first hour of that day is spent listing the blessings God has shown to our business and employees. Everyone participates as we write the blessings on a large poster-board. Do something like this with your family! Perhaps quarterly or as a part of birthday, anniversary or other life-event celebrations, gather the family together and list all the blessings that God has shown your family.

I have often asked people which characteristic of God means the most to them. Most people will say His love, and I sure can’t argue with that, but the characteristic I value the most is His faithfulness. I know I can always rely on Him. His Word promises it, but even more than that, the history I have with Him demonstrates it.

May I encourage you to do two things?

1. The next time you find yourself spiraling toward discouragement, stop and play the “Do you remember…?” game with the Lord.
2. Begin some personal and family traditions that remember God’s goodness to you and your family. Doing so will create a rich history that I am certain will not only impact you and your family in the present, but also well into the future. I am guessing that most of you didn’t have these kinds of activities in your childhood. Imagine the memories you would have if you had! Make it so for your children. And remember, it’s never too late to start, even if your children are grown and married.

Here’s the last paragraph from my blog on July 5, “Jumping Off the Anxiety Track:”

One other idea…I’ve decided to use the ring of the telephone at work as a reminder to praise God. Often when I’m over-busy, the telephone is a source of stress. That’s wrong thinking. Without the telephone I wouldn’t be able to talk to the clients God sends our way. The telephone is a source of blessing, giving us opportunities to meet our customers’ needs in a way that brings glory to God. Sounds like a good reason and opportunity to praise God. Imagine how different my day will be when I thank God every time the phone rings. I’m looking forward to it!

Wow has that been a good thing! I don’t always remember to do it, but every time I remember, whatever expression was on my face changes to a smile and a degree of peace enters my heart. Why didn’t I start this sooner? My next task is to find a visual reminder that I can put on my telephone that will help me to remember to praise God every time the phone rings.

I thought of the smiley face, of course, but that’s just a bit too cheesy for me to put on my phone. It’s fine in an e-mail, but on my phone? I don’t think so.

My preference would be something ethereal that reminds me of God’s shekinah glory.

There are also benefits from a business perspective. Since I was answering the phone on the first ring, now my clients have to wait 2 rings before I answer – no big deal. But when I answer, I’m more sincerely cheerful and full of positive hope than I was before. The rule in the office has always been to smile before answering the telephone. It changes your voice and communicates across the telephone lines. I’ve found that the true, inner smile that comes from having spent a few seconds praising and thanking God infuses my voice with an even greater degree of confidence, peace and pleasure that customers can sense.

Try it, folks! Praise God, thank Him or just worship Him before you answer every phone call.

God spoke to me during worship at our church today.

Before I share it with you, let me get the “business side” of the blog out of the way. I know that readers of this blog are of many different spiritual backgrounds. When I say God spoke to me, I do not mean that I’m hearing the audible voice of the Lord. Rather, He spoke to me through the unexpected thought planted in my mind and the stirring of my spirit that says “pay attention to that thought” (again, not audible of course).

Back to God speaking to me…We were singing “I Will Never Be The Same Again” (words and music by Geoff Bullock, copyright 1995, Word Music, LLC and Maranatha! Music, made popular by Hillsongs). If you want to hear Hillsongs sing the song, click here.

I also worship through sign language as I sing.

The last lines of the song are “The Glory of God fills my life and I will never be the same again.” While singing, I unintentionally signed “satisfies” instead of “fills.” Upon realizing the error, God spoke to me, and He did so in such a way that I don’t believe the word was just for me, that it was a word for others as well.

I signed “The Glory of God satisfies my life” and God asked “are you satisfied with Me? Let Me be your ‘all in all.’ I do that by filling your life. Let me fill you — and you will never be the same again.”

Does the Gory of God satisfy your life? I confess that there are times when I don’t feel like He does. But I want Him to. I want to be satisfied with only Jesus. Lord, sweep away the darkness in my life and fill it with your light. Burn away the chaff and fill me with Your presence, Your thoughts, Your desires. I don’t want to be the same tomorrow as I am today.

“If God was no greater than my experience with Him, He’d be a very shallow God!”
                  Pastor Larry, River of Life Christian Church, Norwalk, OH

Every now and then I need to be reminded to expand my view of God. How about you?

22Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler! You and your son and your grandson will be our rulers, for you have rescued us from Midian.” 23But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The LORD will rule over you! 24However, I have one request. Each of you can give me an earring out of the treasures you collected from your fallen enemies.” (The enemies, being Ishmaelites, all wore gold earrings.) 25″Gladly!” they replied. They spread out a cloak, and each one threw in a gold earring he had gathered. 26The weight of the gold earrings was forty-three pounds, not including the crescents and pendants, the royal clothing of the kings, or the chains around the necks of their camels. 27Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family. Judges 8:22-27

Gideon made a “sacred ephod” in good faith from the spoils of the victory the Lord gave him. He meant it as a memorial, a reminder of the faithfulness of God…but “soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it.” How easy it is for us to worship the thing we’ve created instead of the One who made it possible for us to create it! How easy it is for us to worship the thing we can see instead of the One who is unseen! How easy it is for us to worship the past instead of the One who gives us a future!

Wow! each of those last three sentences could be a sermon or sermon series! No sermons or sermon series here, but how about a few thoughts to touch your spirit.

What might you or I have created that we are tempted to worship instead of worshipping the One who made it possible? We can make an idol out of anything. Has your career or position in society (or the church) become your idol? How about your marriage (or pursuit of marriage) or your children? Maybe you’ve made an idol out of your leisure time or hobby? Then, there’s always the house and/or car. Perhaps you’ve made pain and/or suffering your idol.

Are you more concerned about any of these things than you are about pursuing God wholeheartedly? Do you make sacrifices for these things that should really be made to God (or not be made at all)? Everything we’ve received in our life has NOT been received by our own efforts alone. It has all come from the hands of a loving and merciful God.

How is one to worship the unseen? I don’t know about you, but it’s WAY easier to worship the thing that is seen, than the One who is unseen! The Message Bible describes Jesus as “this invisible but clearly present God” (Romans 8:9). Worshipping the Invisible begins with acknowledging that He is present. He is everywhere all the time (omnipresent), but unless I seek His presence, I miss it. In the winter 2007 issue of “Christian History and Biography” Richard Foster writes of a book by Jean-Pierre de Caussade called The Sacrament of the Present Moment saying that it “changed forever the way I look at ‘ordinary’ life” (page 50).

Caussade urges us to experience each moment “as a holy sacrament, a visible sign of invisible grace.” Is this perhaps the connection…the link that allows us to worship the One who is unseen by seeing Him in what is seen? That’s whag Caussade is suggesting. What an adventure it would be to embark on such a journey, because it would be an adventure of constantly seeking God (the Invisible). And God’s Word tells me that this seeking will result in finding: “If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you,” says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14a, NLT)

Letting go of the past to worship the God of our future: David Seamands has a book called Putting Away Childish Things. It’s an excellent book about identifying and dealing with past hurts, attitudes and wrong thinking that yield responses in our lives today that limit what God wants to do with our future. You migth be more familiar with the book by Joyce Meyer, The Battlefield of the Mind. The premises for both books are similar, but I found Seamonds’ book to be the more insightful/thoughtful. In reading his book, I was able to identify incidents and patterns from childhood that shaped how I responded to situations today. Identifying them was the first step toward “putting them away” (1 Corinthians 13:11).

Sacred ephods…things created in good faith that have become objects of worship, idols. “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” (Jonah 2:8 NIV) Let’s not settle for worshipping the ephod. Let’s worship the One who gives perfect gifts.

I wasn’t feeling well over the weekend and they were having a “So You Think You Can Dance” marathon on television. So I watched (and watched and watched).

I was struck by something one of the dancers said. One of the judges asked what kind of formal training she had. Her response was “I love dancing so much I’ve dabbled in all styles. There’s probably not a style that I haven’t had some training in.”

Wow! That’s how I want to be as a worshipper! I want to love the Lord so much that there’s not a “style” of worshipping Him that I haven’t dabbled in.

Caveat: Yes, I know that worship is more than music. I’m focusing on worship through music here, although the concept can be applied to all areas of worshipping God, whether through prayer, Bible study, service, etc.

I believe that a true worshipper ought to be able to worship God to any kind of (worship) music.
Sure, there will be a few styles which are easiest for you to worship God through, but if you can only worship God through a specific style, it seems to me that you’re limiting your worship experience — and that means you’re limiting how God might speak to you. God is an infinitely-faceted guy, so I believe He can speak to me through hymns, contemporary worship, yes, even worship music with a country sound (horror of horrors, my style is much more rock-n-roll). And I also think that it’s quite possible that what He has to say to me (or perhaps it’s what I might hear) will be slightly different when I’m worshipping to hymns, rock-n-roll worship music, and reggae worship.

I want to be able to say “I love worshipping God so much that I’ve dabbled in all styles of worship music for the glory of God and to know Him better.”

Will you join me in this endeavor?