Ascribe to the Lord the Glory Due His Name

“Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

    bring an offering, and come into his courts!

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;

    tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalms 96:7-9 ESV)

What difference has Jesus Christ made in your life? How has your faith in him changed you from who you were before to who you are now? What about you says to others that you are different, that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and that you are no longer like you were before you met Jesus? Describe what your relationship with him looks like in all practicality in your everyday life. If you were to stand before a court of law and be accused of being a Christian, what evidence would be provided to prove that case?

For, you see, being a Christian or a believer in Jesus Christ is not just a status that we wear because we made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ or because we prayed a prayer to receive him as our Lord and Savior. It is a lifestyle. Our faith is proved genuine by what we speak and by what we do. And the evidence is not about going through particular traditional or cultural religious rituals. For many people play religion or they practice rituals of Christianity, but their hearts, attitudes, words, and actions are not changed.

So if we who are followers of Jesus Christ are going to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, the glory due his name, it is not going to be through lip service only. But it is going to be through how we conduct our lives, day in and day out, either in the strength and wisdom of God, or in the flesh. For how we live and the things that we do and our attitudes and thinking and behaviors speak loudly as to whether or not we are truly ascribing to the Lord the glory due his name. For this would be via our obedience to him.

So, when we believe in Jesus with God-given faith in him, we die with Christ to sin, and we are raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. The old is gone, the new has come, and now sin is no longer in control over our lives, but God and his righteousness are in control. And this is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in every way, but that God “draws a line in the sand” between obeying him, in practice, or obeying sin, in practice.

And the kind of offering that our Lord wants from us today is our lives on his altar, surrendered to the will of God, submitted to Christ as Lord, serious about our walks of faith in him, seeking him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, as living sacrifices to him, holy and pleasing to him, which is our reasonable and acceptable worship of him. For worship isn’t just going through forms of religious exercises, but it giving our lives to the Lord to do his will his ways, in his strength, and under his guidance and wisdom.

True worship of our Lord has to do with us denying self, dying to sin daily, and walking in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), in practice. It is honoring him with our lives in faithful obedience to his commands. And it is giving him our loyalty and devotion and fidelity and obedience, and not just because this is required of us by God, but because we love our Lord and we want to serve him with our lives, and we want to obey him and not the flesh. And so we follow him in obedience in living holy lives pleasing to him.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

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