SPRINGS OF NEWER SONGS!

Springs of Newer Songs

Verse for Today: Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Psalms 96:1 - Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

A child of God who sits in the presence of God and gazes at the glories and greatness of God comes up with innumerable reasons to sing to the Lord. His glories and attributes are so great that each of these demands innumerable expressions of praise, gratitude and wonder. Not only that, when we sit in the presence of the Lord, we are reminded of the various ways by which He touches our lives through His mighty acts. Each of these incidents of His gentle touch of encouragement, strength, building up and protection makes us come up with newer and newer ways to express His mercy and benevolence. These expressions make painters to paint new portraits, poets to write new poetry, composers to write new lyrics and the skillful fingers of the string instruments compose new notes of new heights of music. These are the different expressions of different kind that come out of the grateful hearts which have seen the various colours of His glory as these touch the various aspects of our lives. This is the setting at which the Psalmist invokes us today to sing a new song. Surely the old songs are worth repeating any number of times, but there is pressure in our souls to sing new songs of new thoughts and meditations about who our Lord really is and what He keeps doing for us. New songs are the new catches of original renditions that we get from the Spirit of God in our hearts. Throughout the last centuries, millions of new songs have come up in about 2000 languages in the world, but there is no end to it. Till the rapture, there will be more and more new songs of new beauty and elegance which help us to express our emotions of love, gratitude and worship to our Lord for who He really is and what He has done for us. Some of us are given the grace to compose, others are given the grace to make notations and chords, still others have the melodious vocal track to make it soothing, and some of us sing along and sing when we are alone. The music keeps going and praise keeps being lifted up to the Lord who is seated on the Throne.

Dear friend, you might not be a song writer, but even then, when you sit in the presence of God with a heart full of gratitude and indebtedness, your heart will be filled with newer and newer thoughts of newer depth and height about the person of our God. He is our Shepherd, leader, guide, friend, protector, encourager, strength, trainer, provider, healer and the lover of our souls. In each of these dimensions, there are far too many thoughts that come to our hearts, all of which will give us newer and newer expressions of our love and gratitude to the Lord. As we meditate on these, we get ourselves lost in the wonder and awe of Him and submit ourselves as living sacrifices to Him. He wants us to submit ourselves as worship as many times as possible each day because we mean so much to Him and He has done so much for us which demands as much expressions of gratitude from us as possible. We can also sing the new songs which come out of the hearts of God's people and at the same time sing the old songs with new vigor, vitality and sincerity. This is what He expects from us. Think about the wonderful ways by which He leads us each day which demands so much of singing and praising. When we occupy ourselves thus with thoughts about Him and His mighty acts, we would not have time to murmur or grumble and our hearts will be full of grateful thoughts about Him and the resultant joy. Let the joy of singing fill our hearts today as we meditate on Him and His mighty acts. Let us be occupied with Him and Him alone, and let us live today as heavenly people who are truly seated in Heaven even when we are on earth physically.

Psalms 100:2 - Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Thought for Today
When the heart catches fresh visions of the glories of our God, it springs up newer expressions of love and worship.

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A JOYFUL LOT!

A Joyful Lot

Verse for Today: Monday, December 27, 2010
Psalms 95:1 - O Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

The Spirit of God invokes the people of God everywhere to come together to sing joyfully to the Lord because God has filled their lives with unspeakable joy. They were people of tears and their lives were in darkness. Instead of singing, they only knew crying. They were spiritually oppressed people and had no peace in their hearts. They were full of murmur and have been going through grumbling. They had no satisfaction in anything. But God came into their lives and changed their countenance. He changed their hearts and gave them new hearts. He wrote His laws in their hearts and lives. He removed their curse and filled them with blessings. He gave them peace that passes all understanding. He performed innumerable miracles in their lives which even amazed them. When the Lord has thus changed their lives, the fitting response was to sing to the Lord about all that He has done for them. They have personal singing, but they are also challenged to come together and sing as a congregation of redeemed people. The marvelous things that the Lord has done in their lives make them shout for joy because mere singing alone was not adequate for them to sufficiently express themselves. Often when they shout for joy, the people around heard them and realize that some unusual things were happening to them and even feared them and their God. The people in the surrounding places realize that God's people are a blessing to others because of the mighty acts of their God. This is the most splendid testimony that a child of God can have as he or she sings and shouts for joy because a joyful countenance conveys strong messages about what was going on inside them.

Dear friend, is your heart full of joy because of the realization that the Lord has done wonderful things for you? Is your life full of praise for all that the Lord is doing in your life? Do you sometimes reach a stage when you realize that mere singing is not adequate to express your joy, and that leads you to shout in His presence? Remember, a joyful heart leads to a joyful life which leads to a joyful congregation. For any reason whatsoever, if your life is not full of joy, it is time to examine whether you are truly grateful to the Lord for what He has done for you. A grateful heart will be a joyful heart which is reflected in the expressions you make in the presence of the Lord. Today the Spirit of God asks us to come together with other children of God to the presence of God to sing and make a joyful noise unto Him. A joyful heart has strength from the Lord to face any eventuality in life. No matter how the world treats them, such lives will still be joyful. There is no scope for frustration in a joyful life. A joyful life is the best advertisement for Heaven where God's people are going to spend their joyful eternity. A joyful life tells the people around their joy in spite of all the circumstances, tests, failures, losses, grief or the way the world oppresses and cheats the child of God. None of these eventualities take away the joy of the Lord which is the driving force to take us forward in our sojourn. Today let us walk with the joyful Lord Jesus, with songs in our mouths and hearts, come rain, snow or sunshine, and march towards Zion. Let us walk together as a congregation of God's joyful people from victory unto victory day by day, because the victorious Lord is with us.

Nehemiah 8:10a - This day is sacred for our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Thought for Today
When we give full control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, He will allow our lives to fruit joy unspeakable.

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PRECIOUS INHERITANCE!

Precious Inheritance!

Verse for Today: Sunday, December 26, 2010
Psalms 94:14 - For the Lord will not abandon His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.

One of the greatest confidence the people of God have in this world is that they are God's special people and that He owns them as His special inheritance. The Lord deals with them on the basis of this special ownership and possession. In all His plans His children are the prime focus. It has pleased Him to share His glory with them. He is happy to testify about them to their enemies who try to mistreat them. He has spoken to people like the friends of Job and emperors like Pharaohs of Egypt, Abimelech, Nebuchadnezzar and others for and on behalf of His precious children. He even speaks to Satan and ask him to leave His children alone. God always has something to speak about His children to the outsiders. They are His inheritance which He secured through His act of redemption. It is this relationship which makes us go to Him with holy boldness in prayer for all our needs. But even before we go to Him with our needs, we must realize how big and mighty our God is. He is mighty in intervening in any of our circumstances for our sake. He stops kings from sleeping in order to fulfill His plans for His children as in the case of Mordecai. He has commanded all our enemies that they should not touch His anointed. Touching His precious children is like touching Him. This was why the Lord stopped Saul of Tarsus to ask Him to refrain from touching His children and His church. It is our blessed privilege to know this wonderful God and to be part of His divine plan. It is also important for us to behave like we are God's inheritance here in this world and make ourselves totally available for Him to use us to bring greater glory to Him.

Dear friend, are you aware of the extent to which you are precious to God? Do you know that God the Father loves you with the same love with which He loves His only begotten Son? This is why we have all the privileges in the presence of the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. We can go to Him with all our needs and ask Him boldly in our prayers to meet our needs. This does not mean that He doesn't know our needs before we ask Him, because as the God who knows yesterday, today and forever, He knows all our needs and has already prepared everything for us. But as a loving Father, He loves for us to ask Him so that He can give us as answers to our prayers. But we must understand that He has planned far greater things for us than we could ever ask for. We often ask for mundane things, but He wants to give us glorious things. Our asking often falls far short of His plan for us and His immeasurable capacity to give, and this often makes us live in spiritual poverty. His providence is like a vast ocean, and we have every right to go and drink the whole ocean, but we are often satisfied with a handful. He is challenging us to go to Him and dip deep into the ocean of His providence. His resources like love, peace, joy, grace, patience, sleep, contentment and hope are available in immeasurable quantity for us to imbibe and enjoy. But sadly many of us do not go to Him and drink from His vast ocean of glorious blessings. He is asking us to go to Him and drink to our capacity and satisfaction. If we go to Him and allow Him to fill us, we would not lack any thing because He wants us to be shining inheritance for His name sake here on earth until He takes us to Himself where we will be like stars in His presence forever. Let us be rest assured that no matter what our circumstances or problems are, He will not abandon us nor forsake us because we are His precious possession and most invaluable inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:9 - For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.

Thought for Today
As God's inheritance in this world, we ought to look and act like it.

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PERMANENCY HERE AND NOW!

Permanency Here and Now!

Verse for Today: Saturday, December 25, 2010
Psalms 92:12 - The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

The world has a distorted view of what it means to flourish and grow. According to the world's definition, flourishing is in human achievements and growth is in popularity and prestige. If a person has more and more material prosperity, the world will consider him to be flourishing. But sadly the world doesn't know that the material prosperity or popularity will never be permanent and will vanish as years go by. Ignorant of this truth, we see the people of the world take all efforts throughout their life time to expand in more material prosperity and grow in popularity, positions and prominence which are sure to disappear. But the righteous people have a permanency in their existence. They may not be materially rich and might not become prominent in this world. But they flourish spiritually which is a permanent state of affairs. They grow in faith, love, peace and grace which are divine attributes that they will never loose. In fact, they will flourish in all of these characteristics day by day because they are planted in the presence of the Lord. Their growth is aided by the resources of Heaven and so they keep growing. We find several Bible characters whose reputation has grown several folds since their time on the earth and are still growing. Patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Job and Nehemiah are growing in the hearts and experiences of millions of God's people throughout the last several millenniums. They occupy a great place in Heaven and no one can take these positions away from them. Their growth has been strong and long lasting like the palm trees and cedars for several generations to see.

Dear friend, are you growing in the Lord and His Word daily? It is most meaningful if you grow only as a righteous person. By being righteous does not mean that you become a faultless and perfect individual, but a forgiven sinner who is made righteous through the righteousness of God. When you confess your sins and failures before God, your sins and shortcomings are forgiven and you are declared a righteous person in and through Jesus Christ. As a person who has righteousness imparted into you life, you have the opportunity to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Holy God. But your spiritual growth while on earth is only a starting point of a process and you will grow into eternity and stand there like a strong and sturdy cedar of Lebanon forever. This privilege is available to all human beings provided they allow themselves to be replanted in the vineyard of the Lord in His presence. The act of replanting is the experience of being born again into the family of God. Thus when you become a child of God, you are given a permanency which moves from earth to heaven at the return of the Lord. But the choice is ours to decide whether we want to be planted in the vineyard of the Lord and enjoy permanency. We stand as a mark of the faithfulness of the Lord to us. We stand because He makes us permanent. We become strong and sturdy in His strength which He imparts in us. Our standing is His standing which He gives to us. There is no reason to believe that the palm trees and cedars of God would ever get uprooted and lost in the heat of the world. We will always enjoy the shade and coolness of the Lord to stand for Him as a mark of His faithfulness. This is the reason why the Bible says that we shall not want. The flourishing and growing trees of God are aided by the Lord and so we shall stand strong for the Lord. What a privilege it is to stand for the Lord in His presence as a testimony to His faithfulness!

Psalms 92:13 - Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Thought for Today
It is the Lord who plants us and helps us to grow for His glory and to stand for Him forever.

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PROMISES LEAD TO RESPONSIBILITY!

Promises lead to Responsibility

Verse for Today: Friday, December 24, 2010

Psalms 91:14 - "Because he loves me", says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name".

The promises of God are to His children. When they seek the help of their Father in times of need, He is under loving obligation to help them. God always looks into the hearts of His people to see whether they love Him and whether they acknowledge His name in all that they do. These genuine responses to God are expected from all God's children. God's rescue plan for His children is not without any responsibility on their part. He is looking for people who loves Him more than any thing or any one else in this life. Such deep love has to be demonstrated through total commitment and allegiance to God evidenced by actions and attitude. God sees our actions and looks into our hearts to see if our attitudes are in line with what we do or speak. If our motives are right before Him, that would suffice. If our attitude is sincere and serious, He would help us further to walk closer to Him. Such love is always demonstrated through obedience. So when a child of God obeys the Lord and demonstrates love towards God through right attitude and actions, the Lord's promise to them will become a reality. He will rescue such obedient children from all difficult situations. If we acknowledge the Lord's name in what we do and live as a living testimony to the power and dignity of the Lord, His promise of protection and caring will follow us. In other words, if we desire God's protection and rescue, we must live a life that is worthy of the Lord to whom we belong. Those who profess Him as Lord, but live as if they belong to the enemy of the Lord are disobedient and dishonest children and so they cannot claim the promise of rescue and protection from the Lord. So every prayer for help must precede repentance and confession of sins.

Dear friend, if we do not want to dwell in the shelter of the Most High and do not want to rest in the shadow of the Almighty, we do not have any claim for His rescue and protection in our daily lives. His promises are directed to His committed children. We do not rule out any help from the Lord even to the disobedient children, but it is out of His loving kindness and mercy, and not as a right to claim His promises. But if they wish to see to it that the promises are fulfilled in their lives, they need to get back to the Lord and draw closer to Him. So there is need for all of us to live in continuous repentance and confession of any known or even unknown sin and be in tune with the Lord so that we can claim the promises of the Lord in our daily lives. We must also realize that either we live in the shelter and shadow of the Lord, or we do not. There is no way we can live by putting our legs in two canoes at the same time. If we falter in our trust in the Lord, we must be quick to confess it as a grave weakness and sin and ask the Lord to forgive us. Otherwise, we would be living as sheer hypocrites. No hypocrite has any right to claim the promises of God, but all repentant and forgiven sinners have the privilege to claim all the promises of God. Such people are asked to seek the face of the Lord which will not be hidden from them. When such people claim any of the promises of God by faith, the Lord will honor their faith and fulfill His promises to them. So let us today confess all our known and unknown sins and ask for His forgiveness. Let us live in continuous repentance and be constantly washed by Him with His Word. As we are drawn closer to Him and as we walk with Him in continuous fellowship, we will enjoy a time of dwelling in His shelter and shadow. When we pray with such a heart, we have the privilege to expect answers according to the promises of God. Let us today renew our hearts and lives and enjoy the promises of God which are specially designed for His obedient children.

Psalms 91:15 - He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

Thought for Today
Each time we claim a promise of God, it is also an opportunity to straighten out our lives.

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SAFETY, SECURITY AND PROTECTION!

Safety, Security and Protection

Verse for Today: Thursday, December 23, 2010

Psalms 91:4 - He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

It is absolutely definite that the Lord is our protection and stronghold. When we live in the shelter of the Almighty, we are covered by His glory which cannot be penetrated by any other force in this universe. He protects us like a mother bird carefully protects its chicks. Unless the enemy penetrates through the mother bird, the young ones cannot be touched. It is also true that those who try to touch us actually try our Lord who is our wall of protection. His faithfulness with regard to His promises is also far above even the iota of doubt of any kind. When the Lord is our refuge and protector, He is the ultimate safeguard against the wiles of the enemy. So when a child of God lives under the wings of the Lord, there is no greater safety and security. The reassurance of protection that we enjoy from the presence of Lord is unparalleled. So we are always safe in the arms of the Lord. This safety is our privilege and inheritance as the children of God. The heavenly hosts of our Lord are appointed to look after us in the physical sense and they encompass around us all the time. Such protection is ours because we are the precious possession of the Lord bought with the highest price that could be attributed to any object in this universe. This price is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which He gave for us so that we can be secured for Him eternally. Along with Him as His gift to us, the Father in Heaven has given us all protection, safety, provisions for daily living, caring and love. Our responsibility it is to enjoy these privileges and live for His glory on a daily basis.

Dear friend, do you enjoy the security that is given to you under the shadow of the Almighty? It is security for our souls and our bodies because along with our souls, our bodies are also purchased at Calvary. So in all our dealings and movements, we should have this awareness that we are not our own, but are purchased with the price of the blood of the Lamb. We should understand the preciousness that is attached to us by the Lord. We need not have any fear for life while here on earth because we are eternally secure in Him. We should also enjoy the safety that is granted to us because we live in His presence and that He treats us as sheep that are carried in His hands and on His shoulders. We are protected like the young ones of a mother bird with love and we sit close to the heart of the Lord for maximum security. Who can separate us from the Lord and His love? But the enemy will try his best to detract us from sitting close to the Lord. The enemy is very crafty and he will try to develop pride in us so that we would want to take our protection and safety in our own hands. This is the sure way to destruction which we should carefully keep away from. No matter how mature a believer you are, you should never feel self sufficient and arrogant about your own capacity to protect yourself. No matter how much experience you have in spiritual matters, it will not protect you from the enemy. But only total dependence on the Lord will give you the protection you need. Today let us draw closer to the Lord and enjoy the protection He gives us on a daily and minute by minute basis. His protection also includes His wonderful provisions for us to live a life of contentment and satisfaction which the sheep of His pastures enjoy. Because the Lord is our Shepherd, we have everything that we need to live a peaceful and anxiety-free life here on earth for His glory.

Psalms 36:7 - How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

Thought for Today
We are expected to appropriate the safety and security given to us on a daily basis through total dependence on the Lord and His resources.

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IRRECOVERABLE LOSS!

Irrecoverable Loss

Verse for Today: Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Psalms 90:12 - Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

God is so much keen that His children should live in this world with His wisdom. Godly wisdom can come to us only if we interact with God and live a life of regular review of our yesteryears. It entails the number of opportunities that we have wasted away because we didn't use the wisdom that the Lord has given us. When He allows us to live for a day in this world, He has some definite purposes behind it. It is part of His eternal plan for us in His perfect will. But as we endeavor to live according to His purpose, our enemy will come to distract and lure us away from His perfect plan for us. The enemy will make us so busy with work, business and even ministry, as to forget what God wants us to do each day. Thus when we do not make ourselves available for God's purpose to be fulfilled in our lives, we are rejecting the plan and the corresponding heavenly resources which are kept at our disposal as a gift from God. This is the most serious lack of wisdom that we exhibit in our lives. Ultimately when we reckon with it, we will be in a great sense of loss in our account with the Lord. Surely there will be a day of reckoning with God for all the opportunity that He gives us. At that time we would have to stand alone to give an account. If we are adequately aware of this reality, we need the wisdom of God to number the days that we have lost forever. These are the heavenly opportunities that are lost simply because we do not take time to be with the Lord in His presence to receive His wisdom to know how to use the opportunities. As the Lord enlightens us through His Spirit, we need to first of all confess the lost time due to our lethargy, lack of seriousness and the coldness of our hearts. Inasmuch as the loss is permanent and irrecoverable, the Lord is gracious and merciful to forgive us and give us another day or perhaps another year or a few more years. But if we have learned our lessons of the depth of the loss that we have incurred in making use of the opportunities for the Lord and the wasting away of the resources of God, it is time to gear up and invest our everything and our all in the Lord's business. But the Lord is first and foremost asking us to give ourselves to Him and then all that we have will follow suite.

Dear friend, are you aware of the tremendous opportunities and resources that you would have wasted away in the past by not investing it for the Lord? In terms of the hours that are lost, when it is translated in monetary terms, perhaps it will come to millions of rupees or dollars. Yet, are we concerned? Do we feel the tremendous sense of loss? To the extent of the loss on your accord, you are a debtor to the Lord. He is now asking you to count the number of days that are left for you to work for the Lord, and surrender yourself to His business, to at least making the maximum use of the available time in the future. This is one of the ways by which we will be wise according to the Lord. The exciting news is that if we use the Lord's resources to work for Him, He will put all the results in our account and give us credit for it all. Such is our Lord who wants to make use of us for His glory by giving us all that we need to work for Him. The way you have been making use of the available opportunities for the Lord is an indicator of how much Heavenly wisdom you possess. Let us today ask the Lord to forgive our sin of omission in not doing what we ought to have done for Him. Let us also confess our sin of commission by which we have done what we should not have done with the resources He has given us and ask for His pardon. But this pardon is to accompany a total and absolute commitment by us to making use of the future opportunities for the Lord. When we are thus involved in the Lord's business, He will get involved in our affairs and give us our basic needs to enable us to serving Him. So when we are in the Lord's business, we do not need to be anxious about our needs because He is faithful to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory. Let us be wise and see all the provisions the Lord has made for us to mind His business and at the same time meet all our needs.

Daniel 12:3 - Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Thought for Today
The depth of our wasted opportunities will be a shocking revelation to us when we meet the Slain Lamb in His full glory.

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