Worship Exhortations

I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. Psalms 18:1; Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psalms 29:2; I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. Psalms 40:1-2.
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o one can worship the Lord as a child of God can do. We can give unto the Lord the glory and strength to the Lord. He calls us as “O ye mighty”, although we are without strength like Gideon. We are asked to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. This is not the worship that the world can offer to the Lord.

We are helpless but God only gives us the strength to worship Him. Psalm 40: 1-3 – We we worship the Lord many fear the Lord and see it. The Lord put  a new song in our mouth. The world can not sing this song. Only the redeemed people of God can sing such a new song. Psalm 18: 46-49 – We can offer our worship before the heathen. We can not offer such worship on our own but God only gives us strength. 1) Romans 8: 38-39 says that the Lord is always with us in our valleys and in our heights and nothing can separate us from the love of our Lord. 2) The Lord pursues our enemies and overtakes them (Psalms 18: 37).

We can possess the beauty of holiness though the voice of the Lord.

• Psalms 29:3  says that the voice of the Lord is upon waters and the Lord is upon many waters. Waters speaks of the sufferings and troubles. The Lord voice is so powerful that it is over the many waters. The Lord is in control of our sufferings.
• Psalms 29:5 – The voice of the Lord breaks cedars.
• Psalms 29: 7 – The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire
• Psalms 19: 8 – The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.

Therefore, let us worship the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering the grace that He has shown towards us also.

Table Exhortations

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Acts 7: 51; But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Acts 7:55-56

n the midst of all difficulties, the first church continued to stand and grow. We can consider Acts 7 under three headingsv-

People of Israel – The history of the people of Israel (or people of Judah) is that they have rejected the Lord and messengers or messages from the Lord. Stephen call them as, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost”.  Though there were few who responded to the Word of God, but many of the people of God rejected it. However, we should esteem the Word of God and respond to it or obey to the voice of God. We must be penitent in our hearts.

Our response to the Word of God –

However, we should esteem the Word of God and respond to it or obey to the voice of God. We must be penitent in our hearts.

Stephen saw the glory of the God of  Glory –

The chapter 7 of Acts of Apostle starts with the “God of Glory (Acts 7: 2) and ends with the “Glory of God”. The Jews knew or heard about the God of Glory but did not see the Glory of God. It is by the grace in Christ we have the glory of God reflected in Christ (John 1:14). Because of the grace of God we also see Jesus in His glory.

Stephen, though he was Hellenist (proselyte Jew), he heard about the God of Glory and also seen the Glory of God. The life of young Stephen is a challenge to us. When we stand for Christ, even in the face of death, the Lord reveals His glory to us.