SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/8/2015
7:38 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Toward the
Throne PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
4:8b-11
Message of the
verses: “and day and night they do
not cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty who was,
and who is and who is to come.” 9 And
when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on
the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before
Him who sits on the throne, and
will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne,
saying, 11 "Worthy are You, our
Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all
things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."”
Again I want to begin this SD with a quote from my
earlier Spiritual Diary dated 04/18/2005:
“In verse ten there is a description of God the Father when it says of
Him that He lives forever and ever. The
verse also tells about four living creatures giving honour and thanks to God
the Father the One sitting on the throne.
While this is going on the twenty-four elders are falling at the feet of
God the Father in worship by casting their crowns before the throne and while
they are doing this they say “You
are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you
created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” This is the quote of the 11th
verse in this 4th chapter of Revelations and it is one of the most
meaningful verses in all of the Scriptures when it comes to real worship of
God. God is worthy to receive all glory and honor and also
power because He is the One who created all things and it is because of His
will that they were created and have their being. This verse is about worshiping God the Father
because of His wonderful act of creation.”
John MacArthur points out that in this section of chapter
four and into chapter five we have five great hymns of praise, “during the
singing of which the size of the choir gradually increases.” In verse eight we see a quartet which consist
of the four living creatures, and then in verse ten we add the twenty-four
elders and then in chapter five and verse eight harps are added to give more
music. In chapter 5:11 the rest of the
angels added their voices and then finally in 5:13 every created being in the
universe join in this mighty chorus in order to praise the Lord. We know that worship is only for the Lord
alone even though it is something that Satan has always wanted.
MacArthur writes “This mighty oratorio of praise and
worship may be divided into two movements:
the hymn of creation (chap. 4), and the hymn of redemption (chap. 5). The hymn of creation, the first movement, may
be divided into several elements.” We
will try to get through a few of these movements and then pick the rest of it
in our next SD.
The first element is found in the last part of verse
eight which contains the threefold singing of the word holy, and this speaks of
God’s holiness. This is seen in other
parts of the Word of God like Isaiah 6:3 which says “And one called out to
another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth
is full of His glory."” Holiness is
a part of God’s attributes and in the books that I have read it is always
listed first. “God’s holiness is his
utter and complete separation from evil in any and every form.” In my Greek/English dictionary it records the
following in the first section of the word “holy.” “Holy, characteristic of God, separated to
God, worthy of veneration 1) Its highest
application is to God himself, in his purity, majesty and glory.”
Let us look at Habakkuk 1:13a “Your eyes are too pure to
look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”
(NIV)
In our verse in Revelation chapter four the holiness of God
is exhibited through judgment. God hates
sin so He has no alternative but to judge sin and evil. Now one may ask what about us, for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
When we look at the cross, when God caused darkness to fall on the land
while Christ was on the cross we learn that at this very time God was taking
out His wrath on His Son for us, and in exchange for that we receive His
righteousness, that is those who accept Him as Savior and Lord. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our
behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).” It is because of His grace and mercy that God
restrains from judging all unbelievers at once, but there will come a day when
all will be judged and we will read about that later on in the book of
Revelation.
The next element of worship is His power and this is seen
in His name “the Almighty” and this is the title that God identifies Himself to
Abraham as found in Genesis 17:1 “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the
LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before
Me, and be blameless.” This also speaks
of one of God’s attributes and that is His omnipotence, meaning that nothing is
stronger than the Lord, and if anything was then He would stop being God
Almighty, but that cannot happen.
Because His is all powerful He can do whatever His holy will desires to
do “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the
Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His
understanding is inscrutable (Isa. 40:28).”
Psalm 115:3 says “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He
pleases.” The more you know about God
through the study of His attributes the better you can worship Him.
In 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 we read these words that speak
of God’s power demonstrated in His creation, the fact that He controls it: “11 “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the
power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the
earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head
over all. 12 “Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and
in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to
strengthen everyone.”
We will continue to look at this element of worship in
our next SD, but for now remember that God is worthy of being worshiped because
of His holiness, and also for His omnipotence.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The better I
understand the attributes of God the better I can worship Him and the better I
know Him, and this is important to me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand the love that He has for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jesus” (Matthew 22:42).
Today’s Bible
question: In what place did Pharaoh’s
daughter discover Moses?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/8/2015 8:25 PM
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