A THANKSGIVING BANQUET......FOR GOD
Hebrews 13:15 reads, "By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." Notice that praise is an offering of thanksgiving to God. Notice it's a "sacrifice" of praise that is offered "continually." "Does that mean that I thank God for everything that happens in my life?" No!! I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "IN EVERYTHING give thanks." It doesn't say "FOR" everything give thanks. That means no matter what I'm facing, whether good or bad, IN THE MIDST OF EVERY TRIAL AND DIFFICULTY, whether I feel like it or not, I'm to render praise (thanksgiving) to God, giving thanks for who He is and what He has done in my life.
So much of the time we are more mindful of the visible and temporal and thus we give thanks for what we can see and feel. We give God thanks for our food. We thank Him for good health. We thank Him for loved ones and friends. But some of the most precious things in life cannot be seen with human eyes or touched with human hands. Joy cannot be seen, but it is none the less real. Likewise, love and peace are blessings that money cannot buy. God takes pleasure in providing us all the material blessings in life and He wants us to enjoy them. But from His perspective, one of the most precious things He has given us is far over and above everything else. In His eyes, His most precious gift to man is...................HIMSELF!
If you read the first chapter of Ephesians, you'll find that one of our chief, eternal purpose is to live for the "praise of His Glory". Ephesians 1:5-6 reads, "Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ TO HIMSELF, according to the good pleasure of His will, TO THE PRAISE OF THE GLORY of His grace, wherein HE HAS MADE US ACCEPTED in the beloved." And again, in Ephesians 1:11-12, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him......that we should be to the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY, who first trusted in Christ."
We just saw in Hebrews 13:15 that PRAISE is the fruit of our lips GIVING THANKS unto God. It's clear from these two passages, that one of our eternal purposes is to give praise (thanks) for His "Glory".
Many Christians have no idea what His glory is much less give thanks for it. For most of my life, I had little to no idea what His "glory" was even though it's mentioned multiple times in both Old and New testaments.
In Exodus 33:18-23 we have an account of Moses conversing with God, and he makes a special request. He asks, "I beseech thee, show me Thy Glory." God responds saying, "I will make all my goodness pass before you.......You cannot see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live. Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass while my GLORY passes by, that I will put you in a clift of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and you shall see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen."
Notice that Moses asks to see the GLORY of God and God responds by showing Moses HIMSELF! Although Moses cannot see God's face, he is able to see the back side of God as God passes before him. Moses asks to see God's Glory and God responds by revealing Himself to Moses. God manifests His presence. Thus, we see that THE GLORY OF GOD IS THE MANIFESTED PRESENCE OF GOD.
When God created man, He placed him in a beautiful garden and endowed him with the authority and power to tend it and watch over it. God gave man access to His presence. At the time of man's creation, an angel posed a question to God saying, "What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?" (Psalms 8:4) To an angel, this was unheard of. Created beings seek God's presence, God doesn't seek theirs. Yet, the angel observed that God came down to visit man in the garden. At the time of man's fall, the scripture records, "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." No doubt, God had walked with man many times in the cool of the day. God wanted to be with His man....so much so, that He even made a way for man to walk CONTINUALLY in His presence. Verse 5 of Psalms 8 reads, "For you...have crowned him with GLORY and honor."
When God created man, He crowned him. A crown is made from the most precious substance you can find. Earthly kings are crowned with gold and precious jewels; but gold is the asphalt of heaven! Heaven's streets are paved with it. When God crowned man, He used the most precious substance He could find. That substance was none other than HIMSELF! God crowned man with GLORY, His manifested presence! So long as man chose to walk with God, he enjoyed God's presence on a daily, moment by moment basis. But one day man took a different path....a path that God could not follow. Man chose to fellowship with darkness and in doing so separated Himself from the God of light and life.
When man sinned, he fell away from the glory (presence) of God; and since all have sinned, each of us have fallen away from Him. Romans 3:23 declares, "ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Since the time of man's fall, God has endeavored to make a way for man to regain access to His presence. God has gone to GREAT LENGTHS to restore what man lost. Access to His presence has come at no small price. Access to His presence meant that God needed a plan. Access to His presence meant that God would work that plan through fallen humanity. Access to His presence meant that He would have to send His only begotten Son into a world that would despise, abuse and nail Him to a cross. Access to His presence meant that the blood of His Son would have to be shed. Access to His presence meant that His Son would have to live a sinless life upon a corrupted planet and become sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Corinthians 5:21). Access to His presence came at no small price.
We have much cause to rejoice and be thankful. Hebrews 10:19,22: 4:16 declares, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus....Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
Access to His presence means we have mercy. Access to His presence means we can obtain grace to help in time of need. Access means we can have fullness of joy and pleasures for ever more! (Psalms 16:11).
No wonder, a man like David, who had experienced fame, fortune and every form of worldly pleasure said, "ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED OF THE LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple."
May that be our foremost desire today. May we pause and continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, THE "FRUIT" OF OUR LIPS giving thanks to His name. As we deck our Thanksgiving tables with all manner of food and drink, may we lavish upon the Lord a banquet of praise! Praise, that through the blood of Jesus, we can access His presence. Praise that we can walk with Him and talk with Him in unbroken fellowship.
"Thank you, heavenly Father, for access to your presence. Thank you for the sacrifice that made that possible. Thank you for an abundant life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Father, we thank you in Jesus' Name!
So much of the time we are more mindful of the visible and temporal and thus we give thanks for what we can see and feel. We give God thanks for our food. We thank Him for good health. We thank Him for loved ones and friends. But some of the most precious things in life cannot be seen with human eyes or touched with human hands. Joy cannot be seen, but it is none the less real. Likewise, love and peace are blessings that money cannot buy. God takes pleasure in providing us all the material blessings in life and He wants us to enjoy them. But from His perspective, one of the most precious things He has given us is far over and above everything else. In His eyes, His most precious gift to man is...................HIMSELF!
If you read the first chapter of Ephesians, you'll find that one of our chief, eternal purpose is to live for the "praise of His Glory". Ephesians 1:5-6 reads, "Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ TO HIMSELF, according to the good pleasure of His will, TO THE PRAISE OF THE GLORY of His grace, wherein HE HAS MADE US ACCEPTED in the beloved." And again, in Ephesians 1:11-12, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him......that we should be to the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY, who first trusted in Christ."
We just saw in Hebrews 13:15 that PRAISE is the fruit of our lips GIVING THANKS unto God. It's clear from these two passages, that one of our eternal purposes is to give praise (thanks) for His "Glory".
Many Christians have no idea what His glory is much less give thanks for it. For most of my life, I had little to no idea what His "glory" was even though it's mentioned multiple times in both Old and New testaments.
In Exodus 33:18-23 we have an account of Moses conversing with God, and he makes a special request. He asks, "I beseech thee, show me Thy Glory." God responds saying, "I will make all my goodness pass before you.......You cannot see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live. Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass while my GLORY passes by, that I will put you in a clift of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and you shall see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen."
Notice that Moses asks to see the GLORY of God and God responds by showing Moses HIMSELF! Although Moses cannot see God's face, he is able to see the back side of God as God passes before him. Moses asks to see God's Glory and God responds by revealing Himself to Moses. God manifests His presence. Thus, we see that THE GLORY OF GOD IS THE MANIFESTED PRESENCE OF GOD.
When God created man, He placed him in a beautiful garden and endowed him with the authority and power to tend it and watch over it. God gave man access to His presence. At the time of man's creation, an angel posed a question to God saying, "What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?" (Psalms 8:4) To an angel, this was unheard of. Created beings seek God's presence, God doesn't seek theirs. Yet, the angel observed that God came down to visit man in the garden. At the time of man's fall, the scripture records, "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." No doubt, God had walked with man many times in the cool of the day. God wanted to be with His man....so much so, that He even made a way for man to walk CONTINUALLY in His presence. Verse 5 of Psalms 8 reads, "For you...have crowned him with GLORY and honor."
When God created man, He crowned him. A crown is made from the most precious substance you can find. Earthly kings are crowned with gold and precious jewels; but gold is the asphalt of heaven! Heaven's streets are paved with it. When God crowned man, He used the most precious substance He could find. That substance was none other than HIMSELF! God crowned man with GLORY, His manifested presence! So long as man chose to walk with God, he enjoyed God's presence on a daily, moment by moment basis. But one day man took a different path....a path that God could not follow. Man chose to fellowship with darkness and in doing so separated Himself from the God of light and life.
When man sinned, he fell away from the glory (presence) of God; and since all have sinned, each of us have fallen away from Him. Romans 3:23 declares, "ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Since the time of man's fall, God has endeavored to make a way for man to regain access to His presence. God has gone to GREAT LENGTHS to restore what man lost. Access to His presence has come at no small price. Access to His presence meant that God needed a plan. Access to His presence meant that God would work that plan through fallen humanity. Access to His presence meant that He would have to send His only begotten Son into a world that would despise, abuse and nail Him to a cross. Access to His presence meant that the blood of His Son would have to be shed. Access to His presence meant that His Son would have to live a sinless life upon a corrupted planet and become sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Corinthians 5:21). Access to His presence came at no small price.
We have much cause to rejoice and be thankful. Hebrews 10:19,22: 4:16 declares, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus....Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
Access to His presence means we have mercy. Access to His presence means we can obtain grace to help in time of need. Access means we can have fullness of joy and pleasures for ever more! (Psalms 16:11).
No wonder, a man like David, who had experienced fame, fortune and every form of worldly pleasure said, "ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED OF THE LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple."
May that be our foremost desire today. May we pause and continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, THE "FRUIT" OF OUR LIPS giving thanks to His name. As we deck our Thanksgiving tables with all manner of food and drink, may we lavish upon the Lord a banquet of praise! Praise, that through the blood of Jesus, we can access His presence. Praise that we can walk with Him and talk with Him in unbroken fellowship.
"Thank you, heavenly Father, for access to your presence. Thank you for the sacrifice that made that possible. Thank you for an abundant life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Father, we thank you in Jesus' Name!
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