Praising God; From a New(ish) Perspective:

Tonight is Wednesday night, I went to church, which was awesome. I absolutely love church. But tonight, as we were beginning to start singing, I really got to thinking: "What does someone, who is not saved, and hasn't gone to church before think about Praise and Worship songs?"

Thus I began thinking about what they would think, essentially; trying to think as if I had never been to church before. And the first question I thought of was: "Why am I singing? Why do we Worship God?"
I believe that for someone that isn't saved, that is a valid question. Why worship God? So here's a few verses, go through them and let me know what you think!

Psalm 86:
5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
         And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;
         Nor are there any works like Your works.
 9 All nations whom You have made
         Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
         And shall glorify Your name.
 10 For You are great, and do wondrous things;
         You alone are God.

 11 Teach me Your way, O LORD;
         I will walk in Your truth;
         Unite my heart to fear Your name.
 12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
         And I will glorify Your name forevermore.
 13 For great is Your mercy toward me,
         And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

 14 O God, the proud have risen against me,
         And a mob of violent men have sought my life,
         And have not set You before them.
 15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,
         Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

Also, check out: Psalm 89:8-15; 92:1-6; 95:18;

I think it would be really beneficial, and awesome to have kind of an "intro" to worship. Telling why we worship our King.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark.

I'm sorry for not posting in awhile. I will try to soon.

Ephesians 6:5-20;

Verse 5 is where I am going to focus today.

Bond servants, do everything as if for Christ.

How often do we call God "Lord"? The word actually means; Master. So we are slaves to Christ. Bond servants. So, in all our actions do them as if they are for Christ and we were commanded by Christ to do those things.  Not as men pleasers. But as slaves of Christ doing the will of God.

Christianity: Blissful Slavery.

Be strong in the Lord, and the Power of His Might. The Power of His Might... I can hope in that.

Put on the armor of God so as to defend yourself from the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against Spiritual darkness of this age.

Stand with truth, since the truth is what has set us free, we should live by it. Righteousness, Christ has made us righteous in His blood thus we should walk in righteousness. Prepare yourself in the Gospel--the Good news--of peace, though I fail so often, we should start each day in the Gospel, to prepare ourselves against the world. The Shield of Faith, our great defense: Faith. And the helmet of salvation, putting our thoughts on Salvation so that nothing wicked can enter our minds. And the sword of the Spirit, letting the Holy Spirit fight for us, for we cannot stand alone.

Praying always. Pray for me that I speak as I should.

Well, that's it. Ephesians is over. Wow... at times I thought it would never end! I hope you enjoyed it, I am sorry it took so long and that I missed some days here and there.

Thanks for reading!

John Mark,

Ephesians 5:15-33;

Live your life circumspectly. For those of you who do not now, circumcision was a ceremony dedicating a male to God. So to walk circumspectly is to live a life dedicated to God; "Not as fools but as wise." Anyone who seeks after God is wise.

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Christ is redemption, so to redeem the time is to Christ to this day and age.

Therefore be wise, and understand the will of the Lord. And don't be drunk but be filled with God. If we are filled with God then it will show in the way we treat each other. So, we should speak to each other in Psalms, hymns, and Spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of the Son, Jesus. Submitting one another in fear of God.

These last verses of chapter 5 are about marriage, since I am not married I am going to leave them alone. But please look at verse 29, and think about it for yourself.

Sorry I have been slacking, I have no excuse, but I am trying to keep writing.


Thanks for reading!

John Mark,

Ephesians 5:1-14;

In verse 1 it says to be imitators of God as dear children. He says "as dear children" because a child will act like the people around them him or her until it molds who they are. So to imitate God is to take on His attributes until we are transformed into His image.

And walk in Love. Love is our greatest command from Christ. (See Matt 22:35-39.)
And to love as Christ loved us is to love to the point of dying because you love them so much.

Foolish talking. We talk so much, especially me. And we say things that are foolish, we say coarse jokes. And I'll even admit, about a year ago, I would, with no guilt at all, say sexual jokes and think they were hilarious. But they are wrong, literally, taking what God made sacred and making it a joke. But instead of these things, we should be giving thanks. And praising God with our words.

And know this; that no person who is a fornicator, unclean person,nor a covetous man, who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom God.

And  don't be decieved, because people who claim Christianity will try to justify themselves. And God's wrath is coming.  So do not be partakers with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as Children of light-finding out what is acceptable to God. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to even speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But the things that are exposed are made manufest by the light ffor whatever makes manifest is light. Therefor He says.

Awake you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light,

We need to be careful how we act and speak, we are the church. We need to represent Christ, and do that well.


Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Ephesians 4:25-32;

Paul addresses spoken words here. Put away lying, and speak truth, for we are members of one another. We are a family, we are the Body of Christ.

Be angry and do not sin. It is not wrong to be angry, if you read through the Bible there are many times that God Himself gets angry. But we are not to sin in our anger, nor are we to hold on to it. Don't give place to Satan. If you get angry, big deal, address the problem immediately and then get over it.
Let him who stole, steal no longer. Learn to work for yourself, labor with your own back for your own bread, and the bread of those who have none. Let no word proceed out of your mouth, except that which brings grace to the hearers... Perhaps that means that any word that offends someone is profanity. Don't grieve the Spirit. I don't know exactly what Paul meant, but I would guess that he meant not to wallow in unhappiness. Lift your head high, trust God, and be happy that you are able to take your next breath. Let anger, wrath, clamor, and slander/evil speaking be put away from you. Don't make a big fuss over things, don't anger linger, you are going to get angry, just let it go. Don't put people down, it's worthless. The Paul tells us to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave us. In that last verse, Paul tells us to do a few things, that line up with the attributes of love.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Ephesians 4:17-24;

The new man. Before I start talking about the new man let me first give you a picture of the Old man.

Picture, a zombie, I'm serious. Rotting flesh, foul smells, bugs crawling through it. Remember, it doesn't fully decompose... is just... stinks. It walks around mumbling little groans that no one can understand. Just think about it, now on the side of the old man being dead in his sins, and how repulsive he would be... that's the best picture I can give. Now the conscious statement of them being dead, I can give two; Recall when God created man, He formed Adam from dust... At this point, Adam is just a pile of dirt. Now, imagine yourself going up to Adam and trying to witness to him... How is that going for you? The fact is, that until God breathes the breath of Life into Adam... Adam is just a pile. So is the same spiritual state of Adam... Until God opens Adams eyes to the truth... Adam is dirt. Example two; A drunk man, or a mentally unstable person. Someone that has no control over themselves and are lenient towards violence.

Now you have a picture of the Old man. So, what about the new man?
To put it simply, the exact opposite of the old dude. Paul tells the Ephesians not to act like the gentiles.
Paul tells them, that if they have heard Christ and have been taught by Him--or His teachings--then they should not live as the Gentiles. Sometimes, we cut Christianity a little short. No, as Christians we are to abstain from sexual relationships outside of marriage. But somehow, it is okay to say jokes like that and to watch movies and TV shows that contain a lot of that. How does that make sense?? And we do it with other things too. Paul says to put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. True righteousness and holiness. In that true righteousness and holiness, which is God, we should act like we are that new man. Sometimes it is hard to, and yeah, we'll stumble. But we have got to keep running. Got nothing else holding out for us but God, so we have to strive after Him, and to shine for Him.

Sorry, I don't have much for today.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,