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Praise & Shine

Wake up to your favorite Contemporary Christian Music and Hits with a positive message, every Sunday morning starting at 10 AM on Quicksie 98.3. If you want to share what God is doing in your life or want us to pray for you, visit https://wqxe.com/prayer

Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

We often struggle to understand what God’s will is for us, yet here it is, clear as day: God wants us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in ALL circumstances. Did you hear that word all? Give thanks always, all the time. 

God doesn’t ask us to ignore the difficult times, people, and circumstances to live out this scripture. Instead, God’s will is to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. 

So what do we do when life’s not fair? There are two ways we can live our lives concerning this scripture. The first is to expect our lives to be simple and easy and life to go our way. If you’re living your life this way, you will set yourself up for a lot of disappointment, and it will be hard to live God’s will for your life, giving thanks in all circumstances. 

The second way you can live your life is to realize that we are nothing more than dust and to dust, we must return, it is much easier to look to God and see EVERYTHING as a gift. Life’s not fair, but what we deserve is death. With every heartbeat, we must recognize that our lives are a gift from God. 

So how do we get to the point where we can recognize everything as a gift? We already know the answer.

  1. Rejoice always. Celebrate what God is doing ALWAYS.
  2. Pray continually. It isn’t just praying a couple of times a day, it’s spending our whole lives in prayer. Don’t limit your time of intimacy with the Father. The Father is with us and want’s to be with us. But why pray continually if he already knows everything? Prayer can help us have a deeper understanding of ourselves. When we have a deeper understanding our ourselves, it deepens our relationship with God.  
  3. Give thanks in ALL circumstances. It doesn’t say to give thanks FOR all circumstances. I’m not thankful for all circumstances. Paul reminds us that we can give thanks IN them because the Father is IN them. We can live thanks in all circumstances because we don’t need to obtain favor. When we gave our lives over to Jesus, we put our trust IN Jesus. At that moment, Jesus and his life obtained everything that our life hadn’t. We obtained death. We can not obtain through any amount of work or effort what has already been given by grace.

When we are in the presence of God we will recognize all the things He is doing, and we will want to rejoice always. And when we are with Him, we can talk about everything. Pray continually. As we do, we will see that God is using absolutely everything, and we will be thankful. 

When you pay attention to the details you will see God everywhere. 

Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:18 — 7.5MB)

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Ongoing Pursuit // Praise & Shine

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Being a Christian isn’t something that’s one and done. It’s not something we can check off a list. The Lord intends us to keep learning and having new, goldy experiences all of our lives. As we continue to pursue God, we will face ongoing, daily challenges of maintaining steadfast growth.

Proverbs 19:20 “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.”

As we go through life, we’ll face continuous opportunities for new memberships, situations, investments, associations, relationships, career opportunities, and alliances. Not every opportunity will be a good one or even the right one. Many of them aren’t even sent by God. But as we seek the Father, bring each opportunity before him in prayer, He’ll show us the path we’re to follow as we seek to fulfill our purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you’, says the LORD. ‘They are plans for goog and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'”

As more and more of your potential becomes a reality and you live out the purpose God’s planned for you, make sure that you are continuously seeking renewal.

Continually reaffirm your commitment to the Lord, reaffirm your priorities, re-establish your discipline, reaffirm your desire to do your best, rekindle your enthusiasm, refresh yourself in the Lord and revisit the vision God has for your life.

You can live in an ongoing state of renewal only if you rely on the Holy Spirit to be your constant and unending source of joy, love, faith, and confidence. God wants you to fulfill your potential and live out your purpose.

Be sure to choose to want what HE wants.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:00 — 4.6MB)

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Limitless // Praise & Shine

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When we take the time to reflect on the nearness of God and how He loves us dearly we should consider the attributes of God. I like to turn to the Psalms when I meditate on my relationship with God. Psalm 145:8-9 says “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Often I think God’s mercy has a limit and that I have pushed Him beyond that limit. However, as we have just read, He is slow to anger, and He is abounding in steadfast love. His mercy is over us and He is good to everyone that He has made.

In Isaiah 41:10 we will read what God promises us and what this means for us. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

He tells us we have nothing to fear because He is with us and He is our God. He will never change. His promises remain the same.

“…Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

God’s love has no limit.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:29 — 5.7MB)

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Risky Business // Praise Shine

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When we are pursuing God’s purpose for us, there may come times when we will face difficult decisions. These decisions may even present some risk.

Our potential is the sum of all possibilities God has for our lives. We have no way of comprehending all the possibilities that an all-wise, all-knowing, infinite God sees. We can not know with our finite minds and limited perspective all that He knows.

There is a significant amount of risk involved in trusting God in all things. Risk, after all, is a part of the very nature of faith. We put our belief in a God whom we can’t see but still experience. And put our faith in His promise to work all things to our benefit (Romans 8:28), even if we can’t understand what must occur to get us from where we are to where we hope to be. And put our faith in the love of God to transform us in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.

After Jesus had multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed 5,000, He told His disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while He went to pray by Himself. And while Jesus was still on the mountain, the boat was being tossed about in the middle of the sea.

Jesus came down and went to them, walking on the sea. (Matthew 14:25). The disciples were afraid but Jesus commanded them to not be afraid. What happened next is perhaps one of the biggest steps of faith in the whole Bible. Peter answered Jesus saying, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water,” (Matthew 14:28). As Jesus bid Peter to come, Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on the water to go to Jesus. Of all the disciples, only one risked everything to step out in faith and became the only person in the Bible who walked on water. Would you be willing to do the same?

The experience deepened Peter’s faith and made him willing to take even greater risks later in his life and ministry. The same could be true for each of us. What we see as a risk may be the very situation God uses to strengthen our faith. That risk could be what God will use to carry us one giant step closer to fulfilling our purpose and reaching our full potential.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:31 — 5.8MB)

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Three Loves // Praise & Shine

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There are over 5 million words in the Greek language, while there are only about 171 thousand in the English language. The Bible was primarily written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, leading to a lot of nuance being lost in translation.

Take the word “love” for example. I’m sure you know what it means to love and be loved, but there are three Greek words for “love” we will find in the Bible.

The first we find is Philos, the warm affection or friendship. Philos was commonly used when referring to friendships or family relationships. For example, it was used in Matthew 10:37 to indicate love for father and mother or son and daughter. Philos was the word used for Jesus’ love for his friend Lazarus (John 11:3,36) and His love for His disciples (John 20:2).

The second Greek word for love is Eros referring to physical or sexual love. This is where we get the word erotic from. While Eros was commonly used in the Greek-speaking world of New Testament times, the word itself is not found in the pages of the New Testament. The concept of physical love, however–expressed in the concept of marriage–is found and affirmed in the New Testament.

Our final word for love found in the Greek language is Agape, the sacrificial, unconditional love of God. Agape love is the highest form of love in the New Testament. Agape is the word that describes God’s love in John 3:16. We are commanded to love God (Matthew 22:37) and love one another (John 13:34) with agape love.

To say agape love is the highest form of love is not to diminish the other kinds of love. All genuine love comes from God because God is love and is where we build our foundation. A healthy marriage will express all thee forms of love.

There is another Greek word I would like to talk about, Timios meaning great price, precious, held in honor, esteemed, and especially dear. Timios is used to describe the “precious” redeeming blood of Christ in 1 Peter 1:18-19. Timios is used again to describe the “precious” promise of God. There is another place we see the use of Timios, Hebrews 13:4, “Marrige is to be held in TIMIOS among all…”

The same word that is used to describe the precious blood of Christ and the promise of God is also used to describe marriage. When we look at our spouse, we should see the beautiful creation that God holds dear, and express our love for His creation in all forms, Philos, Eros, and Agape.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:53 — 6.6MB)

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