Often in our culture we use these two words interchangeably, but worship and praise have to separate meanings and what it comes down to is the focus.

I’ll start with a simple explanation of both and move in to expound on them. Simply put, worship is on God for who He is, praise is about what God has done.

Worship is about reverence, awe struck wonder at God for who He is, the heart of worship longs to recognize the nature of God, to see God for who He is, and to respond in humility, love and recognition that God is holy and above all, loves His creation.

In worship our eyes are entirely fixated on God, we do not look at ourselves but purely and entirely on God, on His being, on His nature, on His very person.

In praise, we look at the things that God has done, that can be what he has done in creating, what he has done in our lives, what he has done in the lives of those around us, or ones we look to as inspirations.

When we worship, our gaze becomes entirely fixed and focused on God, in praise we look not at God, but the actions of God. That isn’t to say we don’t honor God when we praise, it’s to point out the different nature of the two, and the purpose and function of the two.

The Hebrew word for worship is shâchâh, it means to bow down, or lay down, to revere and humbly worship.

When we worship God, we humble ourselves, our mind and spirit and simply sing or meditate on God, His goodness, His enduring mercy and love, the fullness of which we do not understand. The only thing we focus on is God, our entire heart and mind should be consumed with the fire of His eternal being.

Praise, or yâdâh is about confession, outstretched hands, singing and thanksgiving. When we come to God in yâdâh we offer up our voices in recognition of the things he has done, for the mercy bestowed upon us, but in shâchâh sing of the mercy of God in recognition of it being who He is for He is mercy and merciful all His days.

Whether we choose to receive His mercy or not does not change that mercy is His nature, so we can choose to not receive His mercy, therefore we could not sing in yâdâh, but our yâdâh or lack of it, does not change that He is worthy of shâchâh or worship.

If we try to worship the works of God, then His actions become an idol in our lives, we begin to only seek God for what He can do for us, but our worship is to be eyes off ourselves, and fully on Him.

In praise we can sing of what God has done with thanksgiving, in fact sharing what God has done in our lives is a major part of our life, but it should not be confused with worship.

Worship does not say I… me, but is wholly and fully fixed on God. The heart in worship falls before the Father and declares Him holy, righteous and above all. The heart of worship is to see God for who He is and to allow that fearful reverence to humble us and recognize that apart from Him we are nothing.

In praise, our yâdâh, we shout out the wonderful works of His hand, we stretch out our hands and sing the glorious deeds of almighty God, in praise we sing God I thank you, God you have saved me, praise is testimonial, worship is a humble declaration.

I was recently asked to look into what Jesus meant when He said “occupy til I come.” In Luke 19:13

The story, from Luke 19:13-27 is a parable, an image of the kingdom, told to help us to better understand.

Now at first glance one might read this, and with the wording used understand it as trade, business, having an occupation, for the word used in Greek we translate as occupy means to trade.

But again, we must read this as a parable, not as anything whose true intentions are financial. (Now that being said, I am not saying to not build Christian based businesses, I am a proponent of capitalism, entrepreneurship, and believers owning businesses and using them as a means to reach the lost.)

But rather, I believe there is another deeper meaning as well to this. God has given each of us a gift, the gift of salvation. Do we take our salvation, hide ourselves away from the world, avoiding any temptation or fear that we might lose our salvation and so we avoid conflict, and hide the gospel and ourselves away?

Or, are we being fruitful, multiplying and populating the coming kingdom? Are we taking our gift, the gift of salvation, and testifying what God has done, the salvation He has wrought in us, and bringing others into the kingdom with us?

The wording in this passage indicates that we should be in labor, putting the work, gift and investment given to us and there should be a fruit as a result. God does not call us home the day we are saved, because God expects us to take our salvation and the gifts He has given us and use them to glorify Him and do the work He has for us.

How we do that will look different for each individual, how God blesses each of us, and how we use those blessings will look different for each of us, but we are to take those gifts and blessings and turn them to good for the kingdom. When Jesus returns He does not expect to return and find we have taken our time and the gifts bestowed upon them and been unfaithful poor stewards.

For some of this, this may mean starting our own business, or rearing a large family, or pastoring etc, it matters not how it looks, only that we have taken the gifts and been fruitful in our doing. Will every believer be a nurse or doctor? Will all start large businesses that employ hundreds of people? Will all preach from a pulpit or travel the nations preaching? No, God has called each of us to our own work, empowering us with many manifold gifts, some spiritual, others mental, physical, some in finance, others in business, but what matters is we take the gifts and use them for the kingdom sake.

What then? Is our salvation contingent upon the work we do? No, else the cross becomes in vain, but we are called as good stewards, faithful sons to be diligent in our pilgrimage, good caretakers and image bearers of the God most High, who is not lazy not slack, but working hard. Our work we are called into, in whatever form, is designed to glorify the Son, build the kingdom and honor our Heavenly Father.

To occupy in this context is not having dominion, but being diligent workers, not in laboring for our own small kingdoms that will pass away, but toiling for the kingdom, which is of Christ and in us, adding into it, not that any man adds, for some plant, others water, but God provides the increase.

Has the church always understood and acted on this? This message while intended on the individual can also be applied to the Church local and global. Is the church taking the gifts of each member of the body and raising them up, equipping them to the work of the ministry? Are we encouraging others gifts and helping them to use them for the kingdom?

Are we so focused on what the mouth does for the body we are forgetting what the hand does? What the foot can do? The finger or the ear? All of us are apart of one body, designed to honor the Son. The church does good setting money aside for missionaries, for new pastors and for updates to the building, but is the Church always putting it’s entire resources to the good work of building the kingdom?

We will look more another day into the question, has the church always been a good and faithful steward? What has the stewardship looked like, occupying until our Lord’s return? Throughout the history of the church.

The good news, and somehow the most controversial thing the world has ever known, since it’s founding people have been trying to fight and stifle it.

Since Cain and Abel unrighteous men have killed those men who seek after righteousness and Truth. Nothing is new about this, it has just been a long time since it has been seen like this in America.

The good news of Jesus Christ must be proclaimed in the face of any and every darkness, for it is the unbreakable and unyielding truth, it is the only thing that saves.

Jesus came, born of a virgin, was raised as a Jewish man, he lived a perfect and sinless life, the only one who could. He was the fullness of the Godhead in human flesh. For over three years he worked a ministry, with signs and wonders following.

During the time of his ministry Jesus cleansed the leper, healed the sick, made the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, preached to the poor, the dead were raised to life, he challenged hypocrites, he challenged people who didn’t want their views challenged, he ate with sinners and loved on them, he commanded the evil spirits out of those they tormented and calmed the storms.

Jesus spoke with authority, with an unmatched understanding of the Holy scriptures. He challenged the views of the world of His time and never backed down, they couldn’t outsmart him, they couldn’t trap Him in their rhetoric, and when they tried to trap Him politically they failed.

While at dinner with a leper, a woman came and anointed him with ointment from an alabaster box, a sign of his coming burial.

Jesus was betrayed by one of his 12, lead before the priest, they mocked Him, beat Him, sent Him before Pilate.

Pilate couldn’t find fault in Him, He was sent before Herod before whom He would not speak. Pilate tried to release Him, but the people chose a murderer over the one who came to save them.

Jesus was beaten again, a crown of thorns was placed upon His head, he was beaten beyond being recognized as a man, then He was crucified where He was mocked and reviled again.

There in His final hours He met a thief, for on either side was a thief. One would find salvation in the lamb of God, the other chose to scorn the one who loved.

Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross, the purpose of His life was finished, He accomplished all He came to do. A mighty earthquake and darkness fell, the veil was split in two.

Jesus was buried in a tomb where never a body lay, purchased by a Pharisee, and a great stone was rolled over the tomb entrance.

The 11 left scattered and knew not what to do at the loss of Jesus.

On the third day, the first day of the week the women went to the tomb and met an Angel. The stone was rolled away.

“He’s not here” proclaimed the angel, for Christ our Lord had risen, just as He said He would do. Jesus was seen by many over the next forty days, as were a great many others who had been dead and raised from the grave with the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father until the appointed day of His return, where He sits now, as His church proclaims the good news of what Christ has done for all mankind.

Jesus death was not because He challenged the religion, it was not because He was a good teacher. Jesus died as it was the only sacrifice that could wash away the sins of the world. He died so that the lost sheep of the world could come home.

Jesus is the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, whose blood is the only way to cleanse us of our sin, the only way we can come to salvation and in His name alone is the hope for our eternal salvation.

Jesus is the perfect and eternal sacrifice who died to take away the sins of the world and to call us out of sinful living, but the world hated Him, rejected Him and despised Him, for the world is darkness and could not comprehend Him, for He is the light.

His love for the people of the world, and creation could never be fully understood by us, for it was His great pleasure. Everything that is is by Him, He was in the beginning with the Father, and the Father is in Him and He in the Father.

The good news is we are able to come into the full love of the Son and the Father, through Jesus Christ, it is open to all who will call on His name, call on the name of Jesus Christ that you might be saved. For the Father is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance.

Life is hard, and most of struggle with finding a sense of purpose and fulfillment in life. We work jobs we take no joy in and find more stress than happiness, and we ask God what His plans for us are and why we are here.

God has created us with passions, talents, skills and gifts. Some of us are walking in those right now, and some of us can’t find how to walk in those in a way that will provide for our families or God has not opened that door telling us to wait with patience.

Men and women all over the world feel lost, depressed and scared, wandering without a sense of purpose to life. It gets hard, this life is hard, and harder still when we wander with no sense of purpose.

Truthfully we were each created with a purpose, we have a heavenly creator, a good Father who made us each to fulfill a purpose in life. Some of us find that purpose early on, we know what we were made for, others of us struggle for years and wrestle to understand.

I have spent years with trying to fight through this life to uncover what God made me for, not a lost sense of I am an accident, I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me, but I have never been able to find the purpose He has for my life.

I have seen many stories lately of people who have found their God given purpose, whether a calling they have known from a young age, or one they stepped into as a young adult. I have come to have people in my life who recognize not only God’s calling, but see the talents as well, and how they all tie in.

Often, God’s plan and purpose will require the talents he blesses us with, and sometimes it takes finding the right people to believe in you and pour into you, to water and grow those gifts so you can walk out the purpose of your life.

There is no one simple method for discovering your purpose, for we each have our own path to walk. For some of us, we know as a child, others we find it as a young man, and some struggle and fight for years through our adulthood, but I would urge you, if you are struggling to find your purpose, prayer this simple prayer.

God, what is the purpose you have for me? Is there anywhere I am believing something untrue about you? Am I not submitted to your Will or is there anywhere in my life I am holding on to my plan over yours? God, let it not be about what I want from you, but what you want from me. Help me to fully surrender to you. To fully surrender to your plan, your purpose, the reason I am here. What is you would have me do today, and every day after? Let my life be a life submitted to your will. Amen.

I am writing this post shortly after the tragic shooting of a tremendous patriot and hero of the faith, Charlie Kirk. When I started to type this I had to pray, for strength to process my emotions as I was feeling a myriad of heavy emotions.

I have enjoyed listening to Charlie Kirk for years, he was a talented debater with a gift from God, and a falling to reach the most in need and vulnerable of our nation, our youth.

During the last few years the attacks targeting outspoken conservative, and particularly conservative Christians has been on the rise. Now we know as believers that this should be no surprise, I have heard countless conservative Christians express the same view of how blessed we have been to have the religious freedom to worship without fear, but that it could all be taken away from us if we allowed it .

I could use this (very small) outlet to respond in flesh and anger, but I won’t do that, which is why I had to pray before this post. We are coming to a head, a pivotal moment in American history is coming before us, and now more than ever American Christians need to rise to meet the age.

Darkness and evil are emboldened, lashing out against truth and light at every corner, many so called leaders are leading the people of our nation astray, promoting that which is evil and calling it good.

Everywhere you turn, from small towns in the middle of conservative America, to mega cities the people are challenging God’s truth and what is right, fighting for sin to be praised and not the truth of God’s word. And many of us Christians, myself included, have been sitting idly by and allowing the rampant sin to plague our nation, while we go to work, and entertain ourselves, forgetting the Godly duty we have.

I am not a promoter of physical violence, it is not the way for Christianity, but I do believe in organization, being active and outspoken for our faith. I do believe in standing up before wickedness and not backing down, but standing bold as a lion and declaring over our nation and our families, that the enemy will have no more.

We need to stand against the violence plaguing our nation, and we need to stand against the perpetrators of evil, violence, sin and self indulgent lies. It is time for more Christians to raise the banner high, and proclaim Jesus, without wavering in the face of a nation and culture that seem to be moving further and further away from the good news of Christ.

It is heartbreaking to see where our nation is heading, to see the patterns that lead to the evil socialist regimes in Russia, Nazi Germany and Italy, as well as countless nations in our own time, being fully accepted and advanced in our own nation.

We can become upset, we can choose to do nothing and go back to our tv and video games, or we can begin to mobilize and organize. It is time for the Christian to live up to the full call of Revelation 12:11, to overcome by the blood of of Jesus, the word of our testimonies and to not love our lives only to death.

That Christ and His kingdom would be our heart’s proclamation; and that we would do our part to advance the kingdom on Earth, not with violence, but in love, with true love that does not condone sin, but loves through it into a place of freedom from sin.

I pray that from this tragedy more Christians will find the strength, the will and the courage to challenge evil, darkness, sin and lies boldly, that we will all rise up to challenge the culture of political violence that seems to be swarming the nation.

My hands were tied from cords of rope

But it was my heart that bound me there 

The pain from each strike could not compare

To the pain I felt for each lost soul

For every lash I shed a tear 

Not from the pain, but a tear of joy 

Every stripe upon my broken body

Gladly taken for your healing

Knowing this, I did all this for you 

As I felt the blood running down my back and down my Brow

My heart swelled with love for I knew this would bring you home

As my skin became crimson red, you were washed white 

Beaten battered and marred beyond what mortal form could bare

Divine wrath poured out on heaven’s spotless lamb

They thought to turn me into a Mockery and shame 

But this was how I won my greatest victory

Adorned in purple, and a crown of thorns 

I was prepared for my greatest triumph

Pierced and hung upon that tree

Where shame and grace collide

The beautiful agony

Where the only worthy one

Took the place of the forsaken

Raised high upon that hill

I became a rest for the weary and downtrodden

Where all could lift their eyes 

And find true hope

Tetelestai I cried with my last breath

As the darkness rolled in

They pierced my side, and tore my garments

A stone was rolled over my grave

A final period to end the story

I woke at first in total darkness

The light of glory began to shine 

My body filled with divine power

My resurrection, became your hope

My story was not over

The period was just a comma

No grave nor stone

Could withstand my glory

The might of heaven

Standing the highest victory

No sin, no grave or tomb

No accuser left to tout your shame

For if you place your hope in me

Accept the way the truth the life

And come to sonship

A child of heaven

Return to the Father’s love and embrace 

Adorned in robes of white

Made whole from this broken state

For this is why I chose to come

And climb upon that tree of broken shame

Hello. Another year is now upon us. Many people look to the beginning of a new year as a time of change and refreshment.

They leave the burdens and hurt of the previous year behind, and look to the next year with high expectations.

Having high hopes is both good, and having a positive outlook can impact the outcome exponentially.

A word of caution though with plans, a word from our Lord. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring.” Proverbs 27:1

That being said, I am not trying to bring anyone down, as my family and I too have high hopes for 2023. We are making major life changes.

We will be moving into a motor home and starting full time ministry as traveling misionaries traversing the continental USA.

My desire rather, is that we each be humble in our expectations, and always saying Lord willing, for we of our own power can do no good, but it by the power of God.

The power wrought in Christ working to us-ward. God has plans for each of us, and if we allow our plans to fall in line with His plan and His will, then we need not be fearful, but we must maintain a humbleness in our plans.

May your plans be found in line with God’s, and may they be blessed this year.

We cannot love God without loving people.
We cannot love people without loving God.

This duality of love is perfectly displayed in the cross.

the cross is the very image of love.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

The cross is where he who knew no sin, became sin, that he might take away the sins of the world, redeeming us to proper sonship in the Father.

A cross is made of two poles, one vertical, one horizontal.

If you take away the vertical pole, you have a beam laying on the ground.

If you take away the horizontal, you only have a post.

If you love God, but not people, you only have self-righeouesness.
you will drive others away until you are a pillar of isolation. There will be noting to hold to when the tides of life crash in, and others will flee, searching for something they can grasp to save them from their drowning. This haughtiness is not love of God, but a love of the self and one’s own perceived self attained holiness.

If you love people, but not God, you will promote self-destrucive behavior that will result in brokenness and the end of which is destruction. You will encourage and promote acceptance and understanding, even when the path is destruction. this is a false love, a false teaching whose end is only death.

There can be no true love for God, unless you love people, and there can be no true love for people unless you love God.

There is a pervading message in the world right now. It has picked up in popularity over the last few years, it is a message of self gratification.

The message, follow your heart. Now it may seem new, but this ideology has been around since the days of Noah.

We read in Genesis 6:5 about the wicked state of man’s heart. These people did not only have evil in their heart, but acted upon it, often.

Jeremiah 7 and 16 again tells us that people were walking after the evil intentions of their hearts.

Many Christians use verses like this to talk about not being lead by the heart. As christians we need to be clear; and not christians only but everyone.

Ezekiel talks of God giving us a new heart, and in Hebrews 9:10 “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.”

To the believing repented soul, whose heart has been softened, made new and renewed, and is perfectly in line with God, then the actions they take will reflect that.

For a believer, our mind and heart will move in like with the will of God as we become less by the Spirit and not the flesh.

For one in whom their heart is still hard, for the internees mind who seeks to do their own will and not that of God, the message to follow their heart is dangerous, self pleasing, self satisfying and dangerous to the soul.

Again to drive this message home, psalm 37:4 “delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of the heart.”

For those who delight in the Lord, their desire moves in line with the will of God, and we become partakers in heavenly duty, our desire becomes the same as what God desires.

We begin to seek to please God, not self. There are two ends for a man, to follow the self pleasing heart whose end is death, or follow a renewed born again heart whose desire is to please God.

It is by grace, extended to us by the love and power of God, manifested in Christ, that we can come to love God, and by loving God we can come to a place of renewed and empowered love with a clean heart.

Prayer, praying, the ability to pray, to be one who prays often, but what exactly is prayer?

Prayer is the spiritual lifeblood of the Christian life, but what is prayer and how do we pray? We can find countless verses in the subject, but we seem to be just as unable to grasp it as the countless generations before us.

Too often in the church today we see prayer as some form of magical wish granting device, not unlike the mythical genie in a lamp, but this is not true prayer, this is the prayer of James 4:3.

We must flee from the prayer of James 4:3 and learn to pray like what we read in James 5:16b-18, or again to pray like what we read in the first epistle of John, chapter 5 verse 14-15.

The thing about praying is this, praying is coming to speak to God, and to commune with him. We bring our supplications and requests (Phil 4:6) yes, but it is more than this. It is us, entering into the holy of holies, grabbing the ear of God and grasping hold of His immeasurable power.

We grab hold of this power, not for ourselves and not of ourselves, but for the will of God, by the will of God.

From the beginning God’s desire has been for a relationship with His people, and part of a relationship is communicating with each other. God desires us to come and talk with Him, and also that we would listen to him.

Too quickly when we pray we come to him, with this long preformed list of wants wishes and desires, utter those say amen and leave, but prayer was meant to be and is much more than this.

Part of prayer is meditation upon His word, prayerfully reading His word, listening with our spiritual ears to wisdom from the Holy Spirit. it is about talking with God, and being in His presence.

Yes we bring requests to God, bu they must stem from His will and for the good of the kingdom, not just the things that we want for our own sakes. God knows what we have need of, our faith should be to trust Him to provide and meet our needs, but we must be obedient and our prayers must grow to become true praying.

To be the lifeblood of a Christian life prayer must not just be a list of wishes, but become true communication with a God, it must be about growing spiritually, advancing the kingdom and seeking God’s will that it might be done.