Q: What exactly does the phrase "The Lord inhabits the praise of His people" mean? What exactly happens when we enter into a litany of praising our God?
A: That phrase comes from the scripture in Psalms 22:3
The NKJV Reads as follows:
But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
The KJV Reads as follows:
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
We where created for fellowship with God. Our worship of God has been a method through which we fellowship with Him since man was created. So when we begin to praise God it draws our awareness of His presence to a sharper sense. We are honoring all of who He is, in His awesomeness. As the New King James Version puts it God becomes “enthroned” in our spirits, hearts and minds. As He should be in our spirits, hearts, minds and lives at all times. When God’s Spirit is draw upon in praise change will take place in peoples spirits, hearts and minds. That is why praise and worship has such a powerful effect upon people. You cannot be in the presence of God and not have some change take place within you whether you know it or not. The second thing praise does is it chase away the principalities of darkness. Satan and his crew where the worship leaders in heaven. They I believe are envious and jealous of those who are praising God therefore they do not want to stay around it. Praises will chase away evil spirits. So praise is a win – win thing; KEEP PRAISING.
Q: I am familiar with the Bibles promise when it comes to giving the Lord a tenth. Does the same promise apply to time? Most people today feel they do not have enough time and feel overwhelmed. Does the Lord promise more time to those who give him the first tenth or a tenth of each day?
A: The Lord Jesus calls us to be good stewards of what He gives us (Matt. 25:14-30). Money, talents, ability and yes our time. God gives life so your time was given to you by Him. We are to give back to God from the resources He has given us, motivated by love for Him. Then He will give us a “sufficiency in all things” (2 Corn. 9:68). To me time is included in all things. God makes a way for all the things He has called us to do (Phil. 4:13). The key here being what He has asked us to do, not what others have asked of us or we have asked of ourselves. If we struggle to do something, now I don’t mean spiritual warfare that would come against us to keep us from the things God has for us to do; but we struggle on an ongoing bases with something we are doing we need to go back to God and ask if He wants us to continue doing that thing or if He ever wanted us to be doing it in the first place. God will measure out your time each day for the things He wants you doing just ask Him to measure your time. Time goes by quickly in life (Job 9:25-26) so priorities are a must and must be made at the direction of the Lord Jesus our Christ. We need to give God the time He should have and others what they should have (Matt. 22:21). The bottom line is we make time for our priorities (Psalms 70:12). So whatever we make time for is our priorities. They may need to be adjusted at times. We all get our priorities out of line at times. Try to stay focused in the day, block of day, hour or minute you are in at any given time (Matt.6:34). That is what is important for that moment, nothing else. Approaching life this way will help you to keep from feeling overwhelmed and result in you being more constructive and productive. Choose wisely how you spend your time (Eph. 5:15,16). Ask yourself how what you are doing is redeeming (benefiting) God, others or yourself. Your time should be divided well balanced between the three for you to be a spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically healthy person. God wants us to here Him daily (Ps. 95:7-8 & Heb. 4:7). If we don’t spend some time with Him daily, really listening to Him, it will affect our ability to hear Him effectively. If you never sit and talk with your spouse and they call you on the phone one day will we truly be sure it is their voice you hear on the other end of the line? Mal. 3:8 Talks of robbing God of tithes and offerings. What would happen if you robbed the time due your children, spouse or a friend? BROKEN Children, BROKEN Marriages, BROKEN Homes, BROKEN Relationships, BROKEN LIVES & HEARTS. The same thing happens with God when you rob Him of His time with you. Eventually you will find a brokenness in your relationship with Him. PRAISE GOD – He is and will always be willing to reconcile with us. Yet, this is not an excuse for us to neglect Him. Do not rob God give Him His due in all things…….......................including YOUR TIME.
Q: Is the Old Testament still relevant to us today?
A: It is very relevant to us today. Although greatly discarded by many Christians. When Jesus came to fulfill our relationship with God, creating for us a new covenant and issuing in the New Testament; He never intended to discard the laws, principles or precepts set down in the Old Testament. Only discard the idea that we could mend our broken relationship with God through obeying them. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus is quoted as saying, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law He never intended to be the destruction, or cause for removal of God’s laws and principles. The Old Testament is still extremely valuable today. Number one the things that took place literally in the Old Testament in the physical realm now take place figuratively in the spiritual realm. We still deal with the same type of enemies, battles and struggles. We still have the same type covering and protection. Where they may have dealt with an evil king we may deal with Satan. Where they fought with a sword and a shield we fight with the Word of God and our faith. The principles, the laws and the precepts God put into place in the Old Testament were designed to protect His people. Those same principles, laws and precepts will protect you today. If you question this examines some of them against the troubles in our homes, land and world, illnesses and personal struggles we have today.
Q: Did Judas go to heaven?
A: I do not believe that any earthly person can answer this with any certainty. Let us look into the Word of God to see what it says about the matter that might help you draw your own conclusion. Go to Matthew 27 vs. 3-5; It says that when it Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned he was remorseful. The King James Translation states that Judas “repented himself”. Is there not forgiveness for those who repent? Yes, even Judas perhaps? We think no, no way what He done was horrible. But if he had not we would not be going to heaven one day. We think of Judas with our minds and hearts – the mind and heart of God surpasses anything we can imagine. He forgives things and understands acts we have no clue about. He was part of the divine plan. Verse 4 clearly indicates that he was aware of the wrong that he had done. Let’s not forget that it was God’s sovereign plan that one of Jesus’ very own disciples would betray Him. If it was God’s choice to choose Judas for this purpose; is it not also His choice to have made a provision for Judas? Even though Judas chose to hang himself as we see in the vs. 5; we do not know that regret, repentance and sorrow for that act as well did not take place just prior to his death. It is possible although he had committed the act of hanging himself that in the moment prior to death he had a change of heart, although it was too late to change the circumstances and consequences. The devil used Judas; he has also used us – are you forgiven for that – are you going to heaven?
Q: What was the Ark of the Covenant made of?
A: The answer can be found in Exodus 25:10,11; acacia wood and pure gold. It is fascinating to study the Ark of the Covenant and the parallels of the physical object in the living Jesus.
Q: Why do we no longer make sacrifices?
A: Let me give you two reasons. A) We see in John 10:15,17-18 that Jesus Himself laid down His life for us. He was the sacrifice for our sin. He made a choice to lay down His life no one took it from Him. It was the command of His Father and He accepted it. Although He had the power to take His life up again or to come to life again and He did He is alive today. This sacrifice was made for every human being so they could come into relationship with God through Jesus; simply by asking. B) We don’t make literal sacrifices of animals, grains, etc. today. Today we are called to be the sacrifices, living sacrifices. Romans 12:1 calls for us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, as holy and acceptable to God. It states that this is a reasonable act of service. 1 Peter 2:5 lets it be known that as we grow and mature in our Christian walk we are called to make spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. Often a spiritual sacrifice is an act of obedience.
All questions posted where done so with the permission of the individual that submitted the question.
