Main Nugget
Being inward takes the worship out of the cathedral, church, tabernacle, or temple. It puts it in our hearts (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
Taking the Worship to Heart
- Doing acts of kindness is not worshiping God if we are not accepting His authority and always proclaiming it with our lips. We have to submit to Him. The outward expression is not the focus. It is the inward compliance to God’s Will (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- It isn’t about where we go to praise God. It is more about our motives (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- The reason for worshiping God is to fix our hearts on Him (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- It gets easier to focus on worship as we continue to focus on worship. We do that through faith (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- We need to praise God throughout our lives. We need to worship God completely in our hearts (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- The Word of Christ has to be in our hearts, as that is where our relationship with God is. That is where our character is, so it can control it (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- God does not like it when our worship is not sincere. Ritualism leads to a routine worship of God that takes our eyes off Him. It takes what is necessary and pure and makes it a sin. That is just what Satan wants! (We Are to Worship God with Our Hearts)
- Praising God with all our hearts is based on our attitudes (We Are to Worship God with Our Hearts).
- Our main purpose of worship has to be to honor God. We do this through being ready, cheerful, and with a passionate intensity. Being ready for worship means we have tune out the things of this world. We are to glorify God in this life and in the next. That has to be our priority. It all comes down to attitude (We Are to Worship God with Our Hearts).
- God is very specific in His description of how we are to worship Him. We must follow His directions or expect consequences for our actions (We Are to Worship God with Our Hearts).
- If there is no substitute for loving man, but worship of God requires it, that worship would be offered through prayer (The Prevalence of the Essential of Love in Prayer).
- Our worship comes from our lips, not our actions, so it is a confession. We have to do more than just say in our minds that we are accepting God’s Plan of Salvation. We have to make an outward confession that we believe. Still, there is more than that. Just believing isn’t enough. We have to confess — we have to talk about it (Belief and Practice).
- Hebrews 13: 15 says nothing about getting all the laws and commandments right. It says, “… let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Heb. 13: 15 ESV). We have to acknowledge His name, i.e., His authority. It comes from our lips, not our actions, so it is a confession (Rom. 10: 9). It should never stop (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
- Isn’t preparing ourselves for an eternity of praising God what it’s all about? The only way we can do that is by getting our relationship cemented in him. This can’t be a once–a–week occurrence. It has to be continual (Preparing Our Hearts for Worship).
Glossary
Taking Salvation to Heart
- We have to give God the reverence due Him. We have to acknowledge our need for Him in our lives because of our sinful nature (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- Our hearts are purified at conversion and through sanctification (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- A clean heart is the result of having our hearts purified. Our hearts and hands become cleansed only because of God’s unmerited grace (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- We are established in the relationship. We are established in having a clean heart. But the emphasis should be on establishing. We aren’t going to not sin. It is about changing to be like God is. It is getting it down to the heart level. We get God’s character into the center of our being. We become a man after God’s own heart. It is more than just that, though. It is hating sin (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- When we come to God for salvation, the only condition God puts on our prayers is that we genuine in seeking Him. This doesn’t say we have to clean up our acts before salvation. It doesn’t say we have to have God’s perfect character. It says we have to ABC. The D part is a commitment for our future (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- God gives us a choice whether we are going to follow Him or not. It takes intelligence and knowledge about Who God really is to make a conscious, informed decision. What we have to remember is that what worldview people consider intelligence isn’t always intelligence in God’s eyes. Our quest to understand things does not lead to intelligence. It leads to self reliance. That leads away from God (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- We have to genuinely believe Jesus is our Savior — and tell others (Belief and Practice).
- We have to do more than confess, and we have to do more than just believe. We can’t do one without the other (Belief and Practice).
- Salvation isn’t granted if we don’t ask Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer. He is the only way to salvation (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- A double-minded person may appear to have given their life to Christ, but in reality, has not. These people focus on what we don’t understand rather than just trusting God. They keep waffling between our belief and doubt (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- Double-minded people are often hypocrites because they serve whoever is currently benefiting them (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- When the bad double-mindedness really kicks in, we feel we have to go to our self-help books and fix ourselves (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- At times, we think that our works will save us. That isn’t going to be the case (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- There is no double-mindedness on the good side. Our hearts and hands — and mind— are fully focused on God. We have repented of our sins and live in submission to God’s laws and commandments (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- To me, there is a continuum. There are sinners who are not double-minded. They have chosen that they will not believe in God. On the other end is believers. They are fully committed and submitted to God. In my opinion, there are two groups of double-minded people. There are those who lean more toward the worldview. Then, there are those who think they are believers, but really aren’t because they can’t leave the call of the worldview. We each have to decide where we stand with God — and be constant in and submitted to that answer (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
- Double-mindedness comes down to waffling between the spiritual and the worldly (When the Status of Our Hearts Is Double-Mindedness).
Glossary
Taking Our Walk to Heart
- Once we are converted, we begin to navigate the Sanctification Road. That is how we change our character to imitate God’s (Focusing on God’s Word).
- One thing we have to do while we are being sanctified is to guard our hearts. That is going to take patience and diligence (Focusing on God’s Word).
- Aptitudes, temperaments, and moods are changeable. We need to guard what status they are sliding toward. Actions and behaviors come from the heart because that is where our character is. It is who we really are (Focusing on God’s Word).
- The gaze of our hearts must be on God. We keep the heart by watching so that is does not turn from God. It does not mean we are making less of ourselves. It means we are actively working to submit to God’s Will as stated in His Word (The Path Our Hearts Are On; Focusing on God’s Word).
- Singleness of purpose. Unswerving regard. Constantly looking up. Steadily obeying. These are the concepts I keep reading about here. I don’t see wiggle room. I don’t see part-time occupation. I don’t see doubts. I see constant devotion to a loving God. We’d say our minds are made up (The Path Our Hearts Are On).
- Our lives are established by the discipline of our hearts. Our ways — our lives — will be established when we choose to walk the narrow path God wants us to walk (The Path Our Hearts Are On).
- Having God at the heart level creates an openness within us that affects how we interact with others (Characteristics of a Life of Truth).
- Child-like obedience helps us grow closer to God. Obedience isn’t a negotiation with our sinful nature. We don’t come to an agreement, nor do we compromise. We obey regardless of the worldview take on the matter (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- Obedience coupled with godliness helps us grow our hope. When we are children of God, we strive to obey, which helps us to grow closer to Him, strengthening our hope (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- Child-like reverence is the respect we would give a father (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- Child-like trust grows as we grow in knowledge and grace (The Essentials for Power in Prayer).
- Child-like love means we imitate God as we walk with Him (The Essentials for Power in Prayer).
- Child-like ways means we approach God guilelessly (The Essentials for Power in Prayer).
- Child-like spirit means we approach God reverently (The Essentials for Power in Prayer).
- It all comes down to having a child-like spirit. That means we genuinely submit to God (The Essentials for Power in Prayer).
- God has not given us the spirit of fear. That being the case, where does fear come from? The enemy of our souls (Fear Running Rampant).
- A sound mind does not operate in fear. There nothing good in hysterical fear. Plus, it shows that we have more faith in what we are afraid of than we are supposed to have in God. You are, in effect, saying that the devil has more power than God by believing in the fear he casts about and hopes to control your life by it (Fear Running Rampant).
- The devil is creating all this fear so that he can get you to take your eyes off of God (Fear Running Rampant).
- Though God will meet us where we are, He doesn’t want us to stay that way. He wants us to grow to have His moral character (The Prevalence of the Essential of the Spirit in Prayer).
- It isn’t the stomach that determined what defiles a person. It is the heart. When things go into the stomach, they don’t alter our character (Defilement of the Heart).
- The evil comes from our hearts and is shown in our thoughts and actions (Defilement of the Heart).
- Our hearts control our minds. Our character is housed in our hearts, not our minds. It isn’t in our intellect. It is in our being (Defilement of the Heart).
- We have to be careful about what we let into our hearts. We must cut out the evil and replace God’s good (Defilement of the Heart).
- Only faith in Jesus can cleanse our hearts. That is why it isn’t enough just to do good works (Defilement of the Heart).
- The issues of life are determined by the status of our character in our hearts (Belief and Practice).
- Issues are more elements that make up our status. The issues are our words, actions, thoughts, and feelings. It is what is coming from our hearts (Belief and Practice).
- We don’t want the state of our heart to be a bad character. We have control over our moral state. We choose what type of a person we are going to be. Our parents don’t. Circumstances don’t. We do. We choose our reactions. We choose to choose to be like God (Belief and Practice).
- Belief is influenced by the heart based on the changes God performs on it. It does not necessarily make practice easier (Belief and Practice; Practice and Belief).
- Why do believers still sin after conversion? Well, we get into a situation and are ruled by our passions. Our principles don’t mean a hill of beans. Principles may slow us down some. But we are very good at steamrolling right on over them (Practice and Belief).
- Part of the reason why we may think we shouldn’t keep on sinning is because we now have knowledge of what sin is. We want to take the worldview standpoint and trust on knowledge (Practice and Belief).
- Too many times, we know what is right, but do what is wrong anyway (Practice and Belief).
- Knowledge is just head knowledge. It doesn’t necessarily get a change to the heart level (Practice and Belief).
- We can’t rely solely on worldly knowledge. It isn’t going to lead us to God. It is going to try to get us to rely on ourselves (Practice and Belief).
- Our practices still come from the amoral condition of the heart (Practice and Belief).
- When we rely on grace, we acknowledge that it isn’t anything we do or don’t do that brings us salvation. It is all about God and what Jesus has already done for us (Practice and Belief).
- Believing the gospel isn’t enough, because we have to accept it and act on it (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- The work of the heart isn’t what the worldview people would consider as the work. We are not talking about our emotions or our point of view. We are talking only about God’s view (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- Our profession of faith shouldn’t be based on emotions. Emotions are tied up in the heat of the moment (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- Believing alone doesn’t cut it. We have to take action on that belief (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- The work we are supposed to do is taking actions to seek God (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- We demonstrate our commitment to God by seeking to be more like Him. This will take work. The work we do isn’t what worldview people think. It doesn’t mean we do acts of kindness for people. Seeking God means we work on our relationship with God (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- It isn’t about religion. It is about relationship. It is about communing with God — fellowshipping with Him. It is about changing our character to be like His. Only by doing this do we gain eternal salvation. The good works that we do is done through this (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- The completion of the work God does in us is our perfection (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- God changes our hearts to be like His. We show this change by loving Him and others. This leads to our perfection (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- God can change our hearts with ease. We’ve got to believe this, or we don’t really believe in grace (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- Yes, we have to work at having a sincere relationship with God. We can’t just have a conversion experience and leave it at that (Religion — A Work of the Heart).
- If you read through 1 Peter 1:13-16, you will get a good idea of what the call of becoming sanctified or going through the process of sanctification is all about. What we are talking about here is known as a call to holy living. Least I be misunderstood, I want to make clear that once we have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are redeemed and technically sanctified. However, there is a call upon our lives thereafter for us to seek to live our lives out in holy living. Not because we are earning our salvation or somehow performing what is necessary to be sanctified. Rather, it is a way of doing things because we love Jesus, and HE calls us into living a holy life (Sanctification).
- As a part of being sanctified, we can participate in a communal relationship with God, where we can come boldly to His throne in prayer, seeking His face, His help, and His comfort. We can do that completely and be unafraid to do so. We can get so wrapped up in the mindset of keeping proper reverence toward God, that we forget He is our “Abba Father” our daddy, as it were. He longs for us to come to Him, crawl up into His lap and rest from all our trials and temptations. He wants this from you (Sanctification).
- Holiness, godliness, being sanctified, all come from the same thing. It is the outward manifestation of our love for God. If we are truly as close to God as we should be, we are going to be, out of the obvious outflow of our love for Him, living a life of a sanctified person in Jesus Christ. The more we seek His will for our lives; the more we desire to be pleasing to Him, because we love Him. The more we let the Spirit who dwells within us do His work in us, the more we are going to be living the holy life that God desires for us to live. It is something that builds upon the love that we have for God (Sanctification).
- We must learn to LET God have the control over our lives that He desires to have. We must believe and have faith that He desires only good for us as the Bible says, because if we are not doing so, we are not walking in a sanctified, holy life (Sanctification).
- To be able to live a sanctified life, we must be able to draw near to God every day (Sanctification).
- The devil does not want us to realize the extent to which Jesus truly is God; how much He truly is in all aspects of all things that exist in the universe that we know of … and even the parts we may not know yet (For by Him All Things).
- Well, the fact of the matter is, if the devil can keep you from believing that everything is too hard for God, then it’s an easy step to keep you from believing that God is not able to save you from eternity in hell (For by Him All Things).
Glossary
Taking Our Prayer Life to Heart
- Our hearts should yearn to be obedient to God’s Will, leading us to prayer (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- Our prayer life needs to show that we are devoted to God (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- More than just a prayer life is needed. We need a devotedness to God (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- We are to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5: 17). It is continuous, but it is more than that. It is a firm loyalty. The way I read that is we have to be sincere. We can’t be just going through the motions — even if it is daily and at all times (Access to God Depends on the Status of Our Hearts).
- Worldview people, especially — and sometimes disciples — believe that God should answer our prayers in the exact way that we pray them. Every. Time. God doesn’t work that way (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- In order to gain access to God’s throne room, we need to sincerely pray in belief (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- The thing is that answer to prayer depends on our obedience. God hears the prayers of His children. He answers our prayers — maybe not in the way we expect. But God will answer us abundantly when we are obedient (The Conditions of Power in Prayer).
- God will always hear our prayers when we have faith in Him (The Prevalence of the Essential of Faith in Prayer).
- Our prayers show where our hearts are because it shows how we love others (The Prevalence of the Essential of Love in Prayer).
- If the faith isn’t going to be there, neither will the answer to our prayers. If it is there, we can ask the seemingly impossible if we are asking in God’s Will (The Prevalence of the Essential of Faith in Prayer).
- Not only must our prayers be based on love, so must our religion — our relationship with God (The Prevalence of the Essential of Love in Prayer).
- Our goal should be to win our enemies to Christ. We don’t do that. Only God can do that. Our prayers and love for them helps God change their hearts (The Prevalence of the Essential of Love in Prayer).
- Prayer is not an option for a disciple. It is, though, one of the things that we struggle with the most (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- Prayer follows laws. No, we don’t have to fulfill the ceremonial law anymore, but we do need to keep the moral laws the way God intends. Remember, Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law. The laws point us to God. We need to pray that we obey the laws so that we do, too (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- When God abides in us, our prayers are answered more quickly because we desire to follow God’s Will (The Prevalence of the Essential of the Spirit in Prayer).
- The purpose of prayer is also to remind us of God’s superiority (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- When we obediently come to God in prayer, we acknowledge our dependence on Him. We show Him that we know we cannot rely on ourselves to complete and fix things (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- We have to be genuine in coming to God in prayer. We have to sincerely believe that He is Sovereign God. God will know if we are faking our sincerity (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- A huge component of our prayers is attitude. That is not an attitude we are supposed to slip on and off (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- Our soul is to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5: 17 ESV). No, it isn’t us physically praying all the time. That just isn’t possible. In a way it is an unconscious prayer, but it really isn’t. It isn’t a run-your-mouth type of thing. It is a constant aching and craving to be in communion with God (The Prevalence of the Essential of Obedience in Prayer).
- The thing is, we must be known by our prayers. All disciples must be praying people. Yet, we must pray our own prayers, not someone else’s. We must go beyond the model prayer to talking with God in our own words (The Prevalence of the Essential of the Spirit in Prayer).
- Our prayers must be that others come to submit their lives to God (The Prevalence of the Essential of Love in Prayer).
Glossary
Taking God Word to Heart
- We have to follow God by focusing on His Word when He calls us to salvation (Focusing on God’s Word).
- Scriptures provide us with God’s Word. We can imagine that they are God talking directly to us. Because He is (Focusing on God’s Word).
- That is one reason we need to pay attention to them. Sovereign God has decreed them. We also need to pay attention to them because, one day, we will be judged by those words. God has told us point blank how we will be judged (Focusing on God’s Word).
- Being judged by the do’s and don’ts is secondary. The only question that has bearing on how we spend eternity will be have we ABCDed or not (Focusing on God’s Word).
- What God is calling us to is salvation. He is calling us to change our characters to be like Him (Focusing on God’s Word).
- God’s Word combats the disease of sin, so ABCDing heals us from that disease and gives us life (Focusing on God’s Word).
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