TRADING MY SORROW
But before we begin
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It does'nt matter to me whether people agree with the theology in these messages/studies/notes/ whatever you want to call them, the whole point is that even if something writtenn inspires someone
Even if it provokes someone to pick up a bible, even if it suddenly sparks a flame in someone, even if God speaks to someone........... thats what it is all about in the end
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I must admit I don't always agree with my own notes, but then who ever said it was about me ?
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Now before we begin to look at Psalm 104, again I want to take a detour
TRADING
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Matthew 21:12
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He
overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
You know when Jesus walked into that Temple, the passover was near ! John 2:13- 17
Do you know sometimes that Jesus gets angry at our sorrow ! ........
Not at us, but sometimes at whoever has caused it,
We can go to Jesus and give Him the ashes of our lifes
We can give Him the monetary problems
We can give Him the sorrow
We can give Him the situation and circumstance
And you know He will always give more back,
So many times in life I have'nt let go of something because I did'nt want to loose it, because it was a part of me and yet when we give over things to Jesus and we lay them on that table, He can give back far more, we are not left with an emptiness or a void
And this is the physiological barrier we have that can stop us letting go of somethign whatever it might be
Maybe its a habit or ritual
But when we lay that thing on the table of Life before God you know He will turn that table over
YES HE WILL TURN THE TABLES OVER
You can trade your sorrows, your habits, your situation, AND HE WILL TURN THAT TABLE OVER
Isaiah 61:3
3To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
Let Jesus turn over the table and replace whatever you give Him with something better
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REVIVAL NOT WHERE THE PEOPLE GO - REVIVAL IS WHERE GOD GOES
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I recently read in a blog re: "Why do Churches have bookstalls when God can provide ? "
You know, I really think its the other way around and the Church is supporting the local bookshop,
You might as well say "Why do people go to the doctors when God can heal them ? "
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I remember a "revival meeting" that went on for years in a Church with dwindling numbers
And lo and behold years later, that Church finally had to sell up and it was converted into flats
The congregation continued to meet at a nearby hall and years past by
When a new minister came along and took the helm
And finally slowly and surely that Church is having a revival
You see God does'nt always answer in the time or in the way we think He should
And the revival did not begin by hundreds jumping in from other Church communities
That is not revival , that is simply the moving around of communities and groups
In fact the revival began within the Church itself, within the hearts of the existing members
And then out into the community
In fact real revival begins within the hearts of not just the Church but the surrounding community
Woe if we ever think that because a Church has over a thousand members it must be... revival
Revival can be a small Church community of ten members meeting together each week within the confines of a local hall, each having been recently converted to the Christian faith, coming in to see whats happening
Its the struggling Church being persecuted and growing, having new converts adding to the numbers each day or week
And God takes the tasbles and turns the tables around, He takes a life and turns a life around
Upside down and inside out
Instead of a life trading for the things of the world
A life is traded for far greater purposes and nobler things
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So what has this to do with "Psalm 104 ?
Well , the joy we are going to look at is a joy that comes with revival of the heart
You see all these things "WORK TOGETHER"
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when Job says "May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, 'A boy is born!' in Job 3:3
When the soot of sin envelopes and all is dark as in David and the Psalms re:
Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Barnes' Notes imply
"Cause the joy of thy salvation to return." This implies that he had formerly known what was the happiness of being a friend of God, and of having a hope of salvation. That joy had been taken from him by his sin. He had lost his peace of mind
Indeed revival, restoration, renewal,
these things are of the heart
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DANCING
Matthew 11:17
'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'
Its good to encourage and to focus on the positive, but its also good to have teaching on both sides of the coin and we all know that a teaching that only focuses on one aspect of God and the Christian life is not doing anyone any good
Ministers dancing to the tune of a congregation,
Parents can dance to the tune of children
Christians can dance to the tune of the "world"
We know that when all the well known people in the bible fell to their knees in sackclothe and
ashes that ...God was still the same God as we know that God never changes, that is too say
"God is who He is and what He is He says and what He says He is"
Its the same God now as then and its the same God in the Future as now
We know that God does'nt change although our situations and circumstances do
And at these times when all was lost, maybe family,home,friends,relatives,money,possessions.
What then is there to dance too ?
Yes we dance to God, only then might we here that music and dance to God
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FIRST LOVE
Revelation 2:4
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
Restore unto me the joy of YOUR Salvation
I never noticed that before, although Ive always said "I was saved in bla bla"
We can see it as OUR Salvation
But its actually His salvation and in His salvation we find His Joy
And so in relation to the previous verse ...
"We might loose our first love, but we can seek restoration in His salvation and dance to His flute
