Nov 13

Psalms 33:1-4
1 Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD; it is fitting for the pure to praise him.
2 Praise the LORD with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp.
3 Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy.
4 For the word of the LORD holds true, and we can trust everything he does.

"The court calls Abraham of Ur to the stand!" A bearded figure leaning on a tall stick walks slowly to the front of the courtroom. The bailiff swears him in, and the man sits down. "You are Abraham, originally of the city of Ur?" asks a lawyer in an expensive suit. The old man nods. "You did not always understand the defendant or agree with him, did you?" he asks, pointing to the defense table, where another attorney sits next to an empty chair. Abraham shakes his head. "No. But there is no friend more faithful. I often let him down-in Egypt, and at Gerar, and many other times-but he never let me down." The lawyer calls another witness. A man named Joseph, wearing a multicolored robe, takes the stand. "You were in trouble a number of times because of the defendant, weren't you?" the lawyer asks. "I was in trouble, all right-twice. I was sold as a slave because of my own arrogance. And I was imprisoned because I was wrongly accused of a crime. But he," Joseph says, nodding to the empty chair at the defense table, "stuck with me through thick and thin. He delivered me from these troubles-he didn't cause them." The lawyer dismisses Joseph and calls a third witness, Jonah. "Your so-called friend nearly made fish bait out of you, didn't he?" the lawyer asks. Jonah answers. "I gave him every reason to give up on me. In fact, when the fish swallowed me, I thought that's exactly what had happened. But he didn't give up! He never gives up." Jonah stands. "My friend-my God-is faithful. Not sometimes. Not most of the time. All the time. He is faithful in all he does. And you wanna know why? Because that's just who he is. Faithfulness isn't something he does. It's who he is!" Jonah gazes at the lawyer with a mixture of contempt and compassion. "And you, who have brought this case against the God of heaven and earth, cannot truly judge God's faithfulness, because it is his nature alone that shows you what faithfulness is. And his nature alone shows you that faithfulness is right and unfaithfulness is wrong." The lawyer turns away, but Jonah is not done speaking. "If your actions had been like God, your soul would be at peace. But your actions have always been wrong, Judas Iscariot, because you are not like God, who is faithful in all he does."

REFLECT: If you were called to testify in court about God's faithfulness to you, what would you say? What evidence would you give of God's faithfulness?

PRAY: "Thank you, God, for your faithfulness to me."

I'm really glad that this devo talked about what it did, because the whole time, I've always felt that it was only us that hold the faith in him. Something that really made me happy about this one, was that it really put some light on how God is really so personal, and brings himself down for us on so many levels. The scripture goes to show that we really hold places in God's kingdom, and that no matter how useless or pathetic we may feel, God has us planned to do big things for his plan.

Today's verses made me think back to what yeni said on saturday.
Praise the lord with everything you have. Bring your all before him. He deserves that time of praise.
As a praise team, we help lead others into worship. But we ourselves also get our separate time with god. We go on stage together but our time with god is still individual. Each and every person is before god, praising his name, we should not be distracted by other things because this time should be set for just you and god only.

I hope that made sense, my words can be rather confusing.......alright, good night!
~Audrey~

1 Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD; it is fitting for the pure to praise him.

It really only makes sense that we should be at our best when we're worshiping God (aka always).
I can't stress this enough, you can't be the most devout Christian in church and just the same as any other non-believer outside of church.
Show that you're a believer and be on your best behavior at all times, not just when you're around your other strong Christian friends.
It's the least you can do for the God who created you and died on the cross, forgiving all your sins.

3: Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy.
Really combines well into the faith/walk topic that Dan Kim gave for us.
My consistency with devotions have been lacking, and this topic is an excellent one to reflect upon MYSELF. And my faith; journey with Christ.
I would give no excuses, I have a stable enough income from my family, a place to worship, and people that'll help me to worship.
The church only benefits us as individuals, and encourages us to benefit others to show gratitude.
The only thing that I've got is that I've been helping as much as I could, sacrificing a short component of my summer break, and making the effort to go out and reach to the ones that haven't been reached before.
But there have been a couple of days where it seemed like it was a hassle, that I could've been doing something else, more productive. At least to my eyes.
And I feel that, to God, it seems like nothing when I don't sacrifice wholeheartedly.
The whole walk WITH the faith. Just like it was mentioned on friday, "Why doesn't God stop the suffering now?"
I just hope He gives ME more time.

i am glad that this devo came up because i think it is something we can all reflect on as a praise team. like i think kevin or yeni has mentioned on saturday, we tend to think more about how we sound as opposed to how we are to worship him. we should really give it our all for God and kevin had told us before when he was on his break that there are churches that have not as talented or good praise team like ours, so we should be happy with what we have, try to improve on what we have and give him our all. we should praise and worship God as one...not only as one team but as one congregation including the church. but the time we have of praise and worship to God shouldnt be a twice a week thing for on saturdays and sundays, but it should be everyday on our own time, with friends, with family, etc.

4 For the word of the LORD holds true, and we can trust everything he does.

I always heard from somwhere that everything has a place and time for it. God has molded our past present and future with his own hands. He knows what is goig ot happen and knows what is gonna become of us. He knows that our future will change depending on the decisios that we make and we should trust in him while we are alive. we should choose the right path and nothing else. God is a God who KNOWS everything. full of wisdom knowing what is right and wrong and guiding us through a dark and rought road. He is our lamp and we are to be guided by him and we should stand faithful to our GOd.

1 Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD; it is fitting for the pure to praise him.
2 Praise the LORD with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp.
3 Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy.

Play skillfully on the harp. Well I guess it's safe to assume that this verse is immediately recognized as a hint to our praise team
Be fluent with our praises to God, be whole hearted. Dont give crap praise to God. Give him what he deserves to the best of our abilities.
Sure there are mistakes sometimes, but if those mistakes happen because of lack of effort, then we have a problem
I think it's important that we praise God with the right heart. Not only for the right reasons, but with the right mindset.
It'd be al ot harder praising God had we been in a bad mood that day right? In comparison to us being joyful.
We should calm our hearts, before we stand before God.

If I were to be called to testify about Gods faithfulness, I would tell everything I know and express my faith with God. I'd say the wonders he had performed in my life and since it wouldn't be biased... I'm not sure what kind of evidence I would be able to give.
Until I've gained enough knowledge to express my faith with solid evidence, I wouldn't know what to say. Its our jobs to obtain that knowledge and spread your faith upon others