Sunflower Faith

Come Join Sunflower Faith, every Sunday for “Praise and Worship” as we come together to share praises and worship to our Heavenly Father!

Today’s Sunday Praise and Worship verse is:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

I chose this mostly based on a incident that had happen earlier in the week, that got me thinking about being a follower of Christ; I had mention to someone how it would be so great to have a live stream of the church sermon so if I was out of town, I could catch it on the laptop, plus I really wanted to get an ipod so I can download my pastor’s sermons to listen to for further reflection and for when I wanted to remember something to look up in the bible.

I was told,”You know, we had a skit about this for one sermon how it’s okay to take a vacation from church sometimes.” This isn’t an exact quote, but it did get me thinking; As a follower of Christ, we are 24/7 ambassadors of Christ. God is always there for us 24/7 but we can’t treat Him like once we go home, close our door, He is no longer there.

It bothered me that because I wanted to get to know the Lord more, I should just “take a rest.” For me, Our Heavenly Father has done so much for me, and I, I have so little really to give to Him; I don’t feel worthy to be His servant and Praise God that He can and does use this broken vessel for His purposes and glory.

I feel like Ezra and the Bereans, who couldn’t get enough of God and sought Him daily in His word and in prayer; Why should we be any different in the 21st century? Why should we be any better? We are all still sinners and to hunger for Him and to seek Him, is to understand Him better and to know how to embrace Him better.

He is in us, living through us and around us 24/7; He doesn’t close His eyes and ears from us and Adam and Eve learned that even they couldn’t hide from God, so why do we sometimes live our lives like we can; That we can pick and choose when we are Christ followers and when we are not.

For me…to say we are tired of this “God stuff” and leave it for just Sunday, is the same as saying as great as what He has done for us, we don’t really appreciate exactly what He has done.

My MIL, in a conversation with my child, replied to his ever, “I wanna see Jesus now,” that she was proud to be a Jesus freak and it was okay to want to be with Him all the time; We should worry when we stop wanting to be with Him. If we aren’t ashamed to call Him our Lord and Saviour, why be ashamed of living for Him daily and if that means reading Scripture, listening to sermons, to seek to have a closer relationship, so be it, this is not a personal relationship reserved for only a select few.

He seeks a personal relationship with you, me, everyone and there is nothing wrong putting Him first before all in our lives; That is showing Him the praise and glory that is reserved and belongs to Him and to Him only.

Greg Laurie has a daily devotional and one of them was called, “Not Ashamed” and it went:

We are living in a time in which people stand up for a variety of causes. People stand up for everything imaginable, and in some cases, they are even willing to lay down their lives for what they believe. Although we may not agree with what they are saying in some cases, we have to admire their courage for believing in something so strongly that they are willing to risk their lives for it.

Isn’t it time that we, as Christians, stand up for what we believe? Romans 10:9 says that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

What does it mean to confess the Lord Jesus? The very word confess gives us a clue. It is a word that means, “to be in agreement with.”

When I am confessing Jesus Christ, I am not merely acknowledging that He existed, nor am I just acknowledging that He is God. When I confess Jesus Christ before others, I am saying that I agree with Him.

It is not enough to simply acknowledge that He has power and that He is moving in the lives of certain people. There must be a personal acknowledgement that I have received Him as my own Savior and Lord.

In a day when so many are standing up for so many causes, it seems to me there are so many in the church who are not standing up for anything. Let’s be willing to stand up and confess Jesus Christ before others.

Copyright © 2008 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

I praise God, we live in a country where we can read His Word freely and have every means possible available to read and access His word; We can openly go to church and sing songs of worship and praise to Him; I, for one, am not ashamed to say He is my Lord and Saviour and I am nothing without Him.

Lord, I pray for those who still risk their lives each day to share Your word with others, who risk their own lives to get to know You better, who don’t own a bible yet find a way to own a bible or to read your word; Lord, I pray You humble this unworthy soul and never let this hunger and thirst for Your Word be quench.

Thank You Lord, Thank You.

To participate in Sunday Praise and Worship, the rules are simple.

I’m making it a habit of posting Sunday’s Praise and Worship the NIGHT before Sunday so those who would like to participate but want or would like to encourage using Sunday as a day of rest to give praise to the Lord, to worship Him, concentrate on church and family can.

If you don’t go to church, seeking a church home or unable to, I encourage you to participate on your blog and help encourage those who are in the same situations to use this day to spend time with the Lord.

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