Psalm 103:1 (KJV)
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Learning to experience God
The church of the 21st century must return to some powerful biblical basics if it wants to remain effective and authentic in our modern culture. We must not ritualize our relationship with God we must experience Him in His glory and power. The Christian church must begin to be hungry to experience God. The church in Europe is suffering a horrible decline because they have failed to take God out of the intellectual realm and by faith put Him in an experiential realm. The challenge is for modern Christianity is to have a living faith. We must believe God will respond to us when we follow His patterns in scripture. As Moses was given a pattern for worship and the people obeyed the fire of God fell and they experienced His loving kindness. God is longing to meet with His people in a powerful way showing them His reality and love.

Learning to give God glory in all we do
A church service can consist of many elements depending upon the preferences of the church, the culture, the people and the pastor. The basic elements of worship, testimonies, reading the word, teaching, exhortation, correction and prayer has not changed in 2000 years. Yet the attitude of our hearts has changed it was once a genuine heart felt worship with a faith expectation of God meeting us has. It has now become ritual and form it is dead and lifeless. We can return our church services to a new glory if we learn to give God glory. Apostle Paul told us in 1st Corinthians 10:31…..Do all to the glory of God. Uppermost in our minds in all we do in every service we should ask ourselves does it glorify God. To give God glory means to honor, exalt, magnify, and manifest the exact representation of God’s perfect nature and goodness by our thoughts, words, and deeds. Our lives must bring an expression of the glory of God into this world for others to see. When we give glory to God His presence is experienced in our lives and in the world. Like a beautiful fragrance that is released by the church God is brought into this world for all to enjoy.

Learning to receive and give
The essence of mature Christianity is not just learning to receive but to also give to God, worship, service, and obedience. We come to church because we need God in our lives. We must never forget our dependence upon the Lord for His provision, presence, and purposes in our lives. Jesus instituted church so we can come and receive from God. Make no mistake about that we must come and receive from God a life transforming, and a life affirming love from Him. Yet if we are not careful church will become about us, selfish, myopic, and introverted. We will live like spiritual drug addicts looking for our next high or our own personal gratification. We must not reduce worship to having our needs met. In fact in the Old Testament when proper worship was offered and only then did God’s presence, power, and blessing come. Only when true heart worship, thanksgiving and joy were manifested by the people of God for their God was there a tangible manifestation of God’s presence. Too many church services are dry which means we are not experiencing the oil of God’s presence. Isaiah 61 shows a great exchange as people worship they are transformed. Psalm 103 is also a picture of people being transformed because they entered in to His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise as revealed in Psalm 100

In worship we come to bless God
In plain language we cannot meet with the king when our only motive is to receive something from Him. We must come to the house of God with a desire to give something to God. We must be willing to give Him our worship and our love. We must come to God as David so powerfully said to, bless the Lord o my soul and all that is within me. God will surely bless us when we meet Him with the gifts of our love and worship. We must not be selfish we must bless and worship our God for He is worthy and desiring of our love. When He comes He will bring gifts of healing, deliverance, answered prayer and many other things. Yet the greatest of all these gifts is when He comes Himself and we can drink of His presence which is filled with His faith, His love, His peace, and His joy. Sometimes we are more interested in what God has for us than enjoying the person of God Himself. It may seem hard to experience God because He is invisible. We cannot see the joy on His face or His smile of approval. Yet we can experience His joy when we fully come intending to love and bless Him. We can experience His pleasure when we have come to glorify Him. God will show up and do the most wonderful things in us which many times are more important than the things He does for us. His Spirit will be with us and Jesus taught us like the wind we can not see the wind but we can experience its effects. So to with God’s Spirit we may not be able to see Him but we will experience Him.

Worship renews faith
We need faith and not doubt and worry for the troubles of life. When God comes our hearts are changed. We need joy for the every day mundane chores and duties of life. When He comes He touches us with eternity. His love will touch our life and the promises He has given to us will blossom again under the warm sunshine of His love. Sometimes we must understand we need more inwardly than outwardly from God. We need joy, holiness, truth, peace more than material things. Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Many would like to reduce Christianity to an hour of duty paid to God on a Sunday morning. Many perceive living their faith every day with prayer and study as to fanatical. Yet this is what God wants a daily encounter with us because He loves us. God wants daily worship and prayer so He can strengthen our relationship with Him. God wants our time, our money and our hearts. Worship is a complete and total surrender to God of all we are and all we have. Few people are able to do this so Jesus said, Narrow is the way to eternal life an few find it. Matt 7:14

True worshipper verses selfish ritual
Too many of the world’s religions are rules, laws, regulations, and submission to certain teachings. God calls that paganism. God wants to speak to our hearts and have us hear, understand, agree with His heart and obey. God is not about laws or rules but love and relationship. Many have found great joy in not being under the burden of laws and commandments. So many are now reveling in the freedom of God’s grace and mercy brought to us through Christ work in the New Testament. All ritual and form are gone replaced by true heart worship. We are forgiven free of guilt, shame and God’s wrath. Yet we have a new law written in our hearts and it is to love Him that is why David said, Bless the Lord O my soul and all that’s within me. We must not be like those who live their lives without God who only utter prayers and occasional thanks when everything is going their way or all hell is breaking loose.

Satan wants to rob us faith and love for God
Faith and love for God is only genuine when it is tried in the fire of adversity. Will we still love and believe when the fallen world and Satan come to rob from us God’s will. Will we allow doubt and bitterness to rule our hearts? Can we not see beyond the problems like Abraham to the God who is able? The Bible says, Abraham grew strong in faith giving glory to God because He believed that He who promised was both faithful and able. Satan loves to attack God’s character and power. The bridge to God is faith. It can be a mustard seed or a tree planted deep in God bearing much fruit. Faith whether small or large is the key to overcome every work of evil. In Ephesians Paul tells us to, Lift up our shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.

True success
True success is including God in our lives, giving Him His proper place.
True success is being changed and becoming a kingdom person.
True success is seeking God and loving Him every day of our lives.
True success is standing strong in faith and trusting God’s love in adversity.
True success knows God’s will for our lives and seeking to live it.
True success is defeating the devil and evil in our lives.
True success is helping others to discover God.
True success is not just taking but giving to God.
True success is helping others to serve God and fulfill their potential.
True success is being a success spiritually as well as in our natural life and endeavors. True success is doing what truly pleases God and having a delight and a joy in doing it.
True success is finding pleasure in times of quiet and worship with God.