Month: November 2011

You can’t just walk into the President’s Oval Office, dressed in any old paint-stained clothes or with your hair all wild from sleep. The Secret Service will stop you at the gate, long before you ever get near the White House. There is a certain protocol for a visit with the President of the United States.

Even so, the Courts of Heaven have a protocol for the worship of God Almighty. The required uniform? The garment of thanksgiving and praise.

I wear a uniform, of sorts. During the week, I wear blue jeans and T-shirts, but I dress up for God on Sunday. The last thing I put on before I walk out the door to go to church is a smile and an attitude of praise.

It starts with a heart-felt “Thank you,” for all the Lord has done. If you woke up this morning, you have something to be thankful for. He has given you the very air you breathe. Giving thanks get you through the first gate into the outer court.

The next step is to bless the Lord with your praise. If you find it hard to think of something to say to the Lord, pick up the Bible and read Psalms 100 aloud. Praise gets you into the inner court. Psalms 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”

And the final step in this protocol of the kingdom of heaven is to come with a sacrifice. In the Old Testament an animal sacrifice was required, but since Jesus gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, we must enter by His blood.

Hebrews 10:19, 22 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

The blood of Jesus gets you into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of the Lord Himself, where the worship takes place. The only way to obtain the blood of Jesus to bring with you is to receive Him as your Lord and Savior and be born again, then you will be spiritually covered by His blood.

It is fitting that we wear our best when we come together to worship God, considering Who He is, the Creator of heaven and earth.

The God of the universe deserves the best we can give Him.

COUNT THE COST

Mrs. Irene Mitchell my Home Ec teacher would be so proud, but she would insist I go back through the section of the Home Economics textbook on baking cakes. Even though this cake is turning out perfectly, I didn’t follow procedure.

Step One — Gather ingredients. Make sure you have everything you need to make the cake before you start assembling the ingredients.

When I shopped, without a shopping list, I tried to buy the ingredients for the cake recipe from memory, and forgot the most important two items—powdered sugar and cream cheese for the icing. This problem is easy to fix since it is only the icing and not an ingredient for the cake itself.

Mrs. Mitchell drilled into us that we gather all our ingredients around us and check them against our recipe before we begin to mix them in our bowl. We were not to mix the sugar with the butter and eggs, and then run over to get the flour. No, we must assemble all the ingredients around the mixing bowl, so we can see if we are missing something necessary for a good cake before we started.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘this man began to build and was not able to finish.’” Luke 14:28-30 NKJV

 “So, likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”Luke 14:33

Some of us need to go back to school and learn to start at Step One. In our spiritual life, Step One is “Count the Cost.” Becoming a Christian and accepting Jesus as your Savior is the easy part. Letting Jesus become your Lord and Master is harder. Becoming a disciple means listening to His voice and learning to follow the steps Jesus has given us.

Are you willing to give up everything to follow Jesus and become His disciple?

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