A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE
Monday, August 04, 2014
The following is written from notes taken and thoughts
provoked by one of Pastor Paul Marine’s Sunday sermons. (Sunday, August 4, 2014)
Psalm
[MKJV] 103:1-22 A Psalm of David. Bless Jehovah, O my soul; and
all that is within me, bless His holy
name. …
Deuteronomy [MKJV] 30:19-20 I call Heaven and earth to
record today against you. I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose
life, so that both you and your
seed may live, so that you may love Jehovah your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you
may cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, so
that you may dwell in the land which
Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to
give it to them.
There is a
considerable difference between praising and blessing. If we bless we typically
also praise. We however can and do at times praise without blessing.
Praise is words,
heartfelt appreciation. It is done verbally and/or written in sentence and/or
song.
Blessing is
mental study with therein serious meditation producing decisiveness leading to
physical action, the mental commonly being laziest at in implementation. (How
often do we even bother to look up His Word verses referred to in devotionals,
essays, books?)
To illustrate
distinction: An individual appreciates their rural community and does not
hesitate to say so at every opportunity. Another individual appreciates the same
community, often says so, but goes beyond praise, studies and qualifies as an
EMT so as to serve as an unpaid member of ambulance crew of community VFD
(volunteer fire dept).
Again, we may
praise, but without actually blessing in Biblical sense, especially not as does
God.
When God praises,
it is when a person or people have blessed Him.
Another side of
this is when we refuse to bless God. Not doing so we very much live under His
general curse brought upon us by Adam refusing to bless God. (Gen.3; Ex.20:1-6;
Deut.4:24 [Heb.12:28-29]; Ps.81:9-12; Jn.3:16-18; Jam.4:4-6)
After Pastor’s
sermon I am left with the examining question “Am I singing better than I’m
sojourning?” EBB4
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