Saturday, November 13, 2010

THE UNQUENCHABLE WORSHIPER

Bible is full of Unquenchable Worshipers - people who refused to be dampened, discouraged or distracted in their quest to glorify God.

1) The Prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3)
His heart attitude was to make a choice to respond to God's worth, no matter how bleak a season he found himself in :
"Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop falls and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

2) Paul & Silas (Acts 16)
Sitting in their jail cell you would have forgiven them if they weren't in the mood for singing. They'd been unjustly arrested, beaten, severely flogged, and thrown into the deepest part of prison, with their feet in stocks. Yet, somehow, refusing to let their souls be dampened, Paul & Silas found it in themselves with everything they had left to sing out praise and worship to God. (We all know the result .... the glory of God fell, there was an earthquake, prisoners were set free and salvation came upon the jailer & his family.)
"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken." (Acts 16:24-25)

Most of us don't own a fig trees and haven't been in prison for being a Christian, but the principal is the same for us as it was for Habakkuk and Paul & Silas - we can always find a reason to praise/worship. Situations change for better and for worse, but God's worth never change!

3) Fanny Crosby (www.nyise.org/fanny)
This unquenchable worshiper was borned blind who has written 9,000 hymns of praise. Some of her hymns: To God Be The Glory, Blessed Assurance, Close To Thee and many more ...
When about six weeks old she was taken sick and her eyes grew weaker. The lack of knowledge and skill of the doctor then could not save her eye sight. As she grew older she was told that she would never see the faces of her friends, the flowers of the fields, the blue skies. Soon she learned what other children possessed, but she made up her mind to store away a little jewel in her heart which she called "CONTENT"

Those thousand of songs were simply the result of a fire that burned in her heart for Jesus and could not be put out. Someone once asked her, "Fanny, do you wish you had not been binded?" She replied, in typical style, "Well, the good thing about being blind is that the very face I'll see will be the face of Jesus."

Many might have chosen the path of compliants and bitterness as their response to God, but she chose the path of contentment and praise. The choice between these two paths faces us each day, with every situation that's thrown our way. Complaints and bitterness dampens and eventually destroys love for God. It eats away at the statement "God is love" and tells us He is not faithful. But contentment does the opposite: it fuels the heart with endless reasons to praise God.

An extract from: The Unquenchable Worshiper by Matt redman plus Fanny Crosby's Story.

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