According to whom?

I loved John Fischer's "Catch of the Day" entry for today. For reasons of copyright, I can't reproduce it here, but you can find it by clicking on this link: http://www.fischtank.com/ft/inthetank.cfm Here's a little taste: "We get into a lot of trouble when we use our culture's definition of fulfillment and apply it to our understanding of God's purpose for our lives."

It goes along with something that I once read by Anne Graham Lotz: "Are you interpreting His love by your circumstances instead of interpreting your circumstances by His love?”

Tim and I were talking last night about how the Christian culture has done a disservice to believers when it promotes the "gospel of prosperity" or the notion that God yearns to bless us with all our heart's desires. God is not a Fairy Godmother. He has a purpose for each of our lives that is perfect, but it doesn't always look like the things our selfish hearts want. We need to look beyond our own whims and remember to seek first His kingdom -- because what the Lord wants for us is much, much better than anything we could imagine.

Praise God Now!

Getting back to some serious thoughts here....

We join in a very ancient cry when we sing or say the word “Hallelujah.” Interestingly, it appears in Scripture in this form -- i.e. as the actual word “Hallelujah” -- only in the book of Revelation (chapter 19). The literal translation is: Praise JAH -- JAH being the Hebrew for He that Is. This is in contrast with the Psalms, where we find Praise Jehovah – which means Praise He who will be, is, and was. In Revelation, with the use of “Hallelu JAH” we have reached the time when there is no more need of thinking about God as He was or will be – we are then in the present with the living Lord. That gets a “Hallelujah!” out of me when I think about how wonderful that day will be!

So, does our use of the word “Hallelujah” in the present age mean that we are living in what is known as the “end times?” Are we getting ahead of ourselves by using the term? I confess I don’t know the answer to questions such as those, and I am not really trying to address that here (although you’re welcome to think about it).

Hallelujah is not the equivalent of the present day “Woohoo!” or “Ye-es!” that we all use when we’re excited about something. Hallelujah! is an ancient form of reverent worship and praise to our living God. What is interesting is that singing or saying “Hallelujah” means we are praising the God who is right now, with no need to think about the past or the future. Seems to me that’s how we are to be living anyway in these days. Scripture exhorts us not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34); it also tells us that God does not remember our past sins (Psalm 103:12). We get to live in the present with our magnificent and mighty God – what a relief! Hallelujah!