I have four bio-logical brothers. We would spend most of our summers in the state of Delaware at both of our Grandparents house. One lived in Wilmington and the other lived in Newark. So what would happen was, we got out of school and the church would have V.B.S. the next week. Right after V.B.S. our family would pack up and meet my mom’s parents on Washington, PA. to make the exchange. Then off to Delaware we would go. Now two of us would go to one set of Grandparents and the other two to the other set. We would then switch off after a couple of weeks.
As the years have passed and I look back at those experiences I relish them very much. There are many stories that I could tell of spending time in southern Delaware at the beach swimming, crabbing, fishing, clamming, and just biking around the trailer park that my Grandfather Watts had a trailer in for us to enjoy and that he came down to on the weekend. Then there were the times that we slept on the back porch at Grandfather Matteson’s house, or played all day in the creek down in their back yard. However, the story that I want to share with you always happened in August. It was when my folks would come to Delaware to pick us up. My Father would take his two weeks of vacation and he and my Mother would come to Delaware and spend one week with one set of parents and one week with another. Of course all of us would be together at one house.
The week that we spent at Grandfather Matteson’s always included two games. One was hide-n-seek after dark outside. Always a blast. The other was capture the flag in the woods. We would split up into teams and find our forts and start the game. Of course the object of the game was to capture the other person’s flag and get it back to your own fort before you were tagged. That wasn’t always an easy task, so we would create weapons to help us out. There were mud bombs, water bombs (from the creek) and of course finding a fort that was in the swampy part of the woods so that the other team would be slowed down. One time my Father even chose a fort that was surrounded by briar bushes and he put the flag right in the middle of the bush. Almost impossible for us to get to. But we had to be creative and use another weapon of war, a long stick and reach in. However, we lost the war.
Even though I lost that battle and war, that’s not the focus of what I’m writing. Last time we were talking about the difference between being happen and acting happy. I ended by saying that praise is not only our due responsibility, but our weapon of warfare. It is what we use for battle. When the enemy has me surrounded that’s when I need to praise God the most. When things look their worst, praise becomes the way of digging out of the prison that I am in and escaping the snare of the enemy. This is personal, not just corporate. Private, not just public. I don’t have to have everybody on my pew to praise the Lord. I don’t have to have everybody in my church doing it for me to praise the Lord. It is the one thing that I can do by myself. Chained up in a cave you cannot restrict me from doing it. I can do it in my head, my body, my mind and my spirit. To think that I have the ability to evoke the presence of God. To just fan Him my way. To be able to attract Him. The Bible says that He inhabits the praises of Israel, His people. We as believers are the New Israel.
That word inhabit means that God comes around and steps right into the middle of your praise and sits down. Sits down like a judge at the bench ready to execute judgment and make decisions on your behalf. When the judge sits down the case is open, court begins. When you praise God He sits down in the middle of those decisions and says, “What do you need me to do?” You see praise is not for wimps. It’s not for emotional people. Praise is for people who are ready to go into the enemy’s camp and take back what he stole from us. He inhabits the praise of His people. Any kind of praise, it doesn’t matter the method, your culture or your tradition.
Next time we’ll talk about the different kinds of praise and how they can affect your life. Let me encourage you to take time to Praise the Lord. He is so worthy of all the praise that we can give. Even if He hasn’t done a thing in your life, He saved you, that is if you are a believer. That salvation is worth all the praise you can muster. So stand to your feet and Praise the Lord. Shout it from the mountaintop, “HE IS WORTHY OF ALLL PRAISE.”
Pastor Rob
