Well, it feels good to be back in this particular pulpit after 25 years! I want to thank Pastor Caleb for the opportunity.
Please turn to Isaiah 64. Hear now the word of the Lord.
May God be blessed with the reading of His word.
Please join in prayer.
Before I get to looking at the chapter, I want to start with a story that I believe will better help us understand the mindset of chapter 64, so stay with me.
It’s a story of a plague within society. It’s not Monkeypox, nor Covid, or Influenza.
90% of the victims are women.
It results in nearly 1300 deaths and 2 million injuries every year in the United States alone.
Every year, nearly 5.3 million suffer from it.
More than 3 women die every day because of it.
When I was in Seminary Bethel Seminary of the East, their ministry model by-line was “Head, Heart, and Hands.” Head for theological knowledge, heart for devotional passion, and hands to help those in need. One of the assignments for the “Hands” was to get involved in a social need and bring the light of Christ into that situation. So I did things like serve in a soup kitchen and help in an AIDS house. But the one that really hooked me was when I signed on to the speakers bureau for the Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Yes, Domestic Violence is that plague. During my training, I was shocked by both the statistics and the experiences shared by the women.
A woman is beaten every 9 seconds by their intimate partner.
Although there are more women, There are 7X more animal shelters than shelters for abused women.
What disturbed me even more was hearing how the church had consistently failed these women and victimized the victim placing the fault on them by asking questions like, “What did you do to make him so angry?” Through some grotesque distortion of Biblical Headship, these women were instructed to be more submissive.
Domestic violence and abuse refers to a pattern of violent, physical, emotional, psychological, and coercive behavior exercised in an intimate or dating relationship to maintain control over another. DV spans all demographics, rich and poor, professionals and laborers, all races and religions, even elders and Pastors!
There is an established cycle that applies to DV.
1st. An incident triggers an angry, violent attack. Maybe you made a joke about your husband at a party. He laughs there, but when he gets home, he flies into a rage and spews a vitriolic litany of abuse upon you, maybe he even gets violent and slaps you or beats you for embarrassing him.
2nd. Comes the so-called “Honeymoon stage.” Here the husband attempts reconciliation. He asks for forgiveness, and pledges it will never happen again. He lavished gifts upon her. This is particularly difficult for Christian women who have been taught to “forgive, not 7 times but 77 times.” Then, A tense calm appears.
3rd. The gathering storm. Having been accepted back, tension rises again. The wife walks on eggshells; her spirit is uneasy, and not wanting to trigger her husband, she tries to submit to his demands.
But it happens again. Without intervention, it will continue to happen, even more frequently.
If you are experiencing DV or know someone who is, get help! It doesn’t get better.
Now, I want us to take a closer look at the 2nd phase, “The Honeymoon stage.” This is a very difficult stage and one which requires great discernment. It is in this phase that the abuser often seeks to “Gaslight” the abused. Maybe you are not familiar with the term, “Gaslight.”
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in their victim's mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to gain power and control over the other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition. It’s putting a positive spin on something to minimize one’s fault and maximize guilt, confusion, or self-doubt in another.
The word became popular due to the 1944 movie of the same name, “Gaslight,” starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotton. In it, the husband, Boyer, tries to manipulate, blame, confuse, and sow self-doubt into his wife, Ingrid Bergman, making her think she has gone insane, so he can institutionalize her and steal her fortune. One means was to secretly turn down the gaslight lamps in the house, and when she questioned their dimming, he’d deny that they were dimmed. Hence, the movie's name is “Gaslight.” Both Boyer and Bergman were nominated for Oscars, with Bergman winning the best actress award. Unless you are over 50, you probably don’t know who I am talking about, but you can still get the movie.
The primary focus in gaslighting is blame-shifting. The Abuser Apologizes while blaming others:
—saying that if you acted differently, they wouldn’t treat you like this, so it’s really your fault. They point to outside factors to justify their behavior.”I can’t get ahead at my job because of you and the kids.”
They seek to Minimize the abuse or deny it happened while accusing you of provoking them. The abuser may be saying all the right words in his so-called apology, but he is not really taking ultimate responsibility but twisting and distorting the reality to his advantage.
So after an incident of physical or verbal abuse, while you may threaten to leave him, you may hear what sounds like the right words, but it is couched in blame-shifting.
“Look, dear, come on, where is your sympathy, don’t you have any compassion for me anymore?
You’re my WIFE, why do you cause me to do these things?
Oh, that you would just forgive me, and let’s get back to normal. If we work hard at it our marriage can be better than we imagined.
I know I can make you happy if you give me a chance. Things aren’t that bad.
I know my anger is out of control sometimes, I know I can be a monster,
but you haven’t really heard me, and it would help if you just did a few of the things I ask.
Listen, you are my wife, how long will you be angry? I can’t take being without you. Why won’t you forgive me?
Why are you silent? Why do you want to leave? Why do you sit there and do nothing?
Such an apology is classic “Gaslight.” The words sound right, and the sentiment sounds correct, but they are filled with duplicity.
Let me close this by saying,
There is NEVER any justification for DV.
It is a sin against God’s image in you.
It is a sin against God’s design for marriage and husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church.
It is a punishable crime.
Now, with this mindset, let’s turn to the Scriptures. This short chapter, Isa.64, should probably not have been made a chapter because it’s right in the middle of a long thought that goes at least back to 63:15 and forward to 65:17. Calvin agrees by writing,
“We see the absurdity of the division of this chapter.”
If taken in isolation, it precipitates the big question of whether this lament is genuine or not. This has led scholars in two different directions.
The two directions are: first if taken in isolation, to accept what is being said as a prayer of lament and genuine repentance. The words sound good. But if that is the case, it is harder to reconcile God’s answer in the next chapter as well as what the other Prophets, speaking to the same people, have to say. At first blush, this seems a sincere, almost beautiful lament, but to the careful reader, there are hints it is not.
It does not seem to be representative of the heart (of the Jewish exiles in Babylon.) But rather a heart with a shallow repentance, if there is any repentance at all.
But the second way to see this chapter is to approach it not in isolation but as part of a larger discourse. Viewed this way, this can be a case of Gaslighting and an attempt to change the reality of their situation by minimizing their responsibility and blaming God. Some say it is a “Straw man” set up by the Prophet to be demolished by God’s answer in the next chapter. And just like with the abuser's “so-called repentance,” it can be hard to discern if what is being said is true or not. But I believe this is a case of gaslighting not only because of some of what is said here in the larger context but what follows in the next chapter. In addition, if we look to Isaiah’s contemporaries, Hosea and Amos, who addressed the same audience, it’s helpful to see what those prophets were saying in evaluating how we should think about the words here. Then, in the later prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who spoke to those who remained in Judah, we hear that nothing had changed.
We should remember that few people liked or honored the Prophets. The Jewish scholar, Abraham Herschel, in his classic book, The Prophets, wrote;
“To be called a prophet is both a distinction and an affliction.”
Although it was the highest honor to be used as the very “mouthpiece of God,” declaring His word and promises filled with glorious hope to the people, it was no easy task. A major reason for this was that the prophet also had a message of judgment and had to say what most people did not want to hear! By God’s Spirit, the prophet could see the heart of the people and what they really thought. When a prophet arrived, the few who remained faithful, the remnant, listened and obeyed. But they would suffer the tribulation of exile along with the ungodly nation. When the prophet arrived, we should not think of Billy Graham filling Yankee Stadium. It was probably more like people in Manhattan hurrying by that guy carrying the sign, “The End is Near!”
Consider Hosea’s Rejection in Ch.9:7b-8
The prophet is considered a fool—?the inspired man is viewed as a madman—?animosity rages against him in the land of his God.
Jeremiah was not popular either.
“ And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying,“You shall die!”
Imagine that reaction to one of your sermons Pastor!
The general attitude towards the prophets was probably much closer to that expressed by King Ahab about the prophet Micaiah in 1 Kgs.22:8;
8 “…I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.”
And previously, back in Isaiah ch.30, we read;
9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear? the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,11 leave the way, turn aside from the path,? let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
And Isaiah’s message of judgment probably led to his death, traditionally recognized as being sawn in two.
Indeed, “To be called a prophet is both a distinction and an affliction.”
Isaiah, together with Hosea and Amos, spoke to the same people, mainly to the northern Kingdom of Israel but also to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. They were alive for the Assyrian conquest and exile. However, Isaiah also speaks prophetically about the coming Babylonian conquest 100-plus years in the future.
Isaiah was about to speak fine-sounding words from the exiles, but words that flowed from insincere motives. It’s been noted;
“It isn’t unusual for the accused in a trial to express regret and remorse for what they’ve done and to ask for another chance. That’s just what Israel did…”
But regret and remorse are not repentance. They are self-centered. I regret I was caught. I regret I’m in prison or in exile, but there is no mention of repenting for my actions or behavior or plea for forgiveness. As Spurgeon wrote,
“If I hate sin because of the punishment, I have not repented of my sin, I merely regret that God is just.”
As I said, Ch.64 should not be taken in isolation from the broader context. So, I am answering what is said in this chapter with what is said by other prophets in response. As one commentator (Warren Wiersbe) noted,
“God anticipated their hypocritical subterfuge and expressed not only their duplicity but the sinful way they had treated the Lord.”
I want to start by looking back briefly at 63:15-19.
If you remember the setting, the people of the Northern Tribes, Israel, had been conquered and taken into captivity. This was the “Day of Vengeance” we spoke about last week. We find the people asking God, “Where are you?” and “Why are you doing this?” In v.15;
“Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me.”
Here is the complaint. God is removed from His people and has withheld His zeal and might. He could act, but He won’t. Notice they are pointing the finger at God: “Where are you?”
Then look at v. 17;
“O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways? and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?”
Here is classic gaslighting and blame-shifting. It’s as if they said,
“Yeah, we know we are bad, but you made us this way, you let this all happen, so ultimately, it’s your fault!”
And the blame-shifting continues into ch.64. In the first five verses, the people are asking that God would step into the situation and do something spectacular. That He would unleash His awesome might upon these heathens and strike fear and dread in them that they would know His Name. Fine-sounding words.
We have here in V.1 the imagery of Mt. Sinai of old when God gave the tablets to Moses. Ex.19:18;
“Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.”
The same can be said for the first part of v.2. However, V.2 might also be referring to ELIJAH and his contest with the prophets of Baal. When the prophets of Baal failed, Elijah built the altar with wood and then poured water over the altar three times. Then in 1 Kgs.18:38 we read;
“Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”
Either way, the point is the same, “Lord, do something, do something powerful and put an end to our dilemma, change our circumstances, end this exile.”
V.3-4 “When you did awesome things that we did not look for,? you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”
Whenever there is a request for God’s intervention, there is almost always a recollection of His past deeds. And it’s true, no one, meaning the other nations, has witnessed such mighty acts as those performed by this God. The words sound fine, but where is their heart? If you were here Wednesday evening, you heard Pastor Ray emphasize “Remembering.” But the truth here is found in Hosea as he cries in ch.8;
Set the trumpet to your lips!? One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,?because they have transgressed my covenant? and rebelled against my law.
2 To me they cry, “My God, we—Israel—know you.”
Now he will remember their iniquity? and punish their sins;
For Israel has forgotten his Maker
God will remember. They have forgotten Him. While Israel had the knowledge of God, while they had a history with God, it made them arrogant and they “forgot” Him. They forgot who He really is! They drifted into idolatry and practiced the abominations of the other nations. The words of Paul in Rom.1 would apply here,
“ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
And Hosea 7:14 reveals;
“They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds;”
Isaiah continues in v.5;
“You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;? in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?”
Again, the words are very true. The Lord meets him “who joyfully works righteousness.” But these people were far from being righteous. In fact, Isaiah starts off this prophecy by noting back in Ch.1, the Lord charged them;
“Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity offspring of evildoers,? children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.”
And in Isa.46:12, we read the Lord’s words;
“Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness:”
They were anything but righteous, but they were self-righteous. Back in Isa.58:1-3, we read;
“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet;?declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’?Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,? and oppress all your workers”.
Such pretense! And If we want to consider the heinous depths of depravity to which they had fallen, peak ahead to Ch.65:5, where God castigates them as those who say to Him;
“who say, “Keep to yourself,? do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are the words of the Pharisaical self-righteous. We understand this from the example given by Jesus in Luke 18:11;
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”
While most scholars apply this to their self-righteous separation from all other men, Old Testament scholar, Edward J. Young, in his classic commentary, goes further and writes;
“Unbelieving Israel no longer desires this nearness of Yahweh, its God, but in effect is telling Him to break the covenant relationship and go back to heaven from whence He came. Israel gives a reason, which may be paraphrased: I am holy with respect to thee. One recoils from the depravity expressed in these words…Their idolatrous practices have set them apart from God so that to them He is profane and they holy, and hence unapproachable.” In essence saying, “I am holy enough and don’t need you around anymore.”
But now that they are in trouble, in exile, they must recognize their sin. In context, the word “saved” probably speaks of deliverance from exile. But the Lord knows their heart. Through Jeremiah 2 the Lord exposes such duplicity;
“For they have turned their back to me, and not their face.?But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’
28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself??Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble;”
Moving on to 64:V.6-7 the people acknowledge;
“We have all become like one who is unclean,? and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you;?for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”
Again, these are proper words of confession, words we all should acknowledge but with sincerity.
“Unclean” is what the leper was to cry out as he walked about to warn people of his diseased condition.
Deeds like “polluted garments.” It literally means a woman’s menstrual rags.
They “fade like a leaf” and are blown away. The consequence of a life of sin. It dries up life and is blown away.
True words but a pretense for the heart's intent is to manipulate God into having pity upon their circumstances. There is no plea for forgiveness.
V.8-9;
“But now, O Lord, you are our Father;? we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever.”
Here again they try to smooth things over with loving words that don’t match their actions.
Jeremiah 3:3-5 reads;
“… God said of them,
You have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame. Have you not just called to me: ‘My Father, my friend from my youth, will you always be angry? Will your wrath continue forever?’ This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can.’
Their words are cheap and full of hypocrisy. This is like the abuser claiming; “You are my wife! I love you!” but continues to beat and abuse her. Jesus addressed the same hypocrisy in Lk.6:46;
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”
And Jesus charged the religious leaders of his day saying;
“You are of your father the devil.”Jn.8:44
“Relationship with a holy God while doing what is contrary to His character is a contradiction of terms.”
The same can be said of the clay and potter statement. The Lord revealed what they were really doing through Isaiah back in 29:15-16;
“Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,? whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,?that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”;?or the thing formed say of him who formed it,“He has no understanding”?
In these verses, the prophet reveals their foolish behavior. As J. Alec Motyer, in his commentary, notes that Isaiah;
“exposes their folly…” You turn things upside down,” is a derisive exclamation.
They deny the Lord’s distinctiveness (as if the potter…like the clay)
They deny His sovereignty (He did not make me)
and His wisdom (He knows nothing)
Their wickedness had turned everything upside down and backward. “The clay” was making the “potter” into the God they wanted!
The final verses 10-12 once again shift the responsibility back to God.
“Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you,?has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?
As one commentator noted, Isaiah exposes;
“the sinful condition of the people but also exposes a false approach to the solution to the problem, in which the onus for the sinner is taken off the sinner and placed on God.”
“Your holy city” and “Jerusalem a desolation” This seems to be a prophetic look into the future destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians. It’s As if to say, “Look, don’t you see what has happened, what this is leading up to? Are you going to just sit there and do nothing?”
V.12 The same Hebrew word, (Afak) “restrain yourself” echoes 63:15 “held back” his zeal, might and compassion. As if to say, “We are in this situation because of your inactivity and silence.”
But their memory is selective, and their chosen rebellion is madness.
In Hosea 7, if we look to Hosea 7:10, we read, “Yet they have not returned to the LORD their God, Nor have they sought Him, for all this.” Verse 13 reads “they have spoken lies against me.” And then verse 16 reads “They return, but not to the most High.” So we see that even though these words seem sincere, they are not.
The Puritan, Thomas Watson wrote;
“Godly sorrow is SINCERE. It is sorrow for the offense—rather than for the punishment. God's law has been infringed—and his love abused. This melts the soul into tears. A man may be sorry—yet not repent. A thief is sorry when he is caught, not because he stole—but because he has to pay the penalty! Hypocrites grieve only for the bitter consequence of sin. Their eyes never pour out tears—except when God's judgments are approaching.
So although these people were going through the motions, saying the right words, it was all an attempt to “Gaslight” God. To change the reality of the situation minimizing their sin and putting the blame on God’s inactivity and abandonment.
This is why the Lord says in Amos 5:22-24;
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
Proverbs 14:2 says, “He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, But he who is devious in his ways despises Him.” Leviticus 26:15, 30 reveals that those who abhor God will be abhorred by His very soul. Those who despise God and care not for His love will store up His wrath for themselves.
Ps.81:15; “Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.”
Now, there is a great warning in all of this for us today.
The first point is to ask, “Is my repentance sincere?” Do I truly see my sin not just as wrongdoing but as an offense to a holy God? Jesus proclaimed repentance as part of the Gospel in His charge to the disciples, saying;
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Lk.24:46
Ps.51:18 states;
“A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
True repentance hates sin; false repentance hates the consequences of sin.
When we sin are we broken? As A.W. Pink speaks of what it is to be “broken” before a holy God.
"To come to Christ for life, is for the sinner to feel and acknowledge that he is utterly destitute of any claim upon God's favour; is to see himself as "without strength," lost and undone; is to admit that he is deserving of nothing but eternal death, thus taking side with God against himself; it is for him to cast himself into the dust before God, and humbly sue for Divine mercy."Arthur Pink, "The Sovereignty of God and Human Responsibility”
Watson again writes;
“The more bitterness we taste in sin—the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ!”
Is that how we feel about our sins? While we, as believers in Christ, have the blessed assurance of 1 Jn.1:9;
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Let’s not take it for granted. We are still called to live a holy life. Just three verses back in 1 Jn.1:6, we are told;
“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
You cannot practice and condone your sin and worship the idols of your heart and think you have repented. You can’t be living together outside of marriage, viewing pornography, gossiping and back-biting, having money as your master, and think that you can have fellowship with Christ at the same time. True repentance is a gift of God and is a necessary component of our daily sanctification, becoming more like Christ.
Second question: Is our worship truly worthy? As one writer put it,
“True worship, in other words, is defined by the priority we place on who God is in our lives and where God is on our list of priorities. True worship is a matter of the heart expressed through a lifestyle of holiness. Thus, if your lifestyle does not express the beauty of holiness through an extravagant or exaggerated love for God, and you do not live in extreme or excessive submission to God,” then it’s not worship.
The ancient Jews of Israel and Judah took comfort in their heritage and ceremonies of worship, whether to the true God or to idols. But for all the ceremony, their worship was dead and in vain.
Worship is not confined to one hour on Sunday mornings, but it should encompass our lives.
“This is a great reminder to take a step back from all of the activity and the noise and realize it is easy to lose focus of what and who really matters. We can sing our songs, say our prayers, amen through every sermon and when it is all said and done, never really put into practice the things we just heard and declared. A.W Tozer said it best when he said, “Christians don’t tell lies, they just go to church and sing them.”
We sing, “Oh, for a thousand tongues I sing my great Redeemer’s praise.” yet we stand mute, not using the one we have. Or we sing, “Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,” and never pray longer than 10 minutes.
Folks, a good hymn or song is good theology set to music, and we must ask ourselves, do we believe it? If not, it’s hypocrisy.
Do We speak of hope but ignore the hopeless? We sing about healing but never reach out our hands to the sick…We ask God to give us the nations but don't speak out against racial injustice in our own communities. There is such a thing as worthless worship. It is worship that has words but no action. It is worship that has sound but no heart. Jesus defines it in Mark 7:6-7 when he quotes the prophet Isaiah saying,
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”
Let this not be said of us. Don’t try to “Gaslight” God through our ceremonies by doing church, thinking we can change the reality and have Him see us differently from who we really are. It didn’t work back then, it won’t work now. As we saw, Israel and Judah forgot God and suffered the consequences.
Rather, consider what John Piper said ;
“True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God above all things…Right worship, good worship, pleasing worship depends on the right mental grasp of the way God really is.” It’s so true as Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”
When we consider all that Christ has done for us, as undeserving as we are, our hearts should be overflowing with sincere gratitude as Horatio Spafford so eloquently penned;
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—?My sin, not in part but the whole,?Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,?Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Let us all evaluate our expressions of worship so that through singing, declaring, giving, and doing we will "give to the LORD the glory he deserves … " (Ps. 96:8).
