To Be Thankful In All Things
By R.P.Woitowitz Sr.
(Part Five of expanded series)

Col 3:17

“And whatever ye do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”

In our daily lives how often to we stop and consider all that God has given to us? Many are the times when we, me included, probably whine or complain about the things that we DO NOT have as opposed to the things we do have in this world. Maybe we want a raise in salary, or a new car, a new home. These of course are all material desires and as such, while desirable is not what is needed to be in tune with His word. Admittedly most of us would say that the needs of today are quite different from those of some 2000 years ago, but are they really?

In Luke 12:24 we find that our Lord is having us think about all that our Heavenly Father does for us. Each and every day we should give thanks to all that he gives to us.

More importantly we should strive to just be thankful to Him for sending His son into this world to be a sacrifice for OUR sins. All the cares and desires of this temporal world add up to exactly nothing as compared to what our Father has done for us. Let us seek to remind ourselves that His wish for us all to be redeemed to Himself was what caused Him to send Christ Jesus into this world and for that alone we should be thankful.

It is with this in mind that I end this small essay with the recommendation that we seek not earthly treasures but instead seek the Kingdom that He has laid up for us in Heaven and to be grateful, and overjoyed with thanks.

Related Study Scripture

Ephesians 5:20

2 Corinthians 4:15

2 Corinthians 9:11

Philippians 4:6

Colossians 4:2

1 Timothy 2:1

Give Him Praise All Ye People
By R.P.Woitowitz
(Part Four of Expanded Series)

Psalm 28:7

“The LORD [is] my strength, and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

As I am typing this I am thinking to myself I should have used my last posting as this weeks inspiration instead, simply because today is indeed Father’s day and although we do honor our earthy fathers on this temporal plane, how much more should we honor our Heavenly Father.

However we can still do just as good a job by giving Him the praise that is due Him.

In Strong’s Concordance we find that the Hebrew word for praise is actually two-fold one being; barak baw-rak' and the other being hilluwl hil-lool' with the former meaning to kneel (and) by implication to bless God as an act of adoration, while the latter means to, in the sense of rejoicing, a celebration for thanksgiving (as in a bountiful harvest). Additionally we find in Stong's tranlations of The New Testament the Greek words “aineo and ainesis” with the latter being a derivative of the former, but both basically meaning to give praise in the form of thanksgiving by lifting up our voices and singing.

This now brings me to an area of some dispute. There exist two schools of thought on the means of singing praise. One that includes instruments and the other that does not. I would put forth that there are scriptural texts on both opinions that support each claim. I for one find no fault in having an instrument to accompany the singing of praise, but certainly I do not disfavor the other school of thought either.

Again referring to Strong’s we find the words zamar zaw-mar' and it’s related conjugated form zimrath zim-rawth' both of which appear to approve of the use of instruments to accompany vocal praise. However, I honestly feel that both ways are an acceptable means of achieving the greater end of the giving the sacrifice of praise.

The sacrifice of praise is perhaps one of the greater glories we can give to God. It includes many areas such as thanksgiving, giving honor, and rejoicing to name just a few. It singles out our wish to continually acknowledge and credit our Creator with all that He has done for us in the past and will continue to do in future. But I feel it goes deeper than that for it is above all a recognition that He is indeed on the Throne, and had sent His only Son into this earthly realm to be a remission, a sacrifice for OUR sins, and for that above all else HE IS GREATLY TO BE PRAISED!

Therefore this Father’s Day let us honor our Heavenly Father with our best, and sing praises unto His name for Great is the Lord.

Related Study Scriptures

Psalms 9:1 - 2

Psalms 22: 22 – 25

Psalms 35:28

Psalms 100:1,4

Romans 15:11

Jeremiah 33:11

1Chronicles 16:25

Honor Thy Father, Thy God
By R.P.Woitowitz

Exodus 34:14

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Exodus 20:12

Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

So far we have touched on two of the many easy conditions that God requires of us to not only be His children in heaven but to be as He is here on this temporal plane known as earth.

First I have written on seeking Him Daily and secondly I have written on walking in His Righteousness. Today I am going to speak, (I wish I could say preach but as such I am not qualified to call myself a preacher), on Honoring our heavenly Father.

In Strong’s concordance we find the words “honor” (tanah taw-naw') and “worship” (yadah yaw-daw').

Of the word honor we find that the meaning of that word in the ancient Hebrew language was to mean to ascribe or commemorate praise. Seeing how we all should aspire to praise our Heavenly father this indeed makes sense.

Praise can be in various forms but for the most part it should be in prayer, humbling ourselves, and giving God the entire honor that is due Him.

The word for worship, again in the ancient Hebrew is translated to mean especially to revere (with extended hands). Again this makes sense as we one can humble oneself by bowing down on one’s knees with outstretched hands to give our Father our reverence.

Also we find in Webster’s Dictionary that the abovementioned words are defined to mean the following

1) Honor; to regard or treat respect

2) Worship; to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power
or to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion

It is my thought here that the above words along with their translations and definitions should go hand in hand and as God has commanded us to honor our earthy parents, that being our fathers and our mothers how much more so should we honor, worship and praise our heavenly Father.

Study Related Scripture

Psalm 26:8

Psalm 29:2

Hebrews 13:15

Walking In His Footsteps
(Part Two of the expanded message)
By R.P.Woitowitz Sr.

Jeremiah 31:34

“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Of all the conditions that God has set before us probably the toughest is to walk in His righteousness. This can also be known as "walking the walk".

In the Gospel of John we find that Jesus’ command to the former adulteress is to “go and sin no more”. However, as flawed humans we most certainly have difficulties in doing this simply because of our fallen state.

How many of us speak about others in the work place, or perhaps covert something of another that we simply cannot have in our lives? How many times have we said to ourselves or others such things as; “I’m more qualified that promotion should have gone to me!” Or maybe we fervently wished for that new car that our neighbor has purchased, all the while wondering why it can’t be ours.

Maybe we have lied to protect ourselves or our failings. There is the occasional “white lie” to spare the feelings of others, but it is a lie none the less. We justify these by the old saying of’ “what they don’t know won’t hurt them”, but it does not make it right.

Please do no misunderstand my position here for I write this not to condemn anyone, for as a person I am just as guilty as anyone else. But does this mean that I should just live my life as I see fit, to continue on as if there are no consequences? Certainly not! We must strive to reach the goal, that Christ Jesus has set before and live as closely as we can to follow in His way, in His footsteps.

Now allow me to digress here for but a moment.

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word impute as; “Attribute to a source or cause” and it is synonymous with such words as ascribe, assign, and attribute. Hence when one adds the past tense “ed” to impute we have the word “imputed” which would also be synonymous with ascribed, assigned, and attributed. Please note that when we add the past tense we are referring to something or an event having occurred.

In the Old Testament we find that God had given Abraham His righteousness because it was Abraham’s faith in God that allowed him to believe in all God said He would accomplish.

Herein then is the gist of this essay. We should always endeavor to follow and emulate our Heavenly Father, but it is through our faith and trust in Him to accomplish all that he has promised that His righteousness will be attributed to us. Let us seek to not only walk in His righteousness, but to show ourselves approved and worthy of His righteousness, and that all that see our works see them, as the saying goes, “walking the walk” Let us all run the race for all we are worth so that we may obtain the goal.

Related Study Scriptures

Romans 4:1-25

John 5;14

Romans 7:20

John 8:7,9

Romans 5:19

Hebrews 12:1

James 1:12

1Corinthians 9:24