A JOYFUL NOISE (Week 5)
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Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise; give thanks to him and call upon his Name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age. -- Book of Common Prayer (BCP) Psalter
“Knowing” speaks to the lifestyle of following Jesus. The daily ins and outs, minute-to-minute. It more so means: “know this yet again today.”
In modern thought, knowledge is information. It is attainable. Learnable. To know is to solve. But in Scripture, “knowing” means “to find out and discern, to know by experience, to become skillful in.” It involves intimate interaction. It is ongoing, personal, and ever-expanding.
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
John 17:3 NIV: Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
True worship is choosing to know again today that the Lord Himself is in the only One who is able to sustain today’s life, not our own positive or negative sense of self, no matter how noble or responsible our “self” may be.
"What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God." –J.I. Packer
"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." –St. Augustine
“Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” - Westminster Shorter Catechism
