Hallowed Be Thy Name?
"To hallow God's name means to hold it in reverence; hence, to hold him in reverence, to honor, glorify, and exalt him. To do this, far more than a merely intellectual knowledge of the meaning of the divine names is required. Humility of spirit, gratitude of heart, earnest study of God's works until observation changes into rapturous astonishment and worship is certainly implied....
"Hallowed be thy name" means, therefore, that the one who has been brought into fellowship with this tenderly loving Father now calls upon everyone to share this experience with him, and to exalt this glorious God.
This means far more than that the petitioner does his utmost to fight profanity.
It has a positive content.
The supplicant calls upon the entire creation and especially upon the world of men to praise his God. He exclaims, as it were, "O magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt his name together" (Ps. 34:3). He traces God's steps in history (Pss. 76-80, especially 78; further 106; 107; 118; 124; 126; 136), and wants his children and everyone to adore and glorify God because of his wondrous deeds. He also is filled with gratitude and amazement when he observes God's wisdom and goodness in nature, and he desires that his own thrilling observations and lasting impressions shall be shared by others, so that they too may see the reflection of God's glorious attributes in the sky above as will as in the earth below, and may exult in the One whom he calls "my God" (Ps. 8; 19; 29; 63; 65; 104; 139; 145; 147; 150).
So also today the person who knows what it means to pray "Hallowed be they name; will joyfully magnify the Lord when he beholds the blue of the starlit sky, full of silent beauty and majesty, with its myriads of stars, scintillating like so many dewdrops upon the meadows of the heavens. He praises God when he sees his glory reflected in the softly blending hues of the rainbow, in wooded hills, fruited groves, murmuring brooks, sparkling lakes, and meandering rivers, as well as when he listens to the richly variegated, almost continuous song of the mockingbird. He marvels when he contemplates the wisdom of God revealed in the construction of the human body (Ps. 139;15, 16). and when from general revelation he ascends to special revelation, and ponders the implications of such passages as Isa 53; John 3:16; Rom. 5:8-11; 8:31-39; and I Cor. 8:9, is it any wonder that he fall is love with the matchless name of him who through Christ is his Father, that he pours out his heart in fervent doxologies (II Cor. 9:15; Eph. 1:3 ff.; I Peter 1:3 ff.; Rev. 19:16, 17, and urges others to do likewise?
...this means that the worshiper is so completely filled with unrestrained eagerness that the Father's name be adored, honored, and glorified, that he cannot wait to communicate his consuming desire that it receive this honor from the lips, hearts, and lives of everyone."
William Hendriksen on Matthew 6:9c
“But I have this against you…”
The other day I posted the following thought on Twitter:
It is possible to follow the directives of Jesus faithfully yet fail to worship him. Matthew 28:16-17
My team-mate and friend John Hunt posted Revelation 2:2-4 on FB in agreement and response.
"I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first." Revelation 2:2-4
This verse got my wheels turning....what do you think? Here was my addition to the thought.
That verse fits great here. I was looking for verses like this recently as some of the guys and I were talking about verses like the one you posted. I have been reading about the place for warnings in the believers' life and how God uses them to preserve us...really amazing concept when taking into consideration the doctrines of grace, sin, the attributes of God, the work of the Spirit in our lives and our constant call to faith and repentance. God lovingly pushes us towards repentance of our works and non-works through his warnings, biblical narratives and Spirit. Works only leaves us with the illusion of a great scorecard that points to self and in the end is worthless showing us that we are without love and Jesus. Faith and repentance do not leave us neutral in our hearts, they leave us filled with faith, hope and LOVE! In other words, faith and repentance do not just remove the ugliness of us leaving us clean, but God uses warnings...and in his kindness leads us to repentance...showing us that we are filled with him by him, we are his... which moves us towards an enduring life of love and good deeds.
As we know, faith and repentance in the life of a true believer is not constantly asking God to give us salvation but it is a life filled with knowing and loving that we are saved(in all it's tenses) which helps us to constantly turn from ourselves to him.
I imagine myself sitting with friends and family and hearing Jesus say this:
“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Revelation 2:2-4
Do I grumble, get angry demanding my rights to what I think I have earned...or do I gasp in the realization that I have been abandoning the love I had for him at first and run to him like Peter and weep as I cling to him? A new creation heart will always cling to it's creator, sometimes quickly sometimes not so quickly.
Isn't that the heart's desire of idols? To capture our love away?
May we not get so caught up in good deeds that we miss our good God and fail to love and worship him!
The “Oh” Gauge from Romans 11
Romans 11:33.
We looked at the beginning of Romans 11:33. Oh .... it is an Oh! Paul has just spent 11 chapters outlining the redemptive work of Christ, justification by faith, and the grace and mercy of God. He then breaks forth in song with an "Oh!".
Kent had us imagine having an Oh! gauge on us, like a car gauge. Something that we and others could read to see our satisfaction and delight in God's greatness.
This really got me thinking of the importance of worship when it comes to sharing the gospel. How great would it be to minister to others out of delight in the Holy Trinity? Ministering out of duty, no matter how right you may feel, leads to worship of self, ministry, and others which is idolatry. John Piper reminds us that there is a huge fundamental difference of me saying I must love my wife (out of duty) and I must love my wife!! out of love. It's a different kind of must. This would help others to see God in us, even when we are unable to clearly communicate everything about the gospel. When I say worship, I do not mean Sunday morning song time (although that is part of it), I mean acknowledging God's greatness, delighting in Him, and breaking out with praise in our hearts and lives with words and actions. I was doomed to Hell .... but Jesus saved me! I am stupid ... the Holy Spirit empowers me! I am powerless ... He is strong. I was dead ... in Christ I have been made alive! You are fatherless .... I'll be your daddy! You are hungry ... I will feed you. You are lost ... I know the way. The greatness of God is deeper than our study and thoughts will ever take us, but no matter how shallow or deep we swim in knowing God purposefully, we will have a living doxology, a great song to sing with our lives.
The act of sharing the gospel is in itself an act of worship, but how often do we set out to share the gospel after worshiping God? Paul takes 11 chapters to think upon the works of the Trinity and 5 to tell us how to live. I think it is safe to say that we may need to spend a little more time contemplating Scriptures, praying, and spending time with God rather than spending most of our time doing ministry, at least I know I do. That does not mean that our "ministry time" should diminish, it may actually increase!! The five chapters on how to live are absolutely important, but Paul did not begin or dwell there for the majority of his letter. It is after this great exuberant outbreak from thinking on God that Paul tells us to be living sacrifices.
I must share the truths of the Gospel, but I must also be in love with the God of the Gospel! Oh!
new Scott England [LIV] album
