HOOD'S PERSPECTIVE

The worship that pleases God; He wants all of you, He is not interested in half hearted commitment, partial obedience or the leftovers of your time and money. Where you worship is not as important as why you worship and how much you offer yourself to God when you worship. The bible says, "let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him." The kind of worship that pleases Him has four attributes: He is pleased when your worship is accurate . It must be based on the truth of the scripture and not our opinions about God. The bible says that "True worshippers will worship the father in spirit and truth, for they're the kind of worshippers the father seeks." He is pleased when your worship is authentic . When Jesus said you must "Worship in Spirit", He meant your spirit not the Holy Spirit. God designed your spirit to communicate with him. True Worship is your spirit responding to God's spirit.  Worship must be genuine and heartfelt,...

You're so close to God as you choose to be. Your friendship with God won't happen by mistake, it takes desire, time and energy. If you want an intimate, deeper connection with God, then you must work towards developing it.  An intimate relationship with God requires that you are totally honest with him about your faults and feelings. He doesn't require you to be perfect but He requires honesty, none of God's friends in the Bible was perfect. If perfection was a requirement, we would never be his friends. A deeper relationship with God also requires total obedience in him through faith. Trusting and doing what God says, even when you don't understand it, will deepen your relationship with him. Jesus said, "you're my friend if you do what I command ".  Friends care about what's important to the other person, the same applies to your relationship with God. You must choose to value what he values, the more you do that, the deeper your relationship w...

God wants to be your friend. Adam and Eve enjoyed an intimate friendship with God, unhindered by fear or guilt and was not dependent on religion, rituals or ceremonies.  We were made to live in God's continual presence, but that relationship was lost after the fall of man. Only a few people like Moses, David,Job, Noah, Enock, had the privilege of friendship with God at that time in the old testament. Jesus changed everything when he paid for our sins on the cross. We dont need countless hours preparing to meet God, we can now individually approach God anytime.  Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege and being known and loved is God's greatest pleasure. Becoming God's best friend requires constant conversation with him. You must include Him in every activity, conversation, problem and thought through each day. Another way to establish a friendship with God is by thinking about his word all day. The Bible repeatedly argues us to meditate on who...

The heart of worship is surrender. Its the natural response to God's amazing love and mercy.  We give our self to him not out of fear or duty but in love, "because he first loved us". "So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us...offer your selves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer".   In the scripture above, apostle Paul encourages us to fully surrender our lives to God in worship. C.S Lewis said "The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become- because made us".  Obedience to God's will and total trust in Him are aspects of living a fully surrendered life. The supreme example of self surrender is Jesus. The night before his crucifixion, he totally surrendered himself to God's plan. Jesus didn't pray, " God, if you're able to take way this pain, please do so" . Instead he prayed, " God, if its...

Since pleasing God is the primary purpose of your life, the next step is to figure out how to do it. The Bible says, "Figure out what will please Christ and then do it". Let's look at NOAH who gives us a perfect illustration of pleasing God. In his days, when the world was morally bankrupt, Noah stood out. He consistently followed God's will and enjoyed a close relationship with him.  He trusted God completely. Even when it didn't make sense at that time, Noah still built a ship in the middle of dry land. Imagine it took him 120years to finish the project. After this long most us would have given up yet Noah saw the project through. Trusting God completely means having faith that He knows what is best for your life. He made God smile by obeying him wholeheartedly. He followed God's prescription to detail. The size of the ship, the materials used, how to build. Everything he did as God had commanded. Most of us have partial obedience, we pick and choose the ...

You were planned for God's pleasure. If you understand the truth, that living for God's pleasure is the primary purpose of your life, you will never feel insignificant. It means you're worth and valuable to God. " Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is called  WORSHIP ". If you don't worship God, you will end up consciously or subconsciously worship something else; because worship is a universal urge, hard wired or into every fibre of our being. Its an inbuilt need God put into us to connect with him. Worship is often misunderstood to refer to a certain style of music. Worship is not the style, volume or speed of the song. Its more than music, if it was then all who are non musical would never worship. There is nothing like Christian music; there are only Christian lyrics. Its the words that make the song sacred not the tune. Worship is not for you, its for God. Worship is not part of you, its not just in the church service. Worship is entirely...

The ultimate goal of the universe and the very existence of man, is all for Him; for His glory.  Romans 11:36 -Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power and everything is for his glory. Living for God's glory is the greatest achievement, we can accomplish with our alive. When anything in creation fulfills its purpose, it brings glory to God. People bring God glory by worshiping him.  Worship is more than praising, praying or singing. Worship is a life style of enjoying God and loving him. When you use your life for God's glory, everything you do can become an act of worship.  Other ways that bring Jesus glory include; Loving other believers, Serving others with our with our gifts, telling other people about Jesus and by emulating Him. Living the rest of your life for the glory of God, will require sacrifice. You will have to change your priorities, schedule or relationships. It may mean choosing difficu...

Life on earth is a temporary assignment. You won't be here long, so don't get too attached. The earth is just your transit route,   "All they think about is this life here on earth, but we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives".  God wants us to think differently about life. Your identity is in eternity and your homeland is heaven. When you grasp this truth, you will stop worrying about having it all here on earth. The bible calls us ambassadors. Your role as a Christian is to represent Christ and your kingdom in this earthly kingdom. Yet so many Christians are guilty of treason, they have switched their allegiance to earth, they have conformed to its ways and made it their permanent home.  God warns us against getting too attached to what's around us because its temporary. We are told, " Those in frequent contact with the things of the world should make good use of them without becoming attached, for this world and all it co...

Oops, I almost missed day 5 because the tight schedule and extended meetings. But I had to be true to me and to my resolve not to fall back.  Day 5 is about Seeing Life from God's view. Anais Nin said, "We don't see things as they're, we see them as we are".  The way you see your life shapes your life. Your destiny is mostly determined by your definition of life. Your perspective will influence how you invest your time, spend money, use your talents and value your relationships. The Bible offers three things that teach us God's view of life: Life is a test, a trust and a temporary assignment.  God continually tests our character, faith, obedience, love, integrity and loyalty. Tests can come in delayed promises, impossible problems, an answered prayers, undeserved criticism or tragedies. "Tests develop and reveal Character and all of life is a test". The good news is that God never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace he gives you...

I have always wanted to read this book which has been on the shelf for sometime, but for some unknown reasons, I could not get myself to do it. Three days ago, I finally got on top of this procsination with KO punch. Since it took me a lot of time and energy to deliver this killer punch, sharing the progress of my daily read is the only way to ensure that i don't fall back. The Purpose Driven Life is not any book, its a guide to a spiritual journey unto the discovery of the purpose of life, intended to be a daily inspiration with each of the 40 short chapters read on consecutive days. Each chapter contains a personal application section at the end with a "point to ponder," a verse to remember, and a question to consider over the course of that day. Join me on my 40 days devotion through this book as I pick up from day 4. You were made to last forever. Life on earth is just a practice workout before the actual game. Its preparation fo...