Section 4 ~ LITURGY of The WORD ~ Lift UP Your HEARTS and LAMB+ of GOD

SECTION 4 - LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS and LAMB+ of GOD  

[Ancient Hymns of the Early Christians ]

This section includes worship from the Early Christians.  These words will be familiar to many because these early hymns are based in Scripture.

The LITURGY of The WORD+ . . . a Personal Discipline of Worship through The SCRIPTURES

The LITURGY of The WORD 

~  How the Early Christians Worshipped ~

A LITURGY is an order of worship to be used for morning or evening prayer, individually or in a family or with a group. It is designed for PARTICIPATORY worship. That is, no-one goes to sleep nor has time to let his mind wander away from worshipping The LORD. 

Lift Up Your Hearts!

Lift up your hearts!

We lift them up

unto The LORD.

Let us give thanks

unto The LORD GOD.

It is meet and right

so to do.

It is very meet, right, and

our bounden duty

that we should at all times

and in all places

give thanks

unto THEE,

O LORD,

HOLY FATHER,

ALMIGHTY,

EVER-LASTING GOD.

Who, in the multitude

of Thy mercy 

hast surrounded us

with so great

a crowd of Witnesses...

that we,

rejoicing in their fellowship,

may run with patience

the race

that is set before us...

that together , with them,

we may receive

the Crown of Glory

that fadeth not away.

Therefore, with Angels

and Archangels,

and with all

the Company of Heaven,

we laud and magnify

Thy Glorious Name 

evermore praising THEE

and saying...

HOLY

HOLY

HOLY

LORD GOD of HOSTS*

Heaven and earth are full

of Thy Glory

GLORY BE

TO THEE

O LORD MOST HIGH.

Amen.

* Hosts= Divine, Heavenly armies

Ancient Hymn called the Sursum Corda

LAWS of NATURE...

The Laws of Nature

Established by GOD;
…Kept by GOD


GOD does not cross the laws of nature.

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In the natural scheme of events, we cannot willfully leap over a cliff and hope that HE+ will keep us from a bad landing. UNLESS HE+ SUSPENDS THE LAW OF GRAVITY JUST FOR US, we will land with a crash and likely be killed.

Yes, HE+ could send His+ angel to keep us, but we remember the Words of our LORD: Thou shalt not tempt the LORD Thy GOD.

Simply put, this law of nature means we cannot eat pizzas constantly and have The LORD lower our cholesterol! We cannot refuse to exercise our bodies and expect The LORD to make them work well. We cannot neglect to put gasoline and oil in our vehicle and expect The LORD to make it run for us.

We cannot ignore bad behavior out of our children and expect The LORD to give them a good character. Likewise, we cannot ignore sowing to the Spirit and expect The LORD to grant us closeness unto HIM+.

Now, this is NOT to discount miraculous deliveries from such things as come upon us, but in the normal run of events, the laws of nature are simply not suspended for human beings, including Christians.

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Why is this ?

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The LORD loves discipline… not punishment… but a discipline in our walk. This may come as a great surprise to most Christians; it certainly did to me! This disciplined walk functions as our training ground for spiritual things like: steadfastness, maturity, and spiritual warfare.

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Why is discipline important ?

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We have been raised to indulge our every desire, whim, and taste bud.

Our flesh demands to be served, both by the Adamic nature we inherited as humans and by the worldly culture we have inhaled.

Furthermore, this is true for every person on this earth NO MATTER how sophisticated or UNsophisticated his society may be.

Why should we be surprised? One reason is that we have been taught, in one way or another, that we are free in CHRIST… therefore, we don’t have to “DO” anything… just believe.

Yes, we are free in CHRIST: free to worship HIM+ without fear of the devil snatching us away … although we CAN WILLFULLY walk away of our own free will.

We are free from being defeated by the devil … if we hold fast to Truth in the inner man, agreeing with The Word in all things. We are free in CHRIST IF we walk in the Spirit, instead of our flesh. Our FATHER’S+ ears will not be deaf to our cry

We are free to deny ourselves, knowing CHRIST loves us… thus we are freed of self-indulging ourselves to make up for lost love which we feel we have missed.

We are free to walk away from the temporal pleasure of sin, knowing His+ Blessed HOLY SPIRIT will help us to live sin-free, victoriously.

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But…
we are NOT free from training ourselves

to follow HIM+ more closely,

more precisely,

and more fully.

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This personal training, this personal discipline, is what is missing in this current church age.

This is NOT keeping the Mosaic Law, as talked about in Galatians. This is NOT earning or working to enter into His+ Salvation.

It is being trained, as any child is trained in the ways of its parents, in order to grow into productive, fruitful, and happy maturity.

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It is a sad commentary that the military can train its personnel with more discipline than the church trains its soldiers for spiritual warfare.

It is sad that schools, colleges, and technical centers train their students to have more discipline, to pass the tests and achieve that certification, to work more skillfully on that job, than the church trains its newborns.

It is sad that high school and college bands and football teams demand more rigorous hours of rigorous training…. some, including diet and exercise workouts… than do the churches of the LIVING GOD.

Even Little League Baseball teams require training and practice by the youngsters before any baseball game gets played… not to mention the hours some of us have sat our little selves on the piano bench, training ourselves to please our parents!

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Why then does the church think

it can omit the training and discipline

for its most serious

and most purposeful warfare?

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Now, simply learning about training is NOT the same thing

as embracing the training itself.

Learning about how to do the Psalms,

how to pray,

or how to set aside time for The LORD,

is NOT THE SAME THING

as denying yourself your “free” time and

actually DOING the Psalms,

the prayer time,

the times of undistracted Quietness

before The LORD.

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None of the ungodly armies of this world put a machine gun into the hands of untrained soldiers and send them into battle and expect effective warfare… else they likely will do more harm than the enemy.

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We Christians must be trained

to use the spiritual weapons

of our warfare, also.

How and where

do we get this training?

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We seek the LORD, first, as always we do.

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Then, we let HIM+ show us how to discipline ourselves, what pleases HIM+.

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HE+ will…. if we want it.

Next, we must be trained to discipline our own flesh, by the HOLY SPIRIT. This will involve giving The LORD SOVERIEGNTY over our time, our “pet” indulgences, our entertainments, our eating, and for some, even our sleeping.

Then, HE+ will put the spiritual weapons into our hands with the instructions of how to use them.

Right now, though, the majority of us are UNtrained and a number of us could NOT even be counted as “soldiers” in the Kingdom of GOD. We will fall at the beginning of a battle and at the rumblings of persecution.

Let us pick up HIS+ yoke;
it is easy and light.

HE+ is on the other side
of the double-tree yoke,
pulling it along with us.

The Apostle’s words from 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27:

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Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

The Apostle’s words from Hebrews 1:21 :

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…

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Therefore, with angels and archangels,
and with all the company of Heaven,
we laud and magnify Thy Glorious Name,
Evermore praising THEE+ and saying:

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY,
LORD GOD OF HOSTS,
HEAVEN AND EARTH
ARE FULL OF THY GLORY.

GLORY BE TO THEE+ ,
O LORD MOST HIGH !

Our training is to help us worship

the LORD OUR GOD

with a heart full of... HIMSELF+!

Sister Judith Hannah
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