Deacon's Blog



The Power of Praise
By Helen Tucker
5th June 2010

“Let the saints rejoice in this honour;
Let them sing upon their beds.
Let the high praise of God be in their mouths
and a two-edged sword in their hands.”
(Psalm 149:5-6)

What a powerful call to worship. There is no greater calling to the men and women of God than the call to praise our God. C.H. Spurgeon said, “Praise is a soul in flower”. And the blessing then received from the Lord makes the soul bear fruit.

The children of Israel were not to appear before God empty-handed. They brought sacrifices and offerings which were “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”, and we are called to offer continually to God a sacrifice of praise, for this is the way by which we can enter his gates – with thanksgiving and praise.

The Lord’s Prayer does not begin with prayer, or even with confession, but with praise. The psalmists poured out their hearts to God in beautiful descriptions of God’s love, compassion, power, might, majesty, righteousness, strength, closeness, salvation and glory. There is none like God.

Praise makes us cease to be self-centred and makes us become God-centred; praise encourages the miraculous (like Paul and Silas singing in the jail); praise wins battles; praise drives the devil away; praise heals troubled souls; and praise brings entrance into God’s presence.

Spurgeon quoted someone as saying, “A line of praise is worth a leaf of prayer, and an hour of praise is worth a day of fasting and mourning.” What greater encouragement to praise could there be? Can I present a challenge to us as a church? Could we all this week spend an hour in praise (not prayer, not Bible study, not drifting thoughts, but praise) before our next Sunday service, indeed, before every Sunday service. Could we all come with full hands and full hearts, having a sacrifice of praise ready, a fragrant offering to pour out before our God, and see what glory will be given to God!




Ezekiel Chapters 1-5
By Helen Tucker
20th Nov 2010

I am reading Ezekiel at the moment – again and again. There seems to be so much in it that the Lord is saying and I am longing to grasp it. What is God saying through Ezekiel to his church here and in the nations – now? There is not much evidence of great fruit or great success from Ezekiel’s ministry, but he is not compelled by thoughts of the fruit. He is compelled only by obedience to an almighty God. And while the others in exile are by the rivers of Babylon, weeping and mourning for the great days of the past when God seemed close, Ezekiel is standing before God. His description of his vision of the glory of God cannot possibly convey the majesty, holiness, radiance and power of the glory of God. Words cannot hope to express such a vision, but it was awesome, and Ezekiel fell face down. There before him was the evidence that God’s glory hadn’t changed, and that God’s glory was not tied to a place (the temple). But what was going to become apparent was that God’s glory had departed from his people (ch 10) because of their terrible disobedience.

And then Ezekiel is told what he must do. He becomes a visual symbol of God’s message. He has to act it out in a dramatically visual way. He has to re-enact the siege of Jerusalem, and then he has to bear the sin of Israel by lying on his left side for 390 days and then he has to bear the sin of Judah by lying on his right side for 40 days. And as I read all this I began to ask God what this means and what we’re meant to do. Ezekiel acted out the message of what was to come - that one would come to bear the sins of Israel and Judah. That has happened. The message is now the Gospel. How does God want us to communicate it in this generation? Do we have to look for dramatically new and visual ways to act out the message? No. There is no new way to do it. If you want to dramatise the message of God, this is what you do: “Take up your cross daily, and follow me.” I read this in a sermon on this passage: “What we need is men and women, filled with the Holy Spirit, willing to be fools for Christ and willing to dramatise in their own life the message I bear in my body: the dying of the Lord Jesus. Oh, my friends, God’s chosen method is still incarnation – the life of God in us. My question is this: Are we, like Ezekiel, acting out the message of God, living out the message of God – not dead orthodoxy – that’s dramatisation and acting, but the real thing, the Living God living in me? For if we were doing that, I think we would find a great awakening.” (David Legge, Preach The Word). Oh Lord, we long for this to be true in our lives every day. Lord, please show us how.