Sacrifice of Praise
4/17/05
I don't know if any of you have ever read any of Harold Hill's books? One of the greatest ideas he ever put forth was the E.I.B. (Educated idiot box - your brain). As a man that has several degrees including a Masters in Science I can speak as an authority on how the old E.I.B. can get you messed up when it comes to being a Christian. I am a very logical person. It took our Lord and Savior quite a while to show me just how logical the God I serve is. One of the things I have noticed about us humans is that we always feel like the old Frank Sanatra song " do it my way". Have you ever felt that way? Oh, I bet you have if you will be honest. Just the other day I was working in the ministry office late and I went to remove an identity off my outlook express. Well I got in a hurry and just clicked ok without looking. Oops! I deleted all of the e-mails for the ministry for the last 3 years. When I goof I guess at least my parents taught me well. I mean everything, all the addresses of our partners, all the addresses of the radio ministry contacts, everything.
Well using my E.I.B. I figured I could trust another computer program I have that will recover any crash. The only problem with this was that all the work I had done that day would have been lost. It never dawned on the old E.I.B. that praise is always the best place to start. I should have already known this fact. But, haven't you noticed that with some of us that the Lord has to "beat it into us so to speak. When I was a young Christian I was going through some real hard times. A wise pastor friend of mine was my prayer partner. One day he threw a praise and worship tape at me and said play this all the time. He told me not only to listen to the music but sing the songs. His wise words were you cannot think of your problems and be depressed when you are singing praises to God. I thought this was a great idea! I left the church and went to play the tape. My car tape player ate the tape. Old Slue foot started again, "A.J. you have lost again, see your God does not even love you enough to want you singing praise songs to Him! That day I hate to say it but old slue foot won again. I tossed the tape on the front seat and drove off. But, the next day the Lord reminded me of the Tape. He whispered Jay don't you think you should give my idea a try! I said "yes, Lord but the tape is broken! His only reply, "FIX IT! I did and started to praise Him as often as my E.I.B. remembered. By the way I am listening to that tape as I write this. Praise my friends is the devils death. Old slue foot cannot stand any kind of praise to the Lord. When you get into trouble just start praising and all will be well.
Ok, enough of that, back to the story, when I went to run the program to recover my crash it crashed. At this point I did not feel like praising the Lord. But then Hebrews 13:15 (NLT)15With Jesus help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name rang in my ears. Of course my E.I.B. got involved, old slue foot whispered in my ear. "Come on A.J. you have lost all the ministry's e-mail information. You're doomed you can't do anything now. For a moment, a fleeting eternity, I almost agreed. But I had to agree with at least one part. I told old slue foot he was right I could not do anything now. But, Jesus could. So I started to praise the Lord for the situation. I told the Lord "it was in His hands I was going to praise Him no matter what happened. I told the Lord if you want this ministry to continue you need to fix this mess I have caused, because I can't. I told the Lord I was just going to praise Him and let Him handle the rest. Well as I said before praise is the devil's death. Old Slue foot departed and in less than 30 minutes the Lord lead my hands through the procedure's to rebuild the entire ministry's e-mail files. In less than 30 minutes all the data was recovered and you could never tell that my E.I.B. had deleted it all. We can never truly understand what it is to offer a sacrifice of praise until we have no reason to give praise. But hold on to what Paul said, Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) 1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So friend's when all seems bleak and old slue foot is whispering in your ear. SHOUT a sacrifice of praise to the Lord and watch what happens. Remember the old saying, When the times get tough the tough get to praising. Ok, I did change if, but you can take this to your spiritual bank, Praising the Lord in every situation (good or Bad) will bring about change. All things work for good for those who love the Lord.