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2004 Advent Daily Devotional Guide 

Anticipating Our Lord Through ...

 

Southeast Home Page  |  2004 Advent Introduction  | Children's Pictures  |  Acknowledgments

Advent I Advent II Advent III Advent IV Epiphany
Nov 28 - Dec 4 Dec 5-11 Dec 12-18 Dec 19-25 Dec 26 - Jan 1

 

Advent III - Praise Praise His Holy Name- Layman Cash
Sunday December 12 Lauren Starr
Monday December 13 Ellen Mearns
Tuesday December 14 Michael Cobb
Wednesday December 15 Brittany Starr
Thursday December 16 Alex Starr
Friday December 17 Wayne Freeze
Saturday December 18 Susan Sellstrom
..

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PRAISE  -  Sunday December 12, 2004


I love praising the Lord in praise songs.  My favorite song is 'You Are Holy'. One line in the song that means so much to me is "He's my Prince of Peace, and I will live my life for Him".  I just love the way the writer put it…"And I will live my life for Him". The author isn't saying he will live part of his life for Him, but he is saying he will live his whole life for Him!
I also praise Him when I read scripture. My favorite verse on praise is Psalm 63:3 "Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee." It is neat to think that my very own lips can praise the one true God!
  I praise the Lord in song and scripture, but my absolute favorite is through prayer.  In prayer, you can say anything to God.  The best thing is to know that He is listening to me, and He loves to hear my praise!

 Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that as we go through today, that we will praise the Lord in everything we do. Amen.

Lauren Starr

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PRAISE  -  Monday  December 13, 2004 


"Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore.  From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised."  - (Psalm 113: 2 & 3)

According to my dictionary, the word PRAISE comes from the Latin meaning value or price. To give praise to God, is to proclaim His merit or worth.
The above verse says we're to do that 24 - 7. Uh-oh, I can't do that! I love music and like to sing; but not all the time.  Maybe there are more ways to show our Lord praise? 
Physical movement like David (II Sam 6:14)… maybe not in the Baptist Church? Silently remembering and thinking (Psalm 77:11-12)! Telling others about my Savior! Prayer! Living a life that honors my Lord (I Peter 1:3 & 7)! However I try to praise my Lord, I need to be sure it's from the heart and not just lip service (Matthew 15:8).
I am by nature a negative and complaining person. He doesn't like that (Philippians 2:14). Interestingly one of the verses the Lord has most impressed on me is Philippians 4:4 - 7 "Rejoice in the Lord. Always" - that's like praising. While I'm rejoicing (praising) he removes anxiety, worry, frustration, and gives peace (last week's topic).
So I hope this holiday season you join me as I try to become a 24 - 7 Praiser and not an over-stressed Christmas season complainer. It can go either way you know, depending on whether we seek Him or get sucked up in the world's version of Christmas.

 Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this life and the one to come. Please continue to move me in the right direction so I see and acknowledge all the marvelous things you do, are doing, and have done in my life. Please let my eyes and heart be ever focused on you and PRAISING  YOU 24 - 7.

Ellen Mearns

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PRAISE  -  Tuesday  December 14 , 2004

When I was a little kid, I never really paid attention to the troubles and worries in life. I would always leave them up to my parents to solve or fix. I grew up in a family where my parents and their friends were always partying and drinking. I never really paid attention to it, because I thought that's what parents just did. Well, when I was about nine, my parents separated, my mom stayed in Texas and my dad, my brothers, and myself all moved up here about five years ago. I thought all parents separated, until I was about twelve or thirteen. I started going to church when I moved here, and then I got baptized when I was nine, but I didn't know what it meant. I did it because other people were doing it. Then, I started hanging out with the wrong crowds, partying and trying drugs. I never thought I was going to get caught, until I finally did, and so many people were disappointed in me. So I felt disgusted with myself and the things that I did. 
I was leading a false life, and I was saying I was a Christian when I was going around and doing the things I wasn't supposed to do. Then I finally realized that I don't need to do those things to be cool. I need to give God the praise and make Him my number-one priority in life, and stop leading a false life. I needed to give God the praise for giving me life, and giving me my athletic ability and my intelligence to do the things I can do. I struggled trying to do this, but I had my friends from church, my best friend, and church to help me understand it and do it more. 
The praise that we give God should be one of the things we do every morning, for Him giving us another day to live, and a chance to give God the praise He deserves. I may not have done the things that I should have been doing when I was younger, but God allowed me do those things so that I can learn from them. God deserves every bit of praise we can give Him, so give it to Him. 
Psalms 146:1-2 says that you should praise God with all your soul, and with all of your life. So praise Him like it says to do.     

Michael Cobb

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PRAISE  -  Wednesday  December 15, 2004 


Two years ago my older sister and I went to a Home School Camp for girls.  I really did not want to go, but now I am really glad I did.
At the camp we were always praising God. When we were walking we were singing.  And when we were eating or cleaning, we were always talking about praise songs and what they meant to us.
I did not know how much praising God really meant to me until that weekend. Then, when Shane Pike wanted to start Sunday Night Live (SNL), I was really excited! I asked right away if I could sing! I love singing praises to God, and I am really glad that now people can see me doing that at SNL and enjoy it along with me.
My hope is that one night someone will see me praising Him with a smile on my face and want to do the same.

 "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise."    - Habakkuk 3:3

 Dear Lord,
Thank you for blessing me with the love to praise you! I love you so much!!
Amen.

Brittany Starr

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PRAISE  -  Thursday  December 16, 2004

I have gone to M-Fuge for the past three summers with our youth group. Once you get there you get in a mode, a praise mode. Everything you do, from the time you get up to the time you get into bed, is about praising God and glorifying Him. Worship is a very important time for the youth at M-Fuge. For me this past summer as an older youth, it was so amazing to watch the younger youth lifting their hands and praising the awesome God who created them.
The example of these youth touched me spiritually and challenged me to praise Christ always and be a role model for my peers.  I started thinking about how I need to be their role model because I did not show my faith as externally as I wish I had when I was their age.  Shyness kept me from letting others know about the faith inside me. It was easy to get into a routine of not putting myself out in front of others.  If I had shown my faith externally, I would have been more accountable to God. I wonder now if I might also have become stronger internally with God then, if I had been more visible externally.
God tells me that I need to bring people to Christ and I wonder if I let Him down. Perhaps I will be more expressive in my outward praise and worship after realizing that all of my actions are so important to my walk with Christ. 

"Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty Heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness." - Psalms 150:1-2 NIV

Alex Starr

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PRAISE  -  Friday  December 17, 2004


As for me, when I praise God, I feel His presence with me, that He is Holy and He listens to my praise. Last week I went to see my orthopedic doctor for a follow up visit. He was pleased with the 96 degrees that I painfully could bend my left knee. I told the doctor that I need 10 degrees more so that I could walk up and down stairs, ride a bicycle, and get down on my knees to praise God. I am going to therapeutic exercise & manual exercise techniques (bending of knee) 3 days a week to get the extra 10 degrees in my left knee. Every morning & night I pray to God for the big & small blessings that He gives me each day .

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."   - Psalm 68:19

 Lord help me to accomplish my goal of bending my left knee the extra 10 degrees so that I can get down on my knees to praise my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ  and to walk up & down steps correctly and to ride a bicycle . I do put my trust in God daily in reaching my goals. Amen

Wayne Freeze

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PRAISE  -  Saturday  December 18, 2004 

We hear so much about praise and worship today. For some reason, when we hear the phrase, "praise and worship", we immediately think of music, and some of us don't care for the praise and worship music being written and sung today.
But praise and worship doesn't have to be music and the Bible tells us repeatedly to praise the Lord. Psalm 146 begins by telling us to
  "Praise the Lord.
   Praise the Lord, O my soul.
  I will praise the Lord all my life;
  I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."
When we praise God, several things happen. First of all, the praise takes our minds off our problems and focuses them on God. We all have problems which we'd like to forget for a while. Praising God by quoting or singing scripture will focus our thoughts on Him instead of those problems.
Secondly, praise leads us from individual meditation to corporate worship. How wonderful to feel God's Spirit moving among us as we join fellow believers in praising God.
Third, praise causes us to consider and appreciate God's character. God is Holy. He is Lord of Lords, Kings of Kings, Mighty God, Lord of Everything. He's Immanuel, the Great 'I Am'. He's the Prince of Peace who is the Lamb. He's the Living God, our Saving Grace. He will reign forever. He is Ancient of Days. He's the Alpha and Omega, our Savior, Messiah, Redeemer, and Friend. Wow!! When we meditate on these truths, how can we NOT praise Him?
Finally, praise lifts our perspective from the earthly to the heavenly. We confess that He's the "God of wonders beyond our galaxy. The universe declares His majesty." If the whole of His creation praises Him, then we must join in that praise!
As we prepare for this joyful celebration of Christ's birth, we must join the shepherds and the angels as the whole universe praises and worships the holy infant who changed the world for all eternity!

Praise the Lord!!

 Father, how good it is to sing praises to You. How pleasant and fitting to praise You, for Your name alone is exalted; Your splendor is above the earth and the heavens. Amen.

Susan Sellstrom

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Southeast Home Page  |  2004 Advent Introduction  | Children's Pictures  |  Acknowledgments

Advent I Advent II Advent III Advent IV Epiphany
Nov 28 - Dec 4 Dec 5-11 Dec 12-18 Dec 19-25 Dec 26 - Jan 1