Praise Offering

Reading Isaiah 12 this morning… again a reoccurring theme. That is a clue that God is speaking to me. Sean got a job yesterday. No big deal? Not really. After a long series of difficulties surround a prank he and his best friend did months after they graduated from High School and a month after Sean turned 18, it is a real praise. This event has affected his life way more than he ever could have guess when the decision was made to mess with some kids they had been in an on-going confrontation with. Finally this offense is off his record and he can move on. We celebrate.

The night the incident took place was the night before I gave my testimony for a musical presentation at church called High Praises. I was asked to talk about praising God for Deliverance. I based it on the idea of a praise offering.This is a praise offering, this post. My testimony was a praise offering. So is Isaiah 12. The evening I gave the testimony I knew it was warfare. It went like this, "do not give your testimony and Sean will go free. Speak and I will bring you and your family down." When I stepped on the stage to speak I knew I was obeying God and defying the oppression that surrounded the event and my life. The enemy does not want us to praise God.

I have said over the last few months as Sean has been trying to get work that I will praise God when he does. I will make a praise offering. This is it. Interesting. I overslept yesterday so I was delayed in reading Isaiah 12… God’s perfect timing.

Isaiah 12
Songs of Praise

1 In that day you will say:
"I will praise you, O LORD.
Although you were angry with me,
your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.
2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation."
3 With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you will say:
"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

5 minute Testimony Written for High Praises, October 2003

The Thanks Offering is voluntary acts of worship expressing a gratitude to the Lord for healing from illness or deliverance from trouble or death. In my life I have been delivered three times; from Alcoholism, from New Age and from a debilitating illness. The Lord spoke to me recently saying when I had a chance I was to publicly proclaim what He has done in my life as an act of worship and praise. In the language of the Psalms it sounds like this

I will tell of Thy name to my brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise Thee.
For You has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Neither have You hidden Your face from him;
But when he cried to You for help, You heard.

As you can see, when John asked me to speak about deliverance I was excited.
I visited my parents recently and they are a wonderful, gentle, peaceful people who love the Lord.. It is hard to understand why they would have a daughter like me. They raised me in the church and loved me and I repaid them with rebellion and sorrow. I became involved in the occult (or secret teachings as they are called) in 6th grade and I spent the next 18 years perusing it’s practices and teaching in the many forms it takes. I experienced a definite personality change. I went from a well adjusted child to an angry, defiant and depressed child, definite signs of the spiritual oppression and bondage. I spent the last ten years as a New Ager, primarily involved with Zen Buddhism and various forms of meditation. I had a spiritual mentor and spent a lot of my time reading and studying world religions. One New Age premise is there is no right or wrong. The goal of mediation is to escape dualism and live above morality as a sort of super spiritual person. A Christian apologetic author once wrote that when dealing with people in the New Age you encounter an enormous amount of spiritual pride. That is true.

Having given Satan a stronghold in my life and as a result of believing there were no moral absolutes I became involved in drugs and alcohol, because there was nothing to really stop me. The Lord used that to humble me. At age 25 I found myself at an AA meeting where I publicly confessed that, “My name is Ruth and I was powerless over alcohol and my life had become unmanageable.” Privately I confronted the fact that in my effort to be spiritual, the best I could do was become addicted. I was heading for divorce and I had alienated just about everyone I knew. I was an angry bitter person. But I was desperate to get my life put back together.
So I made two decisions. I made the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob my higher power. I began to pray for a true teacher someone who I could commit to and follow. I had been going from teaching to teaching in my spiritual quest and I was weary. I needed some direction. The Lord used AA to teach me to call out to Him, to pray daily, to be thankful and to admit when I was wrong and seek forgiveness of Him and others.

On Good Friday, April 5, 1985 while I was at work God chose to revealed Jesus Christ to me through a Radio program. He showed me that Jesus was the True teacher I was looking for. Most important of all He showed me the power that raised Christ from the dead was the power that was keeping me sober one day at a time. I got up from my desk knowing I no longer had to fear death that everything the Bible said about Jesus was true and that I wanted to follow Him. It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon Good Friday, I would soon learn that it was not insignificant in that it was the hour when Jesus cried out His last words, “It is finished.”

The Lord God is a God who delivers. He hears those who call out to Him. But He is bigger than that, He is a God who restores and heals. Twelve years to the day that I took my last drink I became ill and ended up in the ER. The illness left me weak and unable to function normally. It would never be fully diagnosed. The Lord used my illness to teach me that although He can deliver us from our trouble there are consequences for our sin. But He didn’t leave me there. He called me to pray and to live in His presence and He taught me to listen to His voice. He has almost fully restored my health.

It has been 18 years since I meet Jesus Christ on what I call my road to Damascus. He has more that restored my life and marriage. He has called me to serve Him with my whole heart. When I became I believer I had put aside art and my pursuit of it because I was not able to separate my gifts from my New Age beliefs. The call He has given me is to use my gifts and art to glorify Him and to teach and study the His Word. A privilege I hold dear.

I answered that call in March when I went forward in church and although I am only beginning to understand what that means I know that what ever He asks me to do I will do it as a Thanks offering to Him.

I cried out to You in my trouble;
You saved me out of my distress.
You sent Your word and healed me, And delivered me from destruction
Let us give thanks to the Lord for His loving-kindness,
And for His wonders to the sons of men!
Let us offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And tell of His works with joyful singing.