COME INTO HIS PRESENCE

Ps.95:2 – Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

Ps.100:4 – Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

I am certainly biased but I really love Victory Church. It has been my pleasure to be the pastor there since it began in 1979, I have been to a lot of places but there is not a place quite like it. What would I say is the greatest characteristic of Victory? You can see it in today’s verses, the unignorable (is that a word) and distinct presence of God is there every time we gather. This is the one thing we have fought for and refuse to do without, His presence is essential to our congregation. The Lord visited Jonathan Edward’s church in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1734, here is an excerpt from his Thanksgiving message in 1735.

“Let us with the greatest joy and exaltation of soul, praise God in our public solemn assemblies. We never had so much cause to rejoice and praise God in public; for when we meet together, God is now more remarkably amongst [us], and great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of us. There never was a time wherein all sorts—young men and maids, old men and little children—had so much cause to praise the name of the Lord together; for there never was a time in the town, wherein there were so many of each of these sorts that had a new song put into their mouths [Ps. 40:3]. How beautiful and becoming is it for a congregation, a multitude, to join together in sincerely praising and magnifying the Most High God. Ps. 111:1, “Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation”; and Ps. 149:1, “Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.””

Obviously giving thanks to the Lord is connected to His manifest presence. Is He there because of thanksgiving or do we give thanks because He is there? I guess this may sound a whole lot like the old “which came first the chicken or the egg?” joke. His presence increases in our midst as we give thanks but we also give thanks because He is there. So I guess there is really no answer to that question, all I know is God is present and we are thankful. So I will give thanks again this year as we celebrate Thanksgiving 2024. I am just grateful to the Lord that He allows me to be the pastor of His Victory Church.