OLUSEGUN ISAAC BLOG

'So he [David] left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister before the ark regularly...to give thanks to the Lord ...to sound aloud with trumpets and cymbals and the musical instruments of God' (I Chr. 16:37,41-42 NKJV).              While we would be right to say that Miriam led the first praise and worship of God directly after the Red Sea crossing, we would equally not be wrong to say that King David instituted formal temple worship according to the scripture above. David   chose, separated and organized musicians for God's worship in the temple (1Chr.25:1-6). Out of the 150 songs, poems and prayers in the Book of Psalms, 75 were written by King David. Moses, Solomon and Ethan wrote one each; and the remaining 72 were written by other known and unknown writers. These others were mostly Levites, notable among whom were Asaph, Jeduthum, Korah, Heman and their sons. Levites were workers in the hou...

'...He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will’ (Acts 13:22 NKJV).             Here in part is the dossier of King David, whom God described as 'man after His own heart'. It is given here for our emulation. 1)He had learnt skills for God's worship early in life; he wrote Psalm 23 at a very tender age. 2)At 17, he was picked up from the pits as a shepherd lad and anointed in place of a despotic king in Israel. 3)He dared to fight Goliath to honour God when but a teenager and acquired the knack for battle.  4)He endured over 10 years of persecution by King Saul before he was finally crowned king at 30, thereafter reigning for over 40 years. 5)He knew the power in the praise and worship of God and in prayer. 6)He honoured God in his ways and reverenced the symbol of His glory - the Ark of Testimony. 7)He asked God first before making...

“I will sing to the Lord , for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! (Exodus 15:1 NKJV). Rumours had it that Michael Jackson, one of the celebrated popsingers of all time, got a place on Mount Everest reserved for his burial with the motive that when he died, he would be preserved in the icy peaks of the world's highest mountain and his body would be fresh and ready for him to inhabit again when he reincarnated. But alas, his last song was released after his death, and he was not buried on Mount Everest; American authorities insisted that the body of a legend like him had to be buried in his homeland! Talk about vanity upon vanity... Moses' song of praise to God, partly quoted above, was after he beheld God's awesome power!  He beheld God's great power that parted the Red Sea, made him lead the chidren of Israel safely across on dry land and the returning tide that swept away Pharaoh and his host hotly pursuing them. On the o...

'Then he dreamed...a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And...the Lord stood above it...' (Gen.28:12,13 NKJV).    When God revealed to Jacob in a dream the spiritual platform that conveys our requests to God from earth to heaven and back to earth with His response, He was starting a new thing. The Bible is showing us that our offerings of thanksgiving, praise, worship, supplications, petitions, intercessions and other manner of sacrifice are definitely taken up to God and that He responds to them. We are told there is an innumerable company of angels in heaven to do that (Heb.12:22). So it would seem that we all have ministering angels assigned to us who take up our sacrifices to God and bring us back the deserved answers by this revealed platform (John1:51). What does the ladder represent? A number of interpretations have been given to Jacob's dream of the ladder. One says,...

“Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:7-8 NKJV) Here is a story of The Great Exchange: A great king sent his son, the heir to his throne on a royal visit to one of his colonies. The son got there visited the prison where he saw a notorious prisoner in chains awaiting execution. He listened to the prisoner's story, was moved with compassion and resolved to free him. Upon getting back to his father's kingdom, the son left a note there and went back to the prisoner in the colony. He exchanged his royal robes with the prisoner's clothes which allowed the criminal to walk out a free man. The son also handed the prisoner a note to his father the great king. The very next day the executioners came, took away the son now in the prisoner's clothes and executed him by hanging. The prisoner, now in royal robes, got back to the kingdom, p...

John 4: 24 says, 'God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.' In 2016 I decided to examine deeper this verse of scripture by looking at bible characters who were giants in the worship of Jehovah God. I felt this could help us to learn more about the worship of His majesty. I wrote my thoughts in my book published the same year titled SUNDAY DEVOTIONAL WORSHIP (still available on Amazon.com), in which I x-rayed the lives of fourteen bible personalities under. Here is another of the 14 excerpts from the book.    2. NOAH 'Then Noah built an altar ...and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake...nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done" (Gen. 8:20-21 NKJV).     If the old English adage that says 'curiosity killed the cat' was true, then I probably would have been killed by curi...

It is written for our admonition in John 4:24, 'God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.' In 2016 I decided to examine deeper this verse of scripture by looking at bible characters who were giants in the worship of Jehovah God to see how we could learn more about worship of His majesty. I wrote my thoughts in my book published the same year titled Sunday Devotional Worship (still available on Amazon.com), in which I x-rayed the lives of fourteen bible personalities. Starting from today, here are the 14 excerpts from the book. 1. ABEL '...Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord . Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering' (Gen.4:3-5 NKJV).          Have you observed a little boy with something in his hand that you ask for, whether or not you are the one who gave it to ...

You may already have knowledge about Quiet Time, but this is an instructive piece by a young pastor of mine from his book. Here are extracts from the book. Keeping a successful quiet time Quiet time is a time consciously developed to be with God. It is a time you deliberately develop to tune out all distractions so as to abide in the presence of God. While praying, you talk to God and in reading through the scriptures, you hear Him. Quiet time helps you to develop the most important relationship in life. It is not a time to rush in or rush out of the presence of God. It helps you to develop the habit of spending regular time with God. Quiet time is a time to READ the most important book in the world. Quiet time is your personal school of the Holy Spirit. During quiet time, you increase in the knowledge of scripture and you experience the presence of God. It provides an unshakable platform for spiritual growth. To experience growth in faith, we must continually fellowship with G...

READING AND HEALING Proverbs 4: 20 to 22 says, 'My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh'.     Pastor Derek Prince, the international missionary and great teacher of the word, told the story of his healing. He was bed-riden during world war 2 at a military camp where there were no adequate medical facilities, so for over a year he laid ill in bed. Being a young Christian then, he had the zeal to read the bible right through, so he began reading, underlining passages that caught his attention. When he got to the Book of Proverbs, the above passage particularly arrested his interest. He studied the passage and got a revelation that those words were actually medicine, so he decided to take in those words three times daily and start doing what they say:  He paid attention to what God was telling h...

Here is a directive from the book of Jeremiah in the bible, 'The LORD , the God of Israel, said to me: “Write down in a book everything that I have told you..." ' (Jer. 30:1-2 GNB). God often sends messages into our hearts for dissemination to other people singly or collectively. As a matter of fact, this is how His manual for us, the bible was compiled to become the Holy Book. In the same way, God  sends messages to men for the use of other men. In 2011, our church embarked on a mission work at a village outside the city. We started with  regular Sunday fellowship meetings with the people of the village and the surrounding hamlets. As the pastor of the church, I had close interactions with the people and that left with me a pleasant experience of rural village life that I carry till today. At the fellowship meetings in the village, I spotted a particular girl who was raw but gifted in singing. I took interest in her, hoping that I would help her to develop her latent t...