All tagged singing
04/02/2024
I am fortunate that my home is in Nashville, TN because I am surrounded by music. Although not all of this music is suitable for worship (or worshippers), the influence of the music business here bleeds over into churches across the city. In this city of music, my current and previous churches have both stood out for the quality of their choirs, soloists, and musicians.
So often we think that there is but one way that men are called, and that God has a set process for leading us to Him. We somehow get in our minds that there is only one way to serve God, and that if we don’t fit into the biblical walk exhibited by one of the twelve apostles then we are not correct in our faith. In fact, we are all unique and so is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
It’s Tuesday, and we are drawing closer to the day when we will celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving in the United States of America, but thanking God is not something that should be particular to any certain country or people, but to all the earth. Believers should be letting not only their families and neighbors know what God has done for them, but sharing this with all people everywhere. Today let’s sing praises to the Lord, and do so loudly enough for the whole world to hear, so that our voices will invite every man woman and child to join us in faith.
How many blessings are we given by our Heavenly Father that aren’t immediately obvious to us? How is it that we receive them without their showing themselves beforehand? So often we are thirsty in some way, and the Lord tells us to begin digging a well, and not only to dig with our hands, or by laboring over a hoe, or a shovel, but to dig with the instruments, and implements, of our faith. In such moments God goes even further by telling us to sing as we labor; not to Him, but to that thing He has told us to do, that will bring forth what will come from Him. We are told to sing to the wells we have been told to dig, and the gifts that God is preparing to give us in our lives?
As I read Revelation today I came to the account of the seven angels who brought the final wrath of God on the world in the form of seven plagues, but this image was not all gloom and doom; with them came those who had conquered the beast along with its image and the number of its name. These conquerors were singing the song of Moses, and Jesus Christ, and I thought to myself that I wanted to be counted in that number. I want to be one of the victors who will sing with great joy, knowing that the final plagues are at hand. I want to be one who will lift his voice joyfully in the realization that the final victory is at hand. Mighty is our God, merciful and full of grace is He, yet perfect is His judgement upon the world. Do we long for this day?
There are seasons when we find ourselves facing trials, or suffering in some way or another. Times like this are common as we walk through our earthly lives. Sometimes it seems like there is not a mountain to be found, and that we are walking from valley to valley. We long for even a glimpse of a rise on the horizon, but there are none. So, how do we keep moving on? Where can we find hope, or even dream of joy. We do so by looking up towards God, and not out at the horizon. We sing songs and psalms to Jesus, letting each footfall become the beat that keeps time for us. If we find ourselves in hopelessness, then let’s take that first step forward, then another, until at last we hear the refreshing beat of a new life, and our voice begins humming, and then singing the name “Jesus!”