If you happen to have read past posts (and thank you if you do!), you know singing and gratitude are two of my favorite things! Many of my posts have these as key ingredients...I just am a happier person when I do both of them...they are related in my mind...when I sing, I'm grateful; when I'm grateful, I sing! They propel me to be a better person.
The book of Psalms is essentially a hymnbook of the ancient Israelites and for hundreds of years these songs have been used in worship to celebrate God's goodness to a people who are His. Almost half of them are written by David (today's was not) and every range of emotion is covered. It is a means of focusing on God. Max Lucado wrote today in his devotion about worship being the act of magnifying God. "As we drawer nearer, he seems larger...our perception changes...like a magnifying glass." That's what, I believe, singing does...it draws us near to Him. It's not that He gets larger - He never changes - but our view of Him does. Are you singing today?
It pleased me so on Easter Sunday to see Keith and Kristyn Getty showcased on a network news program with a program "In Praise of Hymns". They are a very gifted couple who recently wrote the fabulous hymn "In Christ Alone". One of my absolute favorites.
Keith wrote an article that gave 5 reasons "Why You Need to Sing Loudly in Church". In a nutshell those 5 reasons are:
1. We are commanded to sing. (Scriptures cite more than 250 places "to sing")
2. Singing together completes our joy
3. Singing is an expression of brotherhood and unites generations.
4. We are what we sing.
5. Singing bears testimony to our faith.
Hope you might find and read the whole article.
It saddens me to watch people in church not sing...it is a terrible loss to the participant and a terrible witness to someone (young or old) standing next them looking for someone with joy. I find myself singing along with the choir many times because I can't help but sing. You don't have to have a gifted voice (I do not!) to sing with joy. If your heart has joy in it, your mouth will sing it! Our worship, with singing a very important part, is known to the Lord. He knows what we worship and how we worship.
Are you singing today?
For further study: Deuteronomy 32:3, 2 Sam. 22:50, Psalm 30:4, Psalm 59:16, Psalm 101:1, Acts 16:25, Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 3:16-17, Hebrews 13:15, James 5:13.
May you be blessed in your understanding of God's word.
Love,
Holly
April 8, 2015
The LORD will fight for you;you need only be still" - Ex. 14:14
Don and I were blessed to be able to take a 30th Anniversary cruise recently and if you've ever been on a cruise ship, you know you're not always sure where the front is! I loved the carpet in the hallways of our ship that showed fish swimming forward so you always knew which way that was! (Of course my picture is upside down so it looks like they're swimming backwards, but indulge me here for a moment!)
Our verse for today is Moses speaking, after the Israelites had escaped bondage in Egypt, standing before the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army pursuing them from behind. They were, if you will, "between a rock and a hard place"! They were confronted with obstacles to progress and fear set in. The stillness comand here is not a ceasing of activity, but a ceasing of fear. They could not move forward if fear was ruling them...they would have to have a calm settle before they could choose to do the right thing.
The obstacles God allows are never insurmountable...we must simply act on our faith. Picture a bridge between "fear" and "faith" and you can see how you must step forward with courage (away from fear) in order to get to the other side.
Listen to Don Raney in our Sunday School curriculum recently:
The obstacles God allows are never insurmountable...we must simply act on our faith. Picture a bridge between "fear" and "faith" and you can see how you must step forward with courage (away from fear) in order to get to the other side.
Listen to Don Raney in our Sunday School curriculum recently:
Faith does not remove obstacles. Faith empowers
us to move forward in the assurance that God will enable us to move past the
obstacles. But faith requires that we step out and follow even when we
cannot see the path or the way around the obstacles.
Moses had confidence in the God who gave him instructions on what to do...he had seen His presence at the burning bush; He was still directing, as well as moving the pillar of cloud guiding them to the rear as a means of propelling them forward! When they did take that first step, a miracle happened: the waters parted, every one of them ran across, the waters closed up and the Egyptian army was doomed. I just love it when one of God's best plans comes together!!
It was God's word that moved them forward (14:15) and it will be God's word that moves us forward. Are you reading it every day? Are you allowing it to fill every part of you so that you recognize His voice when He tells you to move? I am grateful for a God that when I am desperate He is not! He knows the way that you take and He will guide you forward.
For further study: Deu. 1:28-31, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 46:10, Psalm 107:20, Isaiah 30:20-21, Zechariah 2:13, John 16:13, Philippians 3:13-14, Hebrews 13:6, 2 John 6
Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.
Love,
Holly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)