Do YOU sing to the Lord?

March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 | lindamowles

Singing. We hear a lot of singing in our world. I admit that when I was young, songs had decipherable words with tunes you could hum to even if you didn’t remember the words. Today, there are still songs like that but there are other songs with screaming and sounds that bear little resemblance to the tunes of my youth.

Singing, whether it is soothing or drum-heavy, whether it is melodic or screaming, is an important part of life.

Indeed, scripture talks of singing often. Consider these scripture references:

Singing was part of the worship of God in the house of God.

They were all under the direction of their father in the music in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the order of the king. The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the LORD, all who were skillful, was 288.

1 Chronicles 15:6-7

When Ezra and Nehemiah reconstructed the demolished wall around Jerusalem, singing was part of the celebration upon its completion.

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres.

Nehemiah 12:27

David admonishes us to sing before God!

Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Psalm 100:2

Paul told the Colossian Christians that they should sing and be thankful to God.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

So we know that people are to praise God and sing of His glory. But the scripture also makes note that nature, itself, will praise God and sing. Consider these scriptures:

The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 2:12

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

Isaiah 35:1-2

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12

We hear the leaves on the trees as the wind blows through them, we see the trees wave their branches. We hear the birds call and sing their songs, praising God as they look over their domain from the trees. We hear the ocean waves as they crash against the shore and then turn to hear the waves sliding along the sand at the beach. We hear these things, but I suspect that God’s creation sings to Him in ways that we can only imagine.

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

Psalm 95:1-2

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Psalm 98:4

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!

Psalm 100:1

God’s creation is constantly praising Him. What a shame that so many of His people feel that they cannot sing to Him. While some of the singers in the Old Testament were trained to sing, scripture also tells us that we are to make a “joyful noise” to God.

Sing to the Lord – sing with gusto – sing out loud. You will feel better for doing so and you will be praising the Lord, making His heart glad.

Celtic Thunder Heritage sang a song entitled “A Place in the Choir” in concert several years ago. This song in concert is shown at this YouTube link.

The music and singing is wonderful. The following link provides pictures of the various animals referenced and it might make the song more fun to hear, especially for the children and the young at heart!

Keep this quote from Henry Van Dyke in mind: “Use the talent that you possess, for the woods would be silent if no birds sang but the best!”

Father, I praise You for giving me the ability to sing to You and to give praise and thanks to You for Your marvelous works to the children of men. May I praise and glorify You throughout my days.

SOLID FOOD

February 25, 2020 | lindamowles

We enjoy eating in various restaurants, as our widening girth exhibits. We travel in a recreational vehicle (RV) for long trips, and we eat “at home” in the RV dining room or outside on the patio. Occasionally, however, we like to try the local cuisine in a restaurant.

In Wisconsin, for example, we ate at Bullhead’s Restaurant. Bill had pork ribs and sausage and all its trimmings.

Pork sausage food — Pork dinner at Bullhead’s Restaurant

I had broasted chicken.

Broasted chicken food — Broasted chicken at Bullhnead’s Restaurant

The meals were delicious and, in fact, the second night we were at that campground, we went to Bullhead’s again and repeated our order from the prior day!

The point, however, is that these meals were solid food. We are adults, way past the age of infancy. Infants could not enjoy these meals because infants cannot eat solid food.

In Hebrews 5:12-14, the writer of Hebrews chastises the people because they were acting as infants in the Lord, needing milk because they were incapable of eating solid food.

You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Milk is good, I like it and have it often with my breakfast. But solid food is sooooo much better than just milk.

How does the writer of Hebrews identify the mature Christian, the one who can, and does, eat solid food?

It is the person who has trained his/her powers of discernment to distinguish good from evil.

And how did they train their ability to be discerning?

By constant practice.

We all start this life as infants who can feed only on milk. We graduate to infant oatmeal and other cereals and then to baby food. After the infant’s teeth arrive, some solid food is given.

As Christians, we are born into the family of God as infants who need milk to survive. But the Christian life is not determined by calendar age. Someone in their teens may have been a Christian longer and studied the Word more than an individual who came to faith in Christ in their 70s.

In short, maturity in the Christian is determined by the ability of the individual to eat solid food. The ability to develop and repeatedly practice his/her discernment so that he/she can tell what is good and what is evil. The ability to discern when a teaching is leading them away from the straight and narrow road. The mature Christians do their best to present themselves to God as workers who have “no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

Beloved, don’t be a Christian who is stuck “dining on milk alone”. Read the Scripture, listen to sound teaching, study the Bible and develop a discerning spirit so that you can identify when teaching is leading you astray.

In the Christian classic Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan presents a picture of a man named Christian and his journey from being Graceless to his entrance in the Celestial City. At one point, Christian is walking the road called Salvation. It is described like this:

Now I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to travel was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, Christian did run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back.

This picture is described in the writing of the prophet Isaiah where God says;

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.

Isaiah 26:1

Further along in Isaiah’s prophesy he says this:

And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

Isaiah 35:8

Jesus spoke of the way of salvation, characterizing it as having a narrow gate that is hard to find but which leads to life eternal.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:13-14

Beloved, develop a discerning spirit that can show you right from wrong. Don’t walk along the wide road to destruction – follow the straight road of salvation that leads to eternal life. Don’t be satisfied with milk. Become mature Christians who can feast on the Word of God, who study so that they will know their God and Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit, and who stay on the narrow road. It will be hard, but nothing worthwhile is easy!

Blessings to you as you walk along the Way.

Father, thank You for Scripture that tells us how to grow and mature into Christians who are discerning and who refuse to leave the narrow road in favor of the easier one. I pray that I would have the dedication and purpose to be steadfast in my walk with my Lord.

FEARS — COMMON BUT UNNECESSARY

November 8, 2016November 8, 2016 | lindamowles

Fear. We all have things that we are afraid of, and many of them are legitimate. Chapman University has begun an annual study of American fears, and the results from the second annual survey that have recently been released. The random survey questions cover 88 fears in various categories, such as crime, economic, environment, government, illness, claustrophobia, public speaking, and even questions about clowns.

They found that in 2016 Americans were most afraid of “Corrupt Government” by a whopping 60.6% The next closest fear was of a “Terrorist Attack” which bore a percentage of 41% with “Not having enough money for the future” coming in as number 3 with a percentage of 39.9%.

Clearly, our world is full of fearful things, and this has been true throughout all of history. There have always been tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, severe ice storms, etc. Then, too, some of the things that mankind is capable of today were not dreamed of 1000 years ago, or even just 100 years ago, but even then there were fearful things. Consider the 1^st Century Christians and the persecution under Nero or the harm done to Christians in the Middle Ages, or even more recently, to the persecution of Christians in many countries of our world today. These are fearful times.

But, sometimes, looking back on our fears, we laugh at how we could have been frightened at all. For example, we watch the original television Star Trek series now, 50 years after its original airing in 1966, and we wonder how we could have been frightened by the special effects in that program! They are now so “cheesy” to us, but then I well remember being glued to my chair in fear that Captain Kirk was going to be vaporized!

My Grandmother was beyond fearful and well into terrorized when she lost track of me while she was babysitting when my parents were at some appointment away from the house. She was from a small town in Wisconsin and we lived in the big city of Chicago.

Downtown Chicago. This picture was taken from the top of the Prudential Building, “Top of the Rock”, in the early 1960s.

She was uncomfortable in such a large city and she just “knew” that there were evils hidden around every corner. One problem she had was that she remembered that the infamous gangster Al Capone lived in Chicago, and when my parents returned home, they found her in the middle of the street, screaming my name, crying that Al Capone had kidnapped me. (Actually, he had been dead for about 4 years at this point, but that was irrelevant to Grandma.) I had simply walked away from the house with my puppy and had gone to a house around the corner to show my friend’s Grandmother my puppy. She invited me in for cookies and I was watching the Howdy Doody Show on TV unaware that Grandma was in the street screaming.

Fears can cripple us from rational thinking. They are disabling and they damage our lives in ways that are too numerable to count. Fears of flying, fears of spiders, fears of going outside, fears of being in large crowds, fears of high places, fears of being in small spaces. The number of fears is too great to count because they are the fabrication of our own minds and each of us are unique.

Certainly there are fears that are normal. If we are in the woods and are bitten by a poisonous snake, we need to take immediate action to remedy the problem. But the fear of potentially being bitten by poisonous snakes should not stop us from enjoying God’s creation in nature, and even in the woods.

Scripture has quite a bit to say about fear. In Isaiah 35:3-4 we read:

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

In Joshua 1:9, God is directing Joshua in how he is to lead the people after Moses’ death. God says:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

This peace and lack of fear is available for the believer in Jesus Christ and in our God, as is seen by David’s psalm:

Even though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4

I suggest that the ultimate antidote to fear is found in Romans 8:28, 38-39:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. … For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read that again – NOTHING will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God is omnipotent and omniscient … He is all powerful and all knowing. Therefore, He not only knows what is going to happen to us, He has it in His control. His purposes will be fulfilled even if they are difficult for us to understand and to live through. We have to have faith that our Heavenly Father will not put more on us than we can handle (although at times in my life I have thought that perhaps He had more confidence in me than I had). During the rough times in my life, I have rested on Paul’s comment about his own “thorn in the flesh”:

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:7-9.

Fears – yes, we all have them. But thanks be to God they don’t have to be disabling. No, we are more than conquerors through Christ who saved us. When we are weak, then God is strong through us. When we are afraid, He will give us courage. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us, no matter what the trial might be.

Listen to the song “Perfect Peace” as sung on the album Scripture Memory Songs – Overcoming Anxiety. The words are taken from Scripture and provide balm for troubled hearts.

And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7 [KJV]

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Isaiah 26:3 [KJV]

Father, I pray that these words from your Word will provide comfort and blessing to those who read them and that Your perfect peace will rest and abide on us even during tumultuous times because we have confidence that You are in control.