Monday, April 27, 2015 – We’re in count down mode now! Not including today, we have nine days until we get back on the road!
Yesterday, Sunday, was Women’s Day at our home church Trinity Baptist. Our church’s tradition is that on Women’s Day the whole choir is women and I got to sing in it! I love singing in the choir and don’t get to do it regularly any longer because of my asthma.
We practiced before church and I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to be singing with all these omen I love and have known forever. That’s the song we sang too, Forever! It’s by Chris Tomlin. Below is a picture of us ladies singing praises to our God!
Here’s the words from the beginning of the song.
Give thanks to the Lord our God and King
His love endures forever
For He is good, He is above all things
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
With a mighty hand and outstretched arm
His love endures forever
For the life that’s been reborn
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise,
sing praise, sing praise
Forever God is faithful
forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever
My beautiful friend Barbara Davis lead the choir in this song and the congregation in other hymns we sang. Here she is singing a solo called the Compassion Hymn. As a little side note: If you read our blog post about trying to buy an RV in Conroe, TX in 2012, Barbara is the wonderful banker I talked about who helped us know something was wrong! Wow, an excellent banker and she has the voice of an angel!
I’ve always loved hearing Barbara sing and was so happy she shared with us like she did on Sunday. Ashley Traylor Louviere, whom I love to hear sing also, sang the solo part in Forever. What a true blessing it was for me to hear both of these ladies worship their Lord through song. Ashley’s daughter Landry is the little girl standing on a chair in the front row!
An article I read the other day was titled Why You Need to Sing Loudly in Church by Keith Getty. I want to share two excerpts from that article since the wording about this subject paralleled my feelings about singing in church so well.
Here are just five of the many reasons we should all sing passionately in church this Sunday:
1. We are commanded to sing.
We are called to sing — indeed, the Scriptures command us more than 250 times to sing. It’s hardly one of those “controversial” issues that is hard to ascertain precisely what scripture is saying. It’s not a choice. It’s not dependent on “feeling like it.” It’s not our prerogative.
Throughout biblical history, in every place and circumstance — in victory and defeat, in celebrations and festivals, in death and mourning — singing was second nature for people of faith. Indeed, the largest book of the Bible — Psalms — is itself a songbook that explores the range of human experience and interaction with God through singing.
In the New Testament, Paul tells the early churches to get together and sing. In Ephesians 5, he reiterates the call of old to engage with each other in the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making music from the heart.
5. Singing bears testimony to our faith.
How we sing, if we sing, how passionately we sing — our singing itself — is a witness to those looking on. There is no choice in the matter. In the level of our engagement with the songs and participation in the singing, we testify to the joy of an excited believer or betray the chill of a disinterested spectator.
In the New Testament, we read of Christians gathered together who so passionately expressed their faith together in song that the people looking on thought them to be drunk because that was the only explanation for their uniformed experience.
Ultimately, those who may feel they are on the outside looking in will, from the deepest part of themselves, respond to authentic and passionate singing to discover the truth held in the God songs we sing.
* * *
As we head to church on Sunday — as overworked dads, stressed out mums, grandparents struggling with health, and young people looking for wealth — we can, with integrity and relief, go with repentance and thanksgiving to the One who has created us, forgiven us and who lives within us. How can we not sing?
If you’d like to read the entire article, click here.
Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!
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Wacky Wonderful Wednesdays published on Wednesdays
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BECAUSE HE LIVES 