Greetings Church Family,
I hope you enjoyed Brent Edwards leading you in worship! Brent has been a great friend to me. I am grateful for him stepping in and helping out! If you have not checked out his ministry, you need to! Here is a link to their website https://www.staging2.internationalcommission.org/.
We had a wonderful time with family and friends. Please say a prayer for Rachel’s grandmother. She is recovering from back surgery.
We are on week six of our study, Seven Biblical Reasons Why Singing Matters by Tom Olson.
Here is a recap of the first five reasons.
- When you sing, you obey.
- When you sing, you dig deep roots in the Word
- When you sing, you build up others.
- When you sing, you make war.
- When you sing, you are spiritually strengthened for trial.
This week we will take a look at reason six: When you sing, you walk a God-designed pathway to joy.
Here is a sample of what the Psalms say about singing:
- Psalms 5:11: “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.”
- Psalms 9:2: “I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”
- Psalms 51:14: “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.”
- Psalms 59:16: “I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.”
- Psalms 63:7: “For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.”
If you still don’t believe me, here’s a clincher from James 5:13: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.”
As you study Scripture on this point, you’ll notice that sometimes singing gives birth to joy and sometimes joy gives birth to singing. But persistently in Scripture, joy, and singing are bound together. You can’t study one of those two biblical themes without encountering the other.
If you struggle for joy…sing! If you are joyful…sing! In God’s perfect design and understanding of the human condition, he has bound joy and singing together for his people.
Singing brings much joy to me every time I open my big mouth! HA! I really love singing to the Lord and my prayer for you is that each week you come to worship you show that great joy with a BIG smile on your face!
Look forward to seeing you Sunday!
~ Michael