Do You Love to Sing?
I certainly do. And one of the sweetest sounds to my ears is when I hear one of my daughters walking around the house singing. My six-year-old does this with infectious energy. She is loud, freely ad libs as she goes, (I can always tell what's on her mind from her spontaneous singing creations) and she has absolutely no worries about whether she is on tune or not. In fact, it is her tuneless, heartfelt songs that bring me the deepest joy.
When she wanders eventually into the room where I am, she will come in still singing, and then sometimes stop and say, "Mom, did you like my song?" It is no stretch for me to open my arms to her and say, with utter honesty, "I loved it! Thank you for singing that."
Songs have a unique special way of bringing beauty into our lives.
Did you know that the Lord also loves music? Well, you're probably not surprised, since He created it. But I'm sure He delights in our singing to him the same way I delight in my daughter's--if not more so.
In Nick Harrison's devotional, 365 WWJD?, today's verse is this:
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God. Psalm 40:3
He quotes J.R.Miller, who says, "God wants our life to be a song. He has written the music for us in His Word and in the duties that come to us in our places and relations in life. The things we ought to do are the notes set upon the staff. To make our life beautiful music we must be obedient and submissive. Any disobedience is the singing of a false note, and yields discord."
Nick's reflection says, "If your life could be a song, what would it be? "Amazing Grace"? "I Love to Tell the Story?" "Awesome God"? Whatever the song, Jesus would have it be a song of joy, praise, and thanksgiving, not a gloomy dirge... Leave the house today with a song "in your mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."
For me, the song of my life is "Something Beautiful." I don't know off-hand who wrote it, but
the lines, "Something beautiful, something good/ All my confusion He understood/ All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife/ But He made something beautiful of my life," convey my life story in a nutshell!
What about you? What's your song? Share it with us, or, sing it to Him today!
Image from: Project Gutenberg: Victorian Songs: Lyrics of the Affections and Nature
Devotional adapted from, 365 WWJD? by Nick Harrison, Harper
20 comments:
what a nice blog, Linore! Saw your post on ACFW and had to pop on over. I can't narrow my song down to one, but whenever Mac Powell of Third Day sings, it opens my heart to God in ways few other artists can achieve. When the Rain Comes is one of my all-time faves. And off their CD Revelation, Come on Let Me Love You speaks right to my heart from God. Check it out at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQbdz55kTSM
Be blessed!
Kathleen L. Maher
The older song, "Great is Thy Faithfulness," is a testimony of my life with the Lord.
Linore, I love your blog and just signed up to "Follow" it. I look forward to visiting often.
I love the precious hymns of the Church. One of my favorites is "Be Thou My Vision."
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Could you hear me singing? The words are so theologically rich, and the Gaelic melody speaks to my Gaelic heart.
One of my Favorite songs is "You Raise Me Up" by Selah.We are always strong when we are under Gods love .
Then my all time favorite hymn is "How Great Thou Art"
My poetry pages
http://www.geocities.com/gardenangels2000/index.htm
Oh by the way my blog is down as I am going to be in the process of redoing irt with just about books
Lynn
Kathleen,
I'm so glad you "had to pop on over!"
I know what you mean about having to choose just one--but I love your choices. Thanks for the link, too, I really like Third Day, myself.
Lena,
"Great is Thy Faithfulness" is another favorite of mine, along with "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." Such powerful lyrics! Thanks for sharing.
And Sharon,
I love "Be Thou My Vision" too! Thanks for posting all the words--sometimes I try to sing that beautiful song but I'm too lazy to look up the words. I'm going to print out what you wrote! (cut and paste, and then print.) Thank you!! And to "My World"--Oh, another beautiful, touching song, "You Raise Me Up" by Selah. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
Thanks all. I'll be sure and enter you in the book drawing!
Linore, thanks for your message. I melt every time I hear Third Day's Love Song...
Jesus played out the ultimate love story...the ultimate author of our faith...
watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwlCibGItok
Have a wonderful day, my friend!
~Ashley
Well, Linore, I'm writing today, too, but since this blog is about music, I had to pop in as well. I studied classical piano for ten years and started playing for church when I was 15 years old. Just retired last year. That a loonngg time :) So to choose any one song would be impossible for me.
One song that ministered to me in a desert place was "When Answers Aren't Enough, There Is Jesus." I don't even remember all the lyrics, but all the pat Sunday School answers weren't adding up at that time. All we had was Jesus. And, you know what, he was enough.
Favorite hymn is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." I love it musically, and I love the lyrics.
Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for song of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it;
Mount of Thy redeeming grace.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Thanks for this wonderful post!
What a lovely topic!
I love so many songs, but I guess my deep-down favorite is "It is Well with my Soul." I know it's old, but it has a lasting beauty that always touches my heart. I know that, no matter what, it really is well with my soul as long as I'm with the Lord.
Well I can't "sing" but I do love singing the hymns of my and any other faith. One of my favorite hymns is MASTER, THE TEMPEST IS RAGING (PEACE, BE STILL). I don't know how many people would know it--but it's a song about reaching out to and calling on Christ when we are overwhelmed or afraid.
What a nice topic!
I love so many songs, but one of my favorites is "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin. I just love it when we sing the last verse acapella at church. It's so awesome.
Wow, Ashley and Golden,
You gals are leaving such wonderful lyrics and links today--this could be my next post! I want everyone too see this great stuff. Thanks so much. Golden, I have to cut and paste the words you've share, too, so I can sing that song in full, too. This reminds me, that if I sit down with a hymnal, I could get lost for hours just going over the old favorites, and reading the beautiful verses to those I don't know the music to.
Miss Write, sometimes it's the oldest songs that are the best to our ears and hearts. And sometimes, as Leanna says, it's a recent worship hit that strikes a chord (pun intended) within us.
Danielle, and all of you, thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
Linore
What a lovely topic today, Linore! I saw your post on ACFW and wanted to check it out. Some of my favorite hymns have been mentioned today. I've been singing along as I read everyone's comments!
While many modern artists, like Jeremy Camp and Tenth Avenue North, minister to me in powerful ways, I love the rich music and lyrics of hymns. Here are a few verses of one of my favorites, "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!"
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus! His the scepter, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph, His the victory alone.
Hark! the songs of peaceful Zion thunder like a mightly flood;
Jesus out of every nation hath reedeemed us by His blood.
Alleluia! not as orphans are we left in sorrow now;
Alleluia! he is near us, faith believes, nor questions how:
though the cloud from sight received Him when the forty days were o'er,
shall our hearts forget His promise, "I am with you evermore"?
Alleluia! Bread of Heaven, thou on earth our food, our stay!
Alleluia! here the sinful flee to thee from day to day:
Intercessor, Friend of sinners, earth's Redeemer plead for me,
Where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal sea.
Thanks for inviting us to share!
Hi, Suzanne!
Thanks so much for posting the lyrics to that song. I'm not familiar with it, but I enjoyed the words. Those who have commented today have impressed me with how strongly they feel about music, and particularly music of faith. We are all capable of being deeply ministered to by music.
I think I must continue to explore the music of faith and how it affects us, hopefully in future blog posts.
Thanks, ladies, for your wonderful contributions to this discussion.
BLessings,
Linore
"Your Love is Extravagent" by Darrell Evans really captures my relationship with God.
Your love is extravagent.
Your friendship, intimate.
I find I'm moving
In the rhythms of your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating
In our secret place
Your love is extravagent
Dina Sleiman
Linore,
I love the blog it's just as nice as your site!
I would have to say I have two songs that describe my life. The first is the hymn Amazing Grace. It never ceases to amaze me the grace that God shows on a daily basis in my life!
The second is a song that I believe is an older one, but that I discovered through Signature Sound called Forgiven Again. It reminds me that whenever I fail Him He is willing to forgive me over and over!
Thank you, Dina and Victorian Rose.
It's amazing how we all resonate to different combinations of music and lyrics--but no matter our style, the Lord reaches us and sometimes speaks to us through music. He didn't have to be like that. But it's another manifestation of His Grace and Love. He invented poetry and beauty, and He IS love. Music combines all three. (Thank You, Lord!)
I'm posting this for a friend named Cathy who emailed her comment to me because she didn't want to open a blogger account just to post. (I understand, completely, Cathy!) So here's what she said:
Lovely Linore: (Cathy, you're sweet!)
I saw your "Do you love to sing?" post and popped over to the blog. I've
long been a worship leader at my church, play guitar and violin, and have
a lot of music enriching my life. So I wanted to post, but don't have a
blogger acct and don't want to get yet ANOTHER blog account. I have a
wordpress blog which isn't active. So it didn't work out today.
But I loved reading everyone's comments. So many of my favorites
mentioned. It is hard to pare down so many beautiful, beautiful musical
tributes to Him, isn't it? I think of "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus"
and "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and touching tunes by Fernando Ortega
and Third Day. But what my heart has been singing for many days is "The
Way that He Loves." When all the nation seems to be falling apart, and bad
days look like they are looming, God is pouring blessing upon blessing
upon our family. Beads of joy like rain washing over us, refreshing us,
giving hope and life. It is so lovely that my heart song seems a continual
narrative of His kindness. Here it is below:
the way that He loves
is as fair as the day
that blesses my way with light
the way that He loves
is as soft as the breeze
caressing the trees at night
so tender and precious is He
contented with Jesus I'll be
the way that He loves
is so thrilling because
His love reaches even me
the way that He loves
is as deep as the sea
His spirit shall be my stay
the way that He loves
is as pure as a rose
much sweeter He grows each day
His peace hovers near like a dove
I know there's a heaven above
to Jesus I cling
life's a wonderful thing
because of the way
He loves
I'm sorry I couldn't post it...but I had to respond anyway!
Kind regards,
Cathy
www.cathyelliottbooks.com
I love music. I have to many favorite songs.
Here's one:
I'd Rather have Jesus
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I'd rather be His than have riches untold:
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause;
I rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame.
I'd rather be true to His holy name.
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He's sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He's all than my hungering spirit needs.
I'd rather have Jesus and let Him lead
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
Absolutely, a great song--thank you, Abi!
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