To Sing or Not To Sing

All the Earth Bows Down to You
By Donna Bradley
New Life Church Write4Him Author
“Make a joyful shout to the Lord all your lands, serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.” (Psalm 100:1-2)

It’s really OK to sing in church, just open up your mouth let your heart speak to Him. To me singing is a release…I can worship God without having to think of things to say. I can give Him my full love, praise and focus because the words are already there. It’s a time for me to express joy from my innermost self, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew12:34)

It doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune. The One who is listening hears you at perfect pitch. We all have images in our heads about angels and their harps and trumpets that seem to accompany them everywhere, but the only instruments we have on our body is our mouths. (Yes, it was me behind you when you were singing Freebird on your car radio!) To prepare our hearts for worship, consider a little private prelude on the way to church in your car. Some songs that help get me in the spirit are “Shackles” by Mary Mary, and “I Have Been Blessed” by Martina McBride. Or simply turn on your radio to 89.7 (Shine FM) or 104.7 FM (WBGL), both contemporary Christian stations and come into His presence with singing. By doing so, you are making yourself more open to receive His word.

When we participate in worship not only are we praising God, we are proclaiming to the body of Christ how we feel about Him. We are encouraging and pulling from each other the presence of the Holy Spirit. In doing that, we are showing appreciation for the church band for their using their gifts in producing the music we all enjoy. If you can’t express your love for Him in His house with your fellow Christians, how are you going to let others know how you feel about Him in the world?

Just sing!

This week make a date with God and focus on worshipping Him through musical praise…try reading the scriptural foundation for a few praise songs or hop on iTunes, listen to a variety of Christian artists and buy a few songs if you’re so moved. Some possibilities include…

Chris Tomlin, Holy Is the Lord – Revelation 4:1-11
Hillsongs, Shout to the Lord – Psalm 66
Casting Crowns, Love Them Like Jesus – Matthew 11:25-30
Lincoln Brewster, Love the Lord Your God—Deuteronomy 6:1-19
Matt Redman, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made—Psalm 139

Up, Up and Away

Welcome! The New Life Church Blog is officially up and running, facilitated by Write4Him, New Life's writing ministry. We (Write4Him and New Life staff) hope to be able to share with you thoughts on connecting people to God and to one another in this very demanding, often decieving world. Congregation members and visitors are invited to post comments to the entries. Down the road, we hope to develop a system where non-staff/team members could also guest-post, but we'll have to see how it goes. For now, grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ. May his Word be known throughout the world!