A MELODY OF BEAUTY AND PRAISE

"Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound."  (Psalm 92:3)

Dana's fingers lovingly flew across the strings. The guitar took on life beneath his fingertips.  As his eyes closed and his head titled back, the man and the guitar became one.  The music that came forth was not from the fingers or the instrument, but from the heart.  The music was the rhythm of creation.  The beauty and majesty of God’s love flowed through the air.  When the music played, God's presence was not to be denied.

Psalms is full of musical imagery.  Throughout time, music has been used to express the divine. God loves harmony and purity of tone.  Together, we can become a melody of beauty and praise.  We can become the rhythm of creation by affirming who God created us to be.  Let the music of the Lord fill your heart, and get carried away in its beauty and power.

Prayer:  If there is any discordance in my life, Lord, remove it from me.  I want my life to be harmonious and beautiful, reflecting the divine music, which You alone compose.  Play me, Lord, that I might be Your song. Amen.

-- from “Wisdom from the Psalms”

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AGENTS OF TRANSFORMATION

"If you love Me, keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you."  (John 14:15-17 NIV)

I am confident that the Almighty God is fully able of saving, redeeming, and setting right everything that has gone wrong in this world [and doing it] by God’s own power. I’m sure that God’s Kingdom could come and God’s will could be done on earth solely by God’s own power. But the God revealed in the Bible is the God who chooses to bring that kingdom to reality through the gifts and energies of ordinary folks such as us…

The good news is that God has not left us to do God’s work alone. Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit who not only would be with us, but also would be in us, enabling us to become that which we can never become on our own. 

-- James A. Harnish in "A Disciple's Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church"

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TOGETHER

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...”  (Hebrews 10:24-25b NIV)

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

--  Henry Ford 

#5017

CALLED TO SERVE

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.”  (Galatians 5:13)

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. 

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a sermon entitled “The Drum Major Instinct” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, February 4, 1968 

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PLEASING WORSHIP

Paul writes, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy [because of all that Jesus has done for us through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross], to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship.”  (Romans 12:1, AMP).

It is a good thing for corporate worship to become part of the weekly routine of the Christian. However, the fact that worship becomes routine and regular tempts us to be distracted during worship and to go through the motions without putting much thought into it. Therefore, we must work as hard as we can to make sure that our hearts and minds are in our praise, that every aspect of worship is “a fragrant offering, pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:2) Let us focus entirely on the Lord as we “worship Him in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:24) 

-- Adapted from Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R. C. Sproul

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