Prayer for the Day

Prayer for the Day

Lord, thank You that You have made a way for me to come to you for forgiveness of all my sins.  Think You for building a bridge across the great chasm that separated me from Your saving power.  Thank You for helping me to take that one small feeble step toward you so that I could make it to the foot of Your cross where I found grace and mercy and forgiveness.  Lord please help all Your musicians who are now preparing Christmas productions that will bring honor and glory to Your matchless name.  These things I pray in Your name.  Amen. 

 

The Whir of the Christmas Season

The Whir of the Christmas Season

Isaiah 40:4, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain:”

       Chief musician you are now in the heart of the Christmas season.  Candle-light services, advent services, Christmas anthems, hymns and choruses.  People are dressing up in bright colors.  You and your staff are decorating the sanctuary for musical events.

       All this activity is wonderful!  There is such an awesome beauty and grandeur that surrounds the Christmas season.  I know, because I was responsible for 33 major musical productions with drama, chorus, full orchestras, narrators and stage sets and special lighting. 

       I can imagine that the adrenalin is pumping through your body as the pressure gets greater and greater as your mind goes many directions at the same time.  Fear and anxiety are, at some moments, all too common and familiar concomitants of producing these musical productions.   Everyone is telling you to slow down and relax.  There are two reasons they make such statements.  One reason is that they love you and the second is that they have, most likely, never been under the unbelievable pressure that you are experiencing at this time!

       However, could you take a moment or two to remember that Christ’s coming to earth was to prepare a way that we might be able to come to Him and know him as our personal savior?  He filled up all the deep ditches and he smoothed out every impassible mountain.  He also made the road to the cross very straight so that we could all come to Him.  He leveled out all the deep ruts in the road so that sinful, confused, miserable, bitter, lost people like you and me could come and kneel at His feet and find forgiveness for all our sins.

       In all your busyness and hurry do not ever forget the real reason we sing and play Christmas music.  Make sure that your Christmas productions tell the old, old story of Jesus and His coming to this earth to forgive all our sins and to justify us freely by His own blood.  Be sure that you’re Christmas productions are worship services that preach Christ’s birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection.  If your productions are really Christmas productions that preach Christ, then I believe that they are worth every minute that it takes to make them the best musical offering that you can give to God.

Prayer, Song, and Thought for the Day

Prayer for the Day

Lord, I bring a thankful heart to You today.  Right now I am aware of my low estate.  I am well aware that it is You who has lifted me out of my pit of noise and established my music ministry.  Help me to never forget that music belongs to You and that it is you who has given me these musical gifts and graces.  Help me to share these gifts and graces with a lost world and with your children.  Help me to music to You and for you as long as you give me breath.  These things I pray in Your name.  Amen.  

Song for the Day “Give Thanks” by Henry Smith  

Thought for the Day  

The happiest people that I have ever met are those who had spent a life time of service to God.

 

My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord

My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord  
St Luke 1:46, “And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.”

       All Christian musicians should study Mary’s magnificat or song of thanksgiving.  This song is a model of Bible principles of musicing unto God.  So, it is a good thing to study this song at Christmas time and at other times during the year. 

It is a good thing for Christian musicians to confess every day that “my soul doeth magnify the Lord’.  Christian musician does your soul magnify the Lord at this very minute?  During this busy and hectic Christmas season, is your soul rejoicing in god your Savior?  How long has it been since you praised the Lord for regarding your low estate? 

       If anyone has anything good to say about a Christian musician it is because the Great God of heaven reached down and lifted that musician up out of a pit of noise and mire and established his or her life in Christ (see Psalm 43:3 KJV-Cambridge Ed. Center Ref.). 

       It is the Holy Spirit who anoints our musicing in order that it may be efficacious.  Mary reminds us in her song in verse forty-nine that, “He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.’  Praise God for this model song of thanksgiving.  It would be a good idea to take time right now to thank the Lord for the musical gifts and graces that He has bestowed upon you that make it possible for you to serve Him through music.

 

Song and Thought for the Day

 Song for the Day “When in Our Music God is Glorified” by Fred Pratt Green

Thought for the Day

It is much better to be “used up” by the organization where you minister than to not be used at all for God’s Kingdom.

 

The Musicians were "Wasted"

The Musicians were Wasted

Psalm 137:3 states, “For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

       Verse two of this chapter records the feelings of the musicians who were carried away captive into Babylon.  They pouted and hung their harps on branches of the willow trees while they pouted about their condition.  Today we are looking at verse three and the result of their self-pity.  They did not feel like praising Jehovah with their musical instruments.

       You may feel like you have been taken by the enemy, abandoned by the Lord, and held captive in the little town of Smirgley Junction.  You may be far away from home during this Christmas season.  There may be strange people who want you to be happy and show it by playing “happy music”.   

       These musicians were far away from their home land in the strange atmosphere of Babylon.  These musicians felt that they had been “wasted’, exhausted, and nearly destroyed emotionally by those around them in this strange land.  Do you as a Christian musician feel used up by the organization where you minister?  Do you feel that these Christians have wrung you out like a wet dish rag and are still requiring of you a song?  Worse yet, they may be requiring “mirth”. 

       The Hebrew word simchah (8056), translated mirth, meant gladness, joy, or rejoicing.  When musicians are burnt out and depressed, they often find it hard to perform praise music.   The sad fact is that these musicians’ captors in Babylon were asking them to do the very thing that could have been a means of grace to these captive musicians.  They were simply asked to “sing us one of the songs of Zion” but they refused and hung their instruments up on the branches of the willow trees.

Prayer, Song, and Thought for the Day

Prayer for the Day

Lord, I am asking You to help me to turn to you when I am misunderstood or when others are speaking negatively about my music ministry.  Help me to flee to Your great loving heart when I am accused falsely.  Please help me to not get bitter or to desire to get even or to lash back with words.  I am also asking You to help me to guard my tongue, my attitude, and my inner most heart.  Lord, you are the only one that is able to “Renew us as in the days of old.”  These petitions I am bringing to You because I know that You are an All- wise Father and only you can bring healing in the time of trouble.  Thank You Lord in advance for what You are going to do for Your people.  Amen.

Song for the Day “The Battle is the Lord’s” by M. Clarkson 

Thought for the Day  

 If you find yourself in the “fiery furnace” for the right reasons, the Son of God will be there to protect you.

The Stinging reproach of the People

The Stinging Reproach of the People      

Lamentations 3:14  “I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.”

Lamentations 3:63  “Behold their sitting down and their rising up;  I am their musick.”

       The Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah record in two places that God’s seer experienced the stinging reproach of the people around him.  If you are a part or full time practicing musician, you may often experience the jest and derision of others.  If you are truly a “seer” and if you follow biblical principles of musicing, you will no doubt find yourself the subject of much criticism.

       There is no doubt about it; there is a battle for Christian music taking place in the twenty-first century.  If you operate from a conservative Bible-based music praxis, you will, sooner or later, find yourself in the religious “fiery furnace”.  Like Jeremiah of the Old Testament, you will be misunderstood. 

       The thing that matters is how you react to misunderstanding.  If you get bitter and angry, you will be the one who suffers.  Jeremiah prayed in verse twenty-one of chapter five, “Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored, Renew our days as of old (NKJV)”.

       Getting even or lashing out with words is never the right answer.  The answer is turning back to God which will bring about unity and restoration.  The right thing to do is to bring our lamentations to the LORD.  My former pastor R.E. Carroll told me once, “When I am misunderstood and when I am criticized I pray, O Lord handles me.  O Lord take care of me and O Lord take care of my attitude.” 

 

Prayer, Song and thought for the Day

Prayer for the Day   

Lord, You are truly the Good Shepherd and You are MY shepherd.  Please feed me from your “green pastures”.  Thank You Lord that You have provided spiritual food to sustain my soul in the time of need.  Lord. I confess that I am in need right now.  Please fill my soul with your grace and power so that I may music effectively for You all the days of my life. These things I pray in Your name.  Amen.   

Song for the Day  “The Lord is my Shepherd”  From the Scottish Psalter,  Music by J.S. Irvine  

Thought for the Day   

It is wonderful that the Lord “was” but it is also wonderful that He “is” right now!

God will Provide "Tender Grass"

God will Provide “Tender Grass”   

II Samuel 23:4 states, “And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.”

       Psalm 23:1-2 reminds us that, “The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He Maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [or pastures of green grass-Cambridge, KJV margin]…”God has not only promised to feed His sheep, but to feed them with luscious green and tender grass.  God doesn’t feed his sheep on hay or fodder, but rather on tender, green grass.  Why would Jesus do that for us?  St. John 10:14 answers the question when he quotes the words that Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep.”

       Jesus knows what kind of food his sheep need.  So, He provides just the right spiritual food for the needed nutrition of His sheep.  Jesus always provides the best food which happens to be green, living, tender, nutritious life sustaining luscious green grass.

       Psalm 100:3 stated, “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we  are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”  Since all Christian musicians belong to god, we have the right to trust Him to take care of us, and protect and feed us.  When the musician’s soul is thirsty, empty, and has great spiritual need for food, the good shepherd is faithful to provide tender spiritual nourishment that is necessary to properly sustain spiritual life. 

       Christian musician if you feel that your soul is empty, feed on the tender green grass of heaven.  If you need help, take advantage of the means of grace like prayer and Bible reading and partake of the Lord’s Supper for all these will administer grace to your heart.