I could not imagine what life would be life with music. It would certainly be different.
I love all types of music and I love singing along to my favourite songs, especially in the car where no one else can hear me! Although my wife assures me I have a good singing voice, I am not a confident singer.
Music is also tied in to worship for me. Some of my favourite songs are worship songs. I love to sing and worship God alone, but I also love worshipping with others in church.
So I think my life would be very different without music, especially worship music.
Heavenly Father and God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for He is alive and has become the Lord of Life. From the waters of death, you raise us with Him and renew your gift of life within us.
Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
A friend shared this story as a part of his homily on Sunday. The message was titled, “Exaltation of the Cross”. I found it quite interesting and I thought I would share it.
The feast of the exaltation of the cross goes back a long way. In 326 the Emperor Constantine’ mother, Helena, at the grand age of 80, set sail for Jerusalem to find the cross of Jesus and his tomb. She found the site of the Holy Sepulchre and established a church on the site, which is venerated to this day.
The true cross was more elusive. It was claimed that the Jewish leaders had hidden the cross in a well in Jerusalem. One of the Jewish leaders told the Empress Helena in which well to look for it. The story goes that they dug for days and found three crosses. They weren’t sure which one was the true cross, so the bishop of Jerusalem, St Macarius, sent the crosses off to the bed-side of a dying woman. She touched the first two crosses to no effect, but on touching the third cross she immediately recovered. St Helena had found her true cross.
The cross remained in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem until the early 7th century. The entire city was then looted by the Persian King, Chosroes II. He took the cross to Persia. In 628, Emperor Heraclius II overthrew the Persian king and brought the cross first to Constantinople, his capital and then in 629 to Jerusalem. Today’s feast commemorate the triumphant return of the holy cross to Jerusalem.
1 Timothy 1:15-16 NLT – This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”-and I am the worst of them all. [16] But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.
In these verses Paul summarises the Good News – Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and no sinner is beyond His saving power.
Jesus didn’t come in to the world to show us how to live better lives or challenge us to be better people. He came to offer us salvation that leads to eternal life.
Jesus tells us in Luke 5:31-32, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do. [32] I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
Paul understood this and humbly admits that he too was a sinner who also needed to be saved. Paul knew who he was before he met Jesus and he did not shy away from his past. He used it to bring glory to God and people to Christ.
As Christians I think we need to be honest about our past when sharing our faith. There are times when I have shared my past life with people who did not think God would accept them.
The key for us is to realise that none of us are good enough to make it to heaven on our own. We all need Jesus and His death on the cross to pay the price for our sin. Only then are we good enough and ready for eternal life.
It is my hope and prayer that like Paul you have realised your need for Jesus and have found salvation in Him. If you have not found Jesus, I would encourage you to visit my “Find salvation” page here.
In my morning devotions I have four sections in my notebook – things I am thankful for, prayers for me, prayers for others, and listen to God.
I have been doing this format on and off since the year 2000. I first heard about it at a youth conference we ran at our church. I found it a simple format and something that fit well with my devotions.
The last section is listen to God. I simply say, “God is there anything You want to say to me?” And I sit quietly and wait. Usually I get an impression on my heart about something or a thought pops in to my mind.
The responses vary from a passage of Scripture, to a word of encouragement for me, or to something I need to do or someone to pray for.
God knows my heart really well and He often speaks a word of encouragement to me. Lately it has started with, “I am with you Dave,…”. This has been really comforting over the last three months.
So how do I know if it is God, or me or something else? Well I sit and wait and I test it. This morning was easy as it was a paraphrase of Psalm 23. Other times I just pray, “Is this You Lord?” And I do not write it down until I have a peace about the word.
For me it took time and practice to know if it was God. It was like tuning in to a radio station, when you tune in to the right frequency it is easy to hear.
I believe as Christians we have the Holy Spirit inside us (Romas 8:11) and Jesus’s words that His sheep know His voice and follow Him (John 10:27-28). So when I ask God to speak, I am confident He will.
If you would to read a post I did about my devotional format, you can find it here.
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