Singing With a Computer

     Two pastors were singing together the other evening while leading a prayer meeting on social media. It was a new experience yet it was very good. They were ending the service by singing, just the two of them, no instruments, just voices. They began with “It is Well With My Soul,” then went to “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and ended with “Victory in Jesus.” I listened for the first two songs and then began to hum during the ending of the second song and then went to fully singing in the third song. There comes a point when you have to start singing whether you are a perfect pitch musician or just a person who loves to sing. It was a great way to end the service that evening. Psalm 89:1 says, “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.”

       Naturally, the Psalms have a lot to say about singing as it is the “hymn” book for the Israelites. The last five Psalms seem to cap it all off with verse after verse of proclaiming the greatness of God. The verse for today has been put to music already for the current church. I hear the tune as I read the verses. First, we have something to sing about. Better put, we have Someone to sing about, the LORD Himself. The Book of Psalms directs our attention to God and is a book that spends the majority of its time in conversation with God especially, singing praise to Him. In this passage, the Psalmist writes about how long he will sing. It reminds us that he will sing forever. There are those people who only call out to God when there is some great difficulty that comes into their lives. The rest of the time, they are dwelling in their own song which is about their life or their love or their possessions. Our music in general will focus on our relationships with others, our political beliefs or the culture in which we live. For the believer, the song is different. You become infected with the song to the point that you just have to let it out so you sing. It may not be the best intonation but it is the expression of your heart because of what God has done in your life or even something about God's character. In this passage, the Psalmist sings forever of the Mercies of the LORD. He wants to express his knowledge of the “faithfulness of God” to all generations. Our hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness” comes from the verses in the middle of the Book of Lamentations. Even in one of the greatest times of sorrow, God's faithfulness and His mercy was brought out. It is true even today even in the circumstances in which we currently living. As a result, we too can sing forever of the mercy of God. In the days to come I am sure you will find yourself humming a tune from one of your hymnals or even being caught up in song through the various forms of media that we have today. You may even find yourself humming, “Victory in Jesus.” Praise God today and every day for His faithfulness and mercy.

Giving the Messge of Hope to Those Who are Lost

         I looked at a world clock this morning as it gave all kinds of statistics about life an death. The numbers were going so fast I could hardly keep up with them. The day is not even 8 hours old and already almost 50,000 people died. As I looked at the count, it was moving at almost ten deaths per second. The interesting fact of that world clock and its counting of various groups is that there are a lot more people dying of other things than the current outrage of our “pandemic.” No one has shut down the world over those things, but they continue nonetheless. As one person put it, “It is not dying of a disease that is important, but dying without the Lord Jesus Christ.” As I looked at the clocks spinning wildly, I realize that there were perhaps 30% of those that died as being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, about 15,000 of those that died were believers which means that 35,000 died and went into eternity without Christ. They will find themselves later on at the Great White Throne where a final judgment will be pronounced and forever abide in a place called “Hell.” It will be a place of eternal separation from God, a place that is described as alone, burning, and with no hope. It will be filled with anguish and regret but nothing will comfort them. Matthew 7:23 says, “'And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

           The time of judgment will be filled with people who thought they were “good” only to find that they missed the mark entirely. It might be that no one told them how to escape such a terrible end or it may have been due to their own pride. Whatever the reason, a number of people will have passed away even while you are reading this. Even at this point, another 2500 people have died while I type away with this thought for the day. There are a lot of theories going around today about the current world conditions and in the end, they are just theories but one thing is sure and that is 16,000,000 people have died in the world this year and it is only April. That should make you groan or sigh or think, “Oh, my goodness.” Who will you find in your path today? More than likely there will be someone who is not a believer especially if we live in a world where only about 30% are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That means probably seven out of ten people you meet today will be lost and extremely worried about how much hand sanitizer they have in the closet. You can look out your window and see your neighbors and wonder if they know the Lord Jesus Christ or not. It is up to you to let them know as you pray for them and then to utilize the opportunity that God gives you to share something with them. The Apostle Paul said to the Philippian Jailer, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be ready always to give an answer for the hope that is in us to others that need to desperately hear the gospel message. Praise God for His salvation. I just checked and over 5,000 people more have passed from this life just in the time to write 596 words.

Known Before You Were Born

          Do you know everything that is going on around you? I seriously doubt that I know very much about what is going on around me and with my neighbors and the people out on the street. I usually check the obituaries to find out who passed away in the most recent days and sometimes find that a person died a number of days ago that I had known. There have been times when a person has spoken to me about some occurrence in their life and and I have to say, “My goodness. I didn't know that.” Our lack of knowledge about our surroundings, become so much more evident when we see what God knows. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “ Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

        There was a purpose in Jeremiah's life even before he was born. He didn't know about it but nonetheless, it was there. We also see evidence of this in Psalm 139 where God knows all about our getting up and sitting down and where we are and what we are even thinking about. We cannot fathom the mind of God. It would be easy for us to think that the men like David and Jeremiah were special and that God knew all about them because they had a special part to play in God's plan. Since God is God however, we can also come to the logical conclusion that he also knows each and everyone of us. It is probably natural for us to think that God is having a hard time keeping up with each person's life especially when there are now over 7.6 billion people on the face of the earth plus all those that died in the past and all those that are going to be born. It is hard for us to fathom how there is no “time” with God. Let's face it, we cannot understand all there is to know about God but we accept the facts of the Word of God about His character which includes such things as His unchanging character, His justice, His holiness, His love and so on. In the end, we accept the fact that not only does He know about the life of the great people of the Bible such as Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Isaiah, but He also knows all there is to know about you and me. We are not being proud to know such things because God is greater than we can possibly ever imagine. He knows your thoughts today and He knows what you are going to come up against even in the next few moments are on October 28 or even on your next birthday. It should be a comfort for us to read of passages like today's verse that states that even before Jeremiah was conceived, God knew Him and called Him for a special work. We often think about our spiritual gift or gifts that God has given to each believer and He knows which ones you have and gives you the power to perform them. How great is that? As God knew Jeremiah and David and Ezekiel and Isaiah and Paul and Peter, He knows you. Praise God that there is nothing that is hid from Him.

The Best Plan

          A quote from a television show went, “I love it when a good plan comes together.” I can make plans for something to take place and the more complex the plan, the more chances it won't come together. A comic strip once showed a father sitting at the dinner table. There was a lone pea on his spoon. He dropped a biscuit on the edge of the plate, hit the handle of the spoon, flipped the pea into the air which then landed in his glass of milk. He then states, “I bet I couldn't do that again.” His wife replied, “But you are going to try.” Complex plans are often doomed from the beginning because of the amount of things that have to be just perfect. If a plan depends on just one or two things, it will probably succeed but the more things that are added, the more improbable is the plan. John 1:29 says, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

        God's plan for salvation was one of the most complex plans that ever existed. The plan began in Genesis 3:15 where we first learn about the coming of a Messiah, but goes back even further than that, even before the foundations of the world. The plan weaves its way through the forming of a nation and then the sacrificial system and would go through almost 4,000 years before John the Baptist would utter the words in today's verse. We often notice the passage in Galatians 4:4 where we read about the “fullness of time.” It was at the precise moment that God brought everything to fulfillment and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. It wasn't just for one sin of each person, but all of the sins for every person. The sins of the whole world were paid for on that day at Calvary. All of the types and shadows of things to come were fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. We might think, “What are the odds that it would take place?” Well, the odds were against it taking place but with God, all things are possible and that's what happened. It all came to a head even with Pilate, Herod, the Pharisees, Judas and the mobs and the mock trials. The words of the prophets foretold what would take place and it came together just as they said it would. When you read the words of the story of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't help but be so thankful for God's wonderful plan that came together just as He said it would. The odds were indeed against it, but the empty tomb nails the conclusion to the whole matter. What are the odds that Jesus will come again just as He said He would? There might be some who say it is impossible, but God's record is 100% accurate. It will all come together just as God prescribed. If you feel a tad lonely, depressed or discouraged at your current predicament, just take a moment and say to yourself, “I love it when a good plan comes together.” Keep listening for the sound of the trumpet. It may be closer than you think. Praise God today for His plans.

Fickle People

         You sometimes desire to do something just after you have been told not to do it. It seems to be a reaction to authority. When a child is told not to touch something, you can almost watch them sneak a glance at you while their hand is moving toward the object they were told not to touch. When there is a shortage of something you are tempted to see if you can get it anyway even though you don't need it. It seems to be human nature to be able to defy being told to do anything. The ultimate plan of a few can cause chaos in the masses. John 12:13 says, “Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

          Israel was ripe for change in the time that the Lord Jesus Christ walked on the earth. The country had been under bondage for the past 500 years and the attitude of the zealots in the country and the dislike of the Romans made the country ready for chaos. After the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the popularity of the Lord Jesus Christ went up considerably. Going into Jerusalem shortly thereafter, the people reacted in what was seemingly a noble gesture and shouted “Hosanna” when Christ came riding in on a donkey. It caught on quickly and the people seemed to be all for Christ and His disciples. Our Bibles entitle the experience as the “Triumphal Entry int Jerusalem.” Oddly enough, the triumphant attitude soon gave way in about 5 days as the plans unfolded for the arrest and trial of the Savior. We now call the events of this week, the Holy Week. The shouting crowds of the triumphal entry soon give way to the shouting mobs crying out, “Crucify Him.” The people were easily turned from one emotion to another. In one setting they are expectant and hopeful in what Christ could do for them. In the next moment, they are hateful and angry and would be ready to have Him nailed to a cross and killed. It is easy for us to sit back and read about it in our Bibles today and to understand what was going on and that it was all a part of God's ultimate plan that would lead to the payment for all of our sins. We can see that now by looking back on the situation but had we been there during those days, we probably wouldn't have acted any different than the masses did during that time. We can learn a lot by looking at history and we can easily make applications into our present situations yet we often make the same mistakes and then wonder in the end what had just happened. After all was said and done, we did the same thing only in a different time. Our sinful nature often raises its head when we are told to do something that might be beneficial in the end. I can think of countless times my parents would give me instructions to do or to not to do something, and I would do the opposite of what they expected. It was the forbidden fruit all over again and I made the same mistake that was made in the Garden of Eden. The final week, which we call the “Passion Week,” was filled with a lot of instruction as we can see in the final chapters of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John spends nine chapters, 12-20, detailing the events of one week. In that period of time, the Lord Jesus Christ taught the disciples and us, a lot of things that are important in our Christian life. One of those things was about the love we are to have one towards another. John 13:24-35 says, “ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” His love towards us was so great that He went to the cross and suffered and died for you and me bearing the penalty of all of our sins. This is the example that we are to follow in regard to our live for others. We are to love one another with that same love. Praise god today for His love toward us. May we indeed have that same love toward each other.

Sovereignty

         My wife and I were required to go through five weeks of mission school where we were part of intense classes in an attempt to prepare us for work on the mission field. One of the courses was on how to ask questions. It was brought to our attention that we should not use a “why” question. If you ask a question as to “why” something is happening it usually indicates that you have a better way to do it. No matter how we dress it up, the question implies right at the beginning that your way is better than their way. We spent time in exercises trying to change the “why” question into some other form that would be less offensive. We often do that to God. We will ask, “Why did you do this?” We might instead state, “Lord, show me your plan in this.” There are a number of ways to change the question. We sometimes simply state, “Well, God is in control.” Abraham made an interesting statement when he began to bargain with God about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18:25 says, “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

         In the end, there were not even ten righteous persons left. Joni Earackson Tada was quoted as stating the following:

“Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God's motives, but in understanding His character, in trusting in His promises, and in leaning on Him and resting in Him as the Sovereign who knows what He is doing and does all things well.” Joni Eareckson Tada

Joni could surely have questioned God as to “why” the tragedy took place that left here paralyzed from the neck down. Forty years ago, Joni was already a motivational speaker and I remember her well speaking to the students at the daily chapel at Washington Bible College. She was an inspiration to us who had far less problems than she had and yet she had overcome them and was, instead, magnifying God in her life to all those who were around her. Sometimes, we just look up, shake our fist (spiritually speaking) and ask, “Why?” In so doing, we are proclaiming that our way would have been far better, or we would have just let the situation go on the way it was without causing all that destruction. We probably can never understand God's motives but we can look into His Word and learn about His character. Abraham knew full well that there is nothing that God does that is wrong. Truly the Judge of all the earth will always do that which is right. In the end, He is sovereign. There was a statement about the professors at W.B.C. Which went, “The professor is sovereign in his class.” He or she could require students to do whatever they wanted because the professor was sovereign in the class. God is sovereign in all that He does. You may have an opportunity in these present day to ask God “Why” when we should instead be seeking to understand His character more and more. We can do this by spending more time in Scripture and Prayer to conform us more and more to Him. Praise God today for all of His working in our lives. Whatever He does is always right.

Sounding Forth in Praise

        There are different sizes of type that are used in newspapers and the really big type size is reserved for the biggest news ever. When the second world war ended, many papers pulled out the largest type they had to use on the headline for that day. We tend to also use certain words to indicate something unusual has happened and one of the words that has been used a lot in today's news, even to the point of being overused, is the word “unprecedented.” I have heard it so many times in regard to the current situation. I guess there are now few things that are left to be unprecedented. One of the things that haven't figured on, however, is the rapture of the church. That will probably invoke the use of the word, “unprecedented” once more. Another word that is used too much is the word, “awesome.” It has been used so often that it is now commonplace among certain age groups. I knew one lady who used the word to describe almost anything that we did. We would finish a bell choir piece and her reply would be, “Awesome!” Personally, I think the word “awesome” should be reserved for God only. Psalm 9:1-2 says, “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.”

         The Psalmist seems to be rather excited about something in this passage. Notice all the things that the Psalmist does in reference to God. He will praise the LORD with his whole heart, he will show forth all of the LORD's marvelous works, He will be glad and rejoice in the LORD and he will sing praise to the LORD. It sounds like the Psalmist is rather happy when it comes to his feeling towards the LORD. There is a lot for us to learn in this passage especially about our attitudes during the issues of this present day. Today, the country is about 75% locked down and restricted to travel and any type of social mingling as we fight an invisible invader caused by a small virus. Restrictions are almost more strict than during war time as countries borders are secured around the world in an effort to keep people from becoming infected by this invisible enemy. Our life has changed to say the least. What are you doing with the extra time that you suddenly find in your life? Might I suggest the attitude of the Psalmist in today's passage? You can do that which seems idiotic such as counting the number of grains of rice in a bag, or the number of seeds in a strawberry. I once counted the number of little squares in an overhead light shield as I lay on my back after having had a medical procedure that wouldn't let me sit up for four hours and my back hurt after the first 30 minutes. Have you ever considered the marvelous works of the LORD? You can go from the flagella motor that exists in human cells to the grand canyon and see just a few of God's marvelous works. You can look at the photos from the Hubble space telescope and see some of God's marvelous works. You can look a the feathers on birds and see God's marvelous works. You can even look at your own finger prints, your own eyes and your DNA and see just a few God's marvelous works. After beholding such wonderful things, the natural response is simply to praise God for what you have just witnessed. Who knows, you may even break out in song and start singing the Hallelujah chorus. You can't keep all of this praise bottled up so you have to let it out to others and you then show it forth to those around you. When there is a song in your heart it often times makes it's way out and others hear it as you express your gratitude and thanks to our Wonderful Creator. Praise God today for His marvelous works.