In our preaching through Ephesians, our pastor preached today on the importance of singing from Ephesians 5:15-21.<\/p>\n
He spoke of how our singing is directed in two directions: to others (addressing one another<\/i> in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs) and to God (singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.)<\/p>\n
Daniel and I discussed the sermon on our way home, and I was reminded of the great grace of God in giving me a husband who sing to me with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. When I’m inconsolable and he doesn’t know what to say, oftentimes, he’ll just begin to sing:<\/p>\n
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow
\nPraise Him all creatures here below
\nPraise Him above ye heavenly hosts
\nPraise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI don’t always appreciate it in the moment. Sometimes I resent his focusing on God when I want him to be focusing on me. But once I stop, I thank God for a man who always sets the glory of God before my eyes–and who sings to me in (heretofore unwitting) obedience to Paul’s teaching.<\/p>\n
Just now, I was blessed as I saw Barbara H’s post on new lyrics to “So Send I You.”<\/a><\/p>\n
Barbara wasn’t physically singing to me, but she was as she recounted the story behind the hymn and how the hymn-writer rewrote her lyrics later in life.<\/p>\n
The second verse of the new lyrics brought me such edification:<\/p>\n
“So send I you-my strength to know in weakness,
\nMy joy in grief, my perfect peace in pain,
\nTo prove My power, My grace, My promised presence-
\nSo send I you, eternal fruit to gain.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWe must acknowledge that our call involves weakness, grief, and pain. But we are not called to suffering for suffering’s sake. This pain is not the end result. I am sent not simply to be weak<\/i>, but to know God’s strength in weakness<\/b>. I am sent not simply to experience grief<\/i> but to know God’s joy in grief<\/b>. I am sent not to have pain<\/i>, but to know God’s peace in pain<\/b>. Ultimately, my suffering is that I may know Christ and that I may show Christ.<\/p>\n
In which case, my suffering is worth it.<\/p>\n
May I know Him and show Him still better with every passing day. <\/p>\n
And thank you, Barbara, for singing truth today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In our preaching through Ephesians, our pastor preached today on the importance of singing from Ephesians 5:15-21. He spoke of how our singing is directed in two directions: to others (addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs) and to God (singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.) Daniel and … Read more Singing through life’s trials<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11954"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11955,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11954\/revisions\/11955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}