HE SINGS GRACE!

Christ doesn't call us to be stagnant in life or in church. We get comfortable and sometimes fight change, maybe a fear of being forgotten or left out sometimes. Transitions are tough, no doubt about it. Transitioning in music can involve abrupt minor key changes, immediate beat changes jarring your ear or thundering blasts from soft whispers causing reverberations in your chest, physically feeling the music moving.

Changes in life and at church can cause these same sensations…which can be scary. Composers know transitions can make or break the beauty of music…responding and writing down an emotion, a message, a vision, onto a staff to be lived through fingers, lips, voices…the body of Christ. There are times for nursery rhymes and Sunday school songs as pabulum, soft nourishment, eaten early in our Christian lives…when challenges are few and we savor being cuddled.

But we must not remain as infants…in life or in church. Prayer and intentional Bible study grow us in His Word, to be about “His business" rather than “our business”. These are the moments sometime coming at us in minor keys and in an abrupt manner. We often fight what the Holy Spirit is directing us to do, and I believe He sometimes has to throw “blasts” our way to get our ear. How much time have I spent this week praying for and desiring to grow others in the knowledge of Christ as their Savior? Not enough, I must confess to you.

We must not center on carrying our own tune of “what do I get when I come to church”. We must pray and center ourselves on His Masterpiece Manuscript and ask “what did I give to someone for Christ’s sake?”…my patience?...a friendly greeting?...a shared “God incidence” or confession?...”when we are weak, then He is strong.” When these type things become our refrain, the richness of the maturity in Christ becomes a loved Cokesbury hymn, rich in words and melody, or the fullness explodes in our hearts like the Hallelujah Chorus, which cannot be sung quietly, by the way! A true wanting, pounding through your chest, desiring others to hear and understand our Lord’s grace which He sings every day, forgiving each of us in his strains of love.

God has his hand on us and his composition is greater than anything we can imagine! And I want to be at the singin!
Praise God!

Ephes. 4:13-16

"... to train Christians in skilled servant work (working within Christ's body)the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ."

"...to grow up, to know the whole truth...tell it in love - like Christ in everything."
"...our lead from Christ, the source of everything we do."
"...grow up healthy in God, robust in love. The Old Way Has to Go."