Inspire
Devotion
Singing and believing
My three young adult daughters recently took me along to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Movie in the comfy Norwood Hoyts cinema. They pretty much sang along word-perfect with every line and wriggled in unison the whole way through. Songs and music certainly have a way of getting in our heads, and becoming our story!
The power of music and lyric is not a secret that somehow the modern era has stumbled across. Humans have known about this since all time. Music is a special gift from God, so much so that the Scriptures contain a whole book of 150 different songs called The Psalms. Elsewhere, the Bible often breaks out into song, not least in the story of Jesus’ birth that we are looking at in chapel this term. Christians have often summed up the power of music to teach and imprint as ‘what you pray is what you believe’.
Martin Luther always knew this. Monday 30 October is the annual commemoration of the Reformation of the Church. Among Martin’s many methods was to take his ideas from the Bible and put them to the popular tunes of the day – the sort of things that might be heard in the market, pub or fair. This year, it’s 500 years since he wrote a gorgeous little song called Dear Christians one and all rejoice. We jazzed it up a bit and sang it in church last Sunday. It has some fabulous lines which I’ll leave you with… really good stuff to sing, pray and believe.
Of God: ‘He turned the Father’s heart to me, and knowing what the cost would be, gave up his dearest treasure.’ (Martin is talking here of God giving up Jesus for us.)
Of Jesus: ‘The Son his father did obey… he came a while on earth to stay. His mighty power he hidden bore, a servant’s form like mine he wore.
And Jesus to us: “Hold onto to me, and I will go before you; I wholly give myself to you, and I will struggle for you; For I am yours and you are mine, my innocence does bear your sins, and you are blest for ever”.
“So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” Jesus in John 8:36.
Pastor Matt Bishop
Submitted by Pastor Matt Bishop