Is God Singing Your Song?

I read this cool story recently. It may or may not be true.

In a certain tribe in Africa, when a woman becomes pregnant, she gathers a few friends and goes to a quiet place.
There they wait until they receive the “song” of the newly conceived child. She teaches it to others and when the child is born the village sings his/her song. At every major stage of the child’s life, his song is sung.
This is a nice story but if true, this could lead to some major existential problems.
What if your mother sings like a donkey braying? What if she’s not very poetic? What if she didn’t want to be pregnant? What if you are the seventeenth child and she’s about sung out? What if she’s mad at you father?
You could be in for some problems in life. Your song would inflict pain on you and all its hearers.
It Really Happened
Something similar actually happened once. A woman named Rachel had a horrible time giving birth. As she lay dying she named the newborn, “Benoni,” which means, “Son of my sorrow.”
Can you imagine going through life introducing yourself as the reason for your mother’s death? “Hi, my name is Benoni. Pleased to meet you.”
Fortunately for the little fellow his father Jacob came to his aid, and overruled the name of pain that his mother tried to give him. Daddy named him, “Benjamin,” which means “Son of the right hand.”
Benjamin became a great man.
Wonder what would have happened if he had trudged through life with the name his mama tried to stick on him? The song of his life might have been different.
Singing Your Song
This is just speculation but I wonder if God doesn’t sing a song that’s just “us”, just ours, all through our life.
When we’re conceived, he sings it. “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your Book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
“How precious also are your thoughts to me O God! How great is the sum of them.” Psalm 139:16, 17  NIV
Later, when I realized that my sin had separated me from God but that Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross made it possible for me to come to Him, I don’t know if the Lord sang my song or not, but I sang. He gave me a new song–praise to God. (Psalm 40:1-3)
At times I’ve screwed up and I figured that God must be through with me. I still heard the song, though. I looked up and He lifted me up.
When discouragement sat on me like a ten-ton elephant, suddenly I heard the song and new life infused me.
Sometimes the devil attacks me and I’m afraid he’ll tear me to bits. Like a cowboy watching over the herd at night, I hear Jesus’ voice singing and I settle down, knowing He’s watching me.
“You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Ps. 32:7, NIV.
All during our life, like a good husband for his wife, like a good father for his children, God sings for us. “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Zephaniah 3:17, New Living Version.
Having a hard time believing God loves you? Look at that verse! He even gets a little silly and starts singing for you, He loves you so much.
The other night I was speaking  in southeastern France. Since there were English and French speakers present the message was  going to be translated. When I told the the young lady who was going to translate the story about the song, she said, “My mother made a song for me when I was born.”
So, at the appropriate moment in the message we asked mama to come up and sing her song. She sang of how she was surprised and happy to find out that Eva was coming and both cried as she sang to her 25-year old daughter, “You’re so beautiful.”
If you’d stop and really, really listen, I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard God singing your song to you.
Salvation, restoration, deliverance, love—He’s singing.
___________________________________
Hmmm …
Elizabeth Elliot: “Don’t dig up in doubt what you planted by faith.”

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What Is “God’s You?”

 

I seem to remember learning something from a college communication class about “Joe’s Bill, Bill’s Joe, Joe’s Bill’s Joe and Bill’s Joe’s Bill.”

“Um, David. What? I think you just happened to wake up during that class and only got a bit of what the prof was saying.”

 

No. For once, I was awake. (My eyes were probably crossed trying to understand, but awake I was). What the teacher told us was that when Joe and Bill communicate Joe has his idea of Bill—Joe’s Bill. 

And Bill has his idea of Joe—Bill’s Joe. And Joe has his idea of what Bill thinks of him—Joe’s Bill’s Joe. And Bill has his idea of what Joe thinks of him—Bill’s Joe’s Bill.

You still there? 

This all influences how we talk with each other. If Joe thinks Bill hates him it will come out in his way of communicating with Bill. If Bill thinks Joe likes him that will show up in his words, his gestures, and his actions.

If Joe thinks that Bill thinks that he (Joe) is wonderful, he will interact differently with him. And if Bill thinks that Joe thinks that he is a goose, that will also honk into their relationship.

“C’mon David, what are you getting at?”

Your God’s You

I think a lot of us have a hard time in our communications with God because of what we think He thinks of us. “David’s God’s David” if you will. Or “Your God’s You.” Continue reading

Championship wrestling-Christian Style

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When I was a kid I used to love to watch “Championship Wrestling.”

Now if you’re over 10 years of age you might have a bit of a problem believing this stuff, but who cares? For those who love it, it’s right up there with comic books as far as action goes.

I loved the tag-team bouts, especially when my favorite bad guy, “The Great Bolo,” was involved. This guy would strut, preen, and hide pieces of metal in his mask in order to waylay the good guy when the ref wasn’t looking.

And those hopeless refs seemed to never look.

One of the good guys would nearly be beaten to a pulp by the bad guy in these matches. The meanie might lift him above his head and smash him to the canvas or throw him against the ring ropes and lay him out with a clothes- line move.

So, one of the good guys usually reached the end of his strength. He’s beaten without pity by the other two and the referee just watches. He’s down and nearly pinned. The referee counts, “One, two …” and somehow our nearly- dead hero manages to raise his shoulder off the ring floor.

He reaches and reaches for the hand of his partner so he can come and save him. He stretches. Will he make it? Won’t he? Continue reading

My Meeting With Two Grumpy Old Men

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I may have met a couple of famous people, sitting on a park bench in Provins, France last week.

You know those two old guys on the Muppet Show? The ones who sit in the balcony and make smart-aleck comments to each other about whatever the others are doing?

Them. Or maybe it wasn’t them but these fellows sure made me think of them (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14njUwJUg1I Only watch this after you finish the Coffee Stain!)

We were in the midst of an outreach talking to people about the Lord. I approached these two old fellows, both pushing 80 I think, sitting on a bench during one of our rare sunny afternoons.

One of them turned a bit nasty when I mentioned God. I remained polite but I wanted to know what had happened to him to make him so bitter against God.

He just made the face of a fellow sucking on a lemon and ordered me to leave before he ordered me to leave.

I know he meant to offend me. Some people are scary when they’re like that, but he struck me as funny because he reminded me of the Muppet Show geezers. Continue reading

Is Fear Of God All That’s Holding You There?

Fear of God is not foolish. But if “fear” is all you have you need to go on into fullness.

Kids are sweet but I find they are about 55% sweeter when they’re asleep.

When my rugbugs were little, sometimes I’d stand close to their bed and look at them by the moonlight as they slept. At times like that, you feel like you’re going to swell up and burst with love.

I’ve wondered if God sometimes watches us when we’re asleep. So many people think that the Lord is constantly mad at his people but personally I think He spends more time smiling at us.

We forget how much God loves us because we’re afraid of Him, I guess. Continue reading