2024-11-02
Acts 16:25 NKJV
Even science agrees that music has healing power. Today we have music therapists who play sounds that set captives free in hospitals, special needs classrooms, nursing homes, and other environments. Harvard University researchers, among others, are reporting that music is a healing balm for stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and the physical stress of premature birth. They have also learned that music can improve surgical outcomes, help to restore lost speech, reduce side effects of cancer therapy, relieve pain, improve mood, and battle depression.
Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, a Harvard University neurologist, told the Los Angeles Times, “Music might provide an alternative entry point to the brain because it can unlock so many different doors into an injured or ill brain.” His research shows that pitch, harmony, melody, rhythm, and emotion, which are all components of music, engage different parts of the brain – parts of the brain that are also important for speech, movement, and social interaction. “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:20 NKJV).
So, when music is the medium used to praise God and express His creative and life-changing Word, you begin to see its potential to bring deliverance. That was certainly so for Paul and Silas: “At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed” (Acts 16:25-26 NKJV). Change your attitude. Change your environment. Change your outlook. Start surrounding yourself with songs of deliverance!
Soul food: Isa 34-37; John 7:25-44; Ps 104:24-35; Prov 28:9-12
2024-11-01
Psalm 32:7 NKJV
The psalmist wrote, “You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.” When trouble comes, you can turn to God and hide in Him. How? By surrounding yourself with songs of deliverance. Ruth Ward Heflin gives us the road map into God’s presence: “You praise until the spirit of worship comes, you worship until the glory comes, then you stand in the glory.” And that is where “all things are possible.” God told Jeremiah, “I am ready to perform My word” (Jeremiah 1:12 NKJV). That includes His Word when it’s set to music. The harp David used to worship God on the hillsides while he tended his flocks was the same harp God used to deliver King Saul from the spirits that held him in the grip of depression.
That wasn’t the only time God used a musician to bring about a miracle. When the people of Judah faced extinction because of drought, Elijah, the prophet, said, “‘Now bring me a musician.’ Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Make this valley full of ditches'” (2 Kings 3:15-16 NKJV). God filled every one of those ditches with water and gave them a spectacular victory over their enemies. Singer Julie True says: “On a spiritual level, music bypasses our mind and goes straight to our heart, soul, and spirit. It touches places that nothing else can reach… Worship opens the heavens and moves God’s heart.”
Soul food: Isa 30-33; John 7:14-24; Ps 104:1-23; Prov 28:5-8
2024-10-31
Mark 12:30 NKJV
What does it mean to love God with all your strength? A pastor defines it: “It means expending tremendous amounts of energy for kingdom causes. It means blood, sweat, and tears. It means servanthood and sacrifice. It means good old-fashioned hard work. Energy may be the least appreciated dimension of love because it’s the least sentimental. And how we invest our energy reveals our true priorities.” It reveals how much we love someone; in this case, God.
The pastor continues: “Christianity was never intended to be a noun. And when we turn it into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb. We’ve got to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We’ve got to seize opportunities to serve… At the end of the day, God isn’t going to say, ‘Well said, good and faithful servant’… [but] ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ Nothing is more fulfilling than burning calories for a kingdom cause. Anything less than leveraging all our strength for God’s purposes is boring at best and hypocritical at worst.
So many Christians are so bored… so frustrated by the gap between their theology and reality. The way to close the gap, and the way to experience that holy rush of adrenaline again, is to break a sweat serving others. It can be as simple as babysitting for a single mom who needs a night out, serving in a ministry in your local church, or volunteering at a local nursing home. It doesn’t matter how big or how small, every calorie burned for a kingdom cause earns compound interest for eternity. And it’ll fill the emptiness in your soul with pure joy.”
Soul food: Deut 18:9-14; Dan 2; Isa 47:5-15; Acts 16:16-34
2024-10-30
Job 12:8 NIV
The patriarch Job wrote to “speak to the earth, and it will teach you.” George Washington Carver is considered one of history’s greatest scientific minds. Around the turn of the twentieth century, agriculture in the southern states of America was suffering. The boll weevil was destroying cotton crops. And the soil was being emptied of nutrients because farmers planted cotton year after year.
It was George Washington Carver who pioneered the idea of crop rotation. He urged farmers to plant peanuts, and they did. The plan revived the soil, but farmers were upset because there was no market for peanuts. Their plentiful peanut crops decayed in warehouses. When they grumbled to Carver, he did what he had always done – he prayed; he regularly got up at 4:00 a.m., walked across the woods, and asked God to disclose the mysteries of nature to him. One of his favourite Scriptures was “speak to the earth, and it will teach you.” Carver literally asked God to reveal the secrets of nature, and God did.
As a result, Carver discovered more than three hundred uses for the peanut. Or perhaps more accurately, the Lord revealed more than three hundred uses. They comprised everything from shaving cream to glue to cosmetics to soap to sauces to insecticide to linoleum to wood stains and to fertilizer. Carver said, “I love to think of nature as wireless telegraph stations through which God speaks to us every day, every hour, and every moment of our lives.” Today God will speak to you in many different ways; you just have to be sensitive and listen.
Soul food: Isa 26-29; John 7:1-13; Ps 114; Prov 28:1-4
2024-10-29
Isaiah 43:4 NLT
Guess who said, “You are precious to me?” God. So don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Why is this important? Because understanding who you are as a person and genuinely believing that you merit love and attention from another person is essential to your self-worth. The capability to convey that successfully and in a considerate manner is essential for any healthy, mutually satisfying relationship.
A sense of self-worth is not arrogance. It helps you to set boundaries and guarantees that no matter who you meet, those boundaries will never be compromised. Often when we feel used in relationships, it’s because we have permitted those boundaries to be crossed. Or worse, we have never thought about where the boundaries should be. The way to prevent this situation is to be clear about who you are and what you are willing to do in a relationship. Disregarding the truth about another person, or yourself, may be okay temporarily, but over time, it usually leads to disaster.
With a solid foundation of knowing who you are and what you represent, you will possess the bravery to ask the right questions and discern the answers. You will acquire information and evidence that help you realize who a person really is and if they fit into your life. You will be truthful with yourself and others about who you are, your needs, and the way you want to live your life. Outside your relationship with God, there is no other more important relationship than the one you have with yourself. God says, “You are precious to me.” Believe it, and live accordingly.
Soul food: Isa 22-25; John 6:52-71; Ps 127; Prov 27:25-27
2024-10-28
2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV
Impalas are one of the most powerful animals in Africa. They can leap to a height of more than ten feet and cover more than thirty feet in one jump. Yet the impala can be kept in an enclosure with a fence that’s no more than three feet high. Why? Because it won’t jump unless it can see where its feet will land. In a sense, impalas walk by sight, not faith. What does it mean to “walk”? To put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward a step at a time.
What does it mean to have “faith”? To trust the Lord, obeying His Word regardless of how things look or feel to you. Now, faith doesn’t do away with intelligent thought and reason. But there is a difference.
When intelligent thought and reason won’t take you another step, faith keeps right on going. Why? Because intelligent thought and reason hold the hand of man and go only as far as he can travel, whereas faith holds the hand of God, the God who makes a way where there seems to be no way.
That was Abraham’s story: “[Urged on] by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go” (Hebrews 11:8 AMPC). Are you anxious about the future? Don’t be; just take the next step of faith, and you will be one step closer to the blessings and rewards that God has in mind for you.
Soul food: Isa 17-21; John 6:35-51; Ps 98; Prov 27:23-24
