My Journey 8/27/2010

God's insight to me:

As I read this devotional this morning I said, "that's me!" Through the God's Love Outreach Ministry and my love for the Lord I bring a message of His love and grace to many shut-ins that are unable to seek out for themselves. His message is mainly given through a number of songs throughout a one hour period. The average program has about 15+ songs throughout it. So as I looked back at the data from the outreach ministry since January 2004 I have presented 1075 programs. This would equate to about 16,125 songs that I have sung. So like Heman in the scriptures I guess I am a singer. But what I tell people, I do not consider myself a singer, but more a messenger. The message is "God loves you!" As F. B. Meyer's wrote I do sing not just on Sundays praising Him with hymns and praise songs, along with our church congregation, but also throughout most of my days. Not just in the ministry but also throughout my everyday existence. So I will keep on singing to Him a new song, for in my heart there rings a melody, a melody of love.

I Sing

For I sing
because I'm happy.
I sing because I'm free.
I sing because my Savior,
on Calvary did die for me.

I sing as a way to praise Him.
I sing with prayers lifted above.
I sing to my Heavenly Father,
a song of gratitude and love.

I sing as a messenger for Him,
a song that others may hear.
I sing to the many that are lost
and live in constant fear.

The song I sing is always about Him,
it flows from His Spirit within.
If you listen with your heart my friends,
it is not me singing, but Him!

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott

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8/27

Our Daily Homily
a devotional by F. B. Meyer

Heman the singer. 1 Chron. 6: 33.

THIS is a very brief record to put on a man's grave, but a very expressive one. To decipher that epitaph about Heman is to learn a good deal about him. From this clue we might almost construct his entire personality and character. And it would be well if it could be said of us that we had ministered with song before the tabernacle of the Lord.

Would you be a singer not on Sundays only, but always; not with your voice only, but in your heart; not only when the sunshine pours into the open casement through the swaying boughs of honeysuckle, but when the shutters tell of bereavement and removal then remember these rules: (1st.) God must put the new song into your mouth; (2nd.) You must be fully consecrated to Him; for the song of the Lord only begins when the burnt offering is complete. (3rd.) You must not go into a strange land, for it is impossible to sing the Lord's song there.

Sing on, dear heart, sing on. There is nothing that scares off the devil so quickly as a hymn. Luther said, "Let us sing a hymn, and spite the devil." There is nothing that so well beguiles the pilgrim's step, and quickens his pace, when the miles are growing long and weary. There is nothing that brings so much of heaven into the heart. Singing makes every movement rhythmic, every service praise, every act thanksgiving. Sing when times are dark, you will make them bright; sing when the house of life is lonely, it will become peopled with unseen choristers; go down into the valley of shadow with a song, and you will find yourself singing the new song of Moses and the Lamb when you awake on the other side.