Mapperley Monday Morning Mail, 8th April 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!


It was great to see so many folk at church yesterday and to have the privilege of baptising Mandy and Leo in the 11:00am service! At the 6:30 service, we did something we haven't done for a while (and which I haven't done for a while) and had a Songs of Praise service, where we spent the whole evening praising God in song, with the occasional bit of testimony, prayer and Bible reading thrown in. I really enjoyed it and found it a great time to be able to relax in God's presence and get to know other people who were there a bit better.


Singing praise to God, whether traditional hymns or modern songs or somewhere in between, has the ability to touch something deep in us and gives expression to the important emotional side to our relationship with God. Don't get me wrong – there's a lot more to being a Christian than just emotions, but if our emotions aren't stirred as we reflect on who God is and everything that God has done for us and as we praise him, there's something seriously wrong.


That ties in with the high value that the Bible places on singing praise to God. Yesterday morning, I started both morning services with Psalm 150.


Praise the Lord.


Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the harp and lyre,

4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,

praise him with the strings and pipe,

5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with resounding cymbals.


6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.


Often when I'm spending time with God on my own, I find it really helpful to put a CD of praise songs on, or I try to play something and sing along. Music is a really important gift for worshipping God and for spending time with God, even for people as unmusical as I am. So why not give it a go?

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