HYMNS

I was talking with God before falling asleep and I started thinking about hymns. I hear it in church all the time. "It's nothing like those hymns." or "I go back to hymns because they had power." So, being the mark that I am, I started thinking about what exactly is a hymn? If you look at Ephesians 5:18-21, it says, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Then you look at Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heats to the Lord." Donnie McClurkin had a 2 disc album called, "Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs" So again I ask the question, what is a hymn?

Webster defines a hymn as, "a song of praise to God." I do understand and realize that when the word hymn, our minds immediately go straight to the hymn book. Don't get me wrong, I love those old hymns. Those old songs are timeless. One of my all time favorites is Great Is Thy Faithfulness. So please don't get the idea that I'm burying those old songs. All I'm saying is that just because it's not in the hymn book, doesn't make it any less powerful. Personally, a lot of songs NOT in the hymn book have spoken to me. He's Able by Deitrick Haddon. It Could Be Worse by James Fortune. Made A Way by Larry Trotter, and not just because I used to sing lead on it. God Is by Dewayne Woods, again not just because I used to sing lead on it. Alpha and Omega, as sung by Israel and New Breed. Smile by Kirk Franklin.

I'm sure who ever is reading this, have songs not in the COGIC hymn book or what ever denomination you are in that have ministered to you. "...singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;" Another song I love that has been sung in churches all around that's called, "Sound of Praise" as sung by Larry Trotter. Song says, "There is a sound that is pleasing to His ear. A sound of praises lifting into the atmosphere. Every time you lift your voice, you need to know. Jesus loves to hear the sound of praise. Hallelujah the sound, He loves to hear."

I do agree that some of these new songs that play on radio is not the most church friendly type songs, but that doesn't make them bad songs. By church friendly, I mean, it's not the taste of music by the majority of the older members. Because we want the lyrics to talk about Jesus, but the music has to be what we like or it's not right. That's about how it is in the mind of some people. If the music doesn't sound like all the older songs, It's not gospel. It's not just the lyrics. It's the music. So when Christian rappers rap lyrics about Jesus, it's bad because the music doesn't match Jesus I Never Forget. Sigh.


Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

P.S. Yes, I was contemplating quitting these blogs, but as Steve Harvey once said, "He's not through with me yet." Keep praying for me.

Do we remember how to love?

An artist put a song out about 6 years ago called, How To Love. A lot of stuff has been happening lately. Not just in the "secular" world, but also in the "Christian" community. Someone makes one statement going against what the majority agrees with, then automatically they're buried so deep almost never to rise again. And all that got me to thinking, aren't we supposed to love each other? I guess nothing says I love you like I'm going to bury you alive because I disagree with your opinion. I always go back to this verse. I think I first heard it from Donnie McClurkin one time, I'm not sure, but as soon as I heard it, it stuck with me.

Jeremiah 31:3 "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

An old hymn says, "Thy lovingkindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee, thus will I bless thee. I will lift up my hands onto thy name." 

The Lord draws us with love, but besides drawing other people with love, we bury them because they're not like us. Dare I say, some of us hate Trump for doing publicly what we do privately. I believe that is called hypocritical. 

My mom recently preached a sermon talking about the church needing a heart transplant. She said some of us have spiritual congestive heart failure. She also said, you can't love God and you don't love people. Citing this verse as a reference, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (1 John 4:20)

Needless to say we have a lot of liars walking around here. Not just in the church either. Some of these entertainers as well. Say they love God but hate anybody that disagrees with their logic. Amazing how some people in the church love to drag these entertainers for doing that, while at the same time they do the same thing. Can't have it both ways. Don't get me wrong, the truth is the truth, no matter who's mouth it comes out of, but as my dad always told me, "Don't throw rocks from a glass house." Better yet the Bible said it like this, "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:7)

The truth can hurt. Usually when you're in the wrong, the truth does hurt. I believe that in order to be the church God is calling for in these days, love has to be restored back in our hearts.

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Luke 6:45

If love is truly in the heart, then that's what's going to come out. Jesus is love, right? So if Jesus is love, and Jesus has your heart, then why are we hating and burying people? What is really the problem?

I hope you got something out of that. I hope it blessed you. I went into this blog thinking it might be my last one. Due to lack of feedback I get on them, I figured what's the use of continuing them? I don't know what's going to happen moving forward. I'll just ask God for guidance on what I should do.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson