Make a Joyful noise!!!! That means you

Do you know what has really bothered me about the church for the past several years? The apathy (or at least the look thereof) on peoples faces as they sing songs about the love of God and the joy they have in their lives.

On any given Sunday look around the congregation; look at the people as they sing about how happy they are. Is this what you see?

Why are people so "hum-drum" about their relationship with the GOD of the universe? Can they not see that God loves them so much that He was willing to give his most precious son to die for us? Have they forgotten that we do not live for rules and regulations, but we live for a relationship with a personal God who wants us to call him Father? Have they forgotten that he came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly? (John 10:10)

Let me show you just a few verses of how we should worship:

Psalm 66:1Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
Psalm 81:1Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Psalm 95:1O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Psalm 95:2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Psalm 98:4Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Psalm 98:6With trumpets (not a very quiet intsrument is it?) and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

Psalm 100:1-2Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Do you see a trend here? JOYFUL NOISE. I love it. No where does it say that you have to have a musical degree or trained in music. No where does it say to have a stoic face and to be quiet. No, quite the opposite. Joyful noise to me means to open my mouth and let the other side of the room here my deafening shouts of praise. Joyful noise to me means that I sing like I am in the shower. You know what I mean by that? We sing to our hearts content, we are not worried about who is listening or watching. We just want to sing.

But when we get to church we sit or stand and we follow along in our hymnals or we look up at a wall with and stare at the lyrics going by us. We are not thinking about the words of these songs. We are not thinking about our relationship with the Father. We are not thinking at all sometimes. We are just going through the motions.

STOP IT! Stop going through the motions. THINK. Think about why you are singing. PRAISE. Once you stop going through the motions and stop just giving lip service then you can think about why we sing in church. You can understand that we sing to praise the Creator, the Savior, the Holy Lamb of God. When we can do this, then we can make a joyful noise.

Starting a brand new day

It's coming, it's just around the corner. A new day is about to dawn on the lives of the Browns. Our three week training is over and we are back in Friendswood to start hitting the boxes to pack.

We are so excited to get started on the ministry that God has put before us. We found out that we were getting girls instead of boys, like we had requested. But the really cool thing is that God had started working in both Michele's and my heart and began changing our thoughts. We knew half way into training that God was going to be putting us with a house of girls. Four of the girls we are getting are transfering into our cottage, one is already there. Their ages are 16, 15 (2 of them), 14, 8, 7, 5 (2 of them). The other three will be arriving with in the next few weeks to a month from now. We are not sure as to the dates. When Michele heard that we were getting the two five year olds that just came into the program she started crying. She had fallen in love with these two precious little girls. We are not sure when all of the girls will be in the house but we do know that they should all be in before school starts. We will have several weeks to get to know all of the girls before we send them off to school everyday.

My Deliverer

If you know me, you know that I LOVE MUSIC. I can not get enough of it. I love all types of music. From the classicals (Bach, Mozart) to praise & worship to alternative music (Red, Skillet). One of my main things about music is that it needs depth, it needs a reason to be sung, it needs heart.

One of my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONGS was written by Rich Mullins. If you want to listen to music that will pull on your heart and spirit, listen to Rich. If you need a song that will touch the depths of your soul, listen to Rich Mullins. One of my favorite songs by Rich is called "My Deliverer"

My Deliverer

Joseph took his wife and her child and they went to Africa

To escape the rage of a deadly king

There along the banks of the Nile, Jesus listened to the song

That the captive children used to sing, they were singing...

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

Through a dry and thirsty land

Water from the Kenyon heights, pours itself out of Lake Sangra's broken heart

There in the Sahara winds, Moses heard the whole world cry

for the healing that would flow from Gods own scars, the world was singing...

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

He will never break His promise - He has written it upon the sky

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

I will never doubt His promise though I doubt my heart - I doubt my eyes

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

He will never break His promise though the stars should break faith with the sky

My Deliverer is coming - My Deliverer is standing by

This song of Rich's vividly shows the desperation of the Jewish slave children who are crying out to GOD to send them the DELIVERER. They are desperate to drink the water of Life. They ache for the healing hands of the Father. They are pleading to hear that the Deliverer has come to free them from their bondage.

Today, we sing the very same song. We sing to be free of our addictions. We sing to be free of our lustful hearts. We sing to be free of our sins.
God is waiting to hear us sing those words so that he may come and free us of our bondage.