May 24th, 2013
Hey, everyone
How awesome not to have a rainy weekend like the last bunch have been!! Todd the weather dude promises "a gorgeous weekend in store with mostly sunny skies and temperatures gradually warming into the mid to upper 70s…" A whole weekend filled with sunshine! And I hope it's filled with praise as well!
Y’ know, even if it were rainy, dizzily, gloomy outside like it has been the past weeks (which it is NOT!)…
…there’s nothing you can do about atmospheric conditions outside your house, school or office, but there’s nothing like praise for changing the conditions of the atmosphere inside your heart! You can’t do much about the weather that comes down, but you can do something about “weather” or not it’s gonna get you down!
There’s nothing like praise goin’ up when the rain’s comin’ down!
And I’m not just talking about the power of music. I’m not just talking about…
“…singin’ in the rain!
Just singin’ in the rain!
What a glorious feeling!
I’m happy again!”
What I’m talking about is the power of praise to change how you see everything! There are a lot of people who know a lot about music and singing, but who don’t know about the secret of praise. And even though they wrote the songs we hear or even sing, a lot of times, they weren’t any happier for having written them. I know one Italian composer who wrote tons of operas, but…Man! What a grump! (Maybe it was from listening to all that screaming!) Some of those famous classical composers were so tempermental that their “temper” made them “mental”!
Here’s a sad story.
One morning in January, 1864 they found a guy bleeding badly on the bathroom floor of a NYC “flop house” where homeless people and alcoholics could spend the night for a few pennies. The dude had seriously cut himself trying to shave when he was in no shape to attempt that. No one knew who the poor soul was. They took him to Bellevue Hospital, where he died three days later. All he owned was a dirty, old raggedy coat with 38 cents in his pocket…and a scrap of paper with the words, “Dear friends and gentle hearts”.
“Hmmm…what could these mean?...”
Turned out, they were the words to a song. A song he himself was writing. In fact…turned out, he had written a lot of songs. Songs like, "Camptown Races Sing This Song! Doo-Dah! Doo-Dah!" “I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair”, and “Beautiful Dreamer”, and “Oh, Susanna!”, and “My Ol’ Kentucky Home”, ”, and “Old Folks at Home” ,and a whole lot more.
It is SO sad to think that even though Stephen Foster had many beautiful pieces of music flow from his heart, he never found how to get peace to flow INTO his heart!
Praise is so much different than just listening to or singing along to your favorite song! Praise is singing to our awesome God what we believe and know to be true about Him! Something happens when you’re singing words of faith…singing to Him what you believe and trust about Him! You not only fill your car or your house with these words; you fill your own heart! Singing “Halleluyah!” does for you what “Do-dah! Do-dah!” never could!
Just this week I was listening and singing to Eric Peters' songs on the way to my Bible study in the prison…
"This is the world turning upside down!
When the light that was lost is found!
Come see the dawn with the darkness refused
Today is yesterday made new!"
Lee had given me his number so I texted him,,,
Eric, I just want to say thanks! I'm on my way into the Morgan County Prison and I just wanted you to know your songs have encouraged me all day!"
After I went in, I realized he had no idea who that was from! But somebody's encouraged on their way to prison!
Exodus 15.1 says…or sings…these:
“You are our strength and song!
Hebrew scholars tell us this could be translated, “You are our strengthening song!”…as in, “When I sing to You, I’m strong!”
You can’t do much about the weather outside, but you can do something about “weather” you’re happy inside!
Praise.
Don’t leave home without it.
Your Ol' Kentucky Home, or any other home.