Sing to the Lord a New Song

I've not been living the Christian life for quite some time already.

2 Simply cruising along with the bible knowledge I had acquired in the past; parroting the doctrinally correct answer during bible studies; finding it difficult to think about the real application of God's truth in my life; the increasing numbness of my heart towards the increasing number of people lining up along Orchard Road asking well-off Singaporeans to contribute towards worthy causes; the loss of all passion (that characterizes the 2nd and 3rd years of my Christian life) to pursue God's way and will in my life made worse by my apathy to even think about this loss.

3 This post (and the reflections above) wouldn't have happened if not for yesterday.

4 I and a few Christians, from varied churches, were singing together when we came to this song (my response as I was singing are in normal font below, where my response echos the song's lyrics, it'll be in red):

"Think about His Love, think about His goodness
Think about His grace, that brought us through"
Dear God,.... thank You for choosing me....

"For as high as the heaven's above
So great is the measure of our Father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love"
Dear Jesus, thank you for descending from your rightful place in heaven to be us.

"How could I forget His love?
How could I forget His mercy?"
That's where Para 2 above came to my mind, how could I dear Lord?

"He satisfies, He satisfies,
He satisfies my desires.........."
For that ONE brief moment, I really understood how petty my daily concerns are for my material/physical gains, and why God's will should be my priority

"Even when I've strayed away
His love has sought me out and found me......"
Thank you for calling me, thank you for saving me, thank you for bringing me to you

"He satisfies, He satisfies,
He satisfies my desires.........."
Thank you for being my provider in every need.

5 By the conclusion of the song, my song partner was in tears and I was deeply moved.

6 Thank God for songs, which ideally should unify the truth our mind grasps with rightful responsive emotions. People (or more specifically, I), being creatures of emotions rather than logic can only be inspired, or moved to action when our emotions are aligned with the truth our mind knows.

7 This led me to consider the place of songs or the so-called 'Charismatic' songs in our personal worship time.

8 I'm sure most people realise the importance of a focus on doctrinal/historical songs in church services - because the physical church has a responsibility to ensure that the flock is constantly reminded about the truth of Christ's life, death and resurrection.

9 It's also to give the unbelievers in the midst a chance to realize - Christ is not fiction unlike other religions' folklores. His life and death are factually true and His resurrection had been seen by many witnesses whose testimonies were not overthrown so that people may be turned to seek the truth - especially important since the implications of this decision is so huge.

10 As Christians though, our primary responsibility is to do our best, with help from the Holy Spirit, to be increasingly made into the image of Christ. In my case, knowing the truth mentally only was not enough. It took the rightful response of my emotions to even start thinking about what is going wrong with my Christian walk, and I've found that songs is a good way for that.

11 If like me, you've found that the response of our emotions no longer matches the height, and width and depth and length of what God had done for us, perhaps singing (and thinking about the lyrics) about what He has done and your rightful response will help (in addition to your daily bible study)?

Conclusion: On the bus trip back after the singing session, the bus driver's negligence led to sudden braking which caused a passenger to lose balance and hit a seat very hard. I could just see the pain in her expression. I simply looked at the incident dispassionately then turned back to my thoughts. It was only a few seconds later that my then newly awakened conscience realized that something seriously wrong had just happened. Why didn't I offer her comfort and help? It looked like the longer we were stuck in apathy and hardened hearts, the harder it will be to pull ourselves out of the pit of deceit and sin. Dear God, give me the strength to will to move quickly in the right direction in your will.