Jewels From The Word

I’ll Fly Away was my granddaddy’s favorite song. He learned to read music, but didn’t play any instrument. Granddad sang bass  and Grandmother Hightower sang the melody and played the guitar.

Grandmother and Mom put me in front of the church when I was 5 years old to sing “I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop,” with Grandmother. I started taking piano lessons in third grade and continued through my senior year, with one year in college at ORU. We kids all took lessons. I like to play piano, but singing is my first love.

One of my favorite memories is hearing my mom sing as she went about her housework. “Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, Because He first loved me.”

Everything on earth has a musical note, its own sound, associated with it.  Sound waves move through the air, as frequency and even if a person can’t hear it, the frequency can be measured. If God had not put air surrounding the earth, there would no sound or music, because music cannot be produced in a vacuum.

On the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem described in Luke 19:37-40 NIV, “the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

In the Bible, the last mention of music is in heaven.

Revelation 5:13 “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb  be praise and honor and glory and power,  forever and ever!”

At creation, God put music into everything on this earth, as a symbol of the music in heaven.

Words have always gotten me into trouble. Like the time I told my mom to shut up when I was 15 years old. That was a bad mistake, one I paid dearly for. Till this day, shut up is almost as bad as a cuss word in my home.

On the other hand, words have also gotten me out of many messes. I knelt at an old wooden altar and asked Jesus to forgive my sins and come into my heart. By the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, I obtained my eternal salvation by my words. (Romans 10:10.)

“Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is a common saying from our childhood, but unfortunately not true. Words do hurt, deeply, and usually are never forgotten. They can be apologized for but they hang in the atmosphere forever, in the memory of the person who said them and the person who heard them. Words can never be taken back.

Jesus frequently quoted scriptures from what we call the Old Testament. When He was tested in the wilderness, He answered the devil with the Word of God. Jesus said in John 14:24, “The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent me.”

Our words have power, but the ultimate power is in the Word of God. When a person becomes a Christian, the most important thing he can do is study God’s Word, the Bible. My life changed when I gave priority to the Word of God, the Bible. I made a choice to believe that the Bible was the Word of God, then I chose to live by what the Bible said. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been rewarding.

One time, some of Jesus’ followers grew upset with something He said and left. He turned to the disciples and said, “Will you go too?”

Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” John 6:68.

God never said anything that He will have to take back. His eternal Word will stand forever.