Singing with Grace

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 hearts to the Lord.  King James

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God.   Douay Rheims

 Colossians 3:16 The word of Christ dwell in you plenteously, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, in grace singing in your hearts to the Lord.  Wycliffe

Music has always been a big part of my life, some good and some bad.  I hated playing the trumpet, but love hearing it played by someone else.  Strange as that sounds.  My life revolved around buying records (vinyl) where my collection grew to over 600 albums of various genres.  

I even had a top-five favorite album where I could listen to one side, flip it over, and listen to the other side without skipping a song.  It would be completely dark in my room except for the lights from my amplifier.  Hours would go by listening to music.  Sometimes the music would be loud but other times soft.  The words did not matter much; it was the instruments that accompany the vocals which would sing in my ears.  The quality of sound was what I was after.  

When Jesus came into my life, I asked Him or said to Him, there is no good Christian music.  The only band I knew of was Jars of Clay, meh on the one hit song.    Stryker was around but actually never heard a song by them.  They made the news for drug use.  Jesus' response was not what I expected, wait, it is coming.  

Marcia and I attended the Brooklyn Tabernacle, five-plus years, who is famous for their choir of gospel music.  Great vocals, but I like the soul of the instruments.  In 2006-07, I heard a song by Hillsong London, "Jesus Is," and that changed everything.  Everything.  Every song on that live album was incredible.  I forgot to mention, live music is the best music for me.  This album would be in my top five of all time.  A few years later, in 2012, Hillsong United Live in Miami came out, which would also make my top five.  In fact, I would put both as #1 and #2.  

Jesus was right.  It brings tears in my eyes to know, on two tiny islands (the UK and Australia) produced two very incredibly talented musicians and vocalists at such a time in history when adults are walking away from the Church yet our youth is drawing near to God thanks in part to Hillsong London and Hillsong United.  We live in a truly extraordinary time when you take a look at Hillsong United.  It is the whole sound of vocals and musicians in harmony, not competing or warring against each other.  It is like a prayer or a psalm telling a story with deep meaning and feeling in both the vocals and instruments.  Truly extraordinary.    

It has taken me a while to get to the above verse found in Colossians. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and Hillsong provide us with great spiritual songs where we can sing grace into our hearts and out of our hearts to the Lord Jesus. There are plenty of other songs, or make one up yourself.  I do.  My heart sings a melody to Christ every second.  As Paul writes, we are to teach and encourage each other to sing to the Lord, singing in grace in our hearts.  Praise the Lord.