Tell of His Salvation from Day to Day

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song;

    sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

    tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

    his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

    he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

    but the Lord made the heavens.” (Psalms 96:1-5 ESV)

I love to sing, don’t you? I began singing solos in the gatherings of the church when I was still a child, and then I took voice lessons, and then I majored in voice and in music in college. And I sang in church choirs and in ensembles and quartets and trios and duets, and I sang solos for many years before my voice began to give out and to give way to old age. So I don’t sing out loud now as much as I used to, but I still love to sing.

But when I sing, I love to sing about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love to sing about God – Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit. I love to sing about who he is and the things that he has done and about his gift of salvation from slavery to sin. I love to sing about his amazing grace in dying on that cross so that we can die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands (New Covenant).

But to sing is not just to make music. To sing is to call out something loudly, to shout, to call, to cry out, to inform, to tell. So this includes us speaking and proclaiming and telling of his salvation from day to day. This is what we all should be doing whose lives are committed to serving our Lord. We should be declaring the glory of the Lord to the nations. And we can do that right here on the internet on various sites, including on social media.

We shouldn’t just be mentioning Jesus on religious holidays or on Sundays. We should be sharing Jesus Christ and his word daily with our friends and with other Christians and with the world. This is what the Bible says that Jesus’ followers are to do. It may seem weird to some people if that is what we actually do, but it is what we are all to be doing. For many people yet need to come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ before the end of time.

For our Lord is to be feared above all gods. But it seems not many people these days are talking much about walking in the fear of the Lord. And far too many are presenting an image of God as our “genie” in the sky there to grant our every wish and desire while we are not required to do what he desires and what he requires. Far too many are teaching an altered character of God and of his church and of his gospel to appease the flesh.

But great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. And he is to be feared above all gods. And a “god” can be any idol, anything that you give your undivided loyalties and passion and time to above all else. And an idol can be another person or it can be a sport or a game or entertainment or sexual immorality or food or drink or possessions and any passions and desires of the flesh which are sinful and which are being honored above or in place of God.

But if we truly walk in the fear of the Lord, we will not be worshipers of idols. We will not have other gods before our God. We will take God and his word seriously, and we will apply all the teachings to the church and all of God’s moral laws to our daily lives, in practice. For we love God with our whole being, and our desire is for him to obey his commands and to serve him faithfully with our lives in surrender of our wills to the will of God.

We can’t just make professions of faith in Jesus Christ and then just assume that we are now “good to go.” We should not assume that, just because we confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives that it now gives us freedom to keep deliberately and habitually sinning against our Lord or that it gives us the freedom to just sit back and relax and entertain ourselves and do whatever we want to do until Jesus comes back to take us home.

For if that is our attitude, heaven is not our eternal home. For what we worship then is worthless, because it is of this world, and of the pleasures of this world. But we who are called out to be the Lord’s people are to be his servants and messengers who follow him obedience and who share the gospel with others, and who encourage (exhort, urge, provoke) other Christians to genuine walks of faith in obedience to our Lord.

So, we are to live our lives by the Word of God, and according to his will and purpose for our lives, which we can read about in the Scriptures. And true belief in Jesus Christ results in us being crucified with Christ in death to sin and being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but to God and to his righteousness. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if we obey obedience, its end is eternal life (Romans 6:1-23).

And Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have life eternal. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one DOING God’s will (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23). So, be the people of God our Lord wants us to be.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]  

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

Caution: This link may contain ads