It's my concert and I'll sing if I want to.

By CarrieG

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I was born in a small saw mill town in 1959. At that time the family consisted of Mom, Dad, Grace LaVonne and Margaret Lucille, then me Carolyn something or other (can’t stand my middle name). Five years later mom gave birth to a son named Joseph Kevin and last but not least of us all was Aaron Bruce. Mom said that she and dad always prayed before naming us kids for they wanted God to give us each names that would match our personalities. Now for the rest of the family’s names I’m not sure what the meanings where for them. But my name fits me to a tea. Carolyn (Carol) I love to sing. I remember we would drive 30 miles to church and 30 miles back home. From a young age I would sing my heart out in the back seat of the car. If the music was not playing in the ole 8 tracks you could count on me to bring on the concert.

Now as I seen it, I had a captive audience, the family was stuck in the car right beside me. Man was I ready to sing. You have to have all the air you can get if you were going to belt out a song for the whole world to hear so I would position my self; I would take that deep breath open my mouth wide and let out that beautiful noise. Then the band of voices would follow right after me. “Oh no she is singing again” “Mom tell her not to sing” “Carrie be quite” Me, I ignored them and was going to give them that concert rather they liked it or not. I continued to sing, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray” now if I came to a part that I did not know the words I would make something up. To me that’s how you can tell a great singer, If you can’t remember the words, just throw something in there. “You make me happy when skies are gray; you’ll never believe this one I just have to say so please take my sunshine away” Hey it fits. Well my audience disagreed with me, Mom would turn around in the seat and say “Carolyn if you don’t know the words to the song, don’t sing it, sing something you know.” Well that just was not right; I was headed into the big world at the age of 8, writing my own songs and of course singing them the way I wanted. I had seen my future all those rides to and from church.

I am 50 now and I still sing that way, don’t know the words, make it up, if they have never heard the song then they won’t know the difference. Many times I find my self standing up in church to sing a solo, as I gear up to take that deep breath, get my stomach full of air open my mouth wide, waiting for the first words of the song to come to memory, and as I stand there nothing comes. I think to my self with that blank look on my face “can they tell I have forgotten the words?” the music shows no sympathy it continues to play. Okay what in the world just happened? I have found that in these times I could once again at the age of 9 break out in tears or just laugh it off and let God cover the flaws.
I was asked to sing at our church one night, they were having a special service for people who had talent or no talent to show what gift God had given them. We had a full house that night over 100 or so people. So I picked my song, practice it, memorized the words and memorized them some more. I knew I was ready. The music started and I began the song. The words were coming to memory, all was going well, I was on to the second verse, started singing the verse, out came the wrong words, “Moses was fight the lions in the lions den, and David was leading the children in the wilderness”

Oh my! How in the world was I going to cover that one up. I stopped singing and just started laughing, tears were coming to my eyes, I could not stop laughing. The congregation started laughing with me. Did I finish the song, No, But God was in control. You ask “how?” In my blaze of glory a mother leaned over to her daughter and said, “See there is no need to worry about messing up, even the professionals mess up from time to time.” That night was the daughters first time to do a public performance on the piano. In her nervousness she went up and played that piano perfect. The service was over the mother come up to me and said “Thank you for showing my daughter even the professionals sometimes mess up and that it is okay” she added “that was the best performance besides their daughter that night.

What did I learn from that? I learned that if I would have gotten embarrassed and started crying and running off the stage, because in my flesh I wanted to be perfect in my singing, I could have caused that fear in the teen age girl to rob her of the gift that God had given her. And in her fear of messing up she might not have gotten up that night and played the piano.
So being used of God is not always wonderful and perfect in our eyes and we might not always understand why God does what he does and it’s not for us to understand. It’s our job to be humble before God and be the vessel that he intends on using. And then in the end as we put the puzzle together we can see that God has everything covered.

The Battle is not yours, but Gods,

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          If only we could take these words, “The battle is not yours, but God’s.” and apply it to our lives, how much richer (Not wealth) would life be for us. For those of you who do not know what this chapter is about let me give you a brief run down.

 

Jehoshaphat was the King over Judah; He took the throne at the age of thirty-five and reigned for twenty-five years. Jehoshaphat spent the first years of his reign making his kingdom strong and destroying the idols of Baal and cult images. The author of 2 Chronicles praises his reign, stating that the kingdom enjoyed a great measure of peace and prosperity, the blessing of God resting on the people "in their basket and their store."

 

The last important event of his reign occurred when the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war and march against Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 20). The enemy forces were encamped at Ein Gedi. King Jehoshaphat and his people were filled with fear because they did not have the mighty army to fight against those that were coming against them, being the godly man he was, he and his people went to God in prayer. Here is his prayer:

 

2 Chronicles 20:5-13

5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard. 6 and said: "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.7 O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 9 'If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.' 10 "But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. 12 O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." 13 All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD.

After hearing the prayer the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel and gave him these words for the people: 15 He said: "Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's. 16 Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. 17 You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.' " 18 Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD. 19 Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

Before the battle Jehoshaphat went out among the people and the priest and assigned them worship duties. So as they went towards the battlefield they went in singing and praising.

 

2 Chronicles 20:21-22 (New King James Version)

21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

“Praise the LORD, For His mercy endures forever.” 22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.

So they did as they were instructed to do and the next day the battle was between the Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, for they quarreled among themselves, and killed one another, leaving to the people of Judah only to gather the rich spoils of the slain. This was recognized as a great deliverance fought for them by God. Soon after this victory Jehoshaphat died after a reign of twenty-five years at the age of sixty (1 Kings 22:50).

 

WOW, now that’s the way I would love to go through a battle in my life. Picture this with me, It would be like me (You) to be sitting in my (your) lazy boy, reclined back with my (your) praise music playing and me (you) singing praises to God with no concerns for the battle knowing the enemy it’s on it’s way to try to kill me (you) and with total trust in God and knowing God is going to do all the work. And then at the end of the battle to go and gather the blessing that God had promised me (you) for simply trusting him and giving the battle to him. They are his battles in the first place, he says they are “The battle is not yours, but God’s.” I wish I could go into my storms, my battles and not worry thinking I have to be strong and fight a good fight, and defeat the enemy. In my flesh I guess it is easier for me to worry, cry, loose sleep, and stress out and perhaps I loose some unwanted weight, my hair falling out, and being miserable for how ever long the storm is. I find my self choosing the latter part. Oh my goodness, we stupid people. Oh wait…let me rephrase that, how stupid I am. Maybe I am the only one that has a hard time in my storms. It’s okay because God isn’t finish with me. And Satan will never be finished with me. So I am sure there will be plenty of times I will have to master this situation.

 

God has been teaching me through the storms of my life how to respond to them. The answer as we found in this chapter is to just place trust and faith in God. Also I received through my own trials is to “Praise” him. Praise him for the storm, I know what your thinking, “whoa back now, Praise him FOR the storms, you’re kidding me right?” Nope, praise him for the storms and this is why, during the storms in our life that’s when we learn to trust God and grow in him, become closer to him. God says in (James 4:8) Draw near to me and I will draw near to you. So if we handle the storms right we will get closer to God and he to us.

 

Okay so praise him for the storms; now praise him “IN” the storms. If we keep our eyes on him and our mouth engaged in praise we will not be looking at the storms and we will not be speaking words of defeat. I have learned to continue with praise and thanking God for the answers or perhaps healings before I receive them, again keeping our thoughts in order so defeat can’t sneak in.

Then of course there’s the “After” praise, being thankful for everything that God has brought you through and keeping you safe. The enemy didn’t defeat you because God was in the front line protecting you. Fighting the battle him self.

 

I have a friend that God gave her a dream one night, she was in the middle of the battle field and the enemy was all around fighting and killing. As she was walking through the battle with her hands raised, her head towards the sky with praises on her lips the battle did not touch her. But as soon as she started to look around at the circumstances, placed her eyes on the enemy and stopped the praising she found herself being attacked. The enemy was closing in on her. She quickly went back to looking up and praising. The enemy withdrew from her. What a great visual to have.

 

Do a search on “Praise” in Biblegateway.com and see just how many times “Praise” is used in the bible.

 

Pastor Carrie

 

It is well with my soul.

 

             Have you ever wondered the meanings behind the old famous Hymns, what were the stories behind them? Was it for tragedy these songs where written about? I have wondered so I invested in a book that gives us the story behind the songs. I would like to share some of the hymns with you that I was touched by and I will promise you that when you sing these hymns you won’t be able to sing the hymn with out thinking about the story. To me knowing the stories behind the hymns makes the song more personal and meaningful. All information I am giving comes from the book “Living Stories of Famous Hymns, by Ernest K. Emurian.”
 

           Let’s start with one of my favorite hymn, “It is well with my soul” The French liner, “S.S. Villa du Havre, was one of the most luxurious ships around. The year was1873 and this ship was sailing from New York to France Mrs. Spafford and her four children, Maggie, Tanetta, Annie and Bessie were passengers. Mr. Spafford was not able to travel with them due to a fire in his company. The fire was the big fire in Chicago in 1873. He was in good spirits knowing his family were among other Christian passengers. As he was placing his family on board he promised to meet them all in France as soon as possible.

 

It was two o’clock in the morning on Nov. 22 1873 and the ship was sailing on a peaceful sea. That ended when the ship was rammed into by the English iron sailing vessel, the “Lochearn” In twelve minutes the “Villa du Havre” settled to the bottom of the ocean. The loss of some two-hundred twenty six lives including the four Spafford children. The survivors landed in Cardiff, Wales and among them was Mrs. Spafford. Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband these two words, “Saved alone.”

 

When Mr. Spafford received the message he said to one of his friends, “I am glad to trust the Lord when it will cost me something.” For him this was the third time of testing coming right after the first, prier to the fire He had lost a son. In the Chicago fire he had lost everything he owned and on the sea he lost his children. As soon as he was able he booked a passage on a ship to Europe to join his wife. On his way over the Captain called him to his cabin and said, “I believe we are now passing over the spot where the Villa du Havre went down.” Can you amazen being the one the captain said that to and knowing your children’s bodies where under you. Needles to say Mr. Spafford did not sleep well that night. But soon his faith conquered his doubt and there, in the med-Atlantic, out of his heart break and pain, Mr. Spafford wrote five stanzas, the first of which contains these lines:

 

“When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea-billows roll,

What ever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, It is well with my soul”

 



When Mr. and Mrs Spafford meet up with each other Mrs. Spafford said, “I have not lost my children; we are only separated for a little time.

 

Phillip Paul Bliss was a song leader and a composer. He and Mr. Spafford both had been associated with Moody and Sankey in several of their evangelistic meetings. One day Mr, Spafford requested that Mr. Bliss would take the poem and put it to music. So he did as Mr Spafford had asked. A few days or months after writing the music to the song Mr Bliss and his wife were killed in their travels on a train. Some of the survivors said that Mr. Bliss could have been one of the survivors but he chooses to hold his wife instead.

 

The song still lives on very strong today.

It is well, It is well, with my soul