In reading something this morning
I saw the words to a song I had heard many times growing up.

The words led me to remember where I heard them and whose voice I heard singing them.

My Father once said that the lyrics to a song would come to your mind much easier when they were paved by the road laid down by the music.

He was making the point that some lyrics to rock ‘n roll songs had a cause and effect to the listeners mind….and that the music opened our minds to the influence of the lyrics.

I grew to believe that myself.

It’s true for any type of music.

When you hear the music….
the words come easier to your memory.

Today…

the words opened the memory road to hearing my Mothers’ voice singing ….

“Take My Hand, Precious Lord”

When I was young and sat with my
parents in Church,
I would hear her voice,
which was good,
singing every song.

I heard the songs ….
in Miami at Flagami Baptist Church
in Atlanta at White Oak Hills
in Ft. Worth at James Avenue
and University Baptist
in Houston at Broadway Baptist
and in Huntsville at
Highlands Baptist.

These churches represent my upbringing
and the songs I heard being sung
and eventually learned myself…
can now be sung by me without a hymnal.

I do like the songs we sing today.

However…..

Theses were the Songs
of my spiritual upbringing.

TAKE MY HAND
BLESSED ASSURANCE
HOLY HOLY HOLY
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS
and the
“almost every Sunday” invitational…
JUST AS I AM.

There are others.

My Mother’s voice
is the voice I hear…

along with hers and my Fathers’…
my own voice has lifted the lyrics to these and other songs since I was old enough at about 6 years of age to sit in Church with my parents.

“To yield in His Life an atonement for sin
and open the life gate that all may go in”

“All that I needed Thy Hand hath provided,
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Lord unto me.”

“This is my story
this is my song
Praising my Savior all the Day long”

“Just as I am
without one plea
But that Thy Blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee
Oh Lamb of God. I come, I come.

That’s the Gospel ….
and the plea of Paul’s Letters
to everyone who has ever read them.

My Mother and Father sang these songs,
I heard them for 5-10 years as I sat with them…
sang them on my own for many years after…
and began to challenge myself to sing them in the Services…. without The Hymnal.

Singing these songs for years,
I should know them.

Not scripture…..
but they lift the same message as Scripture.

These songs are more than mere words and music..

they have helped form my life.

There is a message behind the lyrics.

The message lying within the lyrics
teaches various aspects of the Life a Believer aspires to live.

The lyrical messages conveyed to my mind and heart by that music allowed me to praise God
before I knew I was doing it
or understood it.

I now sing these
and other Songs
with full understanding
of what they allow me to do.

These allow me to do what the
150th Psalm calls for me to do.

I would do it …
without the Psalmists words.

Remembering these words and rehearsing them today…
led me to know that as

I saw my Parents…
and other Adults in my young world….

praising God…..

I was taught to Praise.

It was not a forced learning.

No one put a hymnal in my hand.

But the lyrics,

traveling on the back of the music

settled in my mind

led and directed my young life

and allowed me a method for honoring and acknowledging
The GOD and The Savior I came to know.

Holy Holy Holy
Lord GOD Almighty
All Thy Works shall praise Thy Name
in earth and sky and sea

Only Thou Art Holy
There is none beside Thee
Perfect in Power
in Love
and Purity.