First and foremost, the focus and purpose of singing in worship is to praise and glorify God! Let us never forget that! Still, as is usually the case with God’s requisites, the obedience blesses the obedient. Singing affects the singer, when the heart is close (Matt. 15:8), when the heart is attuned (Eph. 5:19), when the heart understands what it is singing…
Let's Go Back to the Bible
Let's Go Back to the Bible
Posts by David Sproule (Page 245)
There is not a whole lot of positive assessment of complaining in Scripture (or in day-to-day living either). Israel’s complaining during the days of Moses takes up more than 40% of the word’s usage in all of Scripture. The Pharisees repeatedly complained against Jesus. God instructs Christians to “do all things without complaining” (Phil. 2:14). With the weight of Scripture against complaining,…
Is it just me or are people in general growing more and more impatient and less and less willing to wait? Perhaps that makes even more challenging the need for God’s children to “wait on the Lord.” The blessings of doing so are too innumerable to imagine, but by reading passages which speak of waiting on the Lord, we can find abundant…
The worship of God is something that we must take very seriously. To approach the very presence of God demands that we do such with proper thoughts, proper motives, proper methods, proper actions and proper demeanor. Is there a place for “hilarity”? There is an interesting Greek word found in 2 Corinthians 9, and it is the only time it is used…
A favorite Bible verse of many Christians is Isaiah 40:31, which portrays the beauty of “those who wait on the Lord.” But, what does it mean to “wait on the Lord”? How does a person do that? By reading passages in Scripture which speak of waiting on the Lord, we should be able to find how God defines this marvelous concept and…
There is a really cool Greek word used in Hebrews 11:26 (the only place it is used in the Greek New Testament). The word itself is not that cool, but the way that it is used is pretty fascinating. Regarding the “big-picture” nature of Moses’ faith, it says that “he was looking to the reward.” The Greek word for “he was looking”…
Just as we have numerical terms to indicate how often something occurred (i.e., once, twice, etc.), so there is in Greek. Paul said he was stoned “once” (2 Cor. 11:25); the high priest went into the Most Holy Place “once” every year (Heb. 9:7); it is appointed for man “once” to die (Heb. 9:27). But this Greek word for “once” (hapax) also…
The New Testament places a unique emphasis on singing as a part of corporate worship. As examined in a previous article, our singing is directed “to the Lord” for His praise and glorification. In fact, both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 (two key New Testament verses regarding singing) end with those three words, “to the Lord.” These two key verses underscore another…