The dead are judged

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The Faith that Is Filled With Music

^“And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!  Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Revelation 15:3-4 (ESV)

The Christian faith is a faith filled with music because we have the “joy of the Lord.” The Bible says, “Rejoice evermore.” Our churches are filled with music. Thousands upon thousands of hymns and songs have been written over the centuries. Some attest to the character of God. Some are testimonies of men and women who have experienced the grace of God. I think of Fanny Crosby, who was blind. She wrote hundreds of hymns and many have reference to seeing the Lord one day.

Colossians 3:16 (NLT) says “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.”

Ethel Waters used to sing at many of Billy Grahams’ crusades and she used to sing this,” I sing because I am happy. I sing because I’m free”. This is enough reason to sing unto the Lord a new song.

Many people will say they can’t sing and this might be true in some cases. Much of that is that they have not been trained. And then there are those who have beautiful voices and sing to the hearers delight. For the Christian there is a song in that heart. SING IT!

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“Allow the children to come…”

Vacation Bible School is one of favorite things we do in the church. I grew up going to VBS and have fond memories. We used to have two week Bible schools we enjoyed it immensely but it was a killer on our moms who worked and manned the VBS. We also had the greatest handcrafts. I remember doing the macaroni art and spraying it with gold paint. The plaster hands and my favorite was the shoe shine kit we built. Of course, my dad had to cut out the elements of the shoe kit at night until he got enough made and then at VBS we nailed and glued them together.

I remember the pledges to the US flag, the Christian flag and the Bible, God’s Holy Word. We would march in for the opening assembly and sing, say the pledges and repeat a memory verse. It was always an honor to carry a flag or the Bible. We also had Bible study or story time. We had stories about missionaries. We learned all sorts of Bible truths in a week or two week. For me and I am sure for many others it was the highlight of the summer.

Today, we have all sorts of art work, media, and other action stuff to keep them going but all in all the children learn about missions, music and Jesus. This year our focus country is Australia.

Our church is connected to several places which have VBS. I cannot tell you how children and their families are highly impacted by the Truth. Just the other day, when were visiting a VBS, a young lady came up to us and said she attended a VBS five years ago here at Capital City. And here she was a teacher in another VBS. This is what it is all about. This why we take the time and effort to teach boys and girls the story of Jesus Christ. It is worth it all.

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The calling of Levi

^“ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Him.
Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for Him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. “Luke 5:27-29 (HCSB)

Levi or Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were some of the most despised and hated people in Israel. They were Jewish men who had turned their backs on their fellow countrymen and aligned themselves with the Roman government. The government levied the taxes but the tax collectors could tax anyone at anytime for as much as they cared to. They could stop merchant caravans and levy taxes as they wanted. They were hated by all.

Then Jesus comes along and says to Levi, “Follow me.” Obviously, Levi knew of Jesus and maybe had even talked with him. Obviously, Levi had been dissatisfied with his life and perhaps under conviction. Levi did two amazing things: He immediately obeyed. He left everything and followed him. He gave up a lucrative way of life and follow an itinerant preacher from Galilee.

Secondly, he hosted a banquet and invited his associates, who themselves were hated people. These were the cast-offs of society. Levi was so touched by the call of Jesus that he wanted others to meet and hear what Jesus had to say. This is an indicator of a changed life. He wanted those he knew to experience the same that he had. He had an outreach or evangelistic event where he made the effort to share the Gospel.

Last week it was the woman at the well who went into her village and told them and now we see the tax collector hosting a banquet and inviting his acquaintances to come dine and hear from the Master.

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