Scripture Songs Help Keep Us Close to God

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105

By CHERYL ROGERS

I never was very good at memorizing chunks of text, so remembering Scripture didn't come easily for me -- at least not until God began giving me Scripture songs!

It happened in the aftermath of the tragic World Trade Center attacks in 2001.

On December 18, the anniversary of my earthly father's death, God gave me my first melody. My dad had always encouraged my sister and I to write songs, so it piqued my interest, to say the least.

Well, after I sang one of the songs in my church's talent show, God gave me so many melodies I put together a CD. The songs kept coming, so I put together some more CDs.

Do you know what I discovered? Well, it's what other folks have learned, too. Committing things to music makes them easy to remember.

While it had been hard for me to remember Scriptures before, now I got many chunks of Scripture memorized, without really trying. Just developing the songs, I went through a phase of repetition. I would sing the song over and over again working up the melody and practicing the singing. I would work on an arrangement, then I'd practice the song some more.

By the time the song was recorded, I had memorized most, if not all, of the Scriptures.
I consider the songs prayers and began praying God's promises in them over my life. Sometimes the truth of God's word would manifest itself as I sang the song, or played the CD.

One day I was walking along the beach and there was this piece of glass in my path -- just as I sang "no weapon formed against you shall prosper," a song lyric from Isaiah 54:17. Another day, I was driving down the interstate and there was garbage in the road. I saw it kind of late, but successfully swerved out of the way in our Miata as my Victory! CD was playing "no weapon formed against you shall prosper!"

Another time I was driving near our home when a sheriff's deputy pulled in front of me. He was going slow; I had to use my breaks because I was traveling a bit over the speed limit. Meanwhile on the CD player the words of my song "God Will Hear Me" were playing: "I will bear the indignation of the Lord for I have sinned," from Micah 7.

I followed the deputy at what seemed like a snail's pace, grateful this time I did not get a ticket.

A few days later, I was in nearly the same spot, with the same song playing in my CD player, and there was a gorgeous rainbow!

Another interesting time was when I sang "I Will Give Thanks to You" from Psalm 30 in my church's talent show. Gosh, they gave us all thank you certificates for participating in the talent show, when I should have thanked them for giving me a chance to sing my song.

At the show, I proclaimed healing from a goiter. (God is healing me from a failed business I started in 1990. I closed the business when I became too sick to run it.)
God has used the songs to communicate with me, to heal me, and to teach me Scriptures I probably couldn't, or wouldn't, have ever memorized.

As I was well into the recording of my second and third CDs, which I did in tandem, I realized the songs had given me a much better grip on the Scriptures than I had ever had before. I would try to explain a biblical lesson and realize I had done a song on it!

Others have had similar experiences with Bible songs.

"One of the coolest things Scripture songs have done for me is that I have actually heard the Holy Spirit bring these songs to my head/heart when going through various trials and temptations in life," says Timothy Harris, a partner with Ted Warren in WordSong Entertainment.

WordSong produces Scripture songs in a cinematic style.

"I believe in the power of God's word. If we can slip our music or rock opera into the mainstream entertainment machinery, many lives will be transformed by the hearing of God's word," says Lionel De Leon, president and founder of Messenger Project, a non-profit corporation promoting the Bible through music.

WorshipGuitarClass is hosting a worship contest for all ages.
There are categories for kids, adults and even families who
want to submit original worship songs. The deadline is
November 15th.

For details, click here.