Featured The Doxology

A real Baptist Church would sing it ever Sunday

 

My church sings/chants the doxology at every mass daily. I grew up in a Baptist church that always included the doxology within the service.

 

Chant to me is more genuine prayer than song.

Add the acoustics of our churches and it elevates the meaning of our prayer.

 

My church still sings the doxology. However, it is usually the new rendition.

 

mid you don’t sing it before, it don’t count!

 

I think it was a Augustine that said to sing a prayer is to pray twice. I think his meaning was that it is more that we open up more in song. There is a joyfulness that joins us to joyfulness of Heaven.
In imitation of Heaven where sung prayers of Praise and Worship are never ending, we are elevated by the same.

As when we sing Hosanna in the Highest, the acoustics give you a sense of the heights seemingly echoing in Heaven.

In a similar way we use incense as an outward representation of our prayer rising as incense to the Lord.
It’s a total absorption experience of worship using all senses to elevate us to a spiritual reality. All our body, mind and spirit are involved in worship.

The Israelites worshipped God the same way, prayers were sung and Incense raised to the Lord.

As grand as we think this is, we know it is but a pale pathetic imitation of the glorious world to come, but for short time in this sad valley tears, we can lift up our eyes to Heaven as best we can as creatures.

 

It was standard in the Mennonite Church. I rarely hear it in the Baptist Church.

 

Here is my best attempt to differentiate between the two. There is a physiologic difference in how the vocal chords vibrate, but for all intents and purposes, it amounts to singing as a harmonic and tonal expression. Chanting is a more guttural, monotonic expression of sound. Here is an example of Anglican Plainchant:

The psalms are the most commonly chanted scriptures, as far as I know.

 

Better incense in this life than charcoal in the next, Salty.
(kidding)

 

After our parents 50th, we had an honouring dinner where we all sang a song my niece wrote to thank them for all they have done for us.
They both were crying and we were all crying, not me, I got something in my eye at the time.

But it was very special, they felt the wave of love fully and joyfully expressed from us. It was a sacred moment for the whole family.

So for what is truly sacred in our worship, we offer God the first fruits of our love in songs of Praise and Thanksgiving, the supernatural Joy given us always leads to song, it can’t be held in, as we cannot help but preach the Gospel.

When we sing, we imitate Heaven, if we did not sing in this world, Heaven would be completely foreign to us, we would be strangers there.

“Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5

Song is of The Spirit, that is why we wake in the night in spontaneous songs of Praise. It is the Spirit that moves over the deep waters of our souls and stirs our hearts to song.

Do not depart the Song of The Spirit, but live in it, and you will be a stranger to world and it’s errors and evils. All the virtues of The Spirit are imprinted on those that live in The Spirit.

Not able to be expressed in words, but in Song from the Heart.

 

“If thy whole body therefore [be] full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.” Luke 11:36

Scripture itself uses the lighted candle as symbolic of the Light of Grace in our hearts by Jesus.
Why can’t you brother?

We live the scripture here, when we light our candles in prayer, we do not hide it under a bushel, or worse refuse to light them at all, it is a sign of the Faith in our hearts, and that we have no part with the darkest.

If scripture itself uses the lighted candle as the outward symbol of our inner light, we should too as our outward adherence to scripture, a sign of our faith to the world.

We light candles as symbolic of our faith because scripture made it symbolic of our Faith.

In this way we live the Word and the Word in us.

 

Since it's symbolic, could we turn on a battery candle and see it as the same thing? Or perhaps color a candle and hold up the picture?
There are traditions that are wonderful as long as they symbolize truth. However, they are just traditions, not prescriptions, so we need to be careful not to prescribe traditions to people as though they are requirements to worship.