“Let Every Creature in Heaven” vocals Lucy Stimpson- Maynard and friends – trumpet Jock McKenzie – recorded by Bob Ross – unreleased.
So if you are in the Nottinghamshire area please remember that Risen! The Musical is playing at St Peter’s Church in Ravenshead, on Saturday, May 14th starting at 7.00 pm. Tickets can be obtained from 01623 478295.
The featured song today is another unreleased track from the “Vaults” and features words taken from the Book of Revelation Chapter 5: 13-14
Last week I began retelling the story of a family’s personal experience of suffering. Katey had progressive MS and through all the ordeal her and her husband placed God and the worship of Him at the centre of their lives. Katey’s husband says “Recently I marked the anniversary of Katey’s death. It was a difficult if glorious day as after 18 years of struggle with MS she stepped into the arms of the rising sun, her saviour and Lord. On reflection I recalled all the struggles, the moments of abject despair, disappointment and anger. Yet, I also was reminded of the sweet way God heard our prayers and those of others who prayed with us, and just how both Katey and I were able to worship in the heart of our hurricane and also to hear God’s voice and grow in our faith and understanding of God and his purpose. Everything is about God expressing the nature and character of his kingdom in the earth; we were fortunate to have a role to play, and like all actors, we were not in charge of the casting! “
Dr Micha Jazz expresses a similar attitude. “I believed that ‘nothing bad can happen to me if I am so faithfully following my God’. Here was a fault line that I had to trip over. Such an attitude reduced faith to a transaction. ‘I do right and God keeps me safe from harm’ – but this isn’t how it goes. God’s invitation is that I follow Him and try to I live out a God-filled life, thereby revealing the nature and character of the God I worship. Perhaps this is best illustrated in the story of Job; bad things happen to God’s good people. Each one of us who chooses to follow Jesus is actually declaring that we volunteer to become a conduit for the grace and love of God to find expression on the face of the earth. Sometimes this is best achieved through what we regard as tragic circumstances. It is relatively easy to sing songs of celebration when life is going well. Yet, the acid test of our faith comes when we are invited to sing songs of celebration in a foreign land.”
I recently read somewhere something like “ It is easy to take the glory but are we prepared to also take the cross?”
We can be asked by God to advance His kingdom in many ways and for some that may mean through their attitude and response to suffering.