Songs Of The Spirit

Those who can’t hear the music, think the dancers’ mad.

Friederich Nietzsche

To Mary Marguerite, who, from very early on in our lives together, taught me to listen to His music above everything else.

Since the Protestant Reformers resisted papal authority and assigned the Bible as one of their “sola’s,” the world of Christianity has been at war over printed words – how to translate them, interpret them, and assign them to an individual believers’ life. A natural end-result of this then has been demanded scholarship for those who teach scripture and in the face of such the role of apostle (and apologist) has moved from fishermen to MDIV’s and Ph.D.’s.

For nearly forty years I have daily sought understanding of the scripture, reading and re-reading, consulting lexicons, commentaries and the history of ancient Israel surrounding it.  I have spent far too much time debating, far too many hours quibbling over topics as if having a perfect understanding of them was more important than having agape love, which is the fruit of His Spirit.

Our world of scholars and people full of religious zeal, in my estimation, have in many ways become like the scribes of Yeshua’s day, searching the scriptures constantly but not realizing that they all speak of Him, the living Word of God.  Some of our scribes have even gotten to the place where they refer to the written, printed, variously translated scriptures as, “the word of God,” overlooking the important fact that the Word of God was in the beginning with God, and was God, and is, in fact, His Son.  Subsequently, the written scripture has, for many, become an intermediary to God, almost worshipped in some cases as an idol.  Allowing such to insert itself between God and Man after God Himself removed the vail top to bottom, giving direct access to all who seek Him through His Spirit, ought to be seen as anathematic and counter to His intensions for the world.

This is not to suggest that there isn’t a place for the written scripture in the lives of anyone seeking to know Him and what He has accomplished for the world.  Nor do I question its veracity or value for those fortunate enough to have access to the record and the ability to read it.  My point is really only the point that Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth, saying,

“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. “  1^st Corinthians 2:14

Because most believers agree that the scripture was given by the Spirit of God, its important to remember that it is only by this same Spirit that the written record, which I will refer to in this short book as, the Lyrics, can be comprehended as intended.  By calling the printed words, the “Lyrics,” it only stands to reason to refer to His Spirit as, the “Music,” which when rightly combined, will teach all seeking souls, His most beautiful “Songs.” Taking it all in, the act or process of understanding the Lyrics according to His Music, all who seek can learn, “the Songs of the Spirit.”

May this illustration serve you as you seek to know Him, the Only True God, and aid you in your comprehension of the inspired lyrics found in the book we call, the Bible.