If Only We Could Hear Them

[Christsfreeservant]

Thursday, February 03, 2011, 12:45 a.m. – The Lord woke me with this song playing in my mind:

Sing It A Cappella / Glad / Ed Nalle & Rob Neal

Sing it a cappella
Let’s put those instruments aside
Let’s lift our voices and say what’s on our mind
We’ll sing God’s praise
For the Lord our God reigns

Sing it a cappella
Hymns to the Holy One
Come on sing it a cappella
Songs of the battle won
Sing for joy a cappella

Come and hear the praise of the King
Pure harmony all His children will sing
With no instruments around
We can make this joyful sound

No melody and no harmony
No matter how great could say
All the things that You do
But what else can we do
So we’ll sing with our voices today

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Acts 16:16-34:

Paul and Silas in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

My Understanding: What was Paul’s and Silas’ response to this treatment at the hands of their attackers? They prayed, and they sang hymns to God, and the other prisoners listened to them. Amen! And, because they had the right response to persecution, the “chains” came loose from those who were held in bondage to sin, i.e. the jailer and his household believed in Jesus and they were set free! And, the doors of heaven were opened to them. Hallelujah!

Oh, how deceived we are in America to think that our government is truly one nation under God (the only true God), and that we are in these other countries to fight terrorists or to bring relief to suffering people. We are not! We are the terrorists and the world knows this, it is just Americans who don’t realize this. We, the government of the U.S.A. are these leaders of the crowd who are mowing down believers in Jesus Christ world-wide, and one day soon, we will wake up and realize this when they come against us, too. And, when they do, we need to have the same response as Paul and Silas. If we, too, sing hymns and pray to our Lord God Almighty, the gospel will spread and many people will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and will be set free from their chains of sin, too. Amen!

Yet, it may involve us going against the crowd, standing out like sore thumb, and having to sing “A Cappella,” i.e. without anyone accompanying us. And, that is when it gets rough. Yet, the song says to “put those instruments aside,” which I believe has to do with anything that would hinder us, so that we can run with perseverance the race marked out for us. We need to speak confidently and with the authority of the Holy Spirit within us the Word of God, found in the Bible. And, we need to share the gospel message, even in the face of great opposition. The song says to sing “hymns to the Holy One” and “Songs of the battle won.” That is what Paul and Silas did, too, even though they were the only ones singing in the prison. And, the result was that the prisoners listened, the guard asked how he could be saved, and people were set free from their chains and the doors of heaven were opened.

So, don’t be discouraged and don’t be disheartened when you face opposition. Just keep singing, even if you are singing all by yourself, because you truly are not alone. Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are singing with you, even if no other humans can be heard, though I am quite certain that there are thousands who are lifting their voices in songs of praise to God Almighty; to Jesus Christ, the Son, if only we could hear them.