This week I thought we might take up a slightly different kind of theme on the podcast.

We could call it Christians love to sing. And we do, don't we? But why is that? Before I came to faith, I liked listening

to music, largely popular music, I think, so it was mainly songs, but I actually didn't like

singing, and if I were to break out into song, you would understand why. Now, I wouldn't argue that regeneration

all in its own improved my voice, but it did make me want to sing, want to sing Christ's praises,

and I imagine the very fact that I wanted to make the effort to do that probably did help a little.

It wasn't that I now felt under an obligation to sing, or that

I'd worked out theologically. It was only a young teenager. It was simply an inner urge,

a new desire to express praise and admiration and gratitude for what I knew the Lord Jesus had

done for me, and all that the Father had Jesus had done for me, and all that the Father

had come to mean to me, and all that the Spirit was beginning to work into my life.

I remember a minister friend telling me about a young man who had no church background, but

who started coming around their church and eventually said he would like to become a member.

And when the elders met with him and asked him about his spiritual journey, he told them how

dramatically their church had changed since he started coming to it.

The services, he said, were much livelier than when he had first come, and the hymns

were much better as well, and he enjoyed singing them much livelier than when he had first come, and the hymns were much better

as well, and he enjoyed singing them much more than the ones they had sung when he first

came. He even said to my friend the minister that his sermons had become much more interesting

in recent weeks. Well, you know what had happened to him, don't you? And the elders were too kind to embarrass him by telling him they were still singing the same old hymns,

and my friend was far too wise to get upset about the fact that his sermons apparently had dramatically improved.

The real truth, of course, was the young man had been born again.

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