Sing!!!!

The Bible tells us time and again to sing! Why? Because singing is good for you!

1. Sing and save your body - lose weight! Sing more and eat less. You can't sing with your mouth full. You can't sing on a full stomach. Singing, really singing - not just mumbling but belting it out like Susan Boyle - improves your posture, your breath control, maybe even increasess your lung-power!

2. Sing and save your mind. You can't be watching brain-numbing, heart-deadening, taste-ruining pap on TV while you are singing. And you can sack your psychoanalyst - what is he/she doing but trying to get your deepest thoughts and hopes and feelings into the conscious realm where you can work with them? Sing a joyful song and release your heart's delight, pour out your grief in a sad song till the tears run down your face, sing a fighting song and find new courage. As you sing you can soak your soul in the wonderful music of Bach, Mozart, and Verdi, you can revel in Gilbert and Sullivan, you can let rip with all your Radio 1 favourites - anything but that chanteuse of despair Lily Allen! Let the roaring bass, the romantic tenor, the passionate alto, the squalling soprano within you out - sing and save your mind!

3. Sing and save money! Think of all the money you will be saving at the supermarket and on psychotherapy - see above. Singing is free - it makes you feel great and it doesn't cost a penny.

4. Sing and find true love!! Well, yes, perhaps that is overstating it a little....... but singing is a great way find friends. All across Torbay there are operatic societies, pop groups and choirs of every kind waiting to hear from you, wanting you to join them in making a wonderful sound. And this is my real point - Central Church's choir would love to hear from you, and you will receive a warm welcome! Give us a call if you want to know more.

5. Sing - because God has given you life and love in his wonderful world, and WILL give you eternal life if you trust him for it! That is worth singing about.

Psalm 96 1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 2Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

A word in season!

A quotation from John Newton’s "A Review of Ecclesiastical History" which was published in 1769.

Whenever and wherever the doctrines of free grace and justification by faith have prevailed in the Christian Church, and according to the degree of clearness with which they have been enforced, the practical duties of Christianity have flourished in the same proportion. Wherever they have declined, or been tempered with the reasonings and expedients of men, either from a well-meant, though mistaken fear, lest they should be abused, or from a desire to accommodate the gospel, and render it more palatable to the depraved taste of the world, the consequence has always been, an equal declension in practice. So long as the gospel of Christ is maintained without adulteration, it if found sufficient for every valuable purpose; but when the wisdom of man is permitted to add to the perfect work of God, a wide door is opened for innumerable mischiefs.