Do you remember the visual lesson where you ask if a glass of water is really full? When every one is completely convinced that it was - drops of water were added to our growing amazement. The lesson was clear - the glass was only truly full when the first drop overflowed down the outside of the glass.
Singing is one evidence of an overflowing life.
Former prisoner, Ivan Antonov, shares what he found to be most important of all:
“While in prison camp, I felt that my primary ministry was prayer. Like Daniel, I prayed three times a day, opening the windows of my heart towards my friends in freedom. I also prayed for our persecutors.
I would sing hymns. I was really glad that I knew so many. I had memorized about one hundred and seventy hymns, and in order not to forget them, I reviewed several every day. So over a time, I sang through all of them. I want to emphasize to my young friends that you should worship God with songs and poems and memorize them. They will come in handy. But most important of all, you should study and memorize the Word of God. When I was in prison and camp, I had no Bible, but I was able to review what I had stored in my heart. I went over two chapters from the Old Testament and two chapters from the New Testament every day.This experience reminded me of Joseph in Egypt. During the time of abundance, he was laying aside stores of grain. When the famine came, he distributed grain from these stores, and the people were saved from starvation.
These Scriptures were food for my soul. I sang hymns every morning and at night before going to bed. God always woke me up early in the morning, an hour and half or two hours before the morning bell. This gave me time to pray and to meditate in peace, because once everyone else was up, there was too much noise and shouting. It was impossible to concentrate. So in those quiet hours, I would go outside in the fresh air and sing hymns of praise to God and pray.”
Pastor Ung Sophal sat in a filthy Cambodian prison badly beaten. His hands and feet were chained for five months.
"Only my mouth was unchained...so I sang to God in prison all the time. Another prisoner heard me singing through a small hole in the wall, so I taught him the song—a bit at a time. He passed it on and soon eight of us were singing.”
Archbishop Dominic Tang spent twenty-two years in prison in China for his faith. He reports:
“Besides my prayer and meditation, every day I sang some hymns in a soft voice, ‘Jesus I live for you; Jesus I die for you; Jesus I belong to you. Whether alive or dead I am for Jesus!’ This hymn was taught to me by a Protestant prisoner who lived in my cell.”Stuart Hamblen wrote a song and the chorus repeats the theme:
My heart can sing when I pause to remember
A heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along a trail that's winding always upward,
This troubled world is not my final home
A heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along a trail that's winding always upward,
This troubled world is not my final home
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