PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS 

Just yesterday, I was watching a video online of Karen Wheaton, Senior Leader of The Ramp churches in the USA and Manchester, England - presenting her latest weekly "Front Porch Friends" segment from her home in Hamilton, Alabama. She quoted a few verses from Philippians 4 from the New Living Testament. Immediately, in my mind, I was reminded of 

a song featured on one of the "Children Arise" set of albums my wife and I bought way back in the 90's for our two girls. In fact, the song in question was directly inspired by the words of these verses in Philippians 4 in The Living Bible, the 1971 paraphrase by Kenneth N. Taylor. These are the verses:

            Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don't forget to thank Him for his answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus. Verses 6-7.

These four "Children Arise" albums recorded in Brisbane in the 90's and originally released on cassette tape were the result of the vision given to Merrilyn Billing and her family of producing high quality children's music albums with songs taken direct from Scripture verses. A fifth "Children Arise" album was later recorded and released in Tasmania, where Merrilyn Billing now oversees Zions Hill Church in Launceston. George Mcardle, former bass player for Little River Band in the 1970's was also heavily involved in the production of the four albums recorded in Brisbane.

This blog is not primarily to focus on these albums, but to highlight the wonderful and powerful impact that singing Scripture verses has on the Christian, whose regenerated human spirit responds and is energized by hearing and being able to sing the Word of God. Let me just finish the reference to the "Children Arise" albums by saying that I believe they still sound just as relevant and refreshing as when they were first produced. If you do not have these albums in your CD collection, they are still available for purchase from Zions Hill Church in  Launceston. If you go online to the church's website, you can order online. As well as these, there are a number of other anointed music and worship albums, including the children's "Let The Whole World Sing" albums which, I believe are based on verses from The Passion Translation of the Bible.

The other source of songs set to the Word of God that greatly impacted me in the 70's and 80's especially, are those produced by the ministry of "Scripture In Song", headed up by David and Dale Garrett from Auckland, in New Zealand. In the seventies and eighties, they wrote and recorded a number of albums, some of which were made up entirely of "Scripture in Song" songs. Some of their later albums contained songs that were Biblically sound, but not lyrically direct Scripture verses. From a personal point of view, the Scripture in Song albums that most impacted me were the double-album set "Prepare Ye The Way." By today's Christian recording standards, some of the "Scripture in Song" albums may not seem as professionally recorded or produced, but the anointing of the Holy Spirit that was on some of them certainly made up for what they may have lacked in "professional" sound and production.

David and Dale Garrett were certainly Holy Spirit anointed servants of the Lord who were trailblazers in laying a foundation for subsequent contemporary Praise and Worship music. They deserve a place of honour in the halls of faith, for their commitment to the Lord personally in their lives and their desire to see the church built up and encouraged by singing the Word of God.

David and Dale Garrett

The Bible has much to say about singing, as an expression of praise, worship and gratitude to the Living God - and also as a weapon to subdue the enemy. More about this in the next blog post.

www.vision.org.au is the online home of Vision Christian Media in Australia. Vision Christian Radio broadcasts to 730 cities, towns and small communities in every state and territory of Australia. Listen online or access other online resources to help grow your faith. God Bless!