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Greetings once again, Family [Mar 11, 2011] Did you ever attend a football or hockey game that was not noisy - no one cheering or booing or responding to the plays taking place? If your hearing is normal, that would not be the case. Professional sports just bring out the "loud" in people. My journal entry today relates to "loud". It did not take place on a football field or hockey rink, but the sound made was loud enough to be heard miles away. Let's listen in...
Your Majesty, You spoke in your Word today about noisy praise. Back in Ezra's day, the sound could be heard from far away. The foundation for the rebuilt temple had just been laid, and the people were rejoicing. Here is where it was discovered that praise involves many emotions.
The young people shouted for joy - they were quite impressed by this work you enabled them to accomplish. They praised God for the return of the temple. The old folks looked at the new temple foundation as well. They remembered the great glory of the old temple and they wept. It was a bittersweet moment for them. I imagine that the memory of the original temple, beautiful and impressive swept through their mind as vivid as the day they first laid eyes upon it, and they wept at what had once been. They wept loudly - but those tears were praise as well, weren't they, Lord? They praised the God of the temple, the Restorer, the Redeemer, the Second-Chance Giver. No one could distinguish the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping because the people made so much noise.
I read of another noisy praise event - one that happened centuries later.
The King of the Jews was seated on a colt, the center of a holy parade. His subjects were throwing palm branches before His path as a way to honor this Redeemer of the world. This was a time of unstoppable praise. If the people would have kept quiet, the very rocks beneath the King would have shouted noisy praise, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" All of nature knew the truth about this King, but some of the people were not so aware. For the ones that were, eternity for them was changed. Prison doors were opened, things would never be the same.
Sometimes I am not aware of God telling me a transforming truth also. But just like the folks along the path that day so long ago, the Holy Spirit still speaks today. He reminds me of Philippians 1:6 - He always finishes what He starts, and that includes the work in my life. Good news!