Having sung in this particular church choir for about 15 years, I’ve repeated many anthems numerous times on Sunday mornings throughout the year. We cycle and recycle through music appropriately, as most church choirs probably do. Since this choir has been in existence much longer than my 15 years of membership, some of those pieces of music have been through it!! I’m thinking of one particular song that we sing every year on the Sunday after Thanksgiving… That sheet music has been passed out, put in folders, marked up, and then passed back in and stored away once a year for who knows how long. And, of course, each time copies of a song are distributed, it’s a random process. I’ve actually been shocked a couple times to coincidentally receive back the same piece of music I’d had in a previous year—by pure accident. But I know it’s mine immediately after paging through it because I recognize my notations throughout the song. Such a fun discovery to make!

Most of the time, though, when I’m receiving a previously used piece of sheet music, it was previously used by somebody else. …often, by maybe even 15-20 different singers through the years. And each singer had his or her own style of pencil markings that were added to the music. Different musicians have different ways they highlight dynamics, breath marks, challenging intervals, or instructions unique to a specific director. Furthermore, a single sheet of music may be used by a soprano one year, a tenor the next year, an alto the following year, and a bass the next. Why does that matter? Each part might have different reasons to make different notations on a different part of the staff. So anytime I open up a piece of music that’s just been passed out to me in rehearsal, there’s no telling what I will find on its pages. And with different handwritings filling the pages with all sorts of different markings, it’s really a uniquely historical document, if you choose to see it that way. 

This past Sunday, we were singing an old familiar choral arrangement of “I Need Thee Every Hour.” Rehearsal had been unexpectedly canceled, so our director went into the files and pulled out a song he knew we could easily ‘master’ within a short 15-minute practice right before the service. As we started our brief rehearsal, he talked through the piece, providing instructions on where to breathe, where to focus on dynamics and where he planned to change the tempo at two different places in the song. The copy of the music in my hands wes filled with penciled in words, circles, and notations from singers who had marked it up in the past. But as I made my own markings according to the director’s specifications, the other marks on the pages almost became invisible to me. Sure, they were still there… But they didn’t stand out like the things I had written in. 

For example… When a director gives instructions about where to breathe or not breathe in a choral piece, I always mark it the same way. If I’m supposed to take a breath, I put a small but certain little vertical dash right at the top of the staff. If I’m supposed to carry a note over and not breathe in a certain place, I write “NB” in that spot. No breath. 🙂 I’ve used those same exact notations for years, so no matter what else my piece of music has written all over it, when I see my little notations, I know to follow them. Even if different breath marks are penciled in from a different director who wanted it done a different way, breath marks written in by someone else literally do not even register in my mind as I’m singing through a piece of music. My brain looks for my markings, and that is all I follow. 

As I sat in my choir seat up at the front of the church on Sunday, smiling about how marked up my music was but how easy it was for me to single out what really mattered, I thought to myself… This is how important it is for me to know God’s Truth. When I know His Word, I can easily ignore everything else and just focus on Him. 

Remember John 10, where Jesus talks about being our Good Shepherd? He said: 

“The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” -John 10:2-5, emphasis added 

How well do you know the voice of Jesus? How much time have you spent reading the Bible, meditating on it and studying it? The pages of Scripture are God’s Spirit-inspired words to us and for us. How often do you linger over a verse or two, reading them over and over just to let them sink in? When you know God’s Word, then you can know the voice of Jesus. And when you know the voice of Jesus, then you can also know what’s not the voice of Jesus. By knowing the Truth, you are also indirectly familiarizing yourself with the voices, messages and ideas that are coming from the world. 

And guess what? This might hurt your feelings to hear, but going to church, reading Christian books and listening to wonderful Christian podcasts cannot do this for you. As fantastic as those resources may be (and they truly are!), they do not substitute for your own personal study and knowledge of God’s Word. You have to spend time reading your Bible. You have to open it up, again and again and again. Day after day, week after week, you have to keep turning the pages of the inspired Word of God because that’s the only way you’ll get to truly know it. That’s the only way to imprint His Truth on your heart and mind. 

We are bombarded with messages all day every day. Through social media, TV and radio commercials, billboards, advertisements in the middle of our podcasts, and so much more, our minds are inundated with “truths” coming from every which way. If you are not firmly grounded in THE Truth, you will come up against moments of confusing indecision. Some things are easily recognizable as unbiblical, but other messages are much more subtle and sly. They are so close to God’s Truth that they can easily disguise themselves as right, when anything that strays even slightly from the Bible is wrong. 

Don’t be fooled, my brothers and sisters in Christ! Don’t let Satan pull one over on you while you’re not looking. Just like I knew exactly which markings were and weren’t mind on that sheet of music, you can know exactly which words are and aren’t from God. How? By spending time in His Word. There is no other way—no substitute, no shortcut. Only the Bible. ♥️

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. … How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. -Psalm 119:97-98, 103-104