HEALTHY VOICE- WSC

Keeping Your Voice Healthy

There are many different reasons why your voice may sound hoarse or abnormal from time to time, and some of these reasons are things that you can not really control. An example would be catching a common cold virus that causes laryngitis. Sure, you can wash your hands frequently and try to avoid people with colds, but virtually everyone catches a cold with a bit of laryngitis now and again.

What you probably did not know is that there are steps you can take to prevent many voice problems. The following steps are helpful for anyone who wants to keep their voice healthy, but are particularly important for people who have an occupation, such as teaching, that is heavily voice-related.

Key Steps for Keeping Your Voice Healthy

• Drink plenty of water. Moisture is good for your voice. Hydration helps to keep thin secretions flowing to lubricate your vocal cords. Drink plenty (up to eight 8-ounce glasses is a good minimum target) of non-caffeinated, non-alcoholic beverages throughout the day.

• Try not to scream or yell. These are abusive practices for your voice, and put great strain on the lining of your vocal cords.

• Voice Warm up. Warm up your voice before heavy use. Most people know that singers warm up their voices before a performance, yet many don't realize the need to warm up the speaking voice before heavy use, such as teaching a class, preaching, or giving a speech. Warm-ups can be simple, such as gently gliding from low to high tones on different vowel sounds, doing lip trills (like the motorboat sound that kids make), or tongue trills.

• Don'’t smoke. In addition to being a potent risk factor for laryngeal (voice box) cancer, smoking also causes inflammation and polyps of the vocal cords that can make the voice very husky, hoarse, and weak.

• Use good breath support. Breath flow is the power for voice. Take time to fill your lungs before starting to talk, and don't wait until you are almost out of air before taking another breath to power your voice.

• Use a microphone. When giving a speech or presentation, consider using a microphone to lessen the strain on your voice.

• Listen to your voice. When your voice is complaining to you, listen to it. Know that you need to modify and decrease your voice use if you become hoarse in order to allow your vocal cords to recover. Pushing your voice when it's already hoarse can lead to significant problems. If your voice is hoarse frequently, or for an extended period of time, you should be evaluated by an Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, and Throat physician.)

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SINGING YOUR PRAYERS

Worship With The Word

The holy Bible tells us  ''Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.'' (Colossians 3:16 )

There’s a beautiful melding of these two that happens where our own words become also words from scripture. Here are five (5) reasons to sing your prayers:


1. You can pray longer and enjoy it. Singing your prayers is a way to make long prayer not only tolerable but enjoyable. I could make up a chorus or verse from scripture and sing it for an hour.  For some reason, singing is much more pleasurable than speaking prayers.

2. Repetition is easy and doesn’t feel weird. I’ve heard of old saints repeating 3 or 5 word prayers over and over all day long “Forgive me, Lord, a sinner.” for example.  I’ve tried this as I do feel there is a benefit to repeated prayers, but it just feels unnatural. When you sing your prayers, you may make up a chorus that goes with the melody like “God, tell me you love me again. Tell me you want me again.  Awaken love.” It feels easy and natural to sing this chorus over and over to the melody.

3. It makes your prayers scriptural. There is definitely power in using the word and communicating it back to God.  When you pray-sing the Psalms, you are often praying the very prayers of this amazing man after God’s own heart, David.  (And think of that-He also sung his prayers!).  You can use nearly any verse out of God’s Word and turn it into beautiful dialogue between you and God.  It also gives you a scriptural vocabulary for communicating with God and others.

4. Music gets in deeper to the soul. You know there is just something about music.  A good song will penetrate your heart and move your emotions. When you sing your prayers, you are escorted to a deeper place with God and feel His words resonating within you.

5. Singing prayer is a great way to “pray without ceasing”.  Since I find it enjoyable, I use most of my time to make up scriptural song-prayers to God–on walks, car rides… And a lot of the times, the choruses will stick with me throughout the day while I’m washing dishes or changing diapers.



Reference

• Holy
• https://www.openbible.info/topics/singing_prayers

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THE REAL STORY BEHIND ''AMAZING GRACE''

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall profess, within the vail,
A life of joy and peace.

The following stanza was written by an an anonymous author, often replacing the sixth stanza, or inserted as the fourth.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Chorus:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

The beloved hymn and its author John Newton, a former slave trader, have inspired a new Broadway musical, but the true history is complex and ambiguous.

“Amazing Grace” is probably the most beloved hymn of the last two centuries. The soaring spiritual describing profound religious elation is estimated to be performed 10 million times annually and has appeared on over 11,000 albums. It was referenced in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin and had a surge of popularity during two of nation’s greatest crises: the Civil War and the Vietnam War.

The real story behind the somewhat sentimental musical, told in Newton’s autobiography reveals a more complex and ambiguous history.
Newton was born in 1725 in London to a Puritan mother who died two weeks before his seventh birthday, and a stern sea-captain father who took him to sea at age 11. After many voyages and a reckless youth of drinking, Newton was impressed into the British navy. After attempting to desert, he received eight dozen lashes and was reduced to the rank of common seaman.

While later serving on the Pegasus, a slave ship, Newton did not get along with the crew who left him in West Africa with Amos Clowe, a slave trader. Clowe gave Newton to his wife Princess Peye, an African royal who treated him vilely as she did her other slaves. On stage, Newton’s African adventures and enslavement are a bit more flashy with the ship going down, a thrilling underwater rescue of Newton by his loyal retainer Thomas, and an implied love affair between Newton and the Princess.

The stage version has John’s father leading a rescue party to save his son from the calculating Princess, but in actuality the enterprise was undertaken by a sea captain asked by the senior Newton to look for the missing John. (In the show, the elder Newton is wounded during the battle for his son’s freedom and later has a tearful deathbed scene with John on board ship.)

During the voyage home, the ship was caught in a horrendous storm off the coast of Ireland and almost sank. Newton prayed to God and the cargo miraculously shifted to fill a hole in the ship’s hull and the vessel drifted to safety. Newton took this as a sign from the Almighty and marked it as his conversion to Christianity. 

He did not radically change his ways at once, his total reformation was more gradual. "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterwards,” he later wrote. He did begin reading the Bible at this point and began to view his captives with a more sympathetic view.

In the musical, John abjures slavery immediately after his shipboard epiphany and sails to Barbados to search for and buy the freedom of Thomas. After returning to England, Newton and his sweetheart Mary Catlett dramatically confront the Prince of Wales and urge him to abolish the cruel practice. 

In real life, Newton continued to sell his fellow human beings, making three voyages as the captain of two different slave vessels, The Duke of Argyle and the African. He suffered a stroke in 1754 and retired, but continued to invest in the business. 

In 1764, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and wrote 280 hymns to accompany his services. He wrote the words for “Amazing Grace” in 1772 (In 1835, William Walker put the words to the popular tune “New Britain”).

It was not until 1788, 34 years after leaving it that he renounced his former slaving profession by publishing a blazing pamphlet called “Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade.” The tract described the horrific conditions on slave ships and Newton apologized for making a public statement so many years after participating in the trade: “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”

 The pamphlet was so popular it was reprinted several times and sent to every member of Parliament. Under the leadership of MP William Wilberforce, the English civil government outlawed slavery in Great Britain in 1807 and Newton lived to see it, dying in December of that year. The passage of the Slave Trade Act is depicted in the 2006 film, also called Amazing Grace, starring Albert Finney as Newton and Ioan Gruffud as Wilberforce.

Reference

DAVID SHEWARD - Aug 11, 2015

http://www.biography.com/news/amazing-grace-story-john-newton

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THE MUSICIAN'S PRAYER

  

The Musician's Prayer

Oh Lord, please bless this music that it might glorify your name.

May the talent that you have bestowed upon me be used only to serve you.

Let this music be a witness to your majesty and love, and remind us

that you are always watching, and listening, from your throne above.

May your presence and beauty be found in every note, and may

the words that are sung reach the hearts of your people so they

will draw closer to you.

May your Spirit guide us through every measure so that we might

be the instruments of your peace, and proclaim your glory with glad voices.

Amen

 

- Anonymous

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THE CHURCH CHOIR IS VITAL TO THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Among the many reasons the choir is vital to the life of any church, consider these three:


1)  The choir is an opportunity for involvement. A church’s ministry is only as effective as the people in its congregation who choose to get involved. Small groups, outreach teams, and the arts have provided great opportunities for congregants to sow into the life of their church’s ministry, and the choir falls under all three of those categories. I’ve often heard the choir referred to as “the church within the church.” When you join a choir, you’re not just singing notes together, you’re doing life and ministry together.
 
2). The choir is an extension of the pulpit. There are so many fantastic songs that have been written for the Church and many that have yet to be written. But not all songs are necessarily suitable for corporate worship. There are songs that teach, encourage, compel, and call to action, and the choir is a marvelous mouthpiece for such things. By presenting these kinds of songs, the choir takes on a pastoral role, and it brings a rich dynamic to the theme or message of that particular service. This is especially effective in services with a missional focus or special services like those during Holy Week or the Christmas season.
 
3). The choir is a reflection of heaven. The prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse into God’s throne room with angels singing together, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). John paints a similar picture in the book of Revelation. There is a heavenly choir that sings God’s praises for all eternity. When we see our friends and family in the choir loft singing in harmony of voice and spirit, I believe we are momentarily transported (even if only in our minds) to the throne room of heaven. Furthermore, we often see a wide array of ages, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds on display in the choir. This, too, is a reflection of heaven – God’s people, of every age and every race, worshipping together as one body.

Reference
http://blog.brentwoodbenson.com/traditional-worship-in-the-contemporary-church-why-the-choir-is-still-important/

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ROCK OF AGES, CLEFT FOR ME

ROCK OF AGES, CLEFT FOR ME

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

Not the labour of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgement throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Story Behind The Hymn

Toplady wrote a number of hymns in his life, but “Rock of Ages” is by far his most famous. When Benson wrote about it in 1923, he claimed it “is to-day in more church hymnals than is any other English hymn.” Not only is it well know among churchgoers, but it is also recognizable in popular culture. A 2006 Broadway musical about rock ‘n roll (and a corresponding Hollywood film in 2012) adopted the name “Rock of Ages.”
As for the hymn, the first stanza appeared in public in 1775 in a periodical called The Gospel Magazine (a periodical which, incredibly, is still in print!). The full version of the hymn was printed the following year in Toplady’s book Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship.

There is a common story of the hymn being inspired by (and even written from within) a rock cleft that Toplady once took refuge in during a storm. The particular rock is in Burrington Combe gorge in North Somerset, England, and it has a plaque on it with this claim to fame. However, the story is probably apocryphal.
As Benson persuasively argues, Toplady was most likely inspired to write the hymn after reading the preface of John and Charles Wesleys’ Hymns on the Lord’s Supper (1745) which contains a prayer voicing many of the themes and words that are also found in the hymn. This is ironic, given the poor condition of Toplady’s relationship with John Wesley; but one can perhaps see the hand of God in it.
Regardless of where and how Toplady got his inspiration, the hymn is a blessing. For generations it has remained a solid testimony to the powerful sacrifice of our Savior and a great encouragement to saints around the world. May God continue its influence, and grant us many more songs with such enduring legacies.

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NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD

NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD 

 Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.


O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!


All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. 

 

Story behind the Hymn

Martin Rinckart (1586-1649 A.D.) was born in Eilenburg, Germany — a small city near Leipzig, which in the 20th century ended up behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany for several decades.
Rinckart studied for the Lutheran ministry, and was called to serve as pastor of the church at Eilenburg, his home town. 

He arrived there just before the beginning of the Thirty Years War, a war that devastated Germany in general and Eilenburg in particular.  Being a walled city, Eilenburg became a place of refuge and soon became badly overcrowded, rendering it susceptible to disease. 

The plague of 1637 decimated the town, killing 8,000 people, including Rinckart’s wife.  Rinckart often conducted forty or fifty funerals a day for plague victims.

It seems incongruous that a hymn like “Now Thank We All Our God” should come out of such circumstances.  However, Rinckart wrote the first two stanzas, not as a hymn for public worship, but as a table grace for his family.  At the end of the war, his hymn was sung to celebrate the signing of the Peace of Westphalia — the treaty that ended the war.

But we would know nothing of this hymn except for the good work of Catherine Winkworth, an English woman who translated many German hymns into English — this hymn and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” being the best known.

— Copyright 2006, Richard Niell Donovan

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OUR DECLARATION FOR THE YEAR 2017

 

The Lord's My Shepherd I'll Not Want Hymn

The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want;
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again,
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E'en for his own name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill:
For thou art with me, and thy rod
And staff me comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head thou dost with oil anoint
And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me;
And in God's house for evermore
My dwelling-place shall be.

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