BECAUSE 9

BECAUSEHeart StringsAre The Carriers OfThe Song Of Our Souls.

Zimmer is one of the biblical words for song. It is interesting that the well known singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s given name is Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew name אברהם בן זיסל שבתאי )

In Ephesians 5:19 we are to speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.There is an art to speaking in songs.

It’s not a musical or on opera; but speaking in such a beautiful way that it could be a song. There is a no musical accompaniment when we speak, no melody or musical instrument.

To ‘speak in song’, means, all the words make up for the fact that there is no music and in themselves become a song that is so beautiful and harmonious, that they need no accompaniment.Would our daily talk produce the transcript for a Godly song? Would it be a song of praise? Would it have words of love, peace and hope, thanksgiving, encouragement, mercy, courage and determination?

When we speak words like a song they make up for the fact there is no music.We are encouraged to sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord. Psalm 40:3; Ps 98:5; Judges 5:3;

Psalm 33:3. We are to sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, on the harp and shout for joy.

I will sing a new song to You, O God; Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,Psalm 144:9

The word melody in Greek is psallo, which means, the pluck, as describes the way of playing a harp.

The word Psalm in Hebrew is,

mizmor

and a mizmor, is a piece of music, a praise played with an instrument to God.Psallo, this word is specifically connected to making music on harp strings.The Hebrew word mizmor eventually became psalmos and when the ancient Jewish scholars translated the Scriptures into the Greek language, the word psallo is where we get our word Psalm.

This reference indicates that if you want to praise God, you must play a musical instrument.

God has designed us physically to be able to do that, without any external instrument.

The instrument that produces music to the Lord, is our heart.

Let us sing to Him with the innocence childlike faith.Our heart is like a harp, made to make holy music, if it is played right.It’s a musical instrument and it’s at the center of your being, in the deepest part of your existence. That’s what makes the content of the music of praise to God and it originates from the deepest part of your being.

Hence the term or idiom, pulling on the heart strings, is often quoted for our heart is like a harp.

We look at life and our heart and often see that things don’t look so beautiful. Ups, downs, highs and lows, hopes and disappointment, joy, tears, love, rejection all jumbled together. Our hearts were never made to produce bitterness, hatred, fear, or depression. They were made to be instruments that make melody to the One who created them. The melody of praise and thanksgiving, the music of love, worship, joy and shalom. Psalm 33:1–5; Ephesians 5:19, 20; A harp doesn’t just have one string but many. Some have 

22 or 26some 34and 37 and the concert grand harp has 47strings.Both high and low strings just like the ups and downs in our lives and hearts. The highs give it brightness and brilliance and the lows give it deeper fuller sounds.

We have a secret harp right in the midst of our being and we are to praise Him in all of it and with all of it.

There’s a great beauty waiting to emerge from the highs and equally from the lows.

The key is to allow God’s Spirit, the Ruach ha Kodesh to touch all of the strings in your heart and make it beautiful and harmonious.

Allow Him to touch the joys, the high strings and also the low strings of sadness and hardship. What ever it is, as we bring it to the Lord, He will change it.The touch of the Masters’ hand will cause that change. What ever we allow to be touched by the His hand, will be changed into heavenly MIZMOR.

Music carrying praises to Him.

The center of our being was created as an instrument to praise God, to be PSALLO, to be plucked, and when we do just that, our life will become a psalm, a song of praise, a MIZMOR to Him. 

Because He has put a new song in our hearts, we will pull it’s strings with deep joy. Composing a melody from within of worship, love and gratitude, in adoration for our Savior and the lover of our souls.

Allow Him to PLUCK the strings of our hearts; for the sound that comes forth will be straight from Heavens throne of glory.

Ephesians 5:19; Ecclesiastes 7:14.

On the Prayer Shawl or Tallit at each corner there are tzitzit and each of the 4 tzitzit have 8 strings, making a total of 32 strings.Thirty-two is the numeric value of the Hebrew word for “HEART”.

LEBAB /LEB . 

לֵבב

Phonetic Spelling: (lay-bawb) . inner man, mind, will, heart .

Mitral Heart Valves look like strings.

(Greek. kardia from where we get our word Cardiac.)

The tzitzit’s loose stringsrepresentGod’s ‘heart strings’ which are held on to tightly during prayer. 

Sound is all vibration, it is the impression produced on the ear by the vibrations of air.The pitch of the musical note is higher or lower according as these vibrations are faster or slower. When they are too slow, or not sufficiently regular and continuous to make a musical sound, we call it noise.

Resonance – when a FORCED vibration matches an object’s natural frequency thus producing vibration, sound, or even damage. One example of this involves shattering a wine glass by hitting a musical note that is on the same frequency as the natural frequency of the glass. (Natural frequency depends on the size, shape, and composition of the object in question.) Because the frequencies resonate, or are in sync with one another, maximum energy transfer is possible.

 

Experiments have long been completed which fix the number of vibrations for each musical note; by which, of course, we may easily calculate the difference between the number of vibrations between each note.

The number of vibrations in a second, for each note, is a multiple of eleven, and the difference in the number of vibrations between each note is also a multiple of eleven.

 

The ear can detect and convey these vibrations to the brain only within certain limits.

Each ear has within it a minute organ, like a little harp, with about ten thousand strings.

When a sound is made, the corresponding string of this little harp vibrates in sympathy, and conveys the impression to the brain.The immense number of these little strings provides for the conveyance of every conceivable sound within certain limits. In the scale there is a range of 264 vibrations.

There is a difference between each one, so that there are practically 264 notes in the scale, but the ear cannot detect them.

The ear of a skilled violinist can detect many more than an ordinary untrained ear.The mechanical action of a pianoforte can record only twelve of these notes.

The violin can be made to produce a much larger number, and is therefore more perfect as an instrument, but not equal in this respect to the human voice. The wonderful mechanism of the human voice, being created by God, far excels every instrument that man can make.

The same vocal chords that produce sounds that soothe, can also release a resonant frequency able to shatter glass.It is able to accomplish this, by matching the natural frequency of the crystal glass.Frequency is calculated by dividing the speed with the wavelength. Therefore,

Frequency = speed / wavelength
Frequency = 340.29 m/s / 0.320 m
Frequency = 1063.41 /s

There are vibrations which the ear cannot detect, so slow as to make no audible sound, but there are ways by which they can be made visible to the eye.

When sand is thrown upon a thin metal disc, to which a chord is attached and caused to vibrate, (like a violin bow), the sand will immediately arrange itself in a perfect geometrical pattern.

 The pattern will vary with the number of the vibrations. These are called “Chladni’s figures.” Moist plaster on glass or moist water-color on rigid surfaces will vibrate at the sound, say, of the human voice, or of a cornet, and will assume forms of various kinds—geometrical, vegetable and floral; some resembling ferns, others resembling leaves and shells, according to the pitch of the note.

 The middle canal contains the basilar membrane, which holds the organ of Corti. The structure located in the cochlea that is the chief part of the ear, (middle ear), through which sound is perceived.

Named after Italian anatomist, Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti, (1822–1876), who understood how God had created it.Even the organs of Corti are limited in their perception, notwithstanding the many thousands of minute vibrating chords.

When these organs are perfect or well formed there is what is called “an ear for music.”

But in many cases there is “no ear for music.” This means that these organs are defective, not fully developed, or malformed, in the case of such persons; and that the sounds are not accurately conveyed to the brain.There is a solemn and important truth therefore in the words, “He that planted the ear”! (Psa 94:9). What a planting and what an amazing God who created all these things, most of which we will never see! Even when we don’t ‘see the sounds’, they are still creating patterns in the very air around us. Helps to better understand the saying, ‘Creating an atmosphere!’Not every one has this peculiar (musical) “ear.”

And no one has by nature, that ear which can distinguish the things of God.

The spiritual ear is the direct gift and planting of God. Hence it is written, “He that hath an ear,” i.e., only he that hath that divinely-planted, God-given ear can hear the things of the Spirit of God. “An ear to hear” those spiritual things is a far greater reality, and an infinitely greater gift, than an ear for music!

Oh wondrous ear! It is the Lord that gives “the hearing ear” (Prov 20:12). He wakeneth the ear to hear (Isa 50:4);

It is the Lord that openeth the ear (Isa 50:5). The natural ear does not hear spiritual sounds; it cannot discern them. (Isa 64:4 and 1 Cor 2:9). Thus nature and grace illustrate each other, and reveal the great fact that there is a secret ear, more delicate than any “organs of Corti,” that can detect sounds invisible as well as inaudible to the senses, and which enables those who possess it to say:—

“Sweeter sounds than music knows
Charm me in Emanuel’s name;
All her hopes my spirit owes
To His birth, and cross, and shame.”

 

The biblical history of the harp goes back to the antediluvian era when the House of Jubal was known as the maker and players of harps and the flutes. (Gen. 2:40)

A sheqel coin with a harp as part if the design. 

The first recorded harp in ancient historical records was in the Sumerian and the Ancient Egyptian societies.

The most famous harp in history is the Harp of David. This harp was a symmetrical harp known as the Kinnor Harp.

What we now know is this Mishnah is that David was not only an expert harpist and psalms composer, who used harp therapy in the royal court of King Saul, but was also a recognized musicologist and builder of classical harp designs.Beside the Kinnor / lyre

kinnor: a lyre כִּנּוֹר 

or the Harp of David,

The nevel or nebel

(Hebrew: נֵ֤בֶל‎ nêḇel) 

the Nevel/ Harp, most popular as a ten stringed lap harp.

Yet the most complex and mystical of the Nevel Harps was the twenty-two stringed Nevel Harp

which was recognized by some rabbinic sources to produce the most perfect of music.

According to the traditions of the Jews, the Lord of hosts used a twenty-two stringed heavenly harp called the Nevel in the creation of this earth.The transcendent energy of the twenty two frequencies became the Hebrew language with twenty-two letters from alef to tav and formed the energy matrix of this earth. For believers there are specific jobs of service, to be carried out with the greatest “Kavanah” (Divine Intention), and the purest vibrations of the heart.Let the melody in your heart become your zimmer talk.

There may be more than we realize to the turn of phrase, ‘singing your heart out’ because heart strings are the carriers of the song of our souls!

Shalom! 

 

 

BECAUSE 8

Because – Silence Is Beauty

1 Peter 3:3-4. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. Learning evolves out of communion but we should be mindful not to mix the two.Many times we are over anxious to learn or speak or get answers to our prayer requests.We will see the Lord most clearly in the silent still pool,

where we can hear the still, calm, small voice. Kings 19:11-13Here in this place, words are as pebbleswhich when dropped into quiet water,send out ripples and distort the image.He wants to minister to us in the beauty of the silence.In ways He could never communicate by words alone. Psalm 62:5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.He desires to look deep into our souls and as He searches us out and knows us,His blessings will come in ways yet unknown to us. He desires we also minister to Him. We need to be still and wait quietly for His salvation. Lamentations 3:26. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.Time spent in His presence is never wasted for only He can touch us the deep in our souls.Our modern, technology oriented lives, have become too busy and too noisy.And we are too eager to impatiently move, to get up and go on with our lives and are easily tempted to dispel the perfect, calm, place in His presence because we’re too busy and so we can do what we need to do to move forward   Like a child with a short attention span we want answers and action NOW!We leave our ‘shopping list’ of needs and requirements at His feet, and rush out of His presence, without any semblance of real or meaningful communication and expect home delivery without delay!We are often uncomfortable in the silence.

It takes practice and discipline to remain quiet before Him for any prolonged length of time;Yet it is for us to minister to Him from our inner desire, asking Him to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. Ps 51:10The still waters of Psalm 23 where the sheep must drink, are those same pure waters, where we too must take in His spirit.Sheep are not happiest when drinking from fast-moving waterNo doubt sheep are afraid of the rushing water and rightly so because if they fall in, their wool would become so saturated, that they would drown with the extra weight pulling them under.

Likewise for us to receive the full benefit of His life-giving waterin the form of His Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, we must be still and know that He is God. Psalm 46:10Because in the silence and stillness, that pool will reflect all that He is; and all that He will be in us; and all that we can become in Him.The more still that the water is, the more accurate the reflection, as with a mirror made of glass. Likewise the more we are still within, as well as externally, the better we reflect Our Father. We can only see our reflection in still waters otherwise what we see is distorted.Our cry should be, “search me and know me”. Psalm 139:1, 23Then after we are refreshed from the still waters of the pool and we touch that which has imbued us with life then, when the ripples go outward across the surface, it is symbolic of the giving out of ourselves.

But unless we first fill up; there will be no substance in our outward reach to the lost and hurting world around us.Jesus, lover of my soul

Jesus, I will never let You go

You’ve taken me from the miry clay

You’ve set my feet upon the rock

And now I know. I love you, I need you,
Though my world may fall, I’ ll never let you go
My Saviour, my closest friend,
I will worship you until the very end…There is no salvation without purification, so the need to have God create in us a clean heart, is essential for maturity as a believer.

We have to have an inner cleanliness. For Jesus himself reminded us, the pure in heart shall see God. Matt 5:8Everyday we should take a mental mikveh/ a bath for our minds and determine to be honest with ourselves and then, to think on, whatsoever is pure, etc., as referenced in Scripture. Phil 4:8Our minds stray, our hearts wander, but let’s not lose our souls but instead discover the living Word Himself and plant Him deep within us, to purify our hearts as only He can (James 4:8); by the washing of the water of His Word . Eph 5:262 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Because in the silence of His presence there is holiness and the fullness of His Shalom. When Jesus said My Peace I give to you. John 14:27He was talking about Shalom which cannot be translated into just a single word..

When there is Shalom there is tranquility,

there is an absence of disorder and violence,

there is justice, sufficient food, clothing and housing. Divine Health no sickness.

There is absence of conflict, lack, hatred, abuse, bribery, corruption, pain, suffering, immorality and all other negative forces.

That is what Jesus was meaning when He said, ‘My peace I give unto you.’ This place of Shalom, is being still and knowing He is God.Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.

Because there is beauty in the silence and in the stillness of His shalom.

~~~~~

Mikveh or mikvah (Hebrew: מִקְוֶה / מקווה is a bath used for the purpose of achieving purity

~~~~~~~

Shalom to each and everyone.

Keeping It All Bottled up-Part 1

We are familiar with the Book Of Life where the name of every redeemed soul is recorded.     However the scripture records that God also has a book/scroll of remembrance

Malachi speaks of a book or scroll of remembrance written in the presence of God, a record of the words spoken by those who feared the Lord.

Malachi 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon and esteemed his name.

Az nid•be•roo yir•ey Adonai eesh el-re•e•hoo va•yak•shev Adonai va•yish•ma va•yi•ka•tev se•fer zi•ka•ron le•fa•nav le•yir•ey Adonai ool•chosh•vei sh`mo.

David cries out to God in the Psalm 56:8,

“put my tears in your bottle” and then declares “are they not in your book?”

He asked that his tears be kept in Heaven’s permanent record.

Psalms 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: [are they] not in thy book? “Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?”

No•di sa•far•ta ata si•ma dim•ati v`no•de•cha ha•lo be•sif•ra•te•cha.

God has a book of remembrance that tells of our wanderings, our tears and sufferings. Is this book the same one from Malachi, or yet a different book kept by Adonai?

Everything that people are doing in speaking, communing together in their love for God is chronicled. Everything about us is recorded. (Psalms 139:14-16)Either way, God keeps books full of our life’s stories…the costly victories won in the secret place, the sorrows and pains endured in silence, the joys celebrated in God’s presence, all are witnessed and forever recorded.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
 all the days ordained for me were written in your book
 before one of them came to be. (psalm 139:16)

Rom 12:15. Sim•choo eem-has•me•chim oov•choo eem-ha•bo•chim.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

דמעות Tears Dim-ati   D-M-A/B-KH-HTears of joy are the sunbeams piercing the soft and gentle rain drops of refreshing summer showers.

Bottle – בקבוק (pronounced bahk-book) 

My tears in Your bottle.There are several Hebrew words related to the act of weeping. These range from (bekhi), crying, to (dema’ot), tears, with several interposed onomatopoetic words that imitate the sound of crying: for example, (yevava), (yelala), and, accompanied by a sigh, (nehi).Tears cleanse the eye and also the soul.

For his anger lasts but a moment; in his favor is life; weeping..

Tears may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning Ps 30:5

Ki re•ga be•a•po cha•yim bir•tzo•no ba•erev ya•lin be•chi ve•la•bo•ker ri•na.

Even those who maintain their life is without many problems, have experienced times of great sadness, loss of a loved family member or friend, to all four legged ones with whom we share our lives. Death is a great physical separator, but in Him it is only the doorway to eternity into His presence, to be with Him and the scriptures say we shall be like Him. 

We all cry tears, they are an integral attribute of being human. After nine months it’s our first response to leaving the womb. Tears bring forth life, crying doesn’t indicate that you are weak because since birth it has always been a sign that you are alive.A first dramatic and traumatic transition from darkness into light and it kick starts our bodies to begin doing things on our own, like breathing. The act of crying fills our lungs with air and our life in this realm begins.the first of many tears we would shed over the course of our lifetime.Scripture has plenty to say about tearsThe Lord SEES Our Every Tear All of the passages in scripture teach us this one very important truth and that is, we have never shed a tear that GOD didn’t see.

God has seen every tear we shed…on our pillow at night and every tear we have cried behind closed doors…when hurtful or hateful words were spoken to us and crushed our spirit…when someone has betrayed us or trampled all over our heart…

when our loved one died, and every tear we have shed since then when we think of them…when we have miserably failed and lost all hope in ourselves…every tear we have shed over a wayward son or daughter who has gone astray…

God has put our tears in His bottle and recorded them in His book.

Ruth Bell Graham, the late wife of Billy Graham, once said…… “In every pew sits a broken heart.” It would seem that there’s a lot of truth in that statement. 

To every bruised and broken heart reading this today, realize God has put your tears in His bottle and recorded them in His book. 

He knows each and every one…

and His promise to each of us is that “weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”Why would He keep our tears in a bottle and record them in His book if they were not precious to Him?

In recent years, science has proved that each tear contains our unique DNA, they represent the sum total of our lives. They are in a sense, a liquid record of our existence and emotional experiences.In the bottle, is all our pain and joy etc. combined, it is each one of us and our whole lives.

That’s why He keeps them.

He promises that one day, there will be no more tears or crying. Then we will be complete in Him and the human emotions will be matured into those of who He IS, and those emotions will no longer be required for a life in eternity with Him.The most painful tears are not the ones that fall from your eyes and cover your face, they are the ones that come from your heart and overwhelmingly envelope your soul. They are the components of the ‘bricks’ with which we build the protective wall around our hearts and the fabric of the shell into which we crawl in order to prevent any further hurt.Many times, crying is the only way that we can speak, when our mouths can’t explain how things broke our heart; when our eyes release tears, they are the words the heart is unable to form or utter.Sometimes we feel like crying for no apparent reason and it’s often to make up for the days we suppressed our tears of sorrow and hurt.Rain falls because the clouds can no longer handle the weight. There comes a tipping point of overflow when their contents can no longer be contained in the same way, our tears fall because the heart can no longer handle the pain.Anyone can make you smile, many people can make you cry,
 but it takes someone really special to make you smile with tears in your eyes.Tears are good! What flows is alive. Crying is like a thunderstorm for the soul, the air feels so wonderful after the rain. Your tears herald a change in your life like the summer rain and they wash away the pain

Tears are like prayers too, they travel to God when we have no words to communicate. Psalm 56:8
A forensics expert explained that when they chemically tested the tears from people who lost loved ones from natural causes, accidents and suicide; those tears showed to contain poison when analyzed in a chemical reaction.

As believers, when we hear that, we think about Jesus crying and realize the enormity of what was contained in His tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. The mental anguish of the extreme stress of the combined sins of the whole world were upon Him. Esau sought with Bitter tears …the poison is in the bitterness. Hebrews 12:15-17 and there are warnings about the root of bitterness in Deut. 29:18 and Lamemtations 3:15,19

Surely at one time, we have all probably had some tears ‘burn’ our eyes.

 Luke 22:62 says, “So Peter went out and wept bitterly.”On hearing this explanation, it becomes clear how important our healing is from others actions, as they can become a poison in our bodies. There are records showing how many survivors who aren’t believers in the Lord, became sick with cancer and other life threatening diseases.

So crying does bring healing and tears bring life. Our tears have an important purpose.
The Bible teaches us there are three things that cause us to shed tears:it’s because of PHYSICAL pain EMOTIONAL painSPIRITUAL painContrary to what many people believe, tears aren’t a sign of weakness, tears are a sign of strength. Its the ability to humble ourselves and allow the reality of our situation to be seen by others.

Crying brings the release of emotion, allowing God to replace all the inner pain with JOY, HOPE and LOVE and to fill our hearts and minds with His Shalom/ the PEACE that passes ALL understanding. 

It has been said that … an interesting observation.

Remember we are greatly loved and cherished and  Coming in Part 2: 

A look at some amazing images showing the intricacies in the designs of tear drops from different emotions.