Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms

Singing the Songs of Jesus by pastor Michael Lefebvre is a book that delivers on its promise to help the church to revisit the Psalms. Modern day evangelicals often ask "what would Jesus do?" More to the point, what did Jesus do? During the days of His incarnation, Jesus worshiped His Father, the God of Israel. One of the ways God is worshiped is through songs of praise. What songs did Jesus sing, when He worshiped the Father? The answer to this question is one of the tasks the author takes on in this book.

Pastor Lefebvre draws attention to Biblical material that is often passed over when studying the history of Israel relating to worship. At every point in the history of redemption, Israel's leaders sang songs before God and the people. The significance of this is often overlooked. Pastor Lefebvre does a remarkable job in chronically how king David was directed by God to oversee the task of creating a song book for the people of Israel to be used in worship. This involved writing songs, overseeing other composers such as Asaph, organizing choirs and musicians. After David, Solomon continued the task of completing Israel's song book.

The preeminence of the king in Israel's worship of God was an important practice. Not only did David direct the people singing songs in worship, this pattern applies to David's Greater Son, who is the Lord. Jesus is our King seated at the right hand of the Father. The apostle Paul, makes the statement that during worship we are seated with Christ in heaven, specifically; "and made us sit together in heavenly places" Ephesians 2:6. Jesus our King is enthroned at the Father's right hand, and we, through our union with Him, are led in heavenly worship by the King Jesus; "Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee" Hebrews 2:12.

The author makes the case that Jesus, our Kingly choirmaster in the heavenly, leads us in singing praises to the Father. Pastor Lefebvre succeeds not only showing that the Psalms are profitable for doctrine, they testify of Christ. They are in fact, the song book Jesus used to worship the Father. The Psalms were composed for Jesus as our perfect King and song leader.

In this brilliant work, Michael Lefebvre calls the church to once again to sing the songs of Jesus. If the church heeds this call, it will be blessed indeed. It should be the heart's desire of every believer to conform to Christ in all of our thoughts and deeds. Surely, this must also involve conforming in how we worship. Hence, the primary song book for the church should be the "Songs of Jesus." The aim of this book is to restore the songs composed for Jesus to their rightful place in His Church. This edifying book should be in the home of everyone who calls themselves Reformed.

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Prophet muhammad

Fourteen centuries ago a man named Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that Mother Mary was a pious virgin, when she gave birth to Jesus. He said that Jesus had been born miraculously without any male intervention. And he shut the mouthes of many of those, who used to abuse Mother Mary. It is because of prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that around one and a half billion Muslims around the world respect, love and revere Jesus Christ. In fact Islam makes it an article of faith to believe in Jesus. A Muslim can not be a Muslim unless he believes in Jesus Christ

The miraculous birth of Jesus is a compulsory article of the Muslim faith and every Muslim has to believe in it, in order to be a Muslim. Muslims believe in his miracles. Qur'an mentions the miracle of Jesus as a young kid, when he gave life to birds that he had made out of clay, with God's permission. But if one checks the New Testament he would not find this miracle mentioned there. A few days ago while doing a research concerning the Bible, I came across some scriptures that the early Christians included in the Bible and called them the word of God, but the church did not include these scriptures in the New Testament. One of these scriptures is the Gospel of Infancy, which is about the childhood of Jesus Christ. This Gospel of Infancy and the Holy Qur'an contain this miracle, but the Bible does not.

Muslims also believe that he gave life to the dead with God's permission and healed those born blind and lepers. We believe in his second coming. It is astonishing that the Qur'an tries to defend Jesus against objectionable things mentioned about him in the Bible. For instance, The Bible says that Jesus Christ never called Mother Mary as "Mother or Mom", but rather called her "you woman!" This is highly objectionable because this is the same language that he uses for a prostitute in the Bible, "you woman!" Astonishingly the Qur'an in turn defends Jesus and says that he was obedient and respectful to his mother and would never say anything as such to his mother.

So astonishing as it maybe, Islam is the only Non Christian faith, which holds Jesus Christ in such high prestige and reverence and makes it an article of faith for its followers to believe in Jesus Christ. The major difference of opinion among Christians and Muslims is that some Christians believe that Jesus Christ claimed divinity and was God. While Muslims believe that he was a mighty messenger of God and never claimed to be God.

So Muslims believe that so many good things about Jesus only because Muhammad (peace be upon him) said so, not that Bible thumpers convinced them. Now the Bible thumpers are making serious efforts to convince Muslims that Jesus is God. They use a wide range of tactics for this purpose from common arguments that Jesus did not have a father so he should be God or that Jesus gave life to the dead that is why he is God. But these arguments have so far failed in front of Muslims, as even Adam did not have parents and even Moses gave life to his dead staff and made it a serpent. The Bible thumpers even get handy with the Qur'an. They quote verses from the Qur'an and tell Muslims that Jesus is "Kalimatullah, the word of Allah" and "Ruhullah, the Spirit of Allah". But the Muslims come forward with the argument that even John, the Baptist is referred to as "Kalimatullah, word of God" in the Qur'an. The Qur'an also says that Allah breathed into Adam of his spirit and also breathed of it into the whole mankind.

Efforts are also being made on the Muslim side as well to convince Christians that Jesus was not God, but is a messenger of God. Muslims use common arguments such as how can Jesus be God and also die for your sins, when God is Eternal? But Christians make some efforts to prove that death is of two types, spiritual death and physical death. While other Christians try to prove how Jesus has a dual nature. Muslims even get handy with the Bible. For instance, this post " Is Jesus God? " claims that Jesus Christ did not claim divinity anywhere in the Bible. It also makes an effort to answer the several Biblical verses quoted by Christians to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ.

So the major difference of opinion between Muslims and Christians is the divinity of Jesus Christ and both are trying to convince the other to accept their point of view. It is a healthy discussion and is surely going to continue for a long time.

Liaqat Qazi is a student of Islam and Comparative Religions, who runs a blog called Peacebook, where he discusses issues about all major World Religions. He also discusses the most controversial issues about Islam and other religions in a logical way, with proof from the religious scriptures.

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The Jesus Scandals

What made you come and look at this review? Did you anticipate another book refuting the crucifixion or other such notorious events surrounding Jesus? Let me assure you that this book is not about that at all. If anything, this particular nonfiction work is about the curious things Jesus said and did. We may not understand how some of the topics fit under the auspices of the word scandal until you read what David is placing before you and I as food for thought.

Within the pages of this short book you will laugh, think, rethink, and maybe learn something new. The contents are divided into three parts: Scandals in Jesus' life, Scandals among Jesus' friends, and finally Scandals in Jesus' teaching. We forget that Jesus' friends, disciples, family, and others also went through various experiences because of who Jesus was and is. As you read through the short chapters, perhaps you will allow your views to be expanded as David expounds on the Scriptures. He brings the culture of then and now into an understanding of what Jesus taught and how we are to be changed by it today.

When life gets hectic or even in quiet times, we tend to forget that life isn't always the same for others around us. When we read the Bible, it may be that we read it with a particular viewpoint that does or maybe it doesn't coincide with what Jesus actually taught or did. There are some issues raised that have a different conclusion when history is brought into the picture. In other chapters, the Body of Christ is exhorted again to pay attention and heed the Master's commands.

The author hopes that the book will be used to begin conversations with anyone the Lord brings across our path in life. David brings clarity to some parts of Scripture that have been unfortunately not understood completely or not at all. David never writes with a know-it-all style, but a very real down to earth, easy style that helps the reader think about what is being presented.

This is perhaps one book you might want to leave in various rooms of your home to be read with a little or a lot of time available. I found myself at times, laughing at something written, other times agreeing, and occasionally not agreeing with the conclusions. The Jesus Scandals is a great book to encourage conversations with others, but not for the sake of creating arguments. I appreciate the ideas, thoughts, and scholarly help contained in the small book and I hope you do too.

My rating is 4 stars out of 5.

Follow me on twitter @lcjohnson1988 or on my website: http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/

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