It was popular in 1978 and I still remember it after nearly 40 years.  Not an original part of the musical “Grease” the song, sung by Olivia Newton-John, was added during the filming, even though the producers were not crazy about it.  Eventually it won a Grammy and was nominated for a Best Song Oscar:  “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”

              I wonder what all those starry-eyed, romantically inclined teenagers would think if they knew what God meant when He wanted you to “devote” something to Him.

              Behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Jer 25:9

              Jerusalem was to be “devoted” and that meant “destroyed.”  And no, it’s not a onetime use of the word.

              But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it.   Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.  And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Josh 6:18, 21, 24

              Jericho was “devoted” to God by fire.  It was totally destroyed.  When Achan “took of the devoted thing” he was stealing from God.

              So here’s the question for today.  How do I devote myself to God?

              We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Rom 6:6

              I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal 2:20

              And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

              The cross you bear is not some illness or disability or trial you go through.  Most of those things just happen to us.  Jesus is talking about something you do voluntarily, and everyone knew that if you saw a man carrying a cross he was on his way to his death.  Jesus says you kill that old man, crucify him, daily.  Then and only then can you be “hopelessly devoted” to him.
 
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Col 3:5-10
 
Dene Ward

I think this might be something I am looking forward to most about Heaven—putting faces to names.  We have studied them so often and at such depth, that each of us has probably pictured Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Esther, Mary (all of them!), Peter, John, Paul and so many others in our minds.  Stuck as we are in our own culture and generation, we probably have erred in our portraits.  Jesus certainly was not the pale, brown-haired, blue-eyed, six foot man in the unstained white robes we see in practically every painting.   

            In fact, if you do as I do sometimes on Sunday mornings and picture him walking among us as our host, communing with us in the feast, you probably see him in robes then too, don’t you?  Yet Jesus came down as a man in a time when everyone wore robes.  The fact that he blended in so well and looked so ordinary was one of his problems—“Who does he think he is?  Isn’t this just the carpenter’s son?  Didn’t we watch him grow up among us?”  No, if Jesus had chosen this generation to make his appearance, he might very well have been in khakis, or even blue jeans, and some of us would have had just as much trouble accepting him as the scribes and Pharisees did.

            Putting faces to names in Heaven will be a revelation.  And we won’t have any problem talking with these great people.  I am sure you have had the experience of needing to speak with someone who is important, someone who is very busy—perhaps the preacher or one of the elders, or someone who is “popular” in whatever venue you happen to find yourself.  You stand in line waiting your turn, and if you are lucky you get 30 seconds before he or she is distracted by something or someone else.  You almost feel like a nuisance, and most of the time I find myself avoiding people like that just so I won’t be any trouble to them. 

            That will not happen in Heaven.  How do I know?  Because it’s Heaven.  Isn’t that the very definition of the word?  No more problems, no more trials, no more feelings of inadequacy.  We will know everyone and they will know us, and no one will need to wait in line for thirty seconds of token time.
Do you know what?  We have that now with God, a taste of Heaven whenever we pray.  He is instantly listening.  He is intent on our every word, even filling in the ones we can’t seem to get out right.  He knows our names and our faces, and with that he knows every problem or fear or anxiety, and we have his undivided attention for as long as we want it.  Our faith means we know him, not just his name, and because we trust him, he knows us too. 
           
            Putting faces to names in this life can be a lot of fun.  Putting a face on God will be amazing.
 
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure, 1 John 3:1-3.
 
Dene Ward

Before I am labelled an old fuddy-duddy, let me say that this is meant to be a simple request to all song leaders of the Lord’s people to please look closely at your selections before you actually get up and lead them.  You may not realize it, but you are entrusted with the task of enabling God’s people to worship Him in song AND teach one another. You are also in the unenviable position of having to satisfy different tastes, abilities, and knowledge levels.  Wouldn’t it be wise to choose a good mix of different types of hymns, different lyric types, different music types and styles?  Let me show you one problem when you don’t do this.

              We generally have two hymns before the lesson.  What if the song leader chose “Glorify Thy Name” and “I Will Call upon the Lord”?  This is what you will be singing:

Glorify Thy Name
Father (sung 1 time)
Jesus (sung 1 time)
Spirit (sung 1 time)
We love you, we worship and adore you (3 times)
Glorify they name (12 times)
In all the Earth (9 times)

That means you sang “Father/Jesus/Spirit we love you, we worship and adore you, Glorify thy name in all the earth,” and that was the extent of the teaching in that song.  Pardon me if I am underwhelmed, but let’s check the second song too

What do we sing in “I Will Call Upon the Lord”?

I will call upon the Lord (6 times)
Who is worthy to be praised (4 times)
So shall I be saved from my enemies (4 times)
The Lord liveth and blessed be the rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted (4 times)

That means you sang this:  “I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised.  So shall I be saved from my enemies.  The Lord liveth and blessed be the rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted.”  Yes some of this is very good, but it isn’t really very much in quantity.

            It seems to me that we are singing an awful lot to say very little.  Maybe those two songs should not be sung on the same day, especially if that’s all there is to our singing.

              Please compare any song written before 1960 and, while you will still find some fairly worthless songs, you will find far more who give us line after line of truths straight from or alluding to God’s word in a deep and thoughtful manner, songs that, if meditated upon and sung “with the understanding” will enrich your spiritual life far more than many, maybe most, of the newer songs.

              Let’s now clear up some misunderstandings.  I have heard it said, “The Psalms are full of repetition.”  Have you studied them?  Only one that I can think of is “full” of repetition, number 136.  It was obviously meant for group worship in a time when hymnals were unheard of.  It is a type of psalm called “responsorial.”  Only the leader—the choirmaster or chief musician--knew the words, but to help the congregation participate, they were given the phrase “His lovingkindness endures forever” to repeat after every line he sang, twenty-six different lines, by the way, with no repetition in them.  That was a remedy for a situation that no longer exists.  Every place I have worshipped has a hymnal for every person.

            Other repetitions in the Psalms are nowhere near that level, and were sung as refrains, the same way we sing a chorus after a verse nowadays.  They tend to come after stanzas that cover several verses, none of which is repetitive.  Usually you won’t find the refrains more than three times, sometimes only twice.

            For the record, I like both of the hymns I have listed above.  Do you know why?  I like the harmonies in “Glorify Thy Name,” and I like the music and style of “I Will Call Upon the Lord.”  But are those good reasons to sing them?  Not on your life.  For one thing, music in those days up through the first century and several centuries beyond, was not about harmony and metered rhythm—they hadn’t been invented yet.  Even melody was more akin to a chant.

            Hymns should appeal to us because of the lyrics, not the music.  I far prefer the older hymns that help me recall passage after passage after passage.  In them I can find references or quotes of literally dozens of verses, not just one line or verse repeated ad nauseam.  Aren’t the words supposed to be the most important thing in our singing?  How else do we “teach and admonish?”  Certainly not by syncopated rhythm!

            So let’s sing one of those occasionally, maybe to get the interest of the younger folks ignited, but let's not leave our older folks in the dust.  And let’s remember what we are supposed to be doing and pick out a few hymns with deeper meaning. Let’s check to see how much teaching is actually being done on a given Sunday morning.
 
What is it then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 1Cor 14:26
 
Dene Ward