It is always a good thing to better understand what it means to be a servant of the Most High God, to be able to grasp more of the vision and purpose of our worship and service to him, thus these thoughts.
What is audio?
Audio refers to sound or the production or reproduction of sound.
Maybe you havent thought of yourself as an iPod, or a Sansa, Zen, Gigabeat, iRiver or Muvo.
But you can play audio. The question is whose music are you playing? What audio files are the people around you hearing? And then there is the greatest opportunity of all which we will mention shortly.
First a little anatomical background.
How do we make sound or audio?
Voicing: A voiced sound is produced when air expelled from the lungs causes the vocal folds to vibrate. This produces a fundamental tone accompanied by several non-harmonic overtones.
Vocal folds: The vocal folds, also known popularly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx. They vibrate, modulating the flow of air being expelled from the lungs during phonation.
The vocal folds are open during inhalation, closed when holding one’s breath, and vibrating for speech or singing, for instance, opening and closing 440 times per second when singing A above middle C.
These thoughts were instigated this morning as I prayed. As it is so often, very simple, common things in our lives are a story unto themselves and that is what happened this morning as I thought of the simple process of reading and then audibly expressing the words of God.
I was preparing some readings for our worship service, and it just occurred to me what went on in the process of people standing and reading the words of God the physical aspect of speaking, and the spiritual aspect of the physical action, as in our voice boxes being instruments for God.
I allow my physical body to be an audio instrument for God by air and Wind. Wind or air goes through the vocal folds and we have audio. The Wind of God courses through our hearts, we read Gods words and the words become audible. God uses the physical equipment he has given us as we bow before him and let his Wind blow, like putting the needle down on an old record.
Thus Gods audio players.
So I wanted to draw the attention of the people reading and listening this morning to the opportunity and the blessing. What is that opportunity and blessing? Allowing God to use us to voice his words, to be Gods audio instruments, his iPod or Gigabeat, for a few moments that we and others might hear his words.
You see the files were written down for us by men in preceding generations who gave way to the Wind of God and allowed him to use them as he saw fit. God breathed the words to them, and they wrote them down, preserving the files for thousands of years.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17 MSG) Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another–showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
God breathed his words through some so that we would have them written down. God uses some to voice his words audible expression of what he has had written down for us, air expelled across your vocal folds, the Wind of God expelled across your willing hearts.
So the next time you are tempted to think it is just Scripture reading, maybe think again air expelled through the vocal cords, the breath of God expelled through the human instrument.
We can hear God now! Yes, we can hear God now!
