Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Monday, March 10, 2008

Study Shows Music Helps Stroke Victims Recover More Quickly

Courtesy of BCN (BreakingChristianNews.com)

Teresa Neumann

"These findings demonstrate for the first time that music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood."

Music Therapy(London, UK)—Reuters reports that, as published in the journal Brain, a Finnish study has shown that music helps people recover more quickly from strokes; patients who listened to a few hours of music each day soon after a stroke also improved their verbal memory and were in a better mood compared to patients who did not listen to music or used audio books.

"These findings demonstrate for the first time that music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood," the researchers wrote.

For the study, one group reportedly listened to their favorite music every day or used audio books while another did not listen to any music, and all volunteers received standard rehabilitation treatment. After three months, the report notes that music listeners showed a 60 percent better improvement in verbal memory compared to an 18 percent benefit for those using audio books and 29 percent for people who did not listen to either.

Source: Michael Kahn - Reuters

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Scott Hicks: A New Sound is Coming to the Church! Christian Music will Receive a Praise and Worship "Face Lift"

Courtesy of elijahlist.com


scott hicksIn 2007, I spoke many times about "a new sound." The Lord constantly echoed those words in my spirit, and I repeated them everywhere. As I began to seek God for a prophetic glimpse into 2008, I heard a new sound. I saw people praising and worshipping as I have never seen before. I saw churches full of worshippers.

As praise and worship entered new levels of the Father's realm, I saw more and more people coming into buildings because of this new sound they were hearing. I saw onlookers that stood in awe of this new sound and were being transformed from "idle spectators" into "worshipping participators" by His manifest presence.

Scripture says: "Out of the mouths of babes and suckling have I perfected praise" Matthew 21:16. I heard someone say about this Scripture, "Praise is not perfected when it leaves our mouth; it's perfected when it enters His ears--because He has perfected it."

As part of the prophetic insight into 2008, I hear a new sound coming forth from the Body of Christ. I see key people that God has set into place to usher in this new sound, unrehearsed, and straight from the Spirit's worship. Musical "talent" is going to change (and already has in many) and alter from the normal to a supernatural and never heard of before--expression of praise and worship. This is a divine exchange of passion and love "to" God and "from" God.

Many that are already in musical positions will rise higher in the Spirit, and many that have a deep call and passion, but haven't had an open door, will begin to see doors open as they worship in Spirit and in truth. Those that God has placed into musical positions will begin to have expressive ideas and a renewing of the mind. Pre-written lyrics will begin to fade as their souls and inner spirits have longed for so much more. A divine exchange of passion will come forth from musicians' lips and instruments and will lead worshippers to the Father's throne as they have never seen yet, but only imagined and waited so long for.

Those that have longed to lead worshippers to the Father and have felt the burn of the call and destiny flickering in their hearts--will see doors open. They will hear sounds they can't get out of their spirits and minds. They will begin to see worshippers of God pulled to them--so that they may lead. These are the people that have a passion to lead others to God through praise and worship, but never knew how or where to start. You have thoughts like, "All the slots seem full already. Where do I begin? How do I get into this?" Those who constantly feel this unsettled passion will begin to rise up and connect with those whom God has already established and placed into key positions to lead His people to Him through perfected praise and worship.

Face Lift to Christian Music

The "Christian music industry" and what we call praise and worship is getting a literal face lift. God lifts His face towards us when we worship in spirit and in truth. He has been turning over rocks and looking and listening in kitchens and showers; looking, seeking, watching and listening for those who will worship Him in truth. His desire to find true worship is not only for Him to relax and listen to; He longs for this atmosphere, so He can have what I call "communion"--a communication that is fresh and special for that very moment.

There's a new sound coming in 2008 that is going to lift God's face toward us. It's a sound that no man can make without Him. A perfect sound that He has perfected when it enters His ears. A sound that will cause the masses to take note. A sound that will draw and pull those that hear it--to come and commune with God.

The lost will say, "What happened to church music? All of a sudden it is beyond awesome!" They won't be able to help it. This true worship will draw them because their spirits have been singing it since they were born. They just haven't found anyone to lead them to the source with a divine exchange...until now!

We often say, "Keep your eyes open." This year I say, "Keep your ears open." He that hath ears let him hear....

Still Worshipping,

Scott Hicks
True Worship Ministries

Email: info@trueworshipministries.net

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Why the Power of Music and Love Transcend Every Void

Courtesy of BCN (BreakingChristianNews.com)

Teresa Neumann (February 5, 2008)

"Music is a form of sensed continuity that can sometimes break through the most overpowering disconnections in our experience of time. There is something spiritual about music, and something musical about the human spirit...God is the composer and librettist. We are each called on to be voices in the choir, singers of God's song."

Music(London)—A touching Times U.K. report has addressed the profound effect music has on us. As an example, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks quotes from Oliver Sacks' book, Musicophilia, which in turn tells the "poignant story" of Clive Wearing, an "eminent musician and musicologist, who was struck by a devastating brain infection," resulting in amnesia so acute that he was unable to remember anything for more than a few seconds.

Though we are often admonished to "live in the present," Wearing's wife described her husband's shattered life this way: "It was as if every waking moment was the first waking moment."

Of having no memories of anything whatsoever, Wearing himself said, "I haven't heard anything, seen anything, touched anything, smelt anything. It's like being dead."

Amazingly, however, Wearing could sense (rather than remember) the love he and his wife shared, and he could still sing, play the organ and conduct a choir. Love and music. It caused many to ask why, of every emotion and gift, were those two so profoundly resilient?"

Victor Zuckerkandl wrote: "Hearing a melody is hearing, having heard, and being about to hear, all at once. Every melody declares to us that the past can be there without being remembered, the future without being foreknown."

Rabbi Sacks notes in his report: "Music is a form of sensed continuity that can sometimes break through the most overpowering disconnections in our experience of time. There is something spiritual about music, and something musical about the human spirit. When the Israelites experienced redemption at the Red Sea, they sang. So did Hannah when she had a child. The Levites sang in the Temple...When language takes wing heavenward, it modulates from speech to song...Beneath the silence [of the earth], audible only to the inner ear, Creation sings to its Creator."

Sacks shares other insights into the power of music and its connection with the spirit, saying that faith is more like music than science because science analyses whereas music integrates. "Faith connects episode to episode, life to life, age to age in a timeless melody that breaks into time," he says. "God is the composer and librettist. We are each called on to be voices in the choir, singers of God's song."

Concludes Sacks: "Love and music redeem our solitude, mending the broken connections of our lives. Faith teaches us to hear the music beneath the noise."

Read more of this inspiring story by following the link provided.

Source: Jonathan Sacks - The Times U.K.

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