TWLL #22: Cross-Referencing When You Sing The Bible

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So you’re singing through a passage of Scripture, and you’ve sung it word-for-word or paraphrased it, and you’re wondering, “…what do I do now?”

Which means it might be a great time to cross-reference the passage.

What Is Cross-Referencing? 

Cross-referencing is when you find other Scriptures from the Old and New Testament that have a similar theme of your current passage— and then you weave them into what you’re singing.

Why Cross-Reference?

Cross-referencing is helpful for multiple reasons, when you’re singing a passage.

For one, you’re using the Scripture to develop or expound on Scripture.  This not only keeps what you’re singing biblical, but it adds greater depth to whatever you’re singing.

For two, when you cross-reference you’re taking the theme found in the phrases of your passage, and then rounding out or giving a more complete picture by singing other portions of Scripture with the same theme.

Example: you’re singing through John 1, and when you get to the phrase “and the Word was God” you begin to sing a bit of Hebrews 1, where it unpacks more of Jesus’ identity as God.

Cross-Referencing A Passage: Prep Time

Once I know what passage I’ll be singing, I actually try do some study of the passage ahead of time.

For every phrase contained in the passage, I’ll try to find 2 or 3 other Scriptures that have the same theme as that phrase.  Then I’ll write them down next to that phrase.

Staying with the John 1 example, I’ll cross-reference that first phrase (In the beginning was the Word) by going to Genesis 1- because it has more information about “in the beginning”.

One of the next phrases is “and the Word was God”, speaking to Jesus’ identity as God.  So I’ll go to Hebrews 1, or Colossians 1, or Philippians 2- which all expound on the identity of Jesus as God.

What I’m describing takes some time and study on the front end— but it’s so worth it once you’re in-flight and singing the passage live.

Cross-Referencing Live

Once I’m onstage in a live worship context, I try to make sure I have either notes on my phone or a hard copy (I recommend the hard copy) of what I was studying earlier, and the cross-references I found for my passage.

Now as I sing through the passage live, I’m not scrambling for what to sing because I prepped ahead of time.

And then gradually over time, as I sing a passage repeatedly, there’s something about the repetition that gets it into my brain and heart— so that I rely on my notes less, and am able to pull more cross-references from memory.

Conclusion

The next time you’re singing through a passage of Scripture, and find yourself wondering what to sing— remember that you can cross-reference and take it to a deeper level.

As I said earlier it takes some study and time on the front end, but it pays off when you’re singing a passage live in the moment.

That’s all for today.  

See ya’ll next week! 

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