Insight from our Singing - part 5

Complete in Thee!  No work of mine may take dear Lord the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me and now I am complete in Thee.

Complete in Thee!  I die to sin.  Thy grace hath conquered, reign within

Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee, And I shall stand, complete in Thee

Complete in Thee!  Each need supplied and no good thing to me denied

Since though my portion Lord will be, I ask no more, complete in Thee.

Dear Savior!  When before thy bar all tribes and tongues assembled are,

Among thy chosen I will be at thy right hand, complete in Thee.

These are the words of a hymn called "Complete in Thee" the lyrics written by Aaron R Wolfe.  The thing that strikes me about this hymn is the simplicity of both the lyrics and the consistent message that occurs throughout.

Have you considered today that you are complete in Christ.  That you have no need because you have everything that you need in Christ.   When we understand this truth, it puts into perspective the things that we think we need.  These things seem to pale in comparison when we place the things we think we need next to the list of things that God has already provided:

     1.  Pardon from our sins.   - God has completely forgiven your sins, but at the cost of the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.  And Christ was willing to die for you!  What a blessing!

     2. We have victory over sin - not only are we pardoned, but God has provided a way out of every temptation   (1 Cor 10:13)

     3.  God provides us with all things that we need.  - We have all that we need for life and godliness in the Word of God.  God promises us that He will meet all of our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus!  Think about that for a minute and try and complain about the fact that the situation in your life is inconvenient.

     4. And ultimately, the best gift that God gives us is the right standing before Himself that allows us to know that we are complete in Christ! 

What a blessing to know that we have these and many more gifts from the giver of all good things.  I need these reminders in the midst of the difficulties that I face.  Perhaps they will encourage you as well this day!

Insight from our Singing - part 4

Some songs, while familiar, become so familiar to us that we lose the impact of their meaning.  I think that sometimes in church we put ourselves on autopilot and could sing what we sing without even giving so much as a thought to what we are singing. We can sing "Victory in Jesus" while feeling totally defeated.  We can sing "Nearer my God to Thee" while feeling distant from God.  This is why I love singing thoughtfully.  And the other day as I was humming a familiar tune, I was reminded of the words.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt
Yonder on Calvary's Mount outpoured
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt

Grace, Grace God's grace

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within

Grace, Grace God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.

And that is just the first verse!

When we think about the grace of God, do we truly fathom how marvelous it is?  How impressive the grace that forgives and exceeds all of our sin and our guilt.  What a glorious truth.  The sin that we take so lightly was covered by the grace of God at Calvary and therefore our sin and guilt are obliterated before a holy God.  This means that we do not have to live in fear, but in the glorious freedom that comes from knowing the truth about who we are and whose we are in Christ.  This kind of knowledge frees us to live like Christ intended - striving to serve Him, not out of fear of a punishment that has already been paid for by grace, but out of a sense of love and joy and commitment to the one who has freed us from our slavery to sin through His glorious grace!  Praise be to God for the grace that He so freely has bestowed upon us.

Insight from Our Singing - part 3

We need more laments in Christian worship.  Do not get me wrong, I love songs about the victory that we have in Christ or how happy we are.  But this does not express the full experience of the Christian very well.  There are difficult times as a Christian.  Times when it does not feel as though God is listening or even there.  Times when we wish we could curl up into a ball and just cry.  This is why we need more laments - songs that cry out to God when things are bad and we are hurting.  And that is why I love the song, "Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul."

Dear refuge of my weary soul, on Thee, when sorrows rise,
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll, my fainting hope relies.
To Thee I tell each rising grief, for Thou alone canst heal;
Thy Word can bring a sweet relief for every pain I feel.

But oh!  when gloomy doubts prevail I fear to call Thee mine,

The springs of comfort seem to fail and all my hopes decline.

Yet, gracious God where shall I flee, Thou art my only trust;

And still my soul would cleave to Thee though prostrate in the dust.

Hast Thou not bid me seek Thy face and shall I seek in vain?

And can the ear of sovereign grace be deaf when I complain?

No, still the ear of sovereign grace attends the mourners prayer;

Oh may I ever find access to breathe my sorrows there.

Thy mercy seat is open still, here let my soul retreat;

With humble hope attend Thy will and wait beneath Thy feet.

Thy mercy seat is open still, here let my soul retreat;

With humble hope attend Thy will and wait beneath Thy feet.

With these kinds of songs we can feel free to cry out to God with a broader scope of emotions and be more honest about how we are truly feeling.  "Victory in Jesus" is a great truth, but sometimes the world does not feel like a victorious place.  So we can turn in darkness to songs that express deep truths about following after God when it hurts.  I love the line, "Yet gracious God, where shall I fell, thou art my only trust."  We can only trust in a sovereign God in the midst of good times, and in the midst of times that are bad. 

Insight from our Singing - part 2

The act of singing is inherently theological.  As we speak words to music, those words have a tendency to impact our lives far beyond our conscious understanding.  This past Sunday our church held a service at a nursing home.  It always amazes me to see people who it is near impossible to carry on a conversation with due to the level of mental decay who when "Amazing Grace" begins to play will sing out and remember every single word.  This kind of ingrained theology is impossible to produce in a sermon.  No one has ever sat up in the middle of the night remembering a sermon of mine, but they have awoken with a song inexplicably on their lips. 

This is why it is so crucial that when we sing together as a church we do so with proper theology as the foundation of our songs.  Our songs should not primarily be about what makes us feel good, or even what we can tap our feet to, but we should constantly be aware of what we are saying as we sing. 

This is why I love going back to songs that I may not be familiar with and learning the words.  Today I want to dwell upon the words of a song that is relatively new - written in 1982, but is so very true.  The song is called "O Father, You are Sovereign".

O Father, you are sovereign in all the worlds you made
Your mighty word was spoken and light and life obeyed
Your voice commands the seasons and bounds the ocean's shore
Sets start within their courses and stills the tempest's roar. 

O Father, you are sovereign in all affairs of man,

No powers of death or darkness can thwart your perfect plan.

All chance and change transcending, supreme in time and space

You hold your trusting children secure in Your embrace. 

O Father, you are sovereign the Lord of human pain,

Transmuting earthly sorrows to gold of heavenly gain.

All evil overruling as none but Conqueror could

Your love pursues its purpose, our souls' eternal good. 

O Father, you are sovereign!  We see dimply now,

But soon before your triumph earths every knee shall bow

With this glad hope before us, our faith springs up anew

Our sovereign Lord and Savior we trust and worship You.

Is your response to God today the same trust and worship as the song calls for?  Perhaps you need to be reminded this day that God is in control, even in the midst of your pain.  Praise God that he is in control. 

Insight From Our Singing - part 1

At the recent conference that I attended we received the gift of a free hymnal.  Now I know with all that I have learned that they give us such things in the hopes that we like them so much that we purchase them at our church, but I decided to use it for something else entirely. I have added it to my devotional routine and began to read some of the hymns both old and new (yes, there are new hymns) and hear what they really are saying.

Sometimes on any given Sunday morning we are singing songs that are so familiar to us that we can sing them while half asleep.  Rarely do we stop to consider that the fact that we are singing is not what makes something worship, but the way that we are ascribing worth to God above.  This is primarily accomplished, not through the style of music, but primarily through the text of the song and what they are saying about our great God.  And so I read through hymn book to see what those who have gone before have said about God in their worship and as they are biblical and God-honoring, for myself to say the same things!  I wish for the next few weeks to share a few of these with you. 

Today I bring to you the third verse of an older hymn called "Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above".

The Lord is never far away
But through all grief distressing
An ever present help and stay,
Our peace and joy and blessing.
As with a mother's tender hand
He leads His own, His chosen band
To God all praise and glory.

Hebrews 13:5 reminds us of the truth of the first line - God will never leave us or forsake us.  This is a truth that is particularly difficult to understand especially when we face difficulty - the grief distressing.  He is an ever present help to us.  At this point we pause to consider my natural response to difficulty.  We are so quick to assume that God has left us or forgotten about us that we forget the simple truth of Scripture that God does not leave us or forsake us.  Therefore His help is "ever present". 

But the song goes even further and transitions from the grief distressing to the peace and joy and blessing that we receive when we belong to Christ!  What a glory!  Christ takes our difficulties and turns them into blessings.  We just need the patience to see it happen. 

The last line however is critical.  It reminds us that we are not here for our own praise, our own glory, or even our own comfort.  What we endure this side of glory is for the sake of His glory now and in eternity future.  This gives purpose to our pain and helps us to see that He has the long-view in mind.  What are you going through this day that you need to be reminded is for His praise and glory?  Will you choose to live to honor Him in the midst of the grief distressing?  Will you remember the promise of His presence?  If you will, He promises peace and joy and blessing. 

Live from Together for the Gospel 2016

My Father and I are currently attending the "Together for the Gospel" Conference in Kentucky.   If you are interested, the sessions are broadcast live at live.t4g.org.  The sessions will also be posted on the t4g website at a later date for listening.
Today I was touched by the teaching of C.J. Maheny on Job and the mean of enduring suffering.  To summarize, the only means of surviving suffering is to become enamored with the vision of Himself that God gives us in His Word.
The session was concluded with a song I had only heard once before and I wish to share the words with you here.  The hymn is titled "He Will Hold Me Fast" and is written by Ada Habershon and revised by Matt Merker in 2013.

When I fear my faith will fail, 
                   Christ will hold me fast
When the tempter would prevail, 
                    He will hold me fast
I could never keep my hold, through life's fearful path
For my love is often cold,
                    He must hold me fast.

Those He saves are His delight,
                      Christ will hold me fast.
Precious in His holy sight,
                      He will hold me fast.
He'll not let my soul be lost, His promises shall last.
Bought by Him at such a cost
                       He will hold me fast

For my life He bled and died,
                        Christ will hold me fast
Justice has been satisfied,
                        He will hold me fast.
Raised with Him to endless life, 
                         He will hold me fast.
Till our faith is turned to sight
                          When He comes at last!

Chorus:
He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast
For my Savior loves me so, He will hold my fast.  

What a great reminder that we are held securely by the love of Christ.  Rest in this.

The Fishing Lesson

I had the privilege this weekend of attending my grandma's church in Union Mills Indiana.  There, Matthew Campbell, their pastor preached on John 21 and the difference between trusting in self sufficiency or trusting in the life-changing power of God. 

The story in John 21 is a good one.  The short version is this - Peter and the other disciples are not sure how to proceed, even after Jesus has appeared to them, and so they go back to what is comfortable for them - fishing.  However in a twist of irony, they are apparently terrible at it as they fish all night and catch absolutely nothing. 

Jesus in his love for them calls to them from the shore and, without them knowing it is Jesus, he reminds them that they have no fish.  None.  0.  There is no results that have come from their natural efforts to do what they thought they were so gifted to do.  And so Jesus gives them a solution - just try again one more time and throw the nets on the right hand side of the boat. 

I am no fisherman.  I fished a little when I was growing up and enjoyed it, and from what I remember, the side of the boat off of which I cast my line had no influence over the number of fish that I caught.  It is not as if fish see a boat and go, "okay boys, everyone to one side."  This request seems a little silly, but for whatever reason, they cast the net.  And suddenly they had fish. 

I love the response that John gives.  He simply turns to Peter and says, "It is the Lord."   Of course it is the Lord.  No other one could provide such a miraculous catch of fish at the word of command to cast the nets. 

This is where it gets challenging.  How many times do I know what God wants me to do and I still argue with him.  I would ask, "why the right side, why not the left God?"  or "I am tired of fishing"  or "are you sure, I think I am feeling called to raise cattle."  When we listen to God it always works out better for us in the long run than when we listen to ourselves.  So, listen to God.  What is God saying to you today?  What does God want you to do today?  How does God want you to change today?  And then have the faith to simply do it.  And watch God multiply the catch you will have as you obey and follow Him.