Song Lyrics for Worship

 Just a quick song to think about.  O Worship The King by Robert Grant

O worship the King, all glorious above, and gratefully sing His wonderful love; our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, whose Robe is the light, whose canopy space!  his chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?  It breathes in the air, it sines in the light, It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, in Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail, Thy mercies how tender, how firm to teh end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

The Mercies of God

 Paul writes in Romans 12:1, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God. . .".  I wonder sometimes if we take enough time to ponder the mercy of God.  I think that far too often I find myself thinking that I somehow deserve goodness from God, or that I, based on how good or bad I do, have earned favor with God.  Biblically we know this is not true, and yet we do not operate or truly believe that it is.  It is hard enough for us to understand grace - the unmerited favor of God, but I think sometimes we focus on grace at the expense of mercy.  If God were to truly give us what we deserve, we would be dead.  We would have nothing but our own selfish pride.  And we would be lost without hope.  And yet God showed mercy to us.  He did not give us that which we deserved.  He instead gave that which we deserved to another by his mercy and then applied the righteousness He had earned to our accounts by grace. What a glorious God.  

Every morning his mercies are new.  This means that every day I don't deserve to live but instead deserve to receive the full brunt of the wrath of God.  And yet because He poured that wrath out on Jesus I live and breath and rejoice in the goodness and mercy of God.  

The Word of God does not fail

In Romans 9, Paul says these words in verse 6, "But it is not as though the word of God has failed."  This is reminiscent of Isaiah when he said in Isaiah 55:11, "So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." (both quotes NASB)  But when Paul says it, he has a slightly different perspective as he is looking at things that look like it might be possible to believe that God's Word has failed.  

Sometimes in our lives we encounter situations and circumstances that we question whether or not God and His promises are real.  If you have been fortunate enough not to know anyone struggling with cancer, or depression or the loss of a close friend of family member, just wait a bit.  When these terrible things (among others) occur, we are driven to ask questions and some of those questions will inevitably be about the faithfulness of God to His promises.  When these times occur, it is important to remember that even when it seems like it might be true, the word of God has not failed.  It cannot fail.  

This means that in those dark moments what we need to do is to cling to a promise that even though it may seem like God and His word are somehow missing the mark, it is not Him who is in error, but our perspective.  And if something needs to change it may not be our circumstances but our response to them.  And if something seems and feels out of place perhaps we have misread and misunderstood the promises of God and maybe made too much of ourselves and not enough of our God.  It is interesting that many of God's chosen messengers go through these dark moments.  Moses did.  Elijah did.  Jeremiah did.  And the list goes on.  And yet the character and nature of our God remains unchanged and all of those who went through the darkness would testify to the glorious light of the One who proclaimed Himself to be the Light of the World.  

So struggle through the darkness with so many faithful men and women of old.  Struggle through and cling to Jesus.  Because God is faithful and His Word cannot fail.

Travel and the Mercy of God

 I recently went on vacation and did a lot of driving.  We drove to Indiana and Kentucky and Ohio and back to Michigan.   During all of these travels we encountered a hoard of cicadas, traffic back ups, close calls and a few moments of near panic!  As I was reflecting on all these things I was drawn to think about the mercy of God.  Every moment of our lives we are cared for and watched over by a God who loves us and cares for us.  This does not mean that He never allows us to experience any kind of hardship.  On the contrary, He often lets us go through difficulties of various kinds to develop us into His likeness.  But regardless of the complexity of the trial we face, His mercy is constant.  It was present in every mile we did not have hardship.  It was present while I was slamming on the brakes to stop quickly because of the guy in front of me who cut me off.  It was present while we were in traffic for 30 minutes because in the finite wisdom of man they took 4 lanes down to 2 over the Ohio river.  It was present in our arrivals and in our leaving.  It was present always and new every morning.  It was present in the sunshine miles, and in the miles driven in pouring rain.  No matter where we went and what we did His mercy was present with us.  

That is the thing about the mercy of God.  If we only think about it when things go well we might begin to think the mercy of God means things will only go well for us.  Since His mercy is ever present with us, we can hope that this light and momentary trial is producing something greater.  Praise God for His mercy.

Conversion

 I am currently reading Turning to God by David F Wells.  It is a good book on the nature and content of conversion - looking at it from the perspective of those that are "insiders" (i.e. people who have a pre-informed connection to the content and idea of turning to God) and "outsiders" (i.e. people who have a lot more change that needs to occur in order to come to God).  I wanted to share from this book a quote.  On page 151 he says, 

"Conversion has so often been understood as a narrow transaction that is religious but somehow not human, that does something in the soul but does not really involve the senses, one's laughter, one's will, where one wants to go, what one thinks about.  This is what sociologists have in mind by their talk of the sundering of the private from the public.  It is the twisting of faith that inevitably happens when people back into faith instead of building into it.  The Bible, after all, does not begin with John 3:16; it begins with Genesis so that we might first understand who God is, who we are, what his creation is like, why we are in it, and what the end of it will be.  To understand all of this and to be converted is to have what is needed to be a human who knows God; to have the gospel shorn of its biblical framework is to have a shard of religiousness that scarcely can penetrate all of the corners of one's humanity."

This is a great reminder that our goal is not a small change, but a total transformation to the likeness of Christ!

Mother's Day

 We do not give mom's enough credit in our lives.  Or at least, I should say that I have not.  I am 41 years old, going on 42 and I am about 90 percent confident that if it were not for my mother, I might not be here today.  I cannot count the number of times that she saved me from some certain doom with a warning about how dangerous what I was about to do was.  I cannot tell you the number of times I avoided certain behaviors and dangers simply because my mom loved me enough to tell me to avoid them.  She continues to be a fountain of wisdom and knowledge for me.  

I am married to a wonderful mom as well and it is a beautiful thing to see her do for my children what my mom did for me.  It gives me the wonderful hope that there is actually hope that my kids turn out ok, because it were left up to me I think that they would not be the well rounded children that they are. In many respects it is a travesty that we take the time only one day a year to celebrate our moms.  They deserve a lot more.  

So today, if you have a wife and/or a mom that you still have the privilege of talking with - take the time to tell them how much you love them!

Song Lyrics to Ponder

 We just got through the Easter season and I am so grateful for my praise team and the fact that they sang a song I have been wanting to sing for a while.  "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" has long been one of those songs that I love to hear and sing and get so few opportunities to do so.  I wanted to share the lyrics here for your consideration.

O sacred head now wounded
With grief and shame way down,
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns thine only crown,
How art thou pale with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn.
How does that visage languish,
Which once was bright as morn.

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis I deserve thy place.
Look on me with thy favor,
and grant to me thy grace.

What language shall i borrow
To thank thee dearest friend?
For this, thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end.
O make me thine forever,
And should i fainting be,
Lord, let me never, ever
Outlive my love to thee.

When thinking about these lyrics the one thing that I keep coming back to is the fact that Jesus took my place and died the death that I should have died due to my sin. Instead, He took the pain for me.  Take a moment today and say thank you!