Praising Him in song!

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Wanted to share this this morning - as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS0QOYsoGOU

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Coming out of Worship this morning, I really have a burden that if we are to really and genuinely fellowship here on this Forum, we need to spend time in Worship together too.

With that in mind, I would like to continue this thread - and ask my fellow believers in Christ Jesus our Lord to share Worship songs here that we can all enjoy; Songs that speak to us in our times of need, songs that speak of His Glory and Mercy and Grace, songs that He used to speak to us.

Please, share the songs that have touched you... whatever ministry they might have come from. God sees and judges the hearts of His people; so let us Worship Him together... We can't have proper fellowship without it.

With these things in mind, I feel burdened to share this song which might be familiar to some from the Local Church, although here in the words with which it was originally penned by Dennis Jernigen:

In 1981, God delivered musician Dennis Jernigan from a lifelong struggle with homosexuality. "He began teaching me," Dennis explains, "that being a new creation means the 'old Dennis' really is dead." Dennis married, became the father of nine children, and committed to living his life in praise to God.

He wrote "You Are My All in All" at an Oklahoma City church where he led a daily prayer meeting at 6:00 A.M. It's Jernigan's habit always to carry a music manuscript book with him. "I believe God sings over me," he explains, referring to [today's Key Bible Verse], "so I need to be listening. When I hear God, I write it down right away."

He was sitting at the piano thanking God "that He bore the punishment of my sin fully with the first drop of His blood." In that moment, the line came to him, "seeking You as a precious Jewel, Lord, to give up I'd be a fool." The song emerged in pieces. "I'd start the people praying over a specific need in the church, then I'd go back to singing what I was sensing in the Lord. With my left hand I'd play the piano, and with my right hand I'd write down the melody and the words."

Key Bible Verse: The Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He will exult over you by singing a happy song." (Zephaniah 3:17).

Dennis Jernigan Bio courtesy of Christianity Today, Friday November 22, 2002.

Let us praise Him who set us Free!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNJyjYt5h9k

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Who will call hymns with me? Who will give praise to the Lamb of God? Come people! Come brothers and sisters! Let us sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Here is a song inspired by Hebrews 9:28

Written by J. Wilbur Chapman, Evangelist and Pastor, in 1908.


Bio: John Wilbur Chapman was born in Richmond, Indiana, on June 17, 1859. His parents Alexander H. and Lorinda Chapman prepared him for a life of Christian ministry. The young man felt he could never pinpoint a date for his conversion, but did make public his acknowledgement of Christ at age seventeen.

In 1876 Chapman joined the Richmond Presbyterian Church and later that year left to attend Oberlin College. After one year at Oberlin, Chapman transferred to Lake Forest University where he received his B.A. in 1879. His seminary years, 1879-1882, were spent at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, during which time he was ordained on April 13, 1881.

From 1904-1909 Chapman began to develop and promote a new method of urban evangelism. His idea was to hold several meetings throughout a city simultaneously, thereby reaching more people and stirring more hearts to enter into Christian service. The first city to try Chapman's theory was Pittsburgh in 1904. The city was divided into nine districts with nine meeting places as the revival was conducted. Chapman took the central position and his assistants the rest.

The first joint campaign between Chapman and was held in Philadelphia from March 12 to April 19, 1908. The city was divided into forty-two districts with twenty-one teams of evangelist-musicians. Three weeks were spent in each half of the city with estimates of eight thousand conversions. The following revival held in Boston from January 26 to February 17, 1909, is considered to be Chapman's most successful. The city was divided into twenty-seven districts and recorded seven thousand conversions!

"One Day", aka "Glorious Day" - Praise the Lord!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xODpgyqGCYM

[UntoHim]

Thanks NFoL for starting this thread!

Praise Him!

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Having just shared the piece on the Amish School Shooting, and the forgiveness offered to the family of the shooter (as well as the man himself), I have been reminded of this song; and the beauty of the Truth contained within it. For that reason, I'd like to share it here tonight too.

Held - written by Christa Wells, performed by Natalie Grant

"Patti had been a widow for less than five years when we first met. And she was only about 40 years old. With three young daughters. My first encounter with Patti’s family was when I heard her then 10-year-old daughter sing…wow. Her raw talent and beauty were stunning. We soon met her other two daughters who were equally remarkable and we thought: How is she doing this?? Patti had only had a year to prepare for her husband’s death. And her husband, by the way, was young, tall, handsome, strong, athletic, intelligent, devoted and successful. How does this happen? Toby and I fell in love with Patti’s family instantly…here was a woman who had lost her HUSBAND, the FATHER of her very young children and she was still LIVING. She was transparent in her grief and questions and struggles and she was determined in her faith. She shared her heart and her story with us over dinner, coffee, in the swimming pool…I particularly remember her talking about the idea of us “giving” everything over to God, except for some unspoken “sacred” parts of our life. We mean to say: “Of course, you won’t ask this of me.”


Vaneetha was already a survivor before the tragic death of her baby boy. She had contracted polio as a baby and spent her childhood in hospitals around the world. She continues to live with the effects of the disease, but when I met her she was (and still is) a beautiful, vibrant wife, mother, friend, leader. A handful of months after we met, but before we became real friends, her infant son, Paul David, died from a heart defect that had been treated at birth. Paul was doing remarkably well and had just been celebrated at a church-wide baby shower, when he died unexpectedly in the night. The first verse of “Held” refers to Vaneetha and her son, Paul. She has always spoken to me about how knowing sorrow has allowed her to also know joy…and about the strange reality of feeling God’s presence most keenly in the moments of deepest grief.


Sherry is my mother-in-law. She had mentioned her daughter Erica to me at different times, but I remember one conversation in particular when she talked about Erica’s birth and death in detail. She spoke through tears about the pain of carrying a child to term and then having to let her go without even getting to take her home from the hospital. She told me about the still, small voice that spoke to her in the delivery room, saying: You have to choose how you will carry this loss after this moment. You can choose bitterness. Or you can choose to let me wrap you up in peace that can’t be explained and that will lead to hope. You can choose to trust that you are not alone, and that everything you suffer here will someday be redeemed.


This conversation with Sherry eventually helped write the third verse.

Other words from these women became the second verse, taught me that no person of faith since the beginning of time has ever lived without suffering. In fact, they said, those who are students of Jesus have been promised that we certainly should expect pain and suffering in this life.


BUT.


But. In the middle of that heartache. At every lonely, dark, lost moment…the Truth.


That in those moments, even then, especially then…we are held, held up, held together, by the the One who has walked here and knows the pain, and who also holds all of time, every story, my story, your story, the Greatest Story in his hands."

Listen to Held here.

[countmeworthy]

Very moving. Very touching. Thanks for sharing NFNL!

[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast

Wanted to share this this morning - as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS0QOYsoGOU

I want to share this song:
AWAY IN A MANGER

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His Sweet Head.
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes;
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray;
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there.

I have a testimony/dream/vision I will share with the readers about this song. I will start a new thread. Stay tuned.

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Happy New Year, to all! May Christ draw each of us to Himself in 2014. May He bind up the wounded, may He heal the broken hearted, may He give sight to the blind and joy to the mirthless. May His will be done unhindered. Lord Jesus, we love you; have Your way in us I pray!

With all the talk of the need of repentance on this board of late (and "repenting" is a necessary part of the gospel), I felt we must also not lose balance (or the hope of the faith which lies within us), and remember that a repentant heart is a gift of God, and not something we work up in ourselves. Indeed, we can't work ourselves into repentance; for those without Christ are dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-10, Colossians 2:13) and have hard hearts of stone which God must first replace with a softened heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

To that need of balance, I was of a mind to share this beautiful song of God's grace by Matt Maher. My wife and I enjoyed his testimony and his music in person. This brother in Christ is a gifted evangelist whom our sovereign God has kept in the Roman Catholic Church; although Matt believes it is 'high time all God's children come together to serve the Lord and to love one another as Christ loves us'. Some revile Matt for his association with the RCC, I am not one who will do that.

Matt's song shared here is "Alive Again", and it is about the grace of God rescuing the sinner and giving Him a new life in Christ.

Listen to "Alive Again" <-- Link Here.

*********************
About the song:

Matt says the genesis of this song came from Saint Augustine of Hippo’s writing entitled “Jesus is the Only Way to God.” After searching for God through Eastern Cults and Greco-Roman Philosophy, he finally found Him through the same Christianity that he had rejected as a teen. He came to the conclusion that everlasting life can only be found through Christ! Here is the exerpt from the Confessions of Saint Augustine.

Urged to reflect upon myself, I entered under your guidance the innermost places of my being; but only because you had become my helper was I able to do so. I entered, then, and with the vision of my spirit, such as it was, I saw the incommutable light far above my spiritual ken and transcending my mind: not this common light which every carnal eye can see, nor any light of the same order; but greater, as though this common light were shining much more powerfully, far more brightly, and so extensively as to fill the universe. The light I saw was not the common light at all, but something different, utterly different, from all those things. Nor was it higher than my mind in the sense that oil floats on water or the sky is above the earth; it was exalted because this very light made me, and I was below it because by it I was made. Anyone who knows truth knows this light.

O eternal Truth, true Love, and beloved Eternity, you are my God, and for you I sigh day and night. As I first began to know you, you lifted me up and showed me that, while that which I might see exists indeed, I was not yet capable of seeing it. Your rays beamed intensely on me, beating back my feeble gaze, and I trembled with love and dread. I knew myself to be far away from you in a region of unlikeness, and I seemed to hear your voice from on high: “I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me”.

Accordingly I looked for a way to gain the strength I needed to enjoy you, but I did not find it until I embraced the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is also God, supreme over all things and blessed for ever. He called out, proclaiming I am the Way and Truth and the Life, nor had I known him as the food which, though I was not yet strong enough to eat it, he had mingled with our flesh, for the Word became flesh so that your Wisdom, through whom you created all things, might become for us the milk adapted to our infancy.
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

Here’s what Matt had to say about the song:

Alive Again is about waking up to the kingdom of God. It started with a moment, driving north toward San Antonio. It was dark. Then it got light outside, but the Sun hadn’t broken the horizon. Yet I could see. It spoke to me of the pre-imminence of Christ – shining around us, helping us see “the light before we see the sunrise” (Colossians 1) – I think one of the main themes of the whole record, really – that He is at the head, and in Him, “all things are held together”.

- See more at: http://www.csworshiparts.com/behind-....5Z0aqxu8.dpuf

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

"Grace to you all, from our Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul begins his epistles to the saints in the churches with words like these, and he ends those epistles in the same way:

"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all"

The gospel of God begins and ends with Grace. That's the message. That's a thing entirely too easy to forget.

This week for me has been one of revelation and prayers answered - that sounds esoteric and deep, but I don't mean it that way. It was a week where God made His Word real to me in a way it hadn't been before. I'd like to share that, in the hopes that it encourages others here - as many of you often encourage me. That's what fellowship is about, after all.

A brother on this board recently reached out to me, asking if I was in need of prayer or encouragement. The truth is, I was (and still am, aren't we all?) - and his concern was very much appreciated. I want that dear brother to know that his concern, his prayers, have been heard. In this post, on this thread, I want to share some of that - and perhaps more later.

Friends, I have to confess that I've been "working" for God. Since coming to faith in Christ, I've been laboring to be worthy of Him. I've pursued a growth in spiritual stature the same way I've pursued growth in my career. I read books by spiritual men, I read my Bible (never as often as I ought), I listen to audiobooks, audio-bibles, and I seek out sermons and teachings on line and try to sift through them to "see whether these things are so".... but in spite of "doing" all these things, I have not grown in my "position in Christ". Does that make sense? What I mean is, if you work hard at your job, you get noticed and you get promoted. In my spiritual life, I have seemed to have harbored the opinion (perhaps unconsciously, perhaps not), that if I labor really hard for God, He will honor that and "promote" me by calling me into service somewhere... and He hasn't. He won't. And truth be told I've been angry and miserable and resentful of God about that. I have no heart for my career, like I have a heart for my God. I WANT to please Him. I WANT to be His "good and Godly servant". But I haven't wanted those things for the right reasons or in the right way. Like a foolish Galatian, I was trying to perfect with the flesh what had begun ONLY in and by the Spirit.


My problem, I very recently (and only by His mercy) came to understand, was that I had become spiritually proud. I have not labored for His glory. I've labored for my own. I have sinned against Him in this, robbing Him of the glory that is due entirely to Him. This is what I confessed to the brother that reached out to me here. What I went on to say was that "now that I understand what my sin is, I don't know how to repent of it. If my sin were porn or alcoholism, I could repent - I could turn my back on those things - but how do I repent from wanting to "do" for God? I don't even know what that would look like." What the Lord later made me realize, is that human beings can't repent of ANY sin apart from God's grace. Sin is of the flesh, it's our nature as children of Adam. In this life, we still inhabit the flesh, and only God's grace can call us to repentance. As with any other sin, my sin of spiritual pride could be covered by Grace. I understood that on a mental level, but this week I experienced it. Here's the first part of that:

In my testimony, I said I grew up in a nominally Christian home and was sent to Lutheran church for Sunday school and catechism. That church was weak on the gospel, weak in faith, and attendance there did a lot of harm rather than good. I left that church as a teen, having lost faith in Christianity as a truth and reality. I determined that I was done with God, but (as I said) He wasn't done with me. He reached out to me, He worked circumstances in my life and He showed me His grace.

In 1987, as a teen with a hardened heart, I heard this song and loved it - a song that the Lord brought into my mind these many many years later just this week. This song was on the billboard charts in Canada in 1987 - by a Canadian singer and songwriter by the name of Paul Janz. I didn't remember any of these details, of course, but the tune came into my head when I was sitting here at my computer, in my usual pursuit of "spiritual things". I haven't heard the song in decades, but suddenly the chorus is playing in my head and I went to look for it on youtube. To me, as apparently to many in my generation, the song was a typical 80's love song. It was entirely secular and worldly, but beautiful; or so I thought.... But this song was God's message for me, back then, and only now has the Lord shown me that He cared enough even then, while I was "yet a sinner", to send it. Here's the song:

Believe in Me <-- Link Here.


*******************************
Lyrics:

"How many silent dreams reach into heaven and fall away
In Your eyes I see a promise that won't fade
I've been searching so long for someone true, a love that's real
In Your heart I've found a vision I can feel
Is this moment here to stay, it takes my breath away

Believe in Me

You open up my mind, now You know what I'm about
This kind of love's not blind, it breaks through walls of doubt
And the light that's in Your eyes shines for me
This time it's all I need

Believe in Me, reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart
Believe in Me and love will remain
Believe in your heart, love stays the same

In every lonely face there's a space, an open door
You speak to me in ways I've never felt before
When I'm a thousand miles away you'll still here me say

Believe in Me, reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart
O no, no. . .

Reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart

Believe in Me and love will remain
Believe in your heart, love stays the same

Believe in Me, reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart
Believe in Me. . ."

Paul Janz was born in 1951 in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada the very town of only 3,300 people to which the Lord called my wife and I, and where we currently live. Paul was raised in Basel, Switzerland amongst the Brethren, for whom His father ministered. He is a Canadian singer/songwriter and Christian rock musician best known for the hits Every Little Tear, Close My Eyes, Stand, I Won't Cry and many others.

He began his music career in the 70s with his brothers in a band called Deliverance, who are best remembered for the hit "Leaving LA" released in 1979. In 1984, he launched his solo career, which culminated in four projects with a string of chart-topping hits from each album. The success of his projects led to the nomination of the much-coveted Canadian Juno Awards (the equivalent of the Grammy Awards). Despite achieving great success in Canada, the recording label's restructuring of its roster of artists, such as Janz, led to the ending of A & R promotion in the American market.

Janz's last and final recording project, Trust, which was recorded under the Attic Records label, continued on in the same ground-breaking tradition with Janz's trademark lyrical compositions and driving melodic rhythms. Since that time, Janz hasn't released any new material. Presently at King's College, London, he formerly taught philosophy at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia and has recently written a book entitled God, the Mind's Desire: Reference, Reason and Christian Thinking published by Cambridge University Press.

In 2004, Paul's first album High Strung was re-released on CD for the first time by Escape Music in the UK
******************

I want to thank GOD, that from no merit of my own, He chose me out of the world to be Saved. He did it in mercy and grace and I prayed that He humble my heart, even humiliate me, and bring me into a right standing with Him. Not so that I can "get a promotion", but so that I can TRULY understand the depths of my debt to Him, and give Him the glory. My debt is boundless. I can never repay it. Christ paid it all. I am nothing. He is everything.

And to any of you reading out there, I want to apologize. I want to apologize if I have ever offended any of you. I want to ask your forgiveness if I have ever come across as being "holier than thou". I am not. I am nothing apart from Christ, and I am a far worse sinner than most. I am ugly, and if there's anything beautiful I've ever written or said it was ONLY through Him who saved me. Jesus Christ is Lord.

Ray

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast

And to any of you reading out there, I want to apologize. I want to apologize if I have ever offended any of you. I want to ask your forgiveness if I have ever come across as being "holier than thou". I am not. I am nothing apart from Christ, and I am a far worse sinner than most. I am ugly, and if there's anything beautiful I've ever written or said it was ONLY through Him who saved me. Jesus Christ is Lord.

Thanks for sharing Ray. I also wanted to apologize to everyone on this board for my spiritual pride. How often I forget that I once was a heathen, dead in my offenses, an object of God's wrath fully deserving of hell. I was and still am fully at the mercy of God's love and forgiveness. I confess many times when tensions flared up my communications were written out of the sake of "being right" and not wholly out of love. I had no right to judge others and when I did so I was expressing attributes of the accuser of the brethren and not that of our Lord Jesus whose ways are gentle and humble.

It's funny I've been going through some of the same feelings as Ray also. After my struggles with also wanting to please God, I've come to know it just comes down to how much we desire God and our intimacy with Him. Many times the enemy will make us feel guilty and not deserving to be in God's presence and will discourage us from spending time with him from feelings of unworthiness. I just want to encourage everyone here that our God still loves us despite our mistakes and is yearning for us to return to him like any Father would. How much we mess up doesn't change the fact that we are still God's children as long as we realize that He is always a Father who wants to be with us.

Our intimacy with God empowers us to walk in faith and please him. Often times we have it the other way around and try to please him to "work" our way up to being children. In His mercy, he see's us as his children first and remembers our sins no more even when we are far from being perfect. God even goes further than that because He knows we don't have the ability to obey him even when we want to, so he gives us his Holy Spirit to empower us when we simply desire to obey him.

Acts 5:32
And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

God just wants us to turn to him above all else after which his grace empowers us to overcome the world (1 John 5:4) and walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called (Ephesians 4:1).

What a good Father we have!

[countmeworthy]

Song of the Hour: Keith Green - Psalm 51

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD847UcRbL4

Blessings!
Carol

[InChristAlone]

Good morning, brothers and sisters.

This is my first time posting a message, and I’d like to start it with a
praise to the Lord.

Marty Nystrom - MEDLEY ALBUM: IN CHRIST ALONE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_DL302cLWc

Marty Nystrom - Times Of Refreshing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U6LmrnR8Kk

As the Deer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa6kplL3wjk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfKt3eIw9ac

Come Thou Almighty King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gucvRWOd2fc

Battle Hymn of the Republic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgUZYRWYlow

Robin Mark - All to Jesus I surrender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFK4fpewPWE

Worthy Is The Lamb - Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gae-n0Pb7Q

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - I'll Say Yes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a57JHeYJzG8

You are my hiding place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AfbHXfhZYA

Instrumental music:

Hillsong - Shout to the Lord [Solo para bebes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksDydzmxmY

Hillsong - Worthy is the lamb [Solo para bebes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZIgTt-AbHw

Hillsong - Hosanna [Solo para bebes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x9_oy3u7_c

Don Moen I Just Want To Be Where You Are

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4hWvR_Vv1Q

Don Moen - Give Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rf_iPsB8LU

Don Moen - GOD WILL MAKE A WAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQQrYrtD2Zs

Be Thou My Vision - Ancient Irish Hymn from 8th Century

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aurILJtBA4U

Darlene Zschech и Hillsong - Shout to the Lord

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-j7CFfDvHc#t=24

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds - Matthew Perryman Jones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTRnz4j6BpY

Josh Groban -- Noël -- 05 Angels We Have Heard on High duet with Brian
McKnight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdqYtDRS62w

How great Thou art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GKhDCsLrUg

Kelly Willard - "What Child Is This"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnFVLDVP_x4

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_g3A6tEGzs

Doris Day & Frank Devol - Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL1YJRmEQ4U

Blessed Assurance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Sp1_tGMUU

John Doan - Amazing Grace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_P6XWd8ItY

David Nevue's piano - Amazing Grace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWmIjVe_Nnw

Instrumental Music, "Amazing Grace"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-XOd7gOjdQ

Jazz music. Sam Levine - Be Thou My Vision

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzi1B0wfN0

I Surrender All - Sam Levine & Friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVhL-vhEJk

Hallelujah To The Lamb by Don Moen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h78rF-6HYEY

Anthony Burger plays piano, "Give Thanks"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODh8utkPcVs

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments,
WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD...

Blessings!

[InChristAlone]

O love that will not let me go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-tXgsBq418

Some people don't like this new version of the old Christian hymn but it makes my heart sing.

The story behind it:

------

Guest Post by Dane Ortlund

O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be

O Light that foll’west all my way
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be

Stabilizing lines, especially for those in darkness.

Do you know the story behind it?

At age 20 George Matheson (1842-1906) was engaged to be married but began going blind. When he broke the news to his fiancee, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. She left him. Before losing his sight he had written two books of theology and some feel that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland in his day.

A special providence was that George’s sister offered to care for him. With her help, George left the world of academia for pastoral ministry and wound up preaching to 1500 each week–blind.

The day came, however, in 1882, when his sister fell in love and prepared for marriage herself. The evening before the wedding, George’s whole family had left to get ready for the next day’s celebration. He was alone and facing the prospect of living the rest of his life without the one person who had come through for him. On top of this, he was doubtless reflecting on his own aborted wedding day twenty years earlier. It is not hard to imagine the fresh waves of grief washing over him that night.

In the darkness of that moment George Matheson wrote this hymn. He remarked afterward that it took him five minutes and that it was the only hymn he ever wrote that required no editing.

O love that will not let me go. Heartening hope for you and me.

Here’s the last stanza.

O Cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.


http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/...not-let-me-go/

---

[InChristAlone]

“For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with
God.” (Luke 18:27)

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask
or think, according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

“My son, do not forget My law, but let your heart keep My commands; for
length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.” (Proverbs 3:1)

Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 2:1

“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right
in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will
put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I
am the Lord who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26)

Proverbs 17:22-
A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Isaiah 41:10
'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am
your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will
uphold you with My righteous right hand.'

Psalm 50:15
And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will
honor Me."

[InChristAlone]

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds - Matthew Perryman Jones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTRnz4j6BpY

It's a new tune but also gracious.

The story behind it.

---

"How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds"

by J. M. K.

Today I want to say a few words about a hymn we all love, and never grow
weary of: "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds."

It was written by a most remarkable man, John Newton. In his young days he
was very wild and wicked — a sinner of the blackest dye, but by the grace of
God, he was converted, and became one of the holiest of saints, and the
writer of this and of many other beautiful hymns.

The secret of his salvation lay in the happy fact that he had had one of
God's greatest and best gifts; a godly, praying mother. She died when he was
only seven, but she had so stored his mind with texts and Bible teaching,
she had so prayed for him, and dedicated him to God, that her influence
never left him; and in due time her prayers were answered, and her labours
were rewarded.

What a call we have here, to every mother, at once to decide to come to
Christ, and to love, and serve, and follow Him. Come, dear mothers, if only
for the sake of your dear children, that you, too, may win them for God's
service here, and for Heaven, in the Life Beyond.

John Newton was born in London, July 24, 1725. He was an only child. His
father was a sea captain; his mother a godly, praying woman. She died when
John was only seven. At the age of ten the little motherless lad went to sea
with his father. The young boy was thrown amongst a lot of loose and
abandoned companions, and he quickly learnt their evil ways; so much so,
that even among them he became notorious for wickedness. He would curse and
blaspheme so terribly that sometimes even the men were surprised at his
depravity.

Then he was forced by the press-gang into the Navy. He was at once promoted
to the rank of midshipman; but he was soon disgraced, and later dismissed
for insubordination. He took service under a West African slave dealer; and
was at one time captain of a slave ship, and engaged in the capture and
traffic of slaves. At the age of twenty-three a ship in which he was sailing
was overtaken in a terrific storm. She sprang a leak, and was thought to be
sinking. In his agony and alarm John Newton cried aloud, "May the Lord have
mercy upon us!" This was the first prayer he had uttered for years. The ship
was saved, and he began to think. He took his Bible, and read and prayed,
and slowly the light of Christ shone in upon his soul. He also came under
the influence of a godly captain, who greatly helped him.

He gave up his seafaring life, and in 1750 married Mary Catlett, a true
woman, and an early love of his. This pure and early attachment and his
sainted mother's influence and prayers were the two merciful sheet anchors
which held John Newton from destruction. Soon after his marriage he came
under the influence of John Wesley and George Whitefield.

At length after eight years at Liverpool, during which time Newton used his
spare time chiefly in reading theological books, and in increasing his
knowledge of Greek, and Hebrew, and Latin, he was licensed, in his
thirty-ninth year, to the curacy of Olney, in Buckinghamshire — where he
lived and worked for fifteen years (from 1764-1779). During this time he
became acquainted with the poet William Cowper, and between them they
composed and published "The Olney Hymns." Of these Cowper wrote 67, while
Newton contributed 281. The following are some of Newton's hymns: "How sweet
the name of Jesus sounds"; "Glorious things of Thee are spoken"; "Begone,
unbelief, my Saviour is near"; "Approach my soul the mercy seat"; "In evil
long I took delight"; "Come my soul thy suit prepare"; "Rejoice, believer,
in the Lord"; "Great Shepherd of Thy people hear"; "May the grace of Christ
our Saviour."

In 1779 John Newton became the Rector of St Mary's Woolnoth, Lombard Street,
in London, where for twenty-seven years more he lived and loved and
laboured. The church is close to the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England.
His preaching attracted large crowds. No London clergyman of that day
exercised a greater influence than did John Newton. His one desire was to
show what Christ had done for him, and could do for others. Two years before
his death, when, on account of his age and infirmities, he was pressed to
discontinue preaching, his reply was, "What, shall the old African
blasphemer stop while he can speak!"

A sweet story of him is told, that when he was nearly eighty he was almost
blind, and could scarcely see to read his manuscript sermon, so a helper
stood beside him to assist him in the pulpit. One Sunday morning John Newton
had twice read the words, "Jesus Christ is precious." "You have already said
that twice," whispered his helper; "go on." "John," said Newton to him, "I
said that twice, and I am going to say it again." The roof timbers rang as
again he cried, "Jesus Christ is precious!"

On December 21st, 1807, he fell asleep in Jesus, in his eighty-third year.
William Jay, of Bath, saw him not long before his death; the bright mind had
become clouded and the speech affected, but the visitor carried away one
precious utterance; let us never forget John Newton's dying words. He said
to Mr. Jay: "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things — that I am
a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour."

He was laid to rest in the chancel vault of St Mary's Woolnoth, and a simple
tablet to his memory was placed on the wall behind the pulpit, bearing an
inscription written by himself:

JOHN NEWTON,
CLERK,
ONCE AN INFIDEL AND LIBERTINE,
A SERVANT OF SLAVES IN AFRICA;
WAS
BY THE RICH MERCY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR
JESUS CHRIST,
PRESERVED, RESTORED, PARDONED,
AND APPOINTED TO PREACH THE FAITH
HE HAD LONG LABOURED TO DESTROY.
NEAR SIXTEEN YEARS AT OLNEY IN BUCKS,
AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN THIS CHURCH.

I have given you a brief outline of the life of John Newton, writer of the
hymn, "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds." Now I will say a few words about
the hymn itself.

In the Olney collection it contains seven verses. The fourth verse is not
generally quoted. It is as follows :

"By Thee my prayers acceptance find,
Although with sin defiled;
Satan accuses me in vain,
And I am owned a child."

The title of the hymn is, "The Name of Jesus," and the text given, Canticles
1:3, "Thy Name is as ointment poured forth."

The name of Jesus is, verily, more fragrant than the sweetest perfume, more
full of melody than the most perfect of earth's music.

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear."

A loving wife and mother lay dying. Her husband leaned over her, and said:
"Do you know me, my darling?" "No," said the dying woman, "I do not know who
you are." Her daughter came. "Mother, dear, surely you know me?" "No, I do
not." Then her husband tried again: "Do you know Jesus, my dear one?"
"Jesus," she said, and at the precious name the light came back into the
pale face. "Jesus," she repeated. "Yes, I know Him. He is my Shepherd,
Husband, Friend," and, even as she spoke, she passed away to be with Him for
ever.

What can the name of Jesus do for you, and for me? Listen to the second and
third verses. It is medicine. It can heal the wounds of sin. It is balm. It
can give peace. It is food. It can satisfy the hunger of the soul. It is a
soft pillow. It can give rest:

"It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
'Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary rest."

It is a sure and tried foundation, on which we can safely build. It is a
protection and refuge against our enemies. It is an inexhaustible bank from
which we may freely draw.

"Dear Name! the rock on which I build,
My shield, and hiding-place,
My never-failing treasury, fill'd
With boundless stores of grace."

The next verse tells us that the name Jesus stands for One Who is nearer and
dearer than any earthly friend can be; One Who is able and willing to guide
us, love us, understand us, and to be our all in all:

"Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring."

And then, how exactly the hymn goes on to describe our feebleness of
feeling, the coldness of our heart; and to lament the poorness of our
expressions of gratitude to this Blessed Saviour, Who has done, and is still
doing, so much for us!

"Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see Thee as Thou art
I'll praise Thee as I ought.

Till then I would Thy love proclaim
With every fleeting breath;
And may the music of Thy Name
Refresh my soul in death.
Amen."

I will end by quoting some words of the Rev. G. P. Bassett-Kerry. He says,
in a paper that he wrote on this sweet hymn:

"Let our last thought be this. This hymn, which breathes such devotion to
Christ, was written by one who had wandered far into the wilds of wickedness
and vice. If the grace of God could so transform him, can it not do the same
for us?"

"And if the name of Jesus became so precious to him, shall not we be stirred
up to love it more and more?"

God has set the name of Jesus above all other names. Let us exalt it in our
hearts and lives. Thus shall we prove increasingly, with John Newton,

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds."

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" Acts 4:12.

Copied by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org from Bright Talks on Favourite
Hymns... by J.M.K. London: The Religious Tract Society; Chicago: John C.
Winston Co., [1916?].

[InChristAlone]

Great is Thy Faithfulness - BRIAN DOERKSEN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO1UqeEL5Yo

Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Thomas Chisholm – 1925

Great Is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Though changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Refrain:
Great Is Thy faithfulness,
Great Is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

Refrain

Pardon for Sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Refrain

The Story Behind the Hymn:

1) Thomas Obediah Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky in 1866. He received his education in a little country schoolhouse, and at age 16 began teaching there. He became a Christian at age 27, and with no college or seminary training was ordained to the Methodist ministry at age 36. He served as a Methodist minister for a year, but ill health made it impossible for him to continue. He moved to Vineland, New Jersey, where he opened an insurance office.

Always interested in poetry, Chisholm wrote hundreds of poems during his lifetime. He was inspired by Lamentations 3:22-23 to write the text for "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." Those verses read, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Chisholm experienced that faithfulness. He suffered ill health most of his adult life, and never made much money –– but he said, "God has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness."

Chisholm sent the words to "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" to his friend, William Runyan, and Runyan wrote the music for this hymn. Runyan was a friend of Dr. Will Houghton, the president of Moody Bible Institute, and "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" soon became Houghton's favorite. Dr. Houghton invited George Beverly Shea, an unknown singer at the time, to sing hymns on the Institute's radio station. Shea, of course, included Dr. Houghton's favorite hymn in his repertoire.

Billy Graham, then a student at Wheaton College, became familiar with George Beverly Shea (and this hymn) through those radio broadcasts, and invited Shea to become part of his ministry. It was through their work that this hymn became popular internationally.

Even though he suffered ill health for most of his adult life, Chisholm lived to the ripe old age of 94. During his later years, he lived in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, a Methodist camp meeting town, where he died in 1960.

–– Copyright 2007, Richard Niell Donovan

http://www.lectionary.org/HymnStorie...ithfulness.htm

2) http://www.gbod.org/lead-your-church...y-faithfulness