Month: August 2011

A Tragic Ending For The Hymn Writer

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After preaching to a large outdoor crowd on April 3, 1826, Reginald Heber was exhausted. The hot sun had been beating down on him through his entire message. He then plunged into a pool of cool water. While in the pool he suffered a stroke and drowned.   After his death, His wife would discover that Reginald had written 57 hymns!   While going through his papers she read these words, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty”. This is our foundation hymn for August 28, 2011.

Hebers words continued with “Early in the morning my song shall rise to thee”. What is “my song”? Remember our foundation hymn from last week? Blessed Assurance. “This is my story this is my song. Praising my Savior, all the day long”. Psalm 34:1 “I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.”

Our songs this Sunday will focus on how great and mighty and holy is our God.
Andrea Crouch wrote a chorus in 1973, Bless His Holy Name. The lyrics say, “He has done great things, bless His Holy Name”. As you prepare for worship think of all the great things He has done in your life.
Some of my favorite songs follow  “Bless His Holy Name”. Bless The Lord,  Mighty is Our God and Great and Mighty is He. These three songs are a celebration of our God. During these songs I invite you to have an attitude of celebration with me.
Then we  come to our foundation hymn Holy Holy Holy followed by a You Are Holy, which proclaims who Jesus is, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Lord of everything.
The final two songs are, I Believe in Jesus and the chorus of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2 “We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne!” (CEV)

Your worship begins when your eyes are on Him. Your worship ends when your eyes are on ________.

The Blind Poetess

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Fanny Crosby, a blind poetess, wrote more than 8,000 Gospel songs. For many years she wrote three hymns per week. Many times a composer would bring their music to her and ask her to write the words. Such was the case with Phoebe P. Knapp, 1839-1908. Knapp played her melody for the blind poetess and asked, “What does this tune say?” Fanny responded immediately, “Why, That says: ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine.’”
Blessed Assurance is our foundation hymn for Sunday, August 21, 2011. My favorite line in this great hymn is “Heir of Salvation, Purchase of God”. This brings two thoughts to my mind.

1. If you could choose your inheritance would you choose riches or eternity with God?
2. God who could have anything and created all things chose to purchase you!

The last phrase in the chorus is the result of knowing the truth of our inheritance. “Praising My Savior All the Day Long.”  James 1:2 says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. There are so many things in this world that challenge us. This week when you have “An Opportunity” try praising your Savior all day long. We are heirs of Salvation, purchased by God!

Along with Blessed Assurance we will sing songs that proclaim the greatness of our God.

  • Ah Lord God taken from Jeremiah 32:17
  • We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise taken from Hebrews 13:15
  • Let there Be Glory and Honor and Praises taken from Revelation 5:11-12
  • He Has Made Me Glad, taken from Psalm 100:4
  • In Christ Alone is a song that captures the Biblical truth of the life, death, and resurrection  of Jesus.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.                                                                        Romans 12:1-2 (Message)

What Will You Do With Your Last Breath?

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Reverend E. P. Scott stood still. A party of warriors, their spears pointed at his heart, surrounded him. His close friend, Edward Perronet, had advised him not to go to this dangerous territory but Scott was a missionary and God had given him a passion to spread the Gospel. As he stood there thinking that his life was about to end he chose to use his last breaths to praise God. He took out his violin (which he always carried on him), closed his eyes, and began to play and sing All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, in the native language of the warriors. As he reached the fourth verse he realized he was still alive. He opened his eyes and saw that every spear was lowered and the warriors that surrounded him to kill him were now standing with tears in their eyes listening. Scott spent much of the remainder of his life sharing the Gospel with this tribe in India.
All Hail The Power of Jesus Name was written by Scott’s friend Edward Perronet in 1799 and has been translated into every existing language. This will be our foundation hymn for Sunday August 14, 2011. The phrase that stands out to me is the phrase sung eight times in this hymn, “And Crown Him Lord of All!”
Our theme continues with “He Is The King of Glory”. Philippians 3: 10 says, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.” This verse will lead us into our next song, “Knowing You”.
     All I once held dear built my life upon
     All this world reveres and wars to own
     All I once thought gain I have counted loss
     Spent and worthless now compared to this
     Knowing You Jesus knowing You
     There is no greater thing
     You’re my all You’re the best
     You’re my joy my righteousness
     And I love You Lord
The chorus, I Love You Lord, will lead us into prayer led by Pastor Al Johnson, a missionary to Venezuela for most of his ministry.
“I love you Lord and I lift my voice to worship you of my soul rejoice. Take joy my King in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in you ear.”
Jesus is our King! Do you know Him? Have you crowned Him?

Ninety-Nine Times

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Did you know that How Great Thou Art is a Swedish hymn? It started out as a poem written by 26-year-old Swedish minister, Carl Boberg. The original title was
“O Store Gud” or “O Mighty God”.
His poem was published and forgotten until several years later Carl heard his poem being sung to the tune of a Swedish melody. The hymn became widespread during the Billy Graham Crusade in the 1950s. In the 1957 New York Crusade, it was sung by George Beverly Shea Ninety-Nine times! We will only sing it once this Sunday☺.

How Great Thou Art speaks of His great creation. Then we focus on the fact that this Great God sent His Son to die for you and me. I love the phrase, “I scarce can take it in”. That phrase simply means that I cannot fathom what He was willing to do for me. The fourth verse of this great hymn takes us to our first face-to-face meeting with Christ. “Then I shall bow in humble adoration. And there proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

Then we will continue worshipping in song with “He Is Lord and Because We Believe”. Then we will transition into a modern hymn, “There Is a Redeemer”, written by Melody Green, wife of singer songwriter Keith Green who died in a plane crash in the early 80s. Melody Writes:

There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah Holy One. Thank you, oh, my Father, for giving us Your Son. And leaving your Spirit til the work on earth is done.

We will sing another great hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, by Isaac Watts with a chorus called Wonderful Cross.

Finally we will sing a song written by a friend of mine, Eugene Gregory, 1965-2009. The song is called Higher. It was Eugene’s prayer that he would draw closer to God. Eugene wrote: “I want to go higher. Take me deeper. I want to go farther. In Your presence Lord. Here’s my life, mold me, change me, make me more like You.”

If you will pray that same prayer this week I believe it will have an impact on how you worship Him on Sunday.