sorry it's been a while! I've not been idle!! Just higher priorities (actually, not being judgemental, but I do wonder what some of these guys do (in terms of quality ministry with people) who spend so much time blogging...)
Anyways...
We sang last week at TCH OTH (On the Hill) a superb song because we were so chuffed with grace. The Christian band, 'Caedmon's Call' have revived this oldie. But I do like the old tune ('St Luke')
Here it is (TCH-ified - the personal pronouns changed to we, our and us) :
The joy of our hearts and the boast of our tongue.
Your free grace alone from the first to the last
Has won our affection and bound our soul fast.
Without your sweet mercy we could not live here -
Our sin would reduce us to utter despair
But through your free goodness our spirits revive
And he that first made us still keeps us alive.
Your mercy is more than a match for our heart
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart.
Dissolved by your goodness we fall to the ground
And weep for the praise of the mercy we've found.
Great father of mercies your goodness I own
And the covenant love of your crucified son.
All praise to the spirit whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.
How good is that? How good is grace??!
Daily...
I want to be astonished at grace.
Gobsmacked by his goodness.
Chuffed to bits by his mercy.
Boastful about my Jesus.
Good hymns/ songs can be a mighty thing.
Below is a helpful extract from Covenant Seminary's magazine that struck a big chord with me ('scuse the pun) :
Hymns have this ability to sneak in undetected and surprise us! And we desperately need the truth of the mercy of God to break through, to reform us, to restore our sanity, to open our eyes to help us see Jesus as beautiful and believable - in short, to shape us as a people of God. The hymns have power to do just that.
In her book, A Royal Waste of Time, Marva Dawn tells of Vaclav Havel, a playwright who is also the president of the Czech Republic. He was asked, how the revolution to overthrow communism in the Czech Republic was bloodless and yet had experienced real staying power. He simply replied, "We had our parallel society. And in that parallel society, we wrote our plays and sang our songs and read our poems, until we knew the truth so well that we could go out into the streets of Prague and say, "We don't believe your lies anymore!" And communism had to fall.
Isn't that a beautiful picture of what worship should be about? We gather to sing our songs so we will know the truth so well that we can go out into the world and we say, "We don't believe your lies anymore! We won't be squeezed into your mold!" And so we can speak to our fearful heart and say, "Heart, I don't believe your lies anymore!" (or as Charles Wesley put it, "Arise my soul arise! Shake off your guilty fear!") because Jesus can trump even what my heart says! And Jesus does trump our hearts as He becomes beautiful and believable to you. That is why we gather in worship. That is why I urge you, use the hymns of the church! God is using them to mold us to the truth, restore our sanity, and open our eyes to see Jesus as beautiful and believable.
1 comment:
Thanks for the plug about the article. Did you know that Caedmon's got that hymn from a cd I produced as well? It is on our 2nd cd "Pilgrim Days" sung by the composer Sandra McCracken. For what it's worth - Grace and peace, Kevin
Post a Comment