Thursday’s Hymn – Victory in Jesus

May 20, 2010 at 9:51 am | Posted in hymns, Praise | Leave a comment
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When I was younger and pastoring my first church which was also a church plant, God laid on my heart something that we should begin to do during the offering. We should begin to stand and sing upbeat songs and give praise as we gave our tithes and offerings. Now our people loved to clap their hands when they sang and back in the day we used an overhead projector to put the words of the songs on a screen. So we had a good time when we gave to the Lord.

Now our music team grew as our church did. We sang both hymns and choruses during the singing portion of our worship service. At one time we had guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboard and ladies who played various percussion instruments such as tambourine, kabasa, and maracas. We had men and women in our music team. If I may say so, we got down as we worshiped God in song. We had some great people serving and coming to the church.

Imagine all of those instruments and about eight people leading the singing during the offering! It was wonderful. People were clapping and singing and giving with joy to the Lord. Our people literally looked forward to our offering time. I think it was because we first gave our hearts to the Lord. Then we could give everything else cheerfully too.

I hope you are blessed by the words of this hymn and that you can offer it up to the Most High God as gift of praise for saving you. Stay faithful and hopeful.

Much GRACE and peace to you,

Bill (a fellow-laborer)

Romans 15:13; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Victory in Jesus

(Eugene M. Bartlett, 1855-1941)

1.      I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,

How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me.

I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood’s atoning.

Then I repented of my sin and won the victory.

(Refrain) Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever! He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

 2.      I heard about His healing, of His cleansing power revealing,

How He made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see.

And then I cried, “Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit”;

And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory.

 (Refrain)

 3.      I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory,

And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea,

About the angels singing, and the old redemption story;

And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.

(Refrain)

Come, Thou Fount

April 29, 2010 at 9:44 am | Posted in encouragement, hymns, Praise | Leave a comment
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Come, Thou Fount

By Robert Robinson (1735-1790)

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount – I’m fixed upon it – Mount of Thy redeeming love.

2. Hither to Thy love has blest me; Thou hast brought me to this place;

And I know Thy hand will bring me Safely home by Thy good grace.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger Bought me with His precious blood.

3. Oh, to grace how great a debtor, Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, as a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee;

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it – Seal it for Thy courts above.

 

There are a lot of hymns that I like to sing. That’s not to say I like every hymn ever put in a hymnal. I also like many choruses and praise songs and some of the modern songs written for church. What I’m trying to say is that I like a blended song selection to be sung in church. I don’t like the singing part of a worship service to be all one way or the other. I like balanced song selection and singing.

So I will try to pick a hymn a week to put in this blog for my readers. My hope is that they will appreciate the words and thoughts behind them. I also hope they may sing them as an offering to the Lord in their personal prayer or study time. They may even want to suggest to their church’s song leader to consider singing them some Sunday. I do think that our singing in the worship service should be balanced between old and new, traditional and contemporary.

Those are just my thoughts. There will be another hymn next week.

I read an interesting Spurgeon selection this morning at: http://www.reformationtheology.com/2010/04/and_this_was_just_part_of_spur.php#more

If you have the time you should check it out.  God bless you, stay faithful and hopeful!

Much GRACE and peace to you,

Bill (a fellow-laborer)

Romans 15:13; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Offering the Sacrifice of Praise

March 6, 2010 at 5:27 pm | Posted in hymns, Praise | Leave a comment
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Sometimes I like to imagine myself having a great voice. You know, one of those voices that just booms. One of those voices that just sounds good. When I sing I have to imagine I have one of the those voices because I don’t. I have one of those voices that can change key in the middle of a song and I couldn’t tell you what key we started in. But you see I like to sing and praise the Lord who saved me.

I’m not usually too shy so I will sing out when I’m in church. I know what it is like to make a joyful noise to the Lord. I also know what it is to sing while I’m alone worshipping God. Which got me thinking about songs we usually only sing around Easter. These songs could be sung any day, but usually they are reserved for special days.

One of my favorite Scriptures that helps me sing praises to God even when I don’t feel like it is Psalm 50:23. He who sacrifices thank offerings honors Me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God. (NIV). I don’t pretend to have a great singing voice, but I can sing praises to the One who redeemed me. I know He does not get tired of hearing me make a joyful noise to Him.

Sometimes when it is difficult for us to sing praises to Him is when we should make ourselves sing. Somehow, the sacrifice of my praise honors the Lord who redeemed me. Somehow it prepares the way for the salvation of God. I don’t pretend to have the greatest singing voice. That doesn’t matter to God. More importantly, I don’t have to pretend that I am redeemed and my name is written in the Lamb’s book of life, I am assured of that truth.

I can gladly offer the sacrifice of praise any day including Easter Sunday. There are a lot of good Easter songs, so I’ll share five with you that I am glad were written. I look forward to singing them and I hope you do too.

  1. Man of Sorrows by Philip Bliss
  2. Christ Arose by Robert Lowry
  3. The Easter Song by Keith Green
  4. He’s Alive by Don Francisco
  5. Rejoice, the Lord is King by Charles Wesley

 

Christ Arose

By Robert Lowry

1.      Low in the grave He lay – Jesus my Savior! Waiting the coming day – Jesus, my Lord!

(chorus) Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes; He arose a victor from the dark domain, And He live forever with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

2.      Vainly they watch His bed – Jesus, my Savior! Vainly they seal the dead – Jesus, my Lord!

(chorus)

3.      Death cannot keep his prey – Jesus, my Savior! He tore the bars away – Jesus, my Lord!

(chorus)

Go ahead, sing Christ Arose, offer the sacrifice of praise. You’ll be glad you did. Jesus has triumphed over death and the devil. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us who believe. Hallelujah! I’ll say it again; the power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us who believe! (18)I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, (19)and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, (20)which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, (Ephesians 1:18-20 NIV).

Give praise a chance,

Bill

Romans 15:13

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