Month: April 2018

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer’s praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace.  

This morning as I dragged myself to exercise class, I began to dread the class, not because of the exercise, but because of the awful music which has no discernable lyrics that is usually played.  To my great surprise, as I rounded the corner, I heard the unmistakeable chorus of My Girl,  and my mood brightened immediately – I felt energized and happy!  We continued the workout with My Guy, Stand By Me, Shout,  and more of my favorite songs.  I asked the young instructor why she chose this music, and she said, “I love these songs because they tell a story, the music is memorable, and I don’t think there’s a single generation that doesn’t love it.”  Thank you!  I know every word of these songs, and it makes me feel good to sing along.

I began to think of all the other songs that I love, and a lot of them are hymns.  Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns, and many of them I grew up playing and singing as a child, a young adult, and an adult.  There is hardly one in the United Methodist Hymnal that I haven’t at least heard.  The lyrics tell a sweet story, each verse is different, the chorus is energizing, and they all speak of our God and King.  These are the “Praise” hymns to which I can relate.

The first hymn in the hymnal is “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing”, and it speaks of voices raised in adoration and praise.  When you have a congregation or group of Christians lifting their voices in worship, it is a wonderful testament to our faith.

Last week, I heard a minister explaining to the people assembled for the funeral of a friend, that although hymns were not in vogue now, they were the foundation and essence of our faith.  He went on to say that the word “war” in the hymn we were about to sing, was referring to the Christian movement of winning people to Christ and waging “war” against the evil one. The hymn in question was “Onward Christian Soldiers”, and I was saddened to hear that this great hymn was under scrutiny of political correctness by those who don’t even know its origin.  It was written in 1865 to encourage churches to “put on the whole armor of Jesus Christ”.

I am proud to say that we sang it along with “He Lives” and it was a marvelous testament to a Christian man, a life well lived and a God well served!  Hymns are always in vogue.  

Onward Christian Soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before!

Life has a sweetness to it, and a beauty and power that I want to celebrate.”             Valerie Harper  

There are just times in your life when the presence of God is so real and enfolds you so completely that you realize you never want this feeling to end!  Saturday as we celebrated the life of a very special young lady, I was surrounded with a feeling of what can only be described as sweetness.  I felt the entire church gathering pouring out their love and care for a wonderful young lady and her family.  It was evident that God’s presence was there blanketing all of us, and it was such an uplifting experience.

It is sometimes in the hardest of times that God grants us grace to count these times as the sweetest ones.  We feel united in our faith in a Savior and in our heavenly home.

The thing is, you know this feeling can’t go on forever, but you don’t know how you’ll give it up.  St. Augustine called the time in your life when you feel God’s presence in such a real way and the time after  it leaves you as  the sweetness.   It’s such a sweet time that reveals a God that is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.   How comforting to know that God is present everywhere, that he is all powerful and all knowing.

No matter how long the sweetness lasts, when it leaves, you won’t be the same.  You might hate to see it go for now, but the result will leave an imprint on your life.  You will never forget the feeling of this sweetness.  The good news is that it can come again!

As I left the service, a familiar song kept repeating in my heart, and mind,   Jesus loves me this I know; for the Bible tells me so; little ones to him belong; they are weak, but He is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me;  The Bible tells me so.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever.  Amen.                                    Ephesians 3:20-21

Ordinary is defined as “no special or distinctive happenings; normal”.  Using that definition, ordinary is different for each of us.

The Lenten season has come and gone, Easter has once again filled us with joy and become a memory, and suddenly, we realize that  life has returned to ordinary time.  There are no special holidays coming up for a while, pollen is here in force, spring break is drawing to a close, azalea and dogwood blooms are waning, and we are all going back to the ordinary time of our lives.

We tend to view the ordinary time as boring , but it is in the ordinary time that God works to speak to us and change our life.  If we are attuned to the still small voice, we can become aware of how He is working.

As we were watching the Masters golf tournament this weekend, I continued to see that beautiful bridge which crosses the course around the 12th and 13th hole.  I began to think of all the times when God builds  bridges between the ordinary time of our lives to the extraordinary time, and all the times I cry, “Lord, build me a bridge.”  He can take an ordinary day, reveal a truth or sign, and suddenly the day is extraordinary.

I had an experience with this last week.  Hummingbirds have always been a sign to our family of God’s presence, His love, and His care – a sign that all our loved ones and friends are under His care.  On the Monday after Palm Sunday, the day after Grace died, I was standing at the kitchen window when suddenly, a hummingbird appeared at the feeder on our deck -the first one I’ve seen this year.  He fluttered around the feeder, looked toward the window, hit the other feeder, lingered, and was gone! God appearing to me!  I wasn’t expecting it, but God turned an ordinary, sad day into extraordinary in the blink of an eye.  I felt a great peace about Grace, Robert, and all those who have gone before.  God’s bridge from ordinary to extraordinary.

There are bridges being built every day which are sometimes missed. If we are just open to Him working, every day can be transformed from ordinary time to extraordinary!  Lord, build us a bridge!

Most people would succeed in small things if they weren’t troubled with blind ambition.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Recently I read of a  young Iowa basketball player named Jordan Bohannon who deliberately missed a free throw which would have broken the current record of 34 consecutive free throws held by a former player, Chris Street.  Chris was killed 25 years ago in an automobile accident.  Jordan gave up his chance to break that record because he wanted to continue to honor Chris Street.  In an interview he said, “Life is bigger than basketball.”  The fans were ready for a record to be broken, but Jordan was thinking not so fast.

In the Elite Eight tournament, Loyola players were seen to be holding up four fingers in the final minutes.  Since a basketball game consists of a first half and a second half, I was a bit confused until the announcer explained that this was a gesture of the team’s  commitment to the final four minutes of each and every game.  Don’t be so fast to ever count them out.  The character of that team has shone through any nay sayers and brought them to the Final Four.

Character is more important than accomplishments because character lasts for eternity.   You might not remember Chris Street, but you will probably recall the unselfish act performed by Jordan Bohannon.  You might not remember the highly rated teams in the tournament, but you’ll probably remember Loyola and Sister Jean.

Character consists of several things, but most of all, your values, your integrity, and your honesty.  I like to think faith plays a huge part in their character development.

As we seek, to raise our children and grandchildren, it’s important to instill these in their lives.  I watch a lot of different sports on a lot of different fields, and you can tell the kids whose parents believe in the development of character and display character themselves.  They realize that winning isn’t the ultimate goal, it’s how you play the game!

Character is what you are when no one else is looking.  copied