Hymns

God’s Everlasting Arms

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The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you. He drives out the enemy before you; He cries out, ‘Destroy them!’ Deuteronomy 33:23 NLT

In his last speech before he died, Moses began giving both words of warning and blessing to the people. He wanted them to remember after forty long years of living in tents in the desert, that God had been their refuge all along. From their escape through the Red Sea, along the journey to Mount Sinai, where Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments, God had not abandoned them. Every morning, He had fed them with manna that miraculously appeared and every day He had made fresh delicious water to flow out of a rock. Though they had fallen into sin time after time, God wanted them to realize that at their lowest point, His arms were still underneath them. Yes, there were sometimes severe consequences, yes, they had to repent and pray, but through it all, they remained His people. In so many ways, we are just like them. We who call ourselves Christians have all passed through a Red Sea of the blood of Jesus. And every morning we have access to the manna His words, when we take the time to read them. And every time we go through deserts in our lives, God’s Holy Spirit stays right by our side. In the midst of the hardest and most difficult circumstances, we can be refreshed in His presence that freely flows, as we bow in prayer. Last of all, He assures us, that when we face enemies, whether they be death, doubt, or despair, that He will drive them out, keep us safe and destroy them. Then, because He loves us, we can always count on the fact that everywhere we go that underneath are His everlasting arms!

Nothing But the Blood

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But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13 NLT

I still remember the “I Found It” campaign, launched by Campus Crusade back in 1976. Billboards, bumper stickers and even lapel pins sported that phrase. The intent was to stir conversations, that would give Christians the opportunity to share the message of Christ. It was an interesting approach, but its message that, before being saved, we were searching for Christ and had somehow found Him, doesn’t line up well with the Bible. The entire Gospel is rather about Jesus coming as a shepherd searching for His lost sheep. He didn’t come because we were looking for Him, but because He was looking for us. The Good News of salvation is that the Holy Son of God, gave Himself as an innocent sacrifice for people like us, who had rejected Him. On the cross, as His blood poured down its timbers and touched the ground, a miracle occurred, a door opened wide, and a love story was told. Through the blood of Jesus, God reached out and claimed us as His own. “How can I be included?” you might ask. The answer is that, if God can redeem a failure like Peter, who had denied Him at His trial, a hater of Christians like Paul, and a doubter like Thomas, who demanded to put His hands on the nail prints before He would believe, then He can redeem you and me! In fact, I can’t find a thing, until He finds me first, not because of what I have done but through “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus!” Last Sunday, we introduced that hymn into our growing songbook at the nursing home. I hope you will enjoy listening to our simple rendition of this classic, coupled with the more contemporary Maranatha song, “White as Snow.” Have a blessed day everyone!

Ordinary Miracles of Grace

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We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” 
Numbers 11:5-6 ESV

The illusion of recalling small delicacies made them forget their bondage, suffering and prayers for deliverance. Their longing for meat caused them to discount both the mighty miracle of the Red Sea as well as the daily miracle of manna. Just as the children of Israel grumbled about missing the food of Egypt, we must be careful of our own heart’s ungodly longing for things of our past life. In the same way we must be careful, not to miss God’s miraculous in His ordinary means of grace. The sameness of every breath and each heartbeat may lull us into complacency and ingratitude for the astonishing beauty of another sunrise, another meal shared with a loved one, another walk through our neighborhood or trip to the grocery store. We long for fireworks, excitement and the spectacular, yet God reveals His greatest beauty in small sparrows, golden lilies of the field and His ordinary miracles of grace!

Today’s Prayer: Lord Jesus, may we truly come to see you where we are, sitting right here and right now in exactly the place where you have chosen for us to be this morning. Tune our ears to hear your voice and our voice to sing your praise, for the ordinary miracle of grace given us daily through Jesus Christ our Lord!