You might think people at the nursing home, just want to hear a few quiet hymns, pray and go back to their rooms. But nothing could be further from the truth! Not only do they like some hand clapping and foot stomping music, but they also LOVE Sunday School songs! This was a recent session from Life Care Center, that we recorded last Friday. I hope you will not only enjoy the music and story, but that you will be inspired to trust God and pray and stand firmly on the B-I-B-L-E through every storm!
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life Matthew 6:26-27 NIV
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.He restores my soul. Psalm 23:1-3a ESV
Considering the chorus of the hymn, “He Keeps Me Singing”, it is amazing to realize the story behind those happy words. In 1911, Luther Bridgers was preaching at a revival at a Methodist church in Middleboro, Kentucky, while his wife and children stayed nearby in Harrodsburg, with his parents. In the night the house where they were staying caught fire and Luther’s entire family died in the flames. The following year he wrote these words:
All my life was wrecked by sin and strife Discord filled my heart with pain Jesus swept across those broken strings Stirred the slumbering chords again.
Oh! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Sweetest name I know Fills my every long He Keeps me singing as I go
As a guitar player, that line, “Jesus swept across those broken strings,” holds special meaning for me. It reminds me of those times when a string has snapped right in the middle of a hymn. In those moments, there is nothing I can do, except to keep on playing. But with that one string gone, the whole instrument goes out of tune, not to mention, it is difficult to play with a loose string hanging down. So as quickly as I can after fumbling my way through the song, I slip out and replace that worn-out string and retune my instrument. Now, whether you are a guitar player or not, I am sure that you have had a string or two break in your life. Relationships snap, our boss tells us we are being let go, and tragedies such as Luther’s loss of those most precious to him, happen in the night. But even in the middle of the worst, our Lord Jesus is still our Good Shepherd. He has not fallen asleep on the job, nor has He been taken off guard. God is closest to us in our hour of pain. It is in those times that “He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside the still waters. He restores our souls.” God knows about and shares both in our happy times as well in our deepest griefs. In those moments, His skillful hands go quickly to work, repairing, restoring and replacing our broken strings. If we don’t allow sorrow, loss or bitterness to turn us away from our Good Shepherd, He will restore our souls, stir the slumbering chords again and will truly keep us singing as we go!
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV
The hymn “Victory in Jesus” was requested near the end of our Friday nursing home service, and though I do love this song, it has been quite a while (maybe years!) since I sang it. I was amazed at how my friends at Life Care Center, just lit up and clapped all the way through. Then I looked up a little of the background of this song and discovered that in 1939 when Eugene Bartlett wrote this song, he had been recently paralyzed by a stroke and was confined to bed. Though he had written many other hymns, this one became his most popular and was later sung around the country by his son, Eugene Jr., as he carried on his dad’s ministry.
At the nursing home, I saw how the words and music really struck a chord of hope in the hearts of the residents. Our friends in long-term care, know better than any of us on the outside what it means to look ahead to our eternal victory in Jesus Christ. Rather than focusing on naming and claiming, we are reminded that, Jesus named and claimed us, by His redeeming blood. The Old Testament tells us, “The life is in the blood.”, and today true life and victory can be found nowhere else but in the blood of Jesus Christ. Through HIs blood He purchased our mansion in glory, where, in the words of the song, “some sweet day we’ll sing up there that song of victory!”
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