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Broken Strings

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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!

A Prodigal Grace

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And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  Luke 15:20 ESV

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After the war, my dad ran a beauty shop for most of his adult life. In those days, shops were open from Tuesday through Saturday. Of course that did not mean he only worked five days. Oh no! Monday was the day when dad would clean the chairs, hairdryers, floor and the bathroom. Then, just when you might think that we were done, dad came home and took out an old fashioned accounting ledger, and balanced his books for the week. Now my dad was pretty special, but in those days one thing he did made me very uncomfortable. That one thing was his Italian manner of kissing me on both cheeks on occasion. Maybe when the prodigal son first came home he felt a little like me. He was stumbling home in rags after having wasted all that his father had given to him and the real embarrassment was not his father’s love, but his lack of any idea of how to love him in return. In my own case, when I frustrated my dad with teenage behavior, was ungrateful and rarely acknowledged that he was ever right, he just kept on loving me. That is not to say dad ever liked, accepted or encouraged my mistakes, but no matter how often I rejected his values or hurt his feelings, he kept on loving and caring about me.

That love of my dad, was great, but it was only a pale shadow of the love and grace of Jesus Christ. The baffling thing about that kind of grace is that when God sits down to His ledger book, there is no accounting practice that can explain why He should want to balance our debt of sin against the price of our redemption. But like the prodigal’s father, God runs and embraces us while we are still on the way home to Him, and then kisses us on both cheeks. The first kiss, was planted as Jesus suffered in agony on the cross for the sins we committed. The second kiss was given outside the empty tomb on Sunday morning, when He comforted Mary while she wept, and then appeared saying, “Don’t be afraid!” to the eleven disciples while they hid behind locked doors. How can we answer such prodigal grace? His answer is an invitation us to come home to Him, receive the cleansing of His blood, be filled with His Spirit and yield to the embrace of His amazing love!

The Good Shepherd’s Staff

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My Lord leads as a shepherd to deep meadows green
Then down gentle pathways to a still quiet stream
And when sin beckons, He tells me to walk
On the straight narrow way through the cleft in the rock

Then on through the valley of shadows and tears
His rod and His staff comfort all of my fears
No matter what dangers we find ahead
We'll feast at His table where a banquet is spread

Though I'm reminded of all I’ve done wrong
His goodness and mercy still follow along
For the Cross that He bore is the Good Shepherd’s staff
And the key to His home at the end of the path!


The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want 
Psalm 23:1 KJV

Peter Caligiuri
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