Church hymns

Counting Blessings

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Colossians 3:15 NLT

As I look around the room I see most of my friends seated in wheelchairs, though a few of the more active senior saints are still making their way to our meeting with a walker. But in spite of all the reasons they have to complain, it is amazing how few of them do. Instead, I hear laughter, when I tell them to get their calculators out, because we are getting ready to count our blessings. There are days when we all need to think about things to be grateful for instead of those we like to gripe about. I am thankful for this simple song by Johnson Oatman, which reminds me to do exactly that! I do hope you will enjoy our little song session and that whatever life holds for you at this moment, that God will help you to count your blessings. Some of those blessings might be in the past, maybe some even today, but for the child of God, we all have some huge future blessings to thank Him for, beginning with His forgiveness of our sins and the home He has promised us in Heaven! (Next door to Jesus according to Dottie Rambo!)

Joy! Joy! Joy!

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Psalm 47:1 ESV

Not that I always am well prepared, but I do prefer to have some semblance of a message and a list of hymns to get us started each week at Life Care Center. But, even on the weeks when I have everything carefully mapped out, I have found that the residents love having the chance to pick a song themselves. This week’s suggestion from one of our seasoned saints was so great and we had such a blast singing it together, that I wanted to share it. It just goes to show, that getting older, doesn’t require us to lose our joy or our sense of fun. I do hope you will not only get a smile from our impromptu session, but that you will sing along and experience the joy that only Jesus can give.

God Leads His Dear Children

/ pastorpete51 / 8 Comments

A few nights ago, as my wife and I went for a walk by our pond we were surprised to see a small alligator. Now, since we live in Florida this was not unheard of, but there had not been any alligators in our pond for a few years. A few minutes later as we made the turn around the end of the pond, we came upon a mother duck who must have also spotted that alligator, hurriedly leading her eight little ducklings to another pond. She had wisely decided that though the alligator was small, our pond was no longer a safe place for her babies!

As we watched her leading her ducklings with their tiny feet hurrying to keep up, I was reminded of the precious hymn, “God Leads His Dear Children Along.” The lyrics tell us that just like that mother duck, our Good Shepherd is watching out for us and leading us to safe green pastures. Sometimes the way is through the flood, sometimes through the fire, but no matter where He leads, He makes the way through the blood of Jesus. Our Good Shepherd knows the path ahead and no matter how steep the way, we need to remind ourselves that He always knows what is best for us!