Come Thou Fount

Come Thou Fount

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Not as the result of works so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV

Maybe the reason this now ancient hymn strikes a chord in my heart is that the tumultuous life of young Robert Robertson was a lot like my own. Wandering far from the fold of God, was an understatement in both our lives. But into the middle of my mess, and on a collision course with disaster, God intervened, when someone offered me a ride while hitchhiking if I would just go to church. In Robert’s case, he and some ne’er-do-well friends, made plans to go to laugh and mock at a meeting where the famous evangelist George Whitefield was speaking. God must have chuckled, because there Robertson fell under the conviction of the Holy Spirit under Whitefield’s preaching, and not long afterward, committed His life to Jesu Christ. Then, just two years later, at the age of 22, the wonderful lyrics, of Come Thou Fount were born as Robert wrote:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to me
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering soul to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart O take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

That great debt of grace, only paid by the precious blood of Jesus is what binds us in love to Him forever, if we give our hearts to Jesus Christ. I pray that our simple rendering of this wonderful hymn, will be a blessing to you all this Sunday. Have a wonderful Sunday, and may you find rest and peace in His grace.

Ordinary Miracles of Grace

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment 
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!

Simplicity

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. 2 Corinthians 1:12

Friends of ours have a small cottage by a lake that they allow us to stay in for free a few days each year. It is hard to describe the rest and clearness of heart we gain while spending days away from social media, television or even phone calls (No cell service there!)

Paul talks about a clean and sincere simplicity in Christ that I am afraid of losing as I grow older. See just as our home seems to have accumulated lots of pretty but somewhat useless knickknacks over the years, so our hearts can become cluttered and and overflowing with information, wishful thinking and time wasting habits. But there is hope in Christ who is our one true source of rejoicing. Our great hope lies not by the accumulation of collections of good deeds on the scales of eternity but by the simple gift of His life, His blood, and His wisdom in place of ours. May this end of the Lord’s day be uncluttered, blessed and filled with the marvelous peace that flows always and only from Calvary!

I love this simple rendition of Come Thou Fount of Every blessing by Youngmin You. I pray that you will be blessed and kept by God’s amazing grace in the simplicity of the love of Jesus Christ!