Nursing Home Music

More About Jesus

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I have always loved the words of the song, “More About Jesus.” They have encouraged me over the fifty plus years that I have been a Christian, because, when I have failed, sometimes fallen into sin, or made foolish decisions, they remind me that God has something better in His plan. He has planted something in my heart that longs to be more like Jesus and to show His love as I should, and He intended. This precious hymn was written in 1887 by Eliza Hewitt after a severe injury forced her early retirement from school teaching. But instead of anger or bitterness at losing the opportunity to do what she loved, her response was to write, “More about Jesus would I know – More of His love to others show”

As Eliza Hewitt shows us, there is nothing Jesus commanded more than for us to show His love to other people. First, He told us to love our Christian brothers and sisters and lay our lives down for them. Most of us get that part, but Jesus didn’t stop there. He also commanded us to love our neighbors, especially those who are completely different than us, like in the story of the Good Samaritan. Then, most surprising of all, Jesus also commanded us to love our enemies and shockingly, to pray for God’s blessing on them! Why in the world did He ask us to do that? Why should we love people who have hurt us, abused our trust or deceived us for their own gain? I love that, instead of giving us a long explanation, Jesus showed us what that means by allowing His enemies to drive nails through HIs hands and feet and then praying, “Father forgive them.” Until that truth touches the deepest part of our hearts, we will never really know the love of Christ as we should, because the Cross is where we learn to love Him and to serve Him by allowing that love to flow through us to others. I do hope you will enjoy our simple rendering of this old hymn. May God bless you as you seek to serve Him, by loving others today.

Written in Heaven

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 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice 
that your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:20 ESV

There are a great many things most of us would like to do or have in life. Many of these things are good and right, such as getting married, getting a job and having a decent home for our family. Each time we reach one of these accomplishments we feel a bit of satisfaction and joy. When it comes to whatever ministry that God has placed us in, the same holds true. Sunday school teachers love nothing better than praying with a child to receive Christ, worship leaders love seeing people raising their hands and singing along and pastors get excited when the altar is filled with people praying. Now, don’t get me wrong, these are all great, but when the disciples came back super enthusiastic from a bang-up mission’s trip Jesus cautioned them to focus elsewhere. He pointed to a day when all our life is over, and our doing is done. The only thing that will matter for us then is if we find that our names are written in Heaven. One way to be sure about if our names are written in Heaven is to search our hearts and ask a simple question: “Where is our greatest treasure?” Jesus told us that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. If we have made Jesus, the treasure of our heart. If we have asked Him to be Lord of our life and to forgive our sins, then we can rejoice not just in Heaven, but here and now. Our greatest joy must always be, not that others praise us or think we are important: not that we have a stack of money in the safe or the latest model car. The greatest joy must be that we have been found by the Good Shepherd and that our lives belong to Him!

Today’s song was recorded this past Sunday at Discovery Villages, where my friends in long-term care loved singing this song. If you listen carefully, you will hear more and more voices as the hymn goes along. That is because they were still coming into the room and towards the end you will also hear some clapping joining the voices. I believe that the joy they are experiencing is because they have realized more than most of us, that none of the things of this world really count for much, but the promises of God will last forever!

Joy! Joy! Joy!

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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.