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.
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”John 20:29 ESV
Sometimes I try to imagine, what t would have been like on that first resurrection morning and wish I had been able to see Jesus with my own eyes and hear HIs voice, saying, “Fear not.” Thomas wished the very same thing, and eight days later, Jesus obliged that wish and showed Himself to Thomas and invited him to come and touch His wounds. What a privilege Thomas had to be able to see and touch Jesus, but how humbling that must have been for him to also hear, “More blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believed.” So, on those days when, like me, you wish you had been there, remember that you are more blessed than even those eleven disciples, and have an opportunity for an even greater joy. In singing Robert Lowry’s rousing hymn, “He Arose”, it gives us me the sense of what it must have been like to rejoice in seeing Jesus just like the first believers. We get to lift our voices with such a joyful uncompromising praise that my heart is filled to the brim. The most amazing miracle of all time – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changes both all of history and the history of our lives, because we believe in Him. I hope that you will enjoy seeing the many faces of our special friends in assisted living as they joined with us today. But no matter whether you sit in a wheelchair in a long term care facility or in the corner office of a giant corporation, there is no greater hope that you can have, than to know Jesus. He rose from the dead and has come to offer us eternal life, if we will put our trust in Him. “He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!”
In 1962, when four guys named, John, Paul, Ringo and George were releasing their first hit song, Doris Mae was helping with choir practice. One particulat night, Doris felt the presence of God in such a powerful way that she hesitated to dismiss everyone. As they lingered a bit, she told someone. “There is such a sweet spirit in this place.” Doris was so enraptured by that experience, that she went home and wrote the words, “There’s a sweet sweet Spirit in this place. And I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.”
Today, almost no one remembers Doris Mae Acker, but millions still sing that song which God gave her. And ironically that big hit song, “Love Me Do.” by The Beatles, is rarely played. That story makes me recall some other lyrics written a bit earlier, “I’d rather have Jesus than world wide fame. I’d rather be true to His Holy name.
It was my privilege to sing Dotis’ sweet song with my friends at Life Care today. I ho0e you can hear their voices as we sang together for Jesus and that you will join in. Have a blessed dsy everyone!
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