Garden of Prayer!

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” Matthew 25:36 NKJV

When Hurricane Milton passed through, everyone in our area, including all the residents at Life Care Center, were evacuated. This first service since we returned featured a new appreciation for how God preserved us and brought us back together. There is no better hymn to sing in celebration than “The Beautiful Garden of Prayer.” We passed through a time of anxiety, difficulty and testing and as we prayed, God drew us closer to His heart and deeper into the Beautiful Garden of Prayer! “The lyrics for The Beautiful Garden of Prayer were written by Eleanor Schroll and first published in 1920. The wonderful lilting melody was composed by James Filmore. This little-known hymn is one of my favorites and it reminds me of when Jesus invited His disciples to join Him in prayer, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though they did not know it, this was the last time they would be able to pray with Jesus before His crucifixion. That invitation remains today for all of us who follow Christ. He is already in the garden, and He is calling us to join Him. No matter what situation we are facing, He will open the gates and welcome us to kneel by His side and pray. Won’t you come to His side whether in praise or in sorrow and tarry there an hour? What better place could we ever wait, than in the presence of the Savior?

Welcome to Sunday School!

You might think people at the nursing home, just want to hear a few quiet hymns, pray and go back to their rooms. But nothing could be further from the truth! Not only do they like some hand clapping and foot stomping music, but they also LOVE Sunday School songs! This was a recent session from Life Care Center, that we recorded last Friday. I hope you will not only enjoy the music and story, but that you will be inspired to trust God and pray and stand firmly on the B-I-B-L-E through every storm!

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life Matthew 6:26-27 NIV

More About Jesus

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.