Posted June 1st, 2006
Luke 18 records the Lord Jesus teaching on the nature of justification by telling the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector. Pharisees were the respected religious leaders of Jesus' time. They lived outwardly moral and pious lives that many of us wouldn't come close to matching. In fact, Jesus never condemned the righteousness of the Pharisees, he even told his disciples that "unless [their] righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, [they] would not enter heaven." (Matt 5:20) The problem with the Pharisees was their motive for obedience. In Luke 18 Jesus explained how the Pharisee exalted himself by focusing on his moral life. In start contrast, however, Jesus praises the tax collector (a social outcast because of moral failures, perhaps think of a prostitute today) because instead of focusing on his works, he focuses on God's mercy as he begs "God, be merciful to me." This is the biblical "sinner's prayer" and it expresses the terms that God requires people to come to him on in order to be saved. We must acknowledge that nothing we have or do can ever allow us to stand before a holy God. Only God's mercy can save us from God's justice, and these two intersect only at the cross.
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Posted June 1st, 2006
All believers should be able to identify with the heart cry of this song. Have you ever felt like your mind was spinning amidst a thousand thoughts? When you retire to your prayer closet do you find it hard to suppress the onslaught of worries that constantly barrage your mind? The long list of to dos and responsibilities you have each day? Take heart believer, that the Lord is able to conquer even your craziness and replace it with a peace that surpasses comprehension (Philippians 4:7) . God has the power to draw us away from ourselves to Himself with one sovereign word. That is the essence of true worship - turning away from our preoccupation with self.
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Posted June 1st, 2006
This great Trinitarian hymn comes from Gadsby's hymnal and does not have an author listed. It could be from the compiler of the second supplement, J C Philpot. As we sing this song we address each member of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, addressing each one with praises and petitions appropriate to His function and role within the trinity. We declare that the Father reigns over all things in majesty from His heavenly throne room, ask the Son to shed His Word in our hearts and in the world, and show us His loving, sympathetic heart. We ask the spirit to work out our faith and fill us with peace - not just any peace, gospel peace.
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Posted June 1st, 2006
There is a great need for modern worship songs about Jesus' second coming. Most older hymnals have a section about the second coming but hymns there usually focus on the judgment Jesus will render there. But for those who belong to Christ, this coming will be a truly joyful time. Believer, Jesus is certainly coming back for you. Let that truth settle deep in your soul and move you to worship Him with your voice and your life. When you are tempted to despair, remember 1 Peter 4:12-13: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation."
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Posted June 1st, 2006
This powerful hymn from Isaac Watts ascribes wisdom, power, and majesty through song to the Lord our God. It looks ahead to the eternity in heaven that we will spend extolling and enjoying God in worship. In verse one we are exhorted to bring our humble praise before our King. Verse two declares that because of His love, God is preserving and will preserve us safely until we reach our final home. Then in verses three and four we look forward to the time when we will meet saints and angels around Jesus' throne and praise Him with everlasting songs. Perhaps Watts was thinking of Revelation 5:11-13: "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.' And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, 'To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.'"
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Posted March 14th, 2006
The best modern songs, whether they be for worship or part of pop culture, tell a story. The story at the heart of Christian worship is the gospel of Jesus and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). There Is No Greater Portrait is the first product of the new collaboration between songwriters Eric Schumacher and David Ward and reflects on the gospel story in a way that helps move us to thanksgiving and awe. In the first verse, we sing that remembering the sufferings of Jesus should move us to sorrow because it was our sins that caused Him to suffer so dearly. We then reflect on Jesus' ministry and final days and how they were culminated in His great act of obedience and love to His heavenly Father when He gave up His life on the cross. On the cross Jesus was displayed for all the world to see, only He was not worshiped as He deserved, but rather mocked and scorned by both His own people, the Jews, and the Romans. After pondering all of these things, we ask the Holy Spirit to be our salvation and apply these things to our hearts so that we can love Jesus more and more.
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Posted January 10th, 2006
This song should resonate in the hearts of anyone who has been born again longer than 30 seconds. One of the most besetting and annoying sins that believers deal with is that of being distracted, both in mind and heart from our true love, the Lord Jesus. The mind is one of the primary battlefields of the Christian life. We are commanded to "rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess 5:16-18) and to set our minds only on things that are pure and lovely (Philippians 4:8). All too often we spend time and energy thinking of "the passing things of earth" (as Toplady describes them). We desperately want to be removed from all the noise and strife of life, particularly in private devotions. May this song be our prayer in our quiet times with the Lord.
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Posted January 7th, 2006
This song is a paraphrase of Psalm 95 and can function as a wonderful "call to worship," but thankfully doesn't just stop at encouraging the singers to stand and sing (like many contemporary worhsip songs). It goes much deeper, and reiterates the reasons why we worship Him and the means by which we can even worship to begin with. We give God thanks for His grace shown to us by Jesus "fixing our place" through His death and resurrection applied to us thorugh faith. To Him belongs a thousand joyful worship songs because He is the sovereign King over heaven and earth. And His sovereignty ultimately moves us to more than simply singing - in the last verse we sing about falling to our knees (either metaphorically, in our hearts or physically) because of the awesomeness of God's power and might.
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Posted December 27th, 2005
All Christians doubt their salvation from time to time. Satan, our remaining sin (called simply "the flesh"), and the sinfulness of the world cause us to take our eyes off of Jesus' work on the cross and focus on our own hopelessness and despair. If our salvation did depend on our own performance how miserably we would fail! But thanks be to God that we need simply to remind ourselves along with this song that:
Has not Jesus died for sin?
Did He not in resurrection
Victory o'er Satan win?
When we doubt God's salvation and despair at our own lack of holiness, let us remember the gospel, that Jesus died for sinners, including me.
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Posted December 27th, 2005
This hymn from hymn-writer Albert Midlane describes the doctrine of "the Perseverance of the Saints," the precious truth that true believers will remain in the faith and persevere to the end. We know this from passages like Philippians 1:6 - "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." We will persevere because the same God who caused us to be born again will cause us to remain. This does not mean that we can sit back and just assume that we are safe because we trust in Jesus now. Rather, the biblical exhortation is to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12) and to "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith." (2 Cor 13:5). Even though we are commanded to strive for holiness, we are so thankful that our faith doesn't depend on our own efforts, but on God's grace. May these truths be on our hearts as we sing this song.
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