Posted March 10th, 2005
We often sing songs of devotion, commitment, or love to God but fail to properly acknowledge that they are but dim sparks compared to the same devotion, commitment, and love that our intercessor, Jesus, was able to offer God in our place. As we sing this beautiful song, originally by Isaac Watts, we can confess along with the father of a demon-possessed boy in Mark 9:24, "I do believe; help my unbelief." The reality of our human condition is that when we approach God in worship, our joy is mixed with grief, our hopes are often fainting, and guilt and sorrows remain. These are caused by indwelling sin in our lives - and the basic thrust of sin is to worship the created rather than the creator. Believers in this condition who have been given new hearts and desires to worship the true God are miserable, and it is that very misery that God mercifully uses to point us back to the cross to rest our weary, sin-laden, efforts and proclaim along with Watts that it is only by God's grace that our faith is upheld.
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Posted September 8th, 2004
The deepest desire of true believers is that their lives might reflect the glories of their savior and master, Jesus. In this song, we pray along with the great songwriter Charles Wesley for God to deeply implant several attributes that Jesus modeled for us in his earthly ministry, humility and contentment, in our hearts. Jesus' humility before men can be seen in his self-controlled response (or lack of response) to Pilate in Matthew 27:12-14. Jesus' humility before the Father is seen in his constant acknowledgment that his only prerogative is to do the will of the Father (John 4:34). Let us strive to have a heart like our Lord's and take joy in the promise that in heaven we will. The chorus of this song was written by David Ward, and the lyric editing and adaptation was done by David and his mom, Elizabeth.
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Posted May 28th, 2004
This is a song about confession of sin and the cleaning that God provides through Jesus. 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We are ultimately forgiven at the time of our justification (conversion), but John shows us that our cleansing is not just a one-time event. We need to be forgiven of the guilt of our sin - the effect that our sin has on our relationship with God. As Psalm 32:5 says "I acknowledged my sin to You ... and You forgave the guilt of my sin." Let our prayer echo that of Horatius' - "Wash now my soul this day".
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Posted October 10th, 2003
Though our salvation is eternally secure because it is based on God's sovereign choice and sovereign work, we often fall into periods of spiritual wantonness that is sometimes called "backsliding". God will never allow true believers to slide "off" - to fall beyond repentance, but when we are stuck in this funk, neglecting the joy of our salvation and clinging to our sin, we can fall into real despair. The writer of this song knew this despair, the gloom of remembering the sweet moments once spent with the Lord in His Word. We can identify with this song because of our indewlling sin that causes us, even if for brief moments or hours, to stray from our God and worship the idol of self. We should long for a closer walk with God and look forward to the time when we will truly worship God alone.
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Posted July 9th, 2003
This is a beautiful song from Charles Wesley about the desire for holiness and genuine, ongoing hatred of our sin. Because we continue to sin, we have a continual need to be restored to God in our fellowship with him. This song expresses the desire for God to accept us anew when we "backslide". In the chorus we sing the powerful prayer that God would give us tender hearts that tremble at the approach of sin. Oh, that our worst fear would be offending our loving God who paid such a price to free us from sin's deadly grasp! Originally written for a solo setting, this is another song that we felt could be sung by a congregation successfully, though it is a little bit more challenging than many of our other songs.
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