Sunny Sunday #7 - Come Thou Fount - Verse 5

O that day when freed from sinning,

I shall see Thy lovely face;

Clothèd then in blood washed linen

How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;

Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,

Take my ransomed soul away;

Send thine angels now to carry

Me to realms of endless day.

What a joyous reunion when we meet our refuge and strength face to face.  What will that moment be like?  You have depended on Him throughout life.  You have been strengthened by Him.  You have been saved by Him.  In that moment, we will likely come to know even more deeply His love for us.  We will come to know that he has helped us much more than we could have ever known.  We will be eternally grateful for what he has done for us.

Sometimes, we don't recognize His help as we move through this life.  We should always trust that he is helping us and guiding us through this confusing life.  One day we will understand exactly how and we will kneel in awe at his grace, mercy and love for us.  What a great day that will be.

Sunny Sunday #6 - Come Thou Fount - Verse 4

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

So you have been found.  You have sought the help of Christ and you are not perfect yet.  The beauty of the atonement is that it overcomes our weakness.  Christ does not ask perfect performance.  Rather that we come with a broken heart and contrite spirit. This verse is the embodiment of the heart that has broken and acknowledged its need for help.

We are going to wander as we go through life.  Everyone wonders.  No one can walk exactly down the straight and narrow path. We rely on the mercy of Christ to bind us to the path and help us make course corrections along the way.  The good new of the gospel is that these wanderings do not preclude us from obtaining the Kingdom of Heaven.  Rather, we receive that gift through the grace of Christ.

Sunny Sunday #5 - Come Thou Fount - Verse 3

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood;

How His kindness yet pursues me

Mortal tongue can never tell,

Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me

I cannot proclaim it well.

Have you ever been lost?  Did you wonder if someone was looking for you?  Christ is the one who left the ninety and nine to rescue the one.  He is looking for you before you even know that you have been lost.  

There are times when we feel very alone in life.  Other times when we struggle with challenges.  Still other times that we don't even realize that we've been found.  No matter where you are in life, chances are that Christ is right there with you. We just sometimes are so blinded by our situation that we cannot hear is beckoning voice.  

Open your hearts, listen and look for Him.  He is there and he is guiding you back home.  If you will only let Him find you.

Image Credit - 'Journey's End' by Derek Hegsted

Sunny Sunday #4 - Come Thou Fount - Verse 2

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,

Till released from flesh and sin,

Yet from what I do inherit,

Here Thy praises I'll begin;

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Here by Thy great help I’ve come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

If men are that they might have joy, then why do we sorrow so much. Sometimes we believe that God's life is all gumdrops and roses, but if you look at what his children get up to, it's really quite depressing.  It must be that God's joyful existence comes from something other than the actions of others.

When make our happiness dependent on the actions of others, we often find ourselves in places that are far from joy.  Somehow, with all that goes on in our world, God states that "Men are that they might have joy."  Not just that we should find happiness, but that we were created that we should have joy.  It is an essential part of our God-given makeup.

So how do we find it.  The answer is simple, we ask God to help us find it.  He has found a way to be joyful in spite of discouraging events.  So he is the perfect guide to show us how.  Then we can raise our own Ebenezer to the Lord. Our own monument to our victory over darkness.

Image credit: Machrie Moor standing stone (Scotland), NVM Digital

Sunny Sunday #3 - Come Thou Fount - Verse 1

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

The ability to praise is a blessing of divine mercy and grace. The battle worn soul, devoid of strength and refuge, pleads for mercy and grace and the ability to adequately express the joy within his heart from the cooling balm of the Lord.

Christ is the fountain of life and of every blessing that flows from God. It is his atonement that bridges the gap between us and God. Our mortality has separated us from God's divine goodness and by grace and mercy alone we are allowed to reconnect with the divine through Christ.

Though we may be blind to it at times, God's mercy never ceases. He is disposed to be our protector and guide. He wants to help us because of his love for us and only because of His love for us. What joy fills our soul when we realize that there is hope. That through divine grace and mercy, God can help us win the fight and bring us back to him. To do so, we must acknowledge that it is by his grace that we can be made whole. Our souls are filled with light that we do not deserve and we desire to proclaim God's goodness with the song of the angels.

Notice where we start in this journey. It is not by recognizing our own efforts, but by asking for the gift of divine mercy that has already been extended to us. All we must do is embrace it to find the peace that we seek.

Sunny Sunday #2 - Come Thou Fount - Introduction

Continuing on the theme of Grace from last week, I am going to start a series based upon the hymn, 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing'. I have visited this hymn before on this blog (see here), but again am feeling drawn to it. As a musician, I have many 'favorite' songs, but this hymn ranks at the very top. For me, when paired with the hymn tune, Nettleton, it is a magic convergence that rarely happens in the music world. It is like the music and the text break beyond their bonds and give you a glimpse of heavenly grace.

I have chosen to use the original text of the hymn as basis for these posts. Each week, we'll discuss one verse and attempt to gain further insight into its meaning. The poetry of this hymn is quite good and often the meaning behind the words is lost when we sing or hear it. It must be studied and pondered.

As one day I wish to arrange an instrumental version of this hymn, I have spend quite a bit of time thinking about what it means. So many settings are triumphant and glorious. Certainly appropriate given the subject matter of this hymn. However, I was struck one day that this was not the hymn of praise from an angelic choir. Rather, it is the humble plea from the battle worn soul. A plea for grace, love, comfort and teaching. A plea from someone at the bottom and not already risen to the top.

A healthy person does not need a physician, but rather one who is sick. When we confront our mortal weakness and finally accept that we are not perfect and cannot hope to achieve perfection on our own, that is when we call out. That is when we truly desire divine grace that will heal our hearts and support us each day. Join me on this journey.

Image above (and on front-page mastheads): Sculpture “Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well” by Ivan Mestrovic, 1957, seen at the University of Notre Dame; photograph by Ruth Councell.

Sunny Sunday #1 – Grace

The subject of grace has been on my mind very much lately. It is a subject that I don’t really feel like I have a problem with, but it has been at the center of what I have felt like teaching, talking and thinking about in recent weeks.

Grace, in the divine sense, usually means the predisposition of God towards us. He loves us and wants to help us. He gives us gifts to help us progress. These gifts, including the gift of salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ, are freely given. They are given through mercy and not on merit.

God is serious when he says ask and ye shall receive. So often we feel that we must somehow earn the gifts of the spirit. That is a false heresy. God will give you gifts if you ask them of him because he loves you and for no other reason. That is the miracle of grace. You cannot earn it, you just need to be thankful for it.