What is the chief end of man?Ezra's response in Scripture was somewhat self-flagellating in prayer and Nehemiah's was a whip in the temple.
From Aleph to Tau, the instruction that our God-glorifying identity is in finding God's purpose for our lives and glorifying Him in it.It really isn't rocket science!
OH how I hated this hymn for years and years!I felt like it was a stab in my soul! I love you Lord, but
"Hast thou not seen???"I loved the verbiage, but I hated the sentiments!
I went to church and prayed for years that they wouldn't sing that hymn.Lord, I prayed, I am loving you, with a blindness of grief and how can you let them constantly sing that "all their longings have been granted in what He ORDAINETH?"
Not mine! I have not seen that, Lord! I stood beside the grave of my child (my firstborn son,3 weeks old, snatched from my arms, by death) and I am certainly sure that this is not a longing of mine that has been granted in what Thou hast ordained?I am praising you even though I am ANGRY, Lord. I do not like this, not one little bit. I am praising you from the discipline of submission and mercy and I know that you can answer the questions in the sweet by and by. I am not bitter against you, but I am bitter against these hymn-writers who are writing from their lofty towers.
Granted in what He ordaineth?Even if that hadn't happened in my earliest seasons of serving You, Lord, I don't think I could sing that with a whole heart. "All thy longings?"
Am I supposed to let my Amen fully resound with that? How?I know that you know my Longings, Lord. Why are all these people enraptured and I am in tears? I can't say that.
Well, I would really like to tell the story of how God carried me to a place where the answers to the questions of my soul could be ministered to. And to the day where, I was singing that song, in my soul and in my innermost prayer closet in completely good conscience!God, please give me grace and time to tell that story.
Look at Deacon So and So and Elder Such and Such. They got up so beautifully and talked so really about the move of Christ in their lives. I always looked at them with a mix of amazement and incredulity. I had experienced the move of Christ in my life, but my daddy was a very stubborn case of unbelief. He argued and fought me tooth and nail for his faith and the discouragement that I felt when he died, left me kind of neutral to any kind of evangelism of this sort, at least.
Pastor Winans showed me who he is aiming at. The young people need to see this kind of faith. We can't show them this, because we weren't brought up in the street. Those wonderful men are mostly dead or quieted by age. The comfortable and prosperous generation that they fought to protect from their troubadorial street experience, have no clue of the beauty of seeing the tired elder saints who trudged to midweek service to get up before God and thank him for the week's provisions.Why do we always say, the elder saints would get up and sing a little song, like this...? We were sitting there, in full confidence of our faith. We were wondering, if so and so, would finally talk to us after service,perhaps. {confessing some dual motives for having been at service}But, Brother So and so and Sister Such and Such came after a long day at the daily grind. She had children at home, who were waiting for her and he had responsibilities that were calling to them and they would hush the service with a simple testimony..."What Do You Want the Lord To Say?"
Somehow we don't believe that we can embellish that testomony at all, so we just repeat it. Some things get lost in the translation sometimes, but the truth of their testimonies is what keeps us preaching, these many years later.
