From aunt Jackie's funeral time

February 7 th   

I don't think it is an accident the voracity of yesterday's storm.  I was sent on a pivot from Aunt Jackies funeral...New focus in the middle of a storm...

I used to sing Immortal Invisible before and during storms of such magnitude.  It was God and my favorite rainy day meditation.  New day was the pivot from such a storm as yesterday when the creek wa higher than I have ever seen it. 

Game on whistle, like no other. These are the days when all that practice comes to bear on your life. Game time..?How so, Lord is my question. But it is so whether I understand or not.

The providence of running across the word find of Ecc. 3 the day before the storm was pivotal.   More to come...

Praise!

Praise to the Lord, the almighty!

How many times have I been in worship and wondered,  what is making these people so happy.  They must have nothing wrong with them.  They must be professional praisers.  I love God and I love praise, but there is some times of my life, when praise is illusive to me.  

Praise to the Lord is a hymn that felt like a dagger of conviction for years as I worked through the grief of my losses in life.  When we lost our infant son and for years after that,  when that hymn came up in the Liturgy I was ready to leave.  I couldn’t cry 10, 15 years after the day and explain it to the people who had looked at me as a spiritual adult.  I am an infant in this portion of my life.  I am thinking too hard about my faith.  Why can’t you just accept God’s providence and stop asking him the questions that plague you so regularly.  Why can’t you just praise him, like your spiritual directors have instructed you.  I did the outward praise and external praise, but when that hymn came up, I couldn’t help but go all to pieces!

The King of Creation…

Almighty, is acceptable to my conscience, but the king of creation?  Catechism question:  God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.  All of creation and there is no thing that happens that wasn’t and isn’t in your control.  I know this in my mind, but when it comes to the things that go against my will, it is normal to recoil from this truth.  Let me tell you had it works in my soul.  I can think in my mind that maybe God missed it, than to think that it was his loving purpose to allow me to suffer through this or that trial.  An unsaved soul could grow to hate a being so powerful, who allows all the things that have happened in history.  I am not talking about all of the things in history, I am talking about the things that he has allowed in my life.  Why? 

It is always delightful to find out that I am not the only person who feels like this.  Many people have asked that question in Scripture, but the hymn writer seemed convinced and fully persuaded to guide us to sing…

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the king of Creation…

Oh my soul praise Him for He is thy help and salvation?

Commanding my personhood to find a praise in every situation of my life, is the only help in every situation.  You are going to be helped by this exercise, whether you know it or not.  This is going to grow your spiritual sinew.  That is why you ought to praise him.

Not only don’t I like to be told to praise Him, when I am in pain, but I would much rather stay swimming in my sadness than grow from this problem.  I become angry, with the hymn writer and angry with God who allowed me to go through this difficulty and then make it this hymn that we would sing.  That is like not wanting to reach your hand up to the helping hand that is going to pull you out of the water and you are drowning.  That is exactly what it is.  I would rather keep my hands at my side and stand on the bottom of the pool than to raise my hand and reach for the help that is right there.  Some griefs take you to that point.  I can’t get up!

Praise to the Lord, the allmighty, the King of Creation, Oh my soul praise him for He is your help and salvation…

He is the only one who can pierce through the crippling effect of unbelief.   Get up!  Get up!  He is the help of your soul!

All Ye who hear, now to his temple draw near, Praise Him in glad adoration!

 

Starting at the "AND can it be"

Thanking God for all his abundant blessings, the things that we see and cannot see, this is where we are in our prayers and once we have said "amen" this is where this hymn begins.

Lord, you have been so good to us in the tangibles and in the intangibles and now let me discuss the things that I have had no part or parcel in the investment.  God is a Lord of sowing and reaping.  I have sown some seeds and I have seen much reaping from these investments, but these are the things that I haven't sown and yet have reaped much bounty from:

I wasn't there when Jesus came to redeem his people and yet "Can it be that I, I should gain from this?"  I have seen your mighty hand set upon us for good in things and have known you as mighty and magnificent in creation and sustenance, but also the interest on those investments, which you have made, do you grant unto me? "An Interest in the Savior's Blood?"

What a magnificent calculation of the amazing worth of all that we possess in Christ.  He is amazing and His wonder is magnificent, but the fact that God, as it were bequeathed him to us, in our condition of being bereft and ignorant?  What a thought!

And can it be that I should gain An int'rest in the Saviour's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

'Tis mystery all! Th'Immortal dies! Who can can explore His strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine! 'Tis mercy all! let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more. 'Tis mercy all! let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father's throne above— So free, so infinite His grace— Humbled Himself in matchless love And bled for Adam's helpless race; 'Tis mercy all, immense and free, For, O my God, it found out me! 'Tis mercy all, immense and free, For, O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th'eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own. Bold I approach th'eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

That is So Amazing!