Monday's Message: Jesus Loves me

Jesus Loves Me 

(Source) 

       Without doubt the hymn that has influenced children for Christ more than any other is this simply stated one, “Jesus Loves Me.”

       Anna Bartlett Warner wrote this text in 1860 in collaboration with her sister, Susan, as a part of one of the best-selling novel of that day. The novel was written by Susan, entitled Say and Seal.

       In the novel, one of the characters, Mr. Linden, comforted Johnny Fax, a dying child, with the words of “Jesus Loves Me.”

       Anna and Susan Warner were highly educated and deeply devoted Christian young women who lived all of their lives along the Hudson River in New York, in a lovely but secluded area apart from the busy world.

       Their home was near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and for a number of years these two sisters conducted Sunday School classes for the young cadets. Their home, Good Crag, was willed to the Academy and made into a national shrine.

       Both sisters were buried with military honors in recognition of their spiritual contributions to the lives of the young military officers.

—Adapted from Kenneth Osbeck

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

      

(1) Jesus loves me! this I know,

For the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak but He is strong.

      

CHORUS: Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes,  Jesus loves me!

The Bible tells me so.

      

(2) Jesus loves me! He who died

Heaven's gate to open wide;

He will wash away my sin,

Let His little child come in.

      

(3) Jesus, take this heart of mine,.

Make it pure and wholly Thine;

On the cross You died for me,

I will try to live for Thee.

Family Friday: Sister Poem

SISTERS

A sister's love is special
in oh so many ways
Now miles stretch between us
and minutes turn to days.

We've shared so much as children
the tears, the joys, the pain
A lifetime spent together
those memories remain.

In times gone by we've pondered
the paths our lives have taken
Knowing that in spite of this
our sister love unshaken.

A sister's love is special
in ways that are unspoken
Still that binding force exists
our sister love unbroken.

Thoughtful Thursday: Back to School Prayer and Verses

1 Timothy 4:12 - Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
2 Timothy 2:15 - Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Colossians 3:23-24 - And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Proverbs 2:6 - For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding. 
Proverbs 13:20 - He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Hope everyone has a great school year!!!

We Pray Wednesday: Prayer Poem

The Soul's Sincere Desire

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

unuttered or expressed;

the motion of a hidden fire

that trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

the falling of a tear

the upward glancing of an eye,

when none but God is near.

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice,

returning from his ways,

while angels in their songs rejoice

and cry, "Behold, he prays!"

The saints in prayer appear as one

in word, in deed, and mind,

while with the Father and the Son

sweet fellowship they find.

No prayer is made by man alone

the Holy Spirit pleads,

and Jesus, on th'eternal throne,

for sinners intercedes.

O thou, by whom we come to God,

the Life, the Truth, the Way;

the path of prayer thyself hast trod:

Lord, teach us how to pray!

Monday's Message: The Love of God

The Love of God  
(Source) 

       Frederick M. Lehman, author and composer, wrote a pamphlet, in 1948, entitled History of the Song, The Love of God. It tells about the origin of this beloved hymn—

       While at camp-meeting in a mid-western state, some fifty years ago in our early ministry, an evangelist climaxed his message by quoting the last stanza of this song. The profound depths of the line moved us to preserve the words for future generations.

       Not until we had come to California did this urge find fulfillment, and that at a time when circumstances forced us to hard manual labor.

       One day, during short intervals of inattention to our work, we picked up a scrap of paper and, seated upon an empty lemon box pushed against the wall, with a stub pencil, added the (first) two stanzas and chorus of the song.

       Since the lines (3rd stanza from the Jewish poem) had been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum, the general opinion was that this inmate had written the epic in moments of sanity.

       Actually, the key-stanza (third verse) under question as to its authorship was written nearly one thousand years ago by a Jewish songwriter, and put on the score page by F.M. Lehman, a Gentile songwriter, in 1917.

—Selected

   

The Love of God

      

(1) The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell;

It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;

The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.

 

CHORUS:

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall for evermore endure

The saints' and angels' song.

      

(2) When years of time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,

When men, who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call,

God's love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong;

Redeeming grace to Adam's race-The saints' and angels' song.

      

(3) Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

 

 

~The Love of God (2)

       The beloved hymn The Love of God had its roots in a long Jewish poem written in the eleventh century in Germany.

       The Jewish poem, Hadamut, in the Aramaic language, has ninety couplets. The poem itself is in the form of an acrostic. It was composed, in the year 1096, by Rabbi Mayer, son of Isaac Nehorai, who was a cantor in the city of Worms, Germany.

       The Hadamut poem also speaks of a certain miracle. There are three opinions as to the contents of this miracle.

       The first opinion is that the miracle was the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Incidentally, it is for this reason that the poem is still read on the first day of the Feast of Shavuot before the reading of the Ten Commandments.

       The second opinion simply states that we really cannot know with certainty, from the references, what the actual miracle was.

       The third opinion believes that the miracle took place in the city of Worms, home of the rabbi-poet. It is thought that there was a medieval, German priest who once spoke evil of the Jewish community.

       The king called upon the Jews of the city to produce a representative to argue and defend themselves against the priest. If the Jewish spokesman was successful, then the Jewish community would be spared mass genocide. But if the anti-Jewish priest proved successful, then all of the Jewish community of Worms would be put to death.

       The story has a happy ending, as the Jewish representative was successful in the defense of their faith, and the community of Worms was spared.

       Throughout the poem, the theme of God’s eternal love and concern for His people is evident. One section of this poem, from which the present third stanza of The Love of God was evidently adapted, reads as follows:

Were the sky of parchment made,

A quill each reed, each twig and blade,

Could we with ink the oceans fill,

Were every man a scribe of skill,

The marvelous story, Of God’s great glory

Would still remain untold; For He, most high

The earth and sky Created alone of old.

—Kenneth Osbeck

We Pray Wednesday: People of Prayer - Samuel

People of Prayer in the Bible: Samuel

We read in the Bible about men who had great prayer relationships and wish that we could have the type of relationship that men in the Bible had with God.  Samuel is one of those men.  As you read the life of Samuel, there are several things to notice about his walk with God.  As we read, we can follow some steps that can allow us to have a better prayer relationship with God.

1.  He had a family that prayed.

Samuel came into this world and was born as a direct answer to prayer.  He was born of a praying mother; whose heart was full of earnest desire for a son.  He came into life under prayer surroundings, and his first months in this world were spent in direct contact with a woman who knew how to pray.  It was a prayer accompanied by a solemn vow that if he should be given, he should be "lent unto the Lord," and true to that vow, this praying mother put him directly in touch with the minister of the sanctuary and under the influence of "the house of prayer."  It was no wonder he developed into a man of prayer.

2.  He was at the house of prayer as a child.

He was in a favorable place to hear God when He spoke to him, and was in an atmosphere where it tended to his heeding the divine call which came to him.  It was the most natural thing in the world when at the third call from heaven, he recognized God's voice and his childish heart responded so promptly, "Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth."  Quickly was there a response from his boyish spirit, of submission, willingness and prayer.  Had he been born of a different sort of mother, had he been placed under different surroundings, had he spent his early days in contact with different influences, does anyone for one moment suppose he could have easily heard the voice of God calling him to His service, and that he would have so readily yielded his young life to the God who brought him into being?  Would a worldly home, with worldly surroundings, separated from the Church of God, with a worldly-minded mother, have produced such a character as Samuel?  It takes such influences and agencies in early life to produce such praying men as Samuel.  Would you have your child called early into divine service and separated from the world unto God?  Would you have him so situated that he will be called in childhood by the Spirit of God?  Put him under prayer influences.  Place him near to and directly under the influence of the Man of God and in close touch with that house which is called "the house of prayer."

3.  He had prayed for his nation and it’s leader.

A crisis came in the history of this nation.  The people were infatuated by the glory of a kingdom with a human king, and were prepared to reject God as their king, as He had always been.  So they came to Samuel with the bold request, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations."  The thing displeased this man of God, who was jealous for the name, the honor and the pleasure of the Lord God.  How could it be otherwise?  Who would not have been likewise displeased if he were built after the pattern of Samuel?  It grieved him in soul.  The Lord, however, came to him just at that time with the comforting assurance so far as he was personally concerned in the transaction, that "they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.  Hearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they say unto thee."  Then it was that Samuel followed the bent of his mind, "And Samuel prayed unto the Lord."  It seemed that in every matter concerning this people, with which Samuel was connected, he must pray over it.  How much more now when there was to be an entire revolution in the form of government, and God was to be displaced as the ruler of the people, and a human king was to be set up?  National affairs need to be prayed over. Praying men are demanded to carry to God in prayer the affairs of government.  Lawmakers, law judges, and law executives need leaders in Israel to pray for them.  How much fewer the mistakes if there was more praying done in civil matters?

4.  He prayed all night for a hurting friend.

One more incident in the prayer life of Samuel is worth noticing.  King Saul had been ordered to destroy all the Amalekites, root and branch, and all their stuff, but Saul, contrary to divine instructions, had spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle, and had justified it because he claimed that the people wanted it done.  God brought this message to Samuel at this time: "It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments." "And it grieved Samuel, and he cried all night unto the Lord." Such a sudden declaration was enough to produce grief of soul in a man like Samuel, who loved his nation, who was true to God, and who above everything else desired the prosperity of Zion. Such grief of soul over the evils of the Church and at the sight of the abominations of the times always drives a man to his knees in prayer. Of course, Samuel carried the case to God. It was a time for prayer. The case was too serious for him not to be deeply moved to pray. So greatly was the inner soul of Samuel disturbed that he prayed all night about it. Too much was at stake for him to shut his eyes to the affair, to treat it indifferently, and to let it pass without taking God into the matter.