HIS LOVELY NAME

HIS LOVELY NAME!

As I am writing this today, I am thinking about the world around me today.  Our days here where we live continue to be filled with fog and cold.  There is no rain or snow in sight.  Some of our lovely lakes are dwindling down to a puddle, it seems. I continue to note faces I see and wonder what is going on in their lives. Some faces seem to speak of sadness and sorrow and many burdens to carry.  And many smile and go on their way, seemingly satisfied with their lives.  Many love the Lord Jesus despite the great trials they may go through. And I am thinking about the lovely Name of Jesus and the absolute power of His Name and how that Name holds this world together (Hebrews 1:3).

Many people strive to reach the top of success in their careers, wanting to make a big name for themselves.  But there is only one Name that outshines any name that man can make for himself on this earth. And at that Name someday every knee will bow to the most glorious name in all the universe (Philippines 2:9-11).

And in that Name, the precious Name of Jesus, is everything my heart desires.  He is the Lover of my soul, He is my Savior, my Redeemer, and I look forward to the day when I will at last see His face and dwell with Him in heaven forever.  Have you, my friend, experienced the absolute love of Jesus?  When we mention the Name of Jesus, do you comprehend how awesome is that Name? 

I heard a song on a CD and must share it with you.  My heart is overwhelmed within me as I read the words of this song.  Some of you may know this song and can sing it as you read the words.  As we think of the Name of Jesus, may you come to know how lovely is that Name, the Name of Jesus!

WHAT A LOVELY NAME

There’s a name above all others, wonderful to hear, bringing hope and cheer.  It’s the lovely name of Jesus, evermore the same, what a lovely name.

CHORUS:  What a lovely name, the name of Jesus.  Reaching higher far, than the brightest star.  Sweeter than the songs they sing in heaven.  Let the world proclaim, what a lovely name.

Thru His name there’s wondrous power, power to redeem, making sinner clean.  By His pow’r He cleansed the leper, opened blinded eyes, caused the dead to rise.

He’ll return in clouds of glory, saints of ev’ry race, shall behold His face, with Him enter heaven’s city, every to proclaim, what a lovely name.  (Charles B. Wycuff)

Are you walking through a time of fog in their life today?  Are you having trouble seeing Jesus through your tears of sorrow and pain?  Oh, what a lovely Name to part the clouds and bring hope and cheer!  He is Almighty God!  Christ is the all-powerful Lord, and absolutely nothing is impossible with Him!

And in the lovely Name of Jesus we can pray for the sick and those confined to bed, who in the past lived full lives serving Jesus.  I just came from a nursing home where I prayed over a dear saint.  And I am reminded of the compassion of Jesus for these dear ones.  This precious one had a lovely voice and sang her praises to Jesus, and now all I can do is read some scripture and pray in His lovely name and knowing that soon she will be home with Jesus and can lift her voice once again sing praises to her God!

In the Wonderful and lovely Name of Jesus is our Salvation. Through His death on that cross, He has power, through His death to redeem us from our sins by the cleansing blood that He shed.  And because of His resurrection, death is conquered and we have eternal life with Him forever.  As we read the Gospels in the New Testament we read of His power as he healed the sick and raised the dead, and of His great compassion and love.

When I think of that Lovely Name, I remember that He is the Messiah, He is our Redeemer, He is the Resurrection and the Life. He is our Great Shepherd, He is Bread of Life and He is the Bright and Morning Star and many other Names we can list that are found in the Name of Jesus!

And someday soon He will return in those clouds of glory.  And can you imagine with me what that reunion will be like as saints from all the ages, from every race and tribe will behold His lovely face.  I believe there will be a shout of joy from the millions gathered in the sky that will literally shake the heavens!  And we will gather around the throne shouting His praises forever and ever proclaiming “What a Lovely Name!”

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice saying, “salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!”

In the Lovely Name of Jesus,

Pastor Sharon

OH, COME THOU FOUNT OF BLESSING

OH, COME THOU FOUNT OF BLESSINGS

My thoughts today are of those who have been in a deep freeze these past few days.  Many are without power and are cold.  And in these times of winter, we can sink into despair and wonder where are help is coming from.  It is dark and cold here also but I know the “Son” is shining behind those clouds.  The rain and snow may fall, but we need to be reminded of our “Fount of Every Blessing.”

Our Fount of Blessing will bring the sunshine after the rain and snow, and Springtime will come again.  A day of hope will spring up again.

The hymn I want to share with you today has become my prayer and I pray that it will also become a song of your heart, a song of praise to your Lord Jesus Christ.  We are all prone to wonder from His loving care.  We have days when we don’t pray as we should or read our Bibles.  Sometimes it is easier to stay home from church than get up on Sunday and gather with other believers.  I want to share the story of the writing of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”  It is a very old hymn, written in the 1700’s.

“Robert Robinson had always been prone to wander.  Apprenticed to a barber at fourteen, he spent more time reading and playing with friends than cutting hair.  He became the leader of a notorious gang, and he shamed his family so much they practically disowned him.

Then, still a teen, he went to a George Whitfield meeting, intending to ridicule it; instead he almost fell asleep in it.  But then the preacher shouted out a Bible verse: “O generation of vipers; who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7, KJV).  That evening Robinson was converted.  After his apprenticeship was over, Robinson went into the ministry.  He wrote this hymn at the age of twenty-three as he served at the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Norfolk, England.

Late in life, Robinson did stray from the faith and drifted far from the Fount of every blessing.  One day he was riding in a stagecoach and sitting by a woman who was reading a hymnbook.  She showed him the hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, “saying how wonderful it was.  He tried to change the subject but couldn’t.  Finally he said, “Madam, I am the poor man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds to enjoy the feelings I had then.”  (HYMNS by Petersen).

COME, THOU FOUNT

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.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come; and I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.  Jesus sought me when a stranger, wondering from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!  Let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wondering hear to Thee: prone to wonder, 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. (Robert Robinson-1735-1790).

As I read this story, I wondered about this man and if he truly again found “His Fount of Blessing” before he died.  I like to think that maybe that dear lady sitting next to him led back to His Savior.

And our prayer today is calling for Him to “Come” to us.  He is our fount of every blessing.  He has promised to meet all our needs.  He is our Savior, our Healer, our Redeemer, our strength for every day.  I can’t begin to count the many blessings He has poured into my life.  His mercy and grace are like streams that flow into our lives.  And when we remember His mercy and grace we can then worship and praise our God.  He promises to give us songs in the night, and fill our days with never ending joy even in the midst of great trials that may come our way.

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying “Thus far the LORD has helped us” I Samuel 7:12.

The Lord had won a great victory for the Israelites over the Philistine army, and the Prophet Samuel had set this stone up as a reminder of the Lord’s help.  And we can raise our cry of help to the “Rock” Christ Jesus.  And the Lord will win the victory over the battles we may face.  Oh, we may go through some tough battles, but He is there, our “Ebenezer” our “Stone of Help.”  And when we were wondering from His fold, He shed His precious blood for our sins, and through His sacrifice, we now have a guarantee to safely arrive “Home” someday.

And our cry is to bind our wondering hearts to Him.  We are indeed prone to wonder, and to drift away from our loving God.  And I cry, and you cry, “Take our hearts and seal them, seal them for our heavenly home, the courts above.

Are you wondering from the folds of God today?  I am reminded of Jesus as our Shepherd who goes out for that one lost sheep.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” Luke 15:4-6.

Come today back into the fold of God, let your Shepherd carry you on His shoulders as all heaven will rejoice in your coming home to your precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' Name,

Pastor Sharon

THE TIME TO DECLARE HIS GREAT LOVE!

THE TIME TO DECLARE

HIS GREAT LOVE!

The Christmas Season has drawn to a close and decorations are being stored for another season.  And we can reflect back over the past year, with its trials, its joys and the road we have traveled with our Lord.  I am thinking back over the Advent Season and the promises that have been given to us in the lighting of the four candles and lastly, on Christmas Eve, the lighting of the large white candle, the Christ Candle.  Each of the four Sundays previous we lit candles of Hope, Joy, Peace and Love.  And each of the messages these candles bring we carry into the New Year.

In this New Year ahead is an unchartered path in each of our lives.  We don’t know what lies ahead for each of us, but as we walk with Jesus we have hope.  He is our hope for the future and each of our days.  Without His hope in our lives, life would be meaningless.  He came to bring us hope, hope for the future, and eternity with Him no matter what may happen in the days ahead.  And then, the joy that He brings into our lives and the songs that He drops into our hearts in worship and praise of our Wonderful Lord.  And along with hope and joy He brings peace that only He can bring.  This world will not offer us peace, but He is our Prince of Peace!  And we remember His love to us.  How can we fathom His love in sending His Son to die for each one of us, the very Lamb of God!  God is Love! 

And when I think of His love and this coming year and the changes that are happening in my own life at the moment, my heart longs to declare to Him how much I love Him.  And my desire is to love Him even more as this year goes on no matter what may happen in my own life.  And I pray that each one of you will have that desire to just draw closer to Him than you ever have been, having a deep longing for His presence.  To put aside the things going on in this world, and the struggles you are facing at the moment and just tell Him how much you love Him in grateful praise.

MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE 

“My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine, for Thee all the follies of sin I resign; my gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou, if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me, and purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree; I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow; if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death, and praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath; and say when the death dew lies cold on my brow, if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight, I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright; I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow, if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.  (William R. Featherston, Adoniram Gordon).

This words of this hymn were written  in 1862 by William Featherston, who was only sixteen years old and he passed away before his twenty seventh birthday.  Mr. Gordon later set it to music.  He had

just accepted Jesus as His personal Saviour.  And I wonder about the trials that this young man faced in the coming short years of his life.  Whatever the struggles were he could say, “I love Thee no matter what lies ahead and I love Thee for what You have done for me, and I love Thee for the future I have in You.”

And that is the message that I am feeling this day, and the message for each one of you.  We live in a time of great distress in the world, not knowing what the future may hold, but if ever a time to draw close to Him, to resign any sin that we may have in our lives, to know that if we ever loved Him, it is now time to cling to Him and renew our love to Him.

And we love Him now and remember that He first loved us, purchased our redemption at Calvary.  And we loved Him because He suffered so much for us, and when we remember His great sacrifice for our sin, and we love Him even more as we remember that great love.

And I wonder about that young man who wrote the words to this hymn.  Maybe he knew he would face death at an early age, and could praise Him as long as the Lord gave Him breath.  And He knew that even when He was dying, he would love Him even more.  Maybe someone out there may be facing a life threatening situation right now.  But can you love Him even more as that day comes when you are dying?  Is your heart ready to meet Jesus?  Oh, how He loves you!  Will you be reaching out to Him in love on that day?

And how can we fathom the absolute love we will feel for Jesus when we see Him face to face?  Will we fall at His feet?  Or will you just want to feel His arms wrapped around you?  I know that He is to wipe away all tears from our eyes, but will He let me cry for one moment when I see Him, and try to tell Him how much I adore Him?  And I will be able to say, “If ever I loved You, my Jesus, ‘tis now!

In Jesus’ Name,

Pastor Sharon