JUST KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS

JUST KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS

What a lovely day this is!  The sky is filled with fluffy clouds, and the wind is blowing and it is a cool day weather wise.  We can enjoy this day before the summer season and its heat begins.  I have been thinking about all that is going on in the world today, its tragic stories, violence in the land, and people are in pain emotionally, physically and spiritually, and this world needs Jesus and to know that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them.

And yesterday was Father’s Day, honoring our fathers and our husbands who have been such wonderful fathers to their children.  I am blessed to be married to a wonderful husband who has been such a good father to our three daughters, who has raised them to love the Lord.  He is to be honored.  But most of all it is his faith in His God that is to be honored.  And on this Father’s Day we honored our Heavenly Father most of all.  Our Precious Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son so that we would have salvation and eternal life.  Our Heavenly Father created those clouds out there in that blue sky, and what we know of Him and His Mighty works is only a whisper of who God is. (Job  26:14).

As I look at the world around me, my heart goes back to the cross.  That is where it all begins, our salvation.  The cross stands in the midst of history, its arms reaching back to the Old Testament, where the signs in the various sacrifices pointed to the cross and to a coming Savior.  And it pointed to Calvary, where our Lord gave His life to redeem man.  I woke up with a song in my heart. 

And God promises in His Word to give us songs in the night. “I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search” Psalm 77:6.  So I called to remembrance the following  hymn, and wondered what the Lord was trying to say to my heart, and I knew that He had a message for you and it was all about the cross.  We need to be reminded constantly about the cross and what it means in our lives.  Everything we do, our whole lives as His children resolve around the mighty cross and what it stands for.  And my prayer for you and for me is to keep us “Near the Cross”, even as the world seems to fall apart around us.

And I quote from the book “Then Sings My Soul” by Robert J. Morgan, the story of Fanny Crosby’s writing of this grand old hymn, “Near the Cross.”

“On November 20, 1850, as the altar call was given, Fanny went forward and found Christ as her Savior.  The congregation was singing Isaac Watts’ great hymn about the cross: At the Cross.  Shortly thereafter, Fanny turned her poetic skills to hymn writing, and many of her songs focused on the theme of the cross, and this one, “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.”  It was composed after Cincinnati businessman William Doane gave her a melody he had written.  Fanny, listening to it, felt is said “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross,” and she promptly wrote the words.”

“Fanny Crosby wrote approximately 8,000 hymns.  We aren’t surprised, then, to discover that many of her later hymns were little more than rewritten versions of earlier ones.”

NEAR THE CROSS

Jesus, keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.

In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, ‘til my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me, there the bright and Morning Star shed its beams around me.

Near the cross, O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me, help me walk from day to day, with its shadows o’er me.

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait, hoping trusting ever, ‘til I reach the golden strand just beyond the river.  (Fanny Crosby/William H. Doane)

And our prayer should daily be for Him to keep us near the cross.  There is a cleansing there by the blood of Jesus and its free to all who are willing to accept this precious gift and have all our sins washed away, and all our guilt, and we are clean, and made ready for eternal life, and made ready to walk with Him and serve Him.

And we are reminded to remember the cross, remember the suffering that He went through.  He calls us to go back into His Word, read the story of the Crucifixion in the Gospels, relive that day, not just on Easter, but often.  See His suffering in the Garden, see the soldiers come and His disciples scatter in fear.  See Him taken before the High Priest and Pilot.  See Him flogged, and beaten and mocked;  the crown of thorns pushed into his head, and see Him as He tries to carry His cross to Calvary.  See Him there on the cross, hear His final cry, as He suffers there, “It is Finished!”  God’s plan of redemption is finished, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world has been sacrificed, the victory has been won!  Oh, Praise the Lord!  And then remember He did not stay on that cross.  He arose a victor from the tomb on the third day, and is alive and well at the right hand of His Father in heaven, but He sent the Holy Spirit, who lives and dwells among us.

And then, with the cross ever before us, we watch and we wait for His return, or when He calls us home, to that land “just beyond the river.”  The place of eternal rest, and forever with our Lord and Savior, is waiting there for each one of us who love the Lord.

So, my friends out there, stay near the cross no matter what each day may bring.  And if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Savior, look to the cross and its “healing stream.”  He promises to cleanse you from all your sins and make you whole, just ask Him into your heart and life.  And O what joy awaits each one who bows the knee to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the Name of Jesus,

Pastor Sharon