Tag: hymn

Hands holding a glowing cross with text SUNRISE OF FAITH.
30daysofpraise, Bible, bible study, Christian, Christian Church, christian encouragement, christian men, Christian women, Faith, god, Jesus, Jesus Follower, prayer, religion, scripture, Uncategorized

Trusting the Goodness of God

krisshetter

“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!” Psalm 31:19

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  James 1:17

During the last few years, a recurring topic with my Bible Study Girls revolves around sharing the gospel with our kids and grandkids.  More so with our grandkids because all of our children grew up in the church although many didn’t become believers in their adulthood.  We fear overstepping boundaries or damaging relationships.

Recently one of my friends shared a discussion about God with her adult granddaughter.  The younger woman stated, “How can I believe in a God that allows so much evil?”  At the time, my friend was unsure of how to respond to this question – one which many of us may have also been asked.

Origins of Good vs. Evil

Now, we can go down a deep C.S. Lewis-type philosophical hole (which if you want to, then read his Mere Christianity) but in this blog I’ll be short and sweet.  God is good.  He is the essence of good.  He created good and all things He created are good.  He did not create evil.  Evil is the absence of good.  Lewis tells us that you can have good without evil, but you cannot have evil without good.  Why?  Because without good you wouldn’t actually know that evil is well, evil. It just is.  Evil is not something God created; it is the absence of good—much like darkness is the absence of light. Where God’s goodness is rejected, brokenness naturally follows.

I like to ask people this question in return: “If everyone believed in the Christian God and followed His precepts then how would the world look different?”  Of course, to be a complete answer they would need to know the truth of God’s Word.

Unfortunately, biblical knowledge is no longer what it once was in the wider culture. Most would be shocked to know that basic, accepted ethics and morals came from the Bible, not as “just basic common sense.”  Because we all can look around and see there’s not much of that going around anyways!

But back to God’s goodness.  When God created the garden and all that was in it, everything was “good.”  He also gave Adam and Eve free will to submit to God or not.  And we know how that went.  God did not create the sin.  We humans created sin by turning away from God.  

God is perfectly good.  During tragic times that fact may be hard to accept.  God weeps over his creation when evil enters our hearts and minds, causing death and destruction.  When we truly believe, however, in God’s goodness we can see either in the moment or have expectation for the future that everything does work out for the good of those who believe (Romans 8:28).

See Him In Hard Seasons

This truth became deeply personal for me during one of the hardest seasons of my life.Four years ago, when my mother-in-law was dying from cancer, I struggled with anger toward God. But when I remembered that God is good, my perspective changed. God was calling her home to eternal rest. My grief was real, but trusting in His goodness helped me surrender my selfish desires to His loving plan.  Our Good God wanted to bring her home and rest in His arms for eternity.

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” 1 Chronicles 16:34

In this reverence series every characteristic of God is a good one.  Even when God is wrathful as we read so often in the Old Testament, it comes after years of patience and warning.  But most of all it is rooted in the desire to bring His children back on to a good and perfect path.  His love for us is truly good.

Friends, really believing that God is good and has good plans for you, and I mean really believing that, changes our outlook on life.  It brings new perspectives to bad situations.  It carries us through some of the most difficult times of our lives.  It leads us to seek out God rather than turn our backs to Him.  It causes us to see the blessings in the midst of the hardships.  Some might call that being a “positive person.”  As a Christian we call that being a believer.

Christians, Join To Sing by Christian Bateman (1843)

Come, lift your hearts on high;
Alleluia, Amen!
Let praises fill the sky;
Alleluia, Amen!
He is our Guide and Friend;
To us he’ll condescend;
His love shall never end;
Alleluia, Amen!

Praise yet the Lord again;
Alleluia, Amen!
Life shall not end the strain;
Alleluia, Amen!
On Heaven’s blissful shore
His goodness we’ll adore,
Singing forever more,
Alleluia, Amen!

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30daysofpraise, christian encouragement, Uncategorized

Praise God From Whom All Blessing Flow

krisshetter

DAY 2

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

About 22 years ago I started regularly attending church. As my husband’s family was Presbyterian, we decided to also join our local Presbyterian church. This Doxology, as it is called, was sung after every offering. I wonder how many of us sing songs like this from rote, forgetting the true meanings in the lyrics? How many of us, while repeating Bible verses, reciting proclamations of faith (like the Apostle’s Creed) or responding to the pastor, go through the motions without remembering or even realizing their purpose? That’s how I started viewing the Doxology. You give your money, then you stand up, the music starts, and you sing these four little lines. Amen.

When I paid attention to the words I realized what a great, quick way to send up praise throughout the day. All my blessings flow from God. All of us here on Earth should praise Him at every moment possible for those blessings. He is above all. And lastly, I praise the work God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit performs in, with and for me all day. I’ve been singing this song quietly for the last few days in my head. I haven’t sung it in church or heard it sung for probably about 7 months. But when I started thinking about different ways to Praise God, this old hymn popped up in my head. And so, I decided to look into the background of the lyrics.

This excerpt is from Carl Price’s One Hundred and One Hymn Stories about when these lyrics, also known as the Doxology, were sung at an infamous Civil War prison:

The doxology of praise to the Holy Trinity was written by the Rev. Thomas Ken (1637-1710), whom King Charles II once made a chaplain to his sister, Mary, Princess of Orange. Ken was so courageous in his preaching at court that the king often said on the way to chapel: “I must go and hear Ken tell me all my faults.”

Bishop McCabe said that while the prisoners of the Union Army during the Civil War were incarcerated in Libby Prison*, day after day they saw comrades passing away and their numbers increased by living recruits. One night, about ten o’clock, through the darkness they heard the tramp of feet that soon stopped before the prison door, until arrangements could be made inside. In the company was a young Baptist minister, whose heart almost fainted when he looked on those cold walls and thought of the suffering inside. Tired and weary, he sat down, put his face in his hands, and wept.

Just then a lone voice sang out from an upper window, “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”; a dozen joined in the second line, more than a score in the third line, and the words, “Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” were sung by nearly all the prisoners. As the song died away on the still night, the young man arose and sang:

“Prisons would palaces prove,
If Jesus dwell with me there.”

* Libby Prison was a Confederate prison at Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. It gained an infamous reputation for the overcrowded and harsh conditions under which officer prisoners from the Union Army were kept.

Hymn Story taken from One Hundred and One Hymn Stories by Carl F. Price; Hymn 78, page 86.

Please join me in adding any of your favorite hymn lyrics or excerpts, prayers you repeat in church or likewise. If something else in Praise is on your heart go ahead and add it!