Born to Worship

October 27, 2010
9:10 AM

A year ago when we were making plans to do a Hymn of the Month for 2010 @ Trinity Church, I surveyed my colleagues, the Pastoral Staff. The favorite hymn, earning the most votes, was And Can It Be by Charles Wesley (1707-1788). The powerful refrain is reason enough to love this hymn as we passionately sing, “Amazing Love, how can it be that Thou my God should’st die for me?!”

Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns during his lifetime. And Can It Be is thought to be the first as it tells of his conversion experience.

Charles Wesley wrote it soon after He came to Christ. As he looks back on his life, he sees himself as a prisoner in a dark dungeon, chained by the sins that he committed–and even more “made captive” by the sin that was a part of his very being. One night, the gospel of Christ–the good news that Christ had died to meet his need–seemed to flood his own personal dungeon with light, breaking the chains and setting him free. The guilt was finally gone. For the first time, Wesley seemed to be really alive because he possessed the supernatural life of Jesus Christ!

Perhaps you may think that this hymn describes the dramatic experience of one who was rescued from the life of terrible sin and ruin… perhaps drugs, adultery, murder or who knows what? But at the time of his conversion, Charles Wesley had been a pastor in his church for over three years. And he had just returned from a “missionary” trip to America.

But in all of this religious activity, he had never experienced peace–the peace that only God can give. Peace cannot be manufactured or “faked.” Christ had never come to dwell in his life. He looked good on the outside, but the mystery of a life committed to Christ was not to be found in him.

On May 20, 1738, around midnight, Charles Wesley was saved. Finally, he began to understand the great mystery of being “in Christ.” It’s a little like that night, 1900 years ago, when Jesus said to the Jewish religious leader: Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus was a respected religious leader, but he wasn’t born again. He had never experienced the “mystery.”

Perhaps you heard, recently, of a 71 year old minister, who after spending 50 years in the service of the church, had just come to Jesus Christ. Like the experience Charles Wesley describes in his hymn, the old minister finally understood the “mystery” of being “in Christ.” He realized, as we must also, that “doing good” means nothing to God. To accept Christ’s love and sacrifice for himself was to find the source of eternal life. This, indeed, is the best–and greatest mystery of all!

The structure of the hymn gives us a full worship expression, that is, God’s story intersecting with our story, both proclamation of Scriptural truth and personal expressions of praise to God. We will sing four of the six stanzas that Wesley wrote. The climax of the hymn comes for me at that moment when I join in proclaiming, “My chains fell off; my heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed Thee!”

May our hearts be deeply moved and our faith strengthened as we walk through this “faith story” together in song each week of November. And, like the songwriter, Charles Wesley, may some among us find themselves understanding the simple, yet profound gospel truth of “salvation by grace, through faith” and having their own conversion experience as true faith is born.

Sunday, May 21. I betook myself to prayer; the substance as follows: Jesus, Thou hast said, “I will come unto you;” Thou hast said, “I will send the Comforter unto you;” Thou hast said, “My Father and I will come unto you, and make our abode with you.” Thou art God who canst not lie; I wholly rely upon Thy most true promise; accomplish it in Thy time and manner.

Tuesday, May 23. I waked under the protection of Christ, and gave myself up, soul and body, to Him. At nine I began an hymn upon my conversion, but was persuaded to break off, for fear of pride. Mr. Bray coming, encouraged me to proceed in spite of Satan. I prayed Christ to stand by me, and finished the hymn.

~Quote from Charles Wesley’s journal, 1738.

And Can It Be
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’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?

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace-
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray-
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

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.
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Bill Born

September 29, 2010
8:47 AM

Our October Hymn of the Month is one with glorious music and a text that gives the worshiper rich expressions of praise to God. Each phrase is proclaiming a Biblical truth that has significant meaning or singing a sentence prayer that is far reaching in its impact. Each time I sing Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee I am struck by yet another profound truth expressed within. Joy is in fact central evidence that we are children of God; it is the second fruit of the Spirit. Scriptures command us to “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4 NIV) Henry van Dyke wrote the lyrics to be sung to Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his final symphony, Symphony No.9.

I will attempt to unpack just a few of my favorite phrases from the hymn. First of all, notice the pattern that we see in the hymn, a great reminder of two very important components of true worship. We see both proclamation of Biblical truth and prayer, dialogue with God regarding that truth. Take a look at verse 3. PROCLAMATION: Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing ever blessed. Wellspring of the joy of living. Ocean depth of happy rest. Thou our Father, Christ our brother. All who live in love are thine.
PRAYER: Teach us how to love each other. Lift us to the joy divine.

It is wonderful to consider the inference here that the greatest experience of joy is a result of loving and being loved not only by God, but also by one another. This is the big idea our worship service on Sunday. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35 NIV) The Scriptures also remind us that love is the greatest spiritual gift that God enables in the life of the believer. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV) And so I pray that final prayer with intense longing and desire. Yes, Lord, teach us!

Have you experienced this? You walk into the worship service, mind full of a lot of stuff. Stuff so BIG that as one friend explained it to me yesterday, it’s like there’s a bubble around you through which you see everything blurry, you filter everything through it and you can barely enter into worship. You feel numb to what’s going on in the worship service. It’s like the worship leader and pastor, and everyone else for that matter, are living in a different sphere. So you come in and the band is moving like a freight train at full speed. The worship leader is “happy clappy” and calling you to rejoice. How in the world can you do it authentically when you’re totally not there? Take a look at verse 1. PROCLAMATION: Joyful, joyful we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love. Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above. PRAYER: Melt the clouds of sin and sadness. Drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day. It’s all in the prayer, “HELP!” And God will. “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.” (Psalms 54:4 NIV)

I’m sorry for my insensitivity to you whom I lead without giving the invitation to come honestly, to cry, to cast your cares on the Lord who cares for you, and to let him melt away the clouds of sin and sadness. Melting isn’t an immediate process is it? It’s not like we just flip the switch and put a smile on our faces and sing for joy – that is dishonest, inauthentic and isn’t worship that pleases our Father who knows our hearts. No, melting takes time and is only the process of being in the light of the Son. And eventually, joy will spring forth like the flowers opening to the sun above.

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Singing (sometimes chanting) bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

Bill Born

September 8, 2010
9:27 AM

Before the month gets away from me I must pause and reflect a moment on our hymn of the month for September. The love of God for the world, expressed through Jesus Christ has and will always be one of the central truths of the gospel that inspires our songs of worship. The Scriptures abound with statements about God’s love. One of the earliest texts of worship states, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (1 Chronicles 16:34 NIV) John states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NIV) Paul prays, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19 NIV) He also affirms, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 NIV) John again says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NIV)

William Reese was the Welsh preacher who penned the words to Here is Love in 1876. His contemporary, Robert Lowery, wrote the music that same year. Reese pictured the love of God as being as vast as the ocean, and his loving-kindness like a flood. And how did God give love like this? Through the blood of Christ shed on our behalf – the Prince of Life, our ransom. Verse two continues the simile. Through the crucifixion of our Savior fountains opened deep and wide, his mercy was released through floodgates, a vast and gracious tide. His grace and love are compared to a mighty river flowing without ceasing, kissing the guilty world with love. His poetic imagery helps to take the truth of Scripture from our minds to our hearts where we receive and believe it. Reese stopped there, but in 1900 another hymn writer, William Williams, decided to pen some additional lyrics. These became the third and fourth verses. At some point they were slightly changed from 3rd person plural to 1st person singular. I can’t imagine the hymn without these terrific verses that move forward from declaring the love of God to personally expressing active faith, prayerful desire, and praise to God in the form of living a life shaped by his love. I think it gives us a more complete worship response.

Receiving the love of God, given in his Son, Jesus Christ, is the greatest, life-changing decision in all the universe. I will never tire of hearing an old or new song of praise declaring and rejoicing in the love of God. With David, I will always say, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.” (Psalms 63:3-4 NIV)

Here Is Love
by William Reese, William Williams, Robert Lowery
Here is love vast as the ocean
Lovingkindness as the flood
When the Prince of life, our ransom
Shed for us His precious blood
Who His love will not remember
Who can cease to sing His praise
He can never be forgotten
Throughout heav’n’s eternal days

On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Grace and love like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love

In Your truth You will direct me
By Your spirit, through Your word
And Your grace my need is meeting
As I trust in You my Lord
Of Your fullness You are pouring
Your great love on me anew
Without measure, full and boundless
Drawing out my heart to You

Let me all Your love accepting
Love You ever all my days
Let me seek Your kingdom only
And my life be to Your praise
You alone will be my glory
Nothing in this world I seek
You have cleansed and sanctified me
You, Yourself have set me free

Just after eleven o’clock on a Wednesday evening a hundred years ago, a solo voice rang out with the beautiful Welsh hymn “Here Is Love Vast As The Ocean”. Maybe a thousand people were in the Chapel at the time, leaning over the galleries, packing every pew and squeezing into every spare corner. They’d been here for more than four hours, in a service of intense emotion.

Meetings like it were taking place across Wales night after night, with fervent prayer and passionate singing – and similar disregard for the clock. They both excited and appalled, left many puzzled and some frightened, but it was reckoned that in less than a year, over a hundred and fifty thousand people had made a new commitment to Jesus Christ.

Whole communities changed, as men and women found themselves drawn into a powerful experience of God; and sparks from their awakening were soon to ignite fires in more than a dozen other countries. And the hymn that soloist struck up spontaneously, about “love vast as the ocean”, was heard so often that it became known as “the love song of the revival”. (from truthinhistory.org)

O Lord, God, may the simple yet profound truth of your love for us, poured out richly through the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ, spark a revival among the people in our community. Work powerfully in our worship services as we declare your great love in our songs of praise!
Amen.

Bill Born

July 28, 2010
7:54 AM

Our August Hymn of the Month is Blessed Assurance by Fanny J. Crosby. Fanny was disabled, blinded as a result of bad medical advice when only six months old. Yet she came to embrace and even thank God for her blindness, becoming a very influential hymn writer and public speaker around the turn of the 20th century. She said these words about her disability.

“It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” When only eight years old she composed the following poem:

Oh, what a happy child I am, although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world contented I will be!
How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t!
So weep or sigh because I’m blind, I cannot — nor I won’t!

In August, Trinity Church is celebrating and honoring those in our congregation who are disabled. We have a growing number of families with disabled children who are an indispensable part of our children’s’ and youth ministries. They have a support group called King’s Kids. We also have a growing number of adults with disabilities who attend and serve in our Sunday worship services. They are part of our Light & Power Sunday School class, led by Jeff and Kathi McNair. Many of us at Trinity share the opinion that our disabled family members make Trinity a beautiful congregation. Scripture affirms that, “But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (1 Corinthians 12:18-20 NIV)

Paul continues with what is the secret to the beautifying of the body of Christ called Trinity Church. We have discovered that we need the disabled members of our church family.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:21-26 NIV)

And so we are rejoicing in the part of our body that is disabled. Check out our August edition of Connections Magazine celebrating a few of our treasured families and individuals. And be sure to come and worship with us on August 8 for our Disability Celebration Sunday.

Back to Fanny J. Crosby’s beloved hymn, Blessed Assurance. “Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp as the Knapp home was having a large pipe organ installed. The organ was incomplete so, using the piano, Mrs. Knapp played a new melody she had just composed. “What do you think the tune says?” asked Knapp. “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine”, answered Fanny Crosby.”

The lyrics that immediately flowed from Fanny’s heart through her fingers, bears testimony that she knew who she was in Christ, an heir of salvation, a purchase of God, born of his Spirit and washed in his blood. (All references from Scripture if you care to check them out: Titus 3:7, 1 Cor. 6:20, John 3:5-8, Heb. 9:14) The other verses demonstrate that her delight, rest, and happiness came from her constant gaze upon Christ, his goodness and love. The moment our story connects with God’s story and we place faith in Christ, we not only become an heir of salvation, we also learn to express our delight and gratitude to God through becoming worshipers, praising our Savior all the day long. May this be our song in August, 2010 and forevermore!

A few of my favorite recordings are by Matt Boswell, Jadon Lavik, and Crystal Lewis.

vs.1
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

vs.2
Perfect submission, perfect delight!
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

vs.3
Perfect submission, all is at rest!
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with his goodness, lost in His love.

Bill Born