Enjoy the Christmas season...the holiday...if that is your priveledge at this time. As Pam and I were sharing experiences this morning over a cup of tea...before decending to the lounge and the presents we got to talking as we often do and I got out my old Redemption hymnal...the memories came flooding back...in the late sixties, when I was converted, when heaven above was brighter blue, earth beneath sweeter green Christless eyes had never seen...remember that first flash of revelation? When the scales fell away from your eyes and you saw Jesus, the one who loved you so much to die on Calvary for me...for you...Since those passionate filled days of the journey of love when as students we used to use this hymn book, and a hundred of us young people fired up...on the stretch for God... training for the mission field or the ministry and Peter Horne who became my best man powerfully and expressively played his heart out on that piano...we were in an atmosphere of passionate outpourings, heart stretching anticipation and heart longing. Church now is two generations on...church music has moved on...but as I flicked through the pages of some of these so inspiring hymns, some of them hundreds of years old but prophetically right up to date...by Wesley, Faber, Crosby, Watts and Newton...the words taught us of the awe and attributes of God, inspired us to holy living, caused us to gaze and gaze at Him the great lover of our souls, Calvary and its wonder, the blood oh the blood...The early Methodist Missionaries used to use ten of Charles Wesleys hymns to teach their followers, and Im sure I learned more concerning holiness from his hymns than my systematic theology lectures! These past generations have lost much without the hymnal...the songs...the depth of the lyrics to inspire...church history attests to the facts that most revivals were born out of heart rending passionate prayer and carried forward by singing, joyful grateful, exuberant singing...
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 10:05:44 +0000
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