June 23, 2010

Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:  
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:  
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.

Beautiful Savior!  Lord of all the nations!  
Son of God and Son of Man!  
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.

PLEASE … stop singing familiar hymns in a familiar way!  Stop burying dour faces behind the hymnbook!  Quit peeking over the hymnbook to see who’s late!  WE CANNOT, WE MUST NOT SING ABOUT OUR BEAUTIFUL SAVIOR LIKE THIS, half-divided attention, brain in neutral.

If my information is correct, pious German Jesuits published the song in their Münster Gesangbuch in 1677; it was translated into English nearly two-hundred years later by Joseph A. Seiss in 1873.  Eventually it was sung to the tune of The Crusader’s Hymn, a Silesian melody, published in 1842 and arranged by Richard S. Willis in 1850.

Probably more administrivia than you wished to read … but consider the history!  For those who imagine they have the handle, the insider’s grip on all theology and learning today, consider those German Jesuits of the 17th century, gripped with the person and character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were gripped with his nature, “Thou of God and man the Son … Son of God and Son of Man.”  Oh the mystery of the God-Man.  Transcendent – out there, distant, independent; yet immanent – right here, near, involved!

They were gripped with the splendor of his creation … meadows, woodlands, spring, moonlight, twinkling stars, etc.  They were gripped with his ability to comfort and with the pure, blinding brightness of his brilliance.

They were gripped with their own personal response … “Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou, my soul’s glory, my joy, my crown.”  And they were gripped with the universal response of all creation and all created beings ultimately bowing and offering “Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore!”

They began their awe-filled observation of the Lord Jesus in nature, affirmed by Paul in Romans 1:19-10: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” and again in Colossians 1:16: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.”

They were gripped with the awesome truth that the Lord of all nature, the Creator, will also one day stand before that very creation, including all the nations of the world, and be proclaimed “Lord of all the nations!”

I serve as a Board member for The Josiah Foundation (http://www.josiahfoundation.com), formed to serve the poor around the world and to offer Jesus Christ to the nations.  We met early this morning to interview a potential new board member, a Kenyan.  As we questioned him, he returned the favor and asked, “Why are you serving as a Director of The Josiah Foundation?”

God has called us to be “world Christians,” NOT worldly Christians!  Serving with the Josiah Foundation and with Evangelical Bible Church allows me to become a world Christian, to exercise compassion for the nations, and to become familiar with the beauty and needs of the world of people and the people of the world.

The expressionless faces of the Sakha people on the streets of Yakutsk, Siberia, the leathery face of the old Pima Indian woman in the mountains of northern Mexico, the happy faces of the children whose house we built in Huehuetenango, Guatemala (www.bethelministriesinternational.com  click BLOG, then DISASTER RELIEF) and the mix of laughing and sad faces of Filipinos, 22 million of them, busily running about the streets of Manila … all continue to haunt me, to bring me to tears, to cause me to rejoice in the Lord of all Nations who cares intimately for each one, EACH ONE!

I am not over them, I am among them.  Each one of them - no exceptions – is, from creation, a carrier of the Imago Dei, the image of God.  While sin has marred that reflection, that Image, salvation in Jesus Christ restores it.  And I, too, will one day join God’s global community in praise and worship of this Fairest Lord Jesus!

STOP SINGING MERE WORDS!  SING JESUS!!

Pastor Don