-
New Hymn: “Only You”
Melody Line:
Keyboard Recording:
Piano Recording:
I want to share a hymn with you that I wrote. It’s called “Only You.” I posted audio of me playing it on the keyboard and the piano. I’m not sure that the audio on the piano recording is clear, so I also played it on the keyboard. And I posted audio of just the melody line to be sure you can hear it. Please let me know what you think of it. If you click on the title for this post, there will be a comment box at the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy it! These are the words to the hymn:
Only You
Words and Music by: Lisa A. WeidleyWhen from the path I’ve strayed
And the waves wash me away,
I will lift my eyes to Him,
He’ll come save me, He’ll forgive.
He’ll come by my side,
Hold me closely, stem the tide
Till I’m safely on the shore
By Your grace, Lord, nothing more.
Only You, Lord,
Only You, Lord,
Can cleanse me from sin,
Give new life within,
And carry me onward.
Down that path I’ll go,
Troubles follow, sorrows grow.
Still I lift my eyes to Thee,
The One who sees me, meets my need.
By Your pow’r I’ll stand,
Safely walking hand in hand;
Though I stumble, though I fall,
You pick me up, yes, stand me tall.
Only You, Lord,
I only need You, Lord;
When my strength has failed,
Your love prevails,
And carries me onward.
When the end draws near,
No more trials, no more fear,
I will lift my eyes to Thee,
Now at last, Lord, You I’ll see.
From Your throne You’ll come,
All the earthly battles done;
You will find me, give me rest
In Your arms, Lord, heaven-blessed.
Only You, Lord,
I only need You, Lord;
At the end of the road
You’ll carry me home,
And I’ll wake in heaven.Copyright ©2015 Lisa A. Weidley
-
“His Banner” by Fanny Crosby
Hymnal Page Scan: Showers of Blessing 102. I sit at the feet of Jesus | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 I sit at the feet of Jesus,
Nor heed as the time goes by,
His banner of love is o’er me,
And happy indeed am I.Refrain:
Under his banner I peacefully dwell,
Peacefully dwell, blissfully dwell,
And Jesus my King has taught me to sing
‘Tis well with me now, ‘tis well.2 I sit at the feet of Jesus;
Was ever a joy like mine?
I list to the words of comfort
That fall from his lips divine. [Refrain]3 I sit at the feet of Jesus,
In perfect and calm repose;
He crowneth my head with blessings,
With rapture my heart o’erflows. [Refrain]4 Come, sit at the feet of Jesus,
Ye weary and toil-oppressed;
Come, learn of the meek and lowly,
Who giveth his children rest. [Refrain] -
“Sitting at the Feet of Jesus” by J. Lincoln Hall
Hymnal Page Scan: Evening Light Songs 175. Sitting at the feet of Jesus | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
Oh, what words I hear Him say!
Happy place! so near, so precious!
May it find me there each day;
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
I would look upon the past;
For His love has been so gracious,
It has won my heart at last.2 Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
Where can mortal be more blest?
There I lay my sins and sorrows,
And, when weary, find sweet rest;
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
There I love to weep and pray;
While I from His fullness gather
Grace and comfort every day.3 Bless me, O my Savior, bless me,
As *I sit low at Thy feet; [*I’m waiting]
Oh, look down in love upon me,
Let me see Thy face so sweet;
Give me, Lord, the mind of Jesus,
Keep me holy as He is;
May I prove I’ve been with Jesus,
Who is all my righteousness. -
“Our Light and Life” by Mrs. P.R. Gibson
Hymnal Page Scan: Chiming Voices: for Sunday Schools page 129 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 To follow where the Master leads,
How safe, secure and blest,
And feel that all we have He gives,
And all He sends is best!Refrain:
Our fire by night, our cloud by day,
Our light, our life, our truth, our way.2 In swift obedience when His voice
Makes known His gracious will;
Whate’er it be, we will rejoice
To know He leads us still. [Refrain]3 When, by and by, death’s river crossed,
And we have reached the strand;
Upon that shore we’ll find our lost,
And clasp our Savior’s hand. [Refrain] -
“Thy Praises Proclaim” by Mrs. L. M. Bateman
Hymnal Page Scan: Chiming Voices: for Sunday Schools page 127 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 Thy praises, Thy praises,
Oh, help us, Lord, proclaim,
Our voices are feeble,
to sound Thy glorious name;
From sin and from folly,
Oh, purify our speech,
To honor and love Thee,
do Thou our spirits teach.
Chorus:
We worship, adore Thee,
Our Master and our Lord,
Oh, guide Thou our voices
And hearts in sweet accord;
As stars of the morning
Did with Thy praises burn,
The songs of Thy glory,
Oh, may Thy children learn.
2 The mountains and valleys,
the meadows and the hills,
The forests and fountains,
the rivers and the rills;
From ocean to ocean,
Thy works Thy praise proclaim,
Oh, help us, dear Saviour,
to glorify Thy name. [Chorus]
3 The voices of angels
re-echo ‘round Thy throne,
And, joining their chorus,
we long to raise our own;
Then bless us, and guide us,
That so our songs may be,
Forever and ever,
Of worship unto Thee. [Chorus] -
“Shepherd of Tender Youth” by Clement of Alexandria
Hymnal Page Scan: Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) page 452 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 Shepherd of tender youth,
guiding in love and truth
through devious ways,
Christ, our triumphant King,
we come your name to sing
and here our children bring
to join your praise.2 You are our holy Lord,
Christ, the incarnate Word,
healer of strife.
You did yourself abase
that from sin’s deep disgrace
you might now save our race,
and give us life.3 You are the great High Priest,
you have prepared the feast
of holy love;
and in our mortal pain
none calls on you in vain;
our plea do not disdain;
help from above.4 O ever be our guide,
our shepherd and our pride,
our staff and song.
Jesus, O Christ of God,
by your enduring Word
lead us where you have trod;
make our faith strong.5 So now and till we die
sound we your praises high
and joyful sing:
infants and all the throng
who to your Church belong,
unite to swell the song
to Christ, our King! -
“A Song of Thanksgiving” by Margaret E. Sangster
Hymnal Page Scan: Chiming Voices: for Sunday Schools 126. A song of thanksgiving! we’ve garner’d the wheat | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 A song of thanksgiving! We’ve garner’d the wheat,
We’ve gather’d the vintage, all purple and sweet;
Today we may feast for the reaping is done,
The crown of fulfilment our labors have won.
Chorus:
A song of thanksgiving! To Him be the praise,
Who has pledged to His people full strength for their days.
A song for thanksgiving! We honor the name
Of the blessed Jehovah thro’ ages the same.
2 And over the land is the blessing of God,
The banners of peace wave in beauty abroad;
In freedom of conscience the home is secure,
What the fathers bequeath’d to the children of God. [Chorus]
3 Thank God for the schools where the little ones throng,
For their sweet silver voices in story and song;
Thank God for the promise of hope in their eyes,
To serve Him when they to our places shall rise. [Chorus]
4 Thank God for the gospel which carries afar
The tidings once gleaming in Bethlehem’s star;
Thank God that the desert grows bright with the rose,
As o’er its waste spaces life’s glad river flows. [Chorus] -
Christian Meditation: God, the Righteous Judge
In my previous posts, I wrote about how God is the Almighty King ruling over His creation. As King, He is the Lawgiver. In this post we will see that God is also the righteous Judge. At the end of earthly life, everyone has to stand before God’s judgment bar in His court in heaven. We will all stand before Him as guilty sinners, guilty of breaking His holy laws. But if you believed in Jesus and received a free pardon for your sins, you will be justified (declared righteous instead of guilty) not by your own righteousness, but by the merits of Christ’s righteousness that has been imputed to you. You will be accepted in the Beloved.
Take time to envision the heavenly courtroom. Then envision yourself standing before the judgment bar of God. As you stand before God as a guilty sinner, you enter your plea, “I have this one plea: Jesus Christ has died for me. I am redeemed! My sins have been washed away, and I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ.” By God’s grace, you are declared righteous in God’s eyes and are welcomed into your eternal reward in heaven.
As you are contemplating having to stand before God, remember that in the heavenly court, the Judge is God the Father, who graciously provided a way of salvation for you to be able to go to heaven. He was the one who offered you that free pardon of your sins through Christ, so He will definitely uphold it. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is your Advocate with God and is always interceding for you with the Father. Jesus Christ obeyed the Law perfectly and died on the cross in your place so that you can have that pardon. And God the Holy Spirit, is also your advocate. And it was the Holy Spirit that first moved in your heart to make you aware of your sin and your need of God and implanted that new principle of life in you during regeneration. So your salvation is sure. It’s certain. We really can stand before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and be welcomed into heaven. Let the joy of that assurance calm your mind and heart as you meditate on it.
Here is a link to the hymn “The Old Account Settled Long Ago” by F. M. Graham – Learning to Live by Faith. The words in it describe the experience of standing before God’s judgment bar after having all of your sins washed away.
The 3rd verse says,
When at the judgment bar
I stand before my King,
And He the book will open,
He cannot find a thing;
Then will my heart be glad,
While tears of joy will flow,
Because I had it settled,
And settled long ago.As you listen to this hymn, envision yourself being able to stand before God having been cleansed of all your sins and made pleasing in His sight. Feel His great love for you. And rejoice in the hope of heaven!
-
“The Old Account Settled Long Ago” by F. M. Graham
Hymnal Page Scan: The New National Baptist Hymnal (21st Century Edition) 388. There was a time I know | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 There was a time, I know,
When in the book of heaven,
An old account was standing
For sins yet unforgiven;
My name was at the top
And many things below,
I went unto the Keeper,
And settled long ago.Refrain:
Long ago, long ago,
Yes, the old account was settled long ago;
And the record’s clear today,
For He washed my sins away,
When the old account was settled long ago.2 The old account was large,
And growing every day,
For I was always sinning,
And never tried to pay;
But when I looked ahead
And saw such pain and woe,
I said that I would settle,
And settled long ago. [Refrain]3 When at the judgment bar
I stand before my King,
And He the book will open,
He cannot find a thing;
Then will my heart be glad,
While tears of joy will flow,
Because I had it settled,
And settled long ago. [Refrain]4 O sinner, seek the Lord,
Repent of all your sin;
For thus He has commanded,
If you would enter in;
And then if you should live
A hundred years below,
E’en here you’ll not regret it,
You settled long ago. [Refrain] -
Christian Meditation: God, the Lawgiver
In my previous posts I wrote about how God created the earth as a habitation for man and lovingly rules over it as our Almighty King. In this post we will see how God, as the Almighty King, is the Law-giver.
I hope in the future to write about Ezekiel Hopkins’ Exposition of the 10 Commandments. In the introduction, Hopkins says, “Two things in general are required to perfect a Christian; the one a clear and distinct knowledge of his duty, the other, a conscientious practice of it, correspondent to his knowledge; and both are equally necessary.” He says, “Although knowledge may be without practice, yet the practice of godliness cannot be without knowledge. For, if we know not the limits of sin and duty, what is required and what is forbidden, it cannot be supposed but that, in this corrupted state of our natures, we shall unavoidably run into many heinous miscarriages.
Therefore, that we might be informed what we ought to do and what to avoid, it hath pleased God, the great Governor and righteous Judge of all, to prescribe laws for the regulating of our actions; and, that we might not be ignorant what they are, he hath openly promulgated them in his word. For when we had miserably defaced the law of nature originally written in our hearts, so that many of its commands were no longer legible, it seemed good to his infinite wisdom and mercy to transcribe and copy out that law in the sacred tables of the Scriptures;
and to superadd many positive precepts and injunctions not before imposed. Hence the Bible is the statute-book of God’s kingdom, wherein is comprised the whole body of the heavenly law, the perfect rules of a holy life, and the sure promises of a glorious one.
And the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, is a summary, or brief epitome of the law, written by the immediate finger of God, and contracted into an abridgment not only to ease our memories but to gain our veneration; for sententious commands best befit majesty.”
The 10 Commandments are divided into 2 tables. The 1st table includes our duties to God, and the 2nd table has our duties towards other people.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment. Matthew 22:34-37 says,
34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ c 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Keep Jesus’ response in mind as you read through this list of the 10 Commandments. The first 4 commands include our duties to God, the last 6 commands include our duties towards other people. If you click on this link, it has a picture of the commandments listed on 2 stone tablets: The 10 Commandments: List and Bible Meaning Explained | Bible Study Tools
The 10 Commandments:
- Thou shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. (Exodus 20:4-6)
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
- Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)
- Honor your father and mother. (Exodus 20:12)
- Thou shalt not murder. (Exodus 20:13)
- Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
- Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
- Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)
- Thou shall not covet. (Exodus 20:17)
As you read through the commandments, you can see how they reflect the character of the King who wrote them. They require us to love and honor God, and to treat other people with kindness and compassion.
Take time to envision God on His throne as the Almighty King. You could read through Exodus 20 and meditate on the imagery of Him giving the Law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Then take time to think about what types of laws this great King gave – holy, righteous, good laws that reflect His attributes.
As we are approaching Christmas, we will be celebrating the birth of our Redeemer. Over time I will be writing more about these topics, but I wanted to write a little bit now about what we are celebrating at Christmas.
How did Jesus save us from our sins? In order to answer that question, we must first understand the requirements of the Law. God requires perfect obedience to His law, and the punishment for one sin is death. But we are born in a sinful condition and continue to sin throughout our lives. So we are not able to obey the law perfectly. We are also not able to cleanse ourselves from our sins. So unless God provided a way of salvation, we would have been forever separated off from God.
You have probably heard Jesus called our Savior, Redeemer, Mediator, Surety, and other names. Each name means something specific, and I will be posting about that on here in the future. A mediator is someone who stands in between 2 people as a go-between in order to try to settle a dispute between them. And that’s what Jesus does for us as our Mediator. There has been an offense – we have broken God’s law. We are separated off from Him by sin. Jesus stands in between God and us as our Mediator. But remember, Jesus is not having to try to convince an angry God to love and forgive us. God provided Jesus to be our Redeemer out of His great love to us. “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)
Everything Jesus did during His time on earth, He did in our place. He perfectly obeyed the law in our place, which we were totally unable to do on our own. And He took the punishment for our sins in our place.
In Zechariah 3, the cleansing of sin is represented by the removing of a filthy, or sin-stained, garment. Zech. 3:3-4 says,
3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
By cleansing us of our sins through His death on the cross, Jesus took away that sin-stained garment. And by working out a righteousness for us through His perfect obedience to God’s law, Jesus provides us with a righteousness that is pleasing to God. So Jesus takes away what is the matter of offense (our sin) and provides us with what will make us pleasing in God’s eyes (an imputed righteousness). When we stand before God, we are accepted in the Beloved, in Jesus. That is how Jesus saves us from our sins. I will write more about this in the future.
When you are contemplating the Law of God, it is important to remember the timing of when it was given in order to understand God’s purpose. The Law was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai many years after Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden. So people were already being born in a fallen state and unable to meet the requirements of the Law when it was given. In the New Testament, Paul explains that the Law was given to make us aware of our sin and our need of a Savior (Rom. 3:20; Rom. 7:7). And all of the sacrifices in the Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to the ultimate once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. The New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus and explains throughout the Gospels and the Epistles how Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah that everything in the Old Testament sacrificial system was pointing to. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our newborn King – who was born to fulfill the Law and save us from our sins.
So as you are meditating, take time to envision God as the Almighty King on His throne in Heaven giving His law to mankind. Meditate on the goodness of His laws. And also take time to meditate on His grace and mercy to us in sending Jesus to save us from our sins so that we can be reconciled to God through Christ. Here is a link to the hymn “He Wore a Crown of Thorns” by William M. Runyan – Learning to Live by Faith. It is actually an Easter hymn. But I play it at Christmas time because it helps me remember why Jesus came to earth and it helps me meditate on Jesus as King. The first verse says,
1 ‘Twas God’s own Son who came to earth,
Who chose to know a lowly birth;
But, tho’ a King of matchless worth,
He wore a crown of thorns.Think of that King of matchless worth coming to earth to save you. Envision that light shining into the darkness and rejoice in the gift of eternal life with God in heaven.
Links: Ezekiel Hopkins’ Exposition of the 10 Commandments – Ten Commandments: Hopkins
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Learning to Live by Faith 