Blessed Assurance

Music-wise I'm more of a praise and worship/contemporary/rock kind of guy but I do love the words to some old standards. Fanny Crosby's "Blessed Assurance" is a song that touches my heart. As I was sitting here on the computer I just got through listening to a version on a Vineyard CD. Good stuff.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
I'm 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,
It's praising my Savior all the day long.

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

Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
I'm filled with God's goodness, I'm lost in His love.
(Refrain)

Fanny Crosby was blinded as an infant after developing a cold and subsequent eye infection and then receiving poor treatment. She never let her blindness get in her way. She was a prolific songwriter, wrote poetry and was a preacher and speaker.

Her writing often reminds me of the goal of this life in Christ. "I'm filled with God's goodness, I'm lost in His love." Lost in His love. What a concept.I enjoy the study of theology and the Word of God but it can be sometimes a problem where we think that's what God wants of us when what He really wants is our hearts and lives. Studying theology and the Word is awesome but not the end. The outworking of the process is to know God. To walk with Him. To live in Him and live a life for His glory.

If we were truly lost in His love we would sure look a lot different.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Happy 4th of July!

Independence day is a great time to remember how blessed we are to live in the United States of America. America, with all its flaws and issues, is still a light to the world. Without the United States the world would have sunk into totalitarianism a long time ago. We too easily forget that freedom isn't free and that there are real bad guys out there in the world who would conquer us if they could.

Regardless of revisionist history this great nation was founded by men who believed in the God of the Bible. This belief gave them an understanding of human nature that most people just do not have today. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the human heart is wicked and deceitful. Jesus came to change that but we are deceived if we think that mankind's nature, apart from God, is to do good. The history of humanity, including today, leads us to inevitably conclude that the heart of man is to rule over and subjugate his fellow man. The United States has been an instrument for good in a dark world.

As a nation we have struggled to live up to our ideals but it was the wisdom of the Founders that created a platform for us to wrestle with our faults and change where needed. I believe that wisdom came from God.

Have a great 4th!

God bless America.

May America bless God!