Thursday, January 28, 2010, 8:58 a.m. – I had this song playing in my mind:
There's Within My Heart a Melody / Luther B. Bridgers
There's within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low:
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,
In all of life's ebb and flow.
All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,
Discord filled my heart with pain;
Jesus swept across the broken strings,
Stirred the slumbering chords again.
Though sometimes he leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See his footprints all the way.
Feasting on the riches of his grace,
Resting neath his sheltering wing,
Always looking on his smiling face,
That is why I shout and sing.
Soon he's coming back to welcome me
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown;
I shall reign with him on high.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 2:14-26:
My Understanding: I read the words to this song. It greatly encouraged my heart today. And, I read this passage of scripture. I understand the message in the song and I understand what this passage of scripture is saying, but I could not make a connection between the two of them. So, I prayed and asked the Lord to show me the connection. So, what I will share here is what I believe the Lord revealed to me.
First of all, this passage in James is a strong doctrinal passage of scripture. We learned previously that salvation is not by works, i.e. we can not earn God’s grace or salvation by our own human efforts. It is by God’s grace, through faith, and not of ourselves that we are saved. Salvation is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast, say the scriptures. I believe that even the faith to believe is a gift from God, yet a gift that we must accept and appropriate into our daily lives. We do this in His strength, with his wisdom and understanding, and via his assistance. So, he even gives us the ability to appropriate his gift of salvation into our lives through actions and deeds, if we will allow him to do so.
That is what James is talking about here. He is not disputing salvation by grace, through faith alone. What he is saying is that if we say we believe something, our actions should support what we say. In other words, actions speak louder than words. If someone tells you he loves you and then doesn’t ever show it or if his actions say just the opposite, then you may have difficulty believing that person really, truly loves you. And, that is the subject that James addresses here and is also addressed in the book of I John. If we say that we love God/Jesus, then our words should be supported by our actions. Faith without actions is dead. That makes sense.
Ok, the song has wonderful words of encouragement! It basically states that we are going to face difficulties in this life. We will sometimes travel through deep waters. Have you ever tried to walk through deep water? If you have, I am sure that you must have found that the water gave you much resistance. The deeper it got, the more difficult walking became. In this walk of life, we will experience such resistance from other people, from life’s circumstances, from our own responses to life’s situations, from Satan and even from God, at times. We will face trials, testings, and/or temptations. Now and then, we will experience bumps in the road or jagged edges along the way as we walk, or we might even have hurdles that we have to jump over. Sometimes we may even have to run instead of walk.
The encouragement that this song has to offer, if we do or we don’t know Jesus, first of all is to let us know that he has gone before us and he has prepared the way for us, not only for our salvation, but also for our daily walks in this life. He came to earth. He became a man. He suffered, he went through trials, testings and temptations, just like we do, yet was without sin. He experienced rejection, persecution and even death from his own people, his family members and his closest friends. There is not anything that we will go through in this life that he has not experienced and greater. For instance, we will never know the pain of taking on the sins of the entire world on ourselves. I can not even begin to imagine that. My own sin has been painful enough to bear. Yet, he did that for you and for me so that we could go free!
For those of us who have, thus, accepted this gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, he offers these words of encouragement. We should never fear people or the circumstances of our lives, because Jesus is always with us and he will never leave us or forsake us. Even if the world around us is in utter chaos, we can be at peace within, knowing that God is sovereign over all things and that he is absolutely in control of all and that nothing escapes his notice. And, he has a plan for everything that we face in this life. I often have to be reminded of that fact myself. Thus, we can see his “footprints all the way.” We just need to lay our burdens at his feet and put our complete faith and trust in all of his many promises to us.
Ok, to the connection between this song and this passage of scripture, what I believe the Lord is showing me here is that when we put action to our faith, i.e. when we reach out and help someone in need, when we walk in obedience to our Lord in doing and saying what he wants us to do and say, and/or when we put our lives on the line for others, etc., our efforts, i.e. our “good deeds” toward man, may occasionally be met with resistance. We may be misunderstood or our intentions could be misinterpreted. We may have to walk through some deep waters, in other words. We may face rejection or persecution. Our helping hands may not always be well received. Jesus was even criticized by the religious leaders of his day for healing people, because it was on the Sabbath. Or, even our own feelings of insecurity, our own inabilities to communicate effectively and/or our own misperceptions can be that resistance that we meet or those “bumps” in the road that we must overcome.
In other words, when we put actions to our faith, it does not mean that everything is going to go smoothly all the time, though sometimes it may. Yet, we can’t give up! We can certainly learn from the experiences and maybe change our approach some or perhaps even back off some to give people breathing room, yet we should never stop doing what God has called us to do and we should never stop reaching out in love to other people just because we will, on occasion, meet with resistance. We must continue to persevere no matter what we face, yet with greater wisdom and understanding learned from our difficult experiences, hopefully.
One more word of encouragement that is in this song is the promise that Jesus is coming back again to take us to be with himself. The older I get, the more encouraging these words become. When we are with Jesus, we will no longer battle with sin, rejection, persecution, misunderstandings, personality conflicts, our own inadequacies, and/or coming up against resistance or even against brick walls, etc. Satan will be bound. He will no longer be able to tempt us or to try to trip us up. We will no longer battle with the flesh and our fleshly appetites. And, we will live in perfect harmony with everyone else who is with us and with Jesus in eternity. Oh, what a wonderful day that will be when my Jesus I shall see face to face!
Yet, while I live and love in this world of ours, I will be continually reminded of his grace and mercy to meet me in my hour of need no matter what I am going through. I will trust in his complete sovereignty and I will choose not to fear. I will commit my all to him and will lay my burdens at his feet, because he can do so much better a job of taking care of the things that concern me than I ever could! Amen! I needed to hear this today! Thank you Jesus for helping me to see how this song and this passage of scripture connected together! And, thank you, too, for the lesson it taught me. I am forever grateful for all that you do in my life in growing me in you.
There's Within My Heart a Melody / Luther B. Bridgers
There's within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low:
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,
In all of life's ebb and flow.
All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,
Discord filled my heart with pain;
Jesus swept across the broken strings,
Stirred the slumbering chords again.
Though sometimes he leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See his footprints all the way.
Feasting on the riches of his grace,
Resting neath his sheltering wing,
Always looking on his smiling face,
That is why I shout and sing.
Soon he's coming back to welcome me
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown;
I shall reign with him on high.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 2:14-26:
My Understanding: I read the words to this song. It greatly encouraged my heart today. And, I read this passage of scripture. I understand the message in the song and I understand what this passage of scripture is saying, but I could not make a connection between the two of them. So, I prayed and asked the Lord to show me the connection. So, what I will share here is what I believe the Lord revealed to me.
First of all, this passage in James is a strong doctrinal passage of scripture. We learned previously that salvation is not by works, i.e. we can not earn God’s grace or salvation by our own human efforts. It is by God’s grace, through faith, and not of ourselves that we are saved. Salvation is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast, say the scriptures. I believe that even the faith to believe is a gift from God, yet a gift that we must accept and appropriate into our daily lives. We do this in His strength, with his wisdom and understanding, and via his assistance. So, he even gives us the ability to appropriate his gift of salvation into our lives through actions and deeds, if we will allow him to do so.
That is what James is talking about here. He is not disputing salvation by grace, through faith alone. What he is saying is that if we say we believe something, our actions should support what we say. In other words, actions speak louder than words. If someone tells you he loves you and then doesn’t ever show it or if his actions say just the opposite, then you may have difficulty believing that person really, truly loves you. And, that is the subject that James addresses here and is also addressed in the book of I John. If we say that we love God/Jesus, then our words should be supported by our actions. Faith without actions is dead. That makes sense.
Ok, the song has wonderful words of encouragement! It basically states that we are going to face difficulties in this life. We will sometimes travel through deep waters. Have you ever tried to walk through deep water? If you have, I am sure that you must have found that the water gave you much resistance. The deeper it got, the more difficult walking became. In this walk of life, we will experience such resistance from other people, from life’s circumstances, from our own responses to life’s situations, from Satan and even from God, at times. We will face trials, testings, and/or temptations. Now and then, we will experience bumps in the road or jagged edges along the way as we walk, or we might even have hurdles that we have to jump over. Sometimes we may even have to run instead of walk.
The encouragement that this song has to offer, if we do or we don’t know Jesus, first of all is to let us know that he has gone before us and he has prepared the way for us, not only for our salvation, but also for our daily walks in this life. He came to earth. He became a man. He suffered, he went through trials, testings and temptations, just like we do, yet was without sin. He experienced rejection, persecution and even death from his own people, his family members and his closest friends. There is not anything that we will go through in this life that he has not experienced and greater. For instance, we will never know the pain of taking on the sins of the entire world on ourselves. I can not even begin to imagine that. My own sin has been painful enough to bear. Yet, he did that for you and for me so that we could go free!
For those of us who have, thus, accepted this gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, he offers these words of encouragement. We should never fear people or the circumstances of our lives, because Jesus is always with us and he will never leave us or forsake us. Even if the world around us is in utter chaos, we can be at peace within, knowing that God is sovereign over all things and that he is absolutely in control of all and that nothing escapes his notice. And, he has a plan for everything that we face in this life. I often have to be reminded of that fact myself. Thus, we can see his “footprints all the way.” We just need to lay our burdens at his feet and put our complete faith and trust in all of his many promises to us.
Ok, to the connection between this song and this passage of scripture, what I believe the Lord is showing me here is that when we put action to our faith, i.e. when we reach out and help someone in need, when we walk in obedience to our Lord in doing and saying what he wants us to do and say, and/or when we put our lives on the line for others, etc., our efforts, i.e. our “good deeds” toward man, may occasionally be met with resistance. We may be misunderstood or our intentions could be misinterpreted. We may have to walk through some deep waters, in other words. We may face rejection or persecution. Our helping hands may not always be well received. Jesus was even criticized by the religious leaders of his day for healing people, because it was on the Sabbath. Or, even our own feelings of insecurity, our own inabilities to communicate effectively and/or our own misperceptions can be that resistance that we meet or those “bumps” in the road that we must overcome.
In other words, when we put actions to our faith, it does not mean that everything is going to go smoothly all the time, though sometimes it may. Yet, we can’t give up! We can certainly learn from the experiences and maybe change our approach some or perhaps even back off some to give people breathing room, yet we should never stop doing what God has called us to do and we should never stop reaching out in love to other people just because we will, on occasion, meet with resistance. We must continue to persevere no matter what we face, yet with greater wisdom and understanding learned from our difficult experiences, hopefully.
One more word of encouragement that is in this song is the promise that Jesus is coming back again to take us to be with himself. The older I get, the more encouraging these words become. When we are with Jesus, we will no longer battle with sin, rejection, persecution, misunderstandings, personality conflicts, our own inadequacies, and/or coming up against resistance or even against brick walls, etc. Satan will be bound. He will no longer be able to tempt us or to try to trip us up. We will no longer battle with the flesh and our fleshly appetites. And, we will live in perfect harmony with everyone else who is with us and with Jesus in eternity. Oh, what a wonderful day that will be when my Jesus I shall see face to face!
Yet, while I live and love in this world of ours, I will be continually reminded of his grace and mercy to meet me in my hour of need no matter what I am going through. I will trust in his complete sovereignty and I will choose not to fear. I will commit my all to him and will lay my burdens at his feet, because he can do so much better a job of taking care of the things that concern me than I ever could! Amen! I needed to hear this today! Thank you Jesus for helping me to see how this song and this passage of scripture connected together! And, thank you, too, for the lesson it taught me. I am forever grateful for all that you do in my life in growing me in you.
