PASSOVER--- SPIRITUAL SONGS FROM OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS

 AS  I  GO  THROUGH  MANY  OLD  AND  FAMOUS  SPIRITUAL  SONGS;  SADLY  TOO  MANY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  ONE  TIME  WORLDWIDE  CHURCH  OF  GOD,  UNDER  HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG,  WERE  SYSTEMATICALLY  BRAIN-WASHED  TO  DISCARD  SPIRITUAL  SONGS  BY  PROTESTANTS.

IT  WAS  AND  IS  SHOCKING,  FOR  IT  WAS  ALSO  TRAUGHT,  ALL  ARE  SPIRITUALLY  BLINDED  UNTIL  GOD  THE  FATHER  TAKES  THE  BLINDNESS  AWAY  TO  SEE  CLEARLY  THE  TRUTHS  IN  GOD'S  INSPIRED  WORD,  THE  HOLY  BIBLE.

ALSO  TAUGHT  WAS  THAT  GOD  DOES  NOT  WANT,  OR  DESIRE,  THAT  ANYONE  SHOULD  PERISH  BUT  THAT  ALL  SHOULD  COME  TO  REPENTANCE.

AND  MOST  WILL  DO  SO,  IN  GOD'S  TIME  PLAN  FOR  ALL  HUMANS.

SO  WITH  THIS  TRUTH,  THE  VAST  MAJORITY  OF  PROTESTANTS [EVEN  ROMAN  CATHOLICS]  WILL  COME  TO  REPENTANCE  AND  BE  SAVED.

THIS  MEANS  THEY  WILL  BE  OUR  BROTHERS  AND  SISTERS  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY.

SOME  OF  OUR  FUTURE  BRETHEN  WILL  HAVE  WRITTEN  MANY  WONDERFUL  SPIRITUAL  SONGS.

THOSE  SPIRITUAL  SONGS  WILL  LIVE  ON  FOREVER.

IT'S  TIME  AGAIN  TO  EMBRASE  THOSE  SPIRITUAL  SONGS;  WONDERFUL  ARE  THE  WORDS [A  FEW  CHANGES  NEEDED  HERE  AND  THERE]  AND  GREAT  MELODIC  MUSIC  WRITTEN  BY  STILL  OTHERS,  WHO  WILL  ONE  DAY  BE  OUR  BROTHERS  AND  SISTERS  IN  CHRIST.

Keith Hunt  

PASSOVER--- SPIRITUAL SONGS #3

Gave My Life for Thee

Frances Ridley Havergal, 1836 -78

I gave my life for thee, My precious blood I shed, That thou might ransomed be. . . . What hast thou given for me?

This song has never been among my favorites.

As a kid learning to play the piano, I pounded the life out of the unimaginative tune-—-one of the hymnal's easiest, no sharps, no flats, no tricks.

And the words—written as if by Jesus addressing you or me as a disciple—do not draw me to service motivated by gratitude. Rather, they drag me down with guilt. I hear a stereotypical martyr mother saying, "After all I've done for you ... you should be grateful." Duty-bound debt.

And yet I write of this song, viewing it differently in the context of its origin and the author's life.

As a young woman Frances Havergal traveled from her home in England to advance her education in Dusseldorf, Germany. While on the Continent, in a pastor's study she saw a motto printed beneath a Sternberg painting titled "Ecce Homo." The portrayed scene is Christ at his trial, whipped mercilessly, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe meant for mockery. He's standing between a crowd demanding death and Pilate, who says, "Ecce Homo": "Behold the Man."

 Sternberg's arresting depiction of Jesus' trial struck Havergal, who paused to contemplate the biblical event. Before leaving the scene, she copied the caption-phrase, translated: I did this for you. What have you done for me?

Later, back home in England, she noticed the line in her notebook, recalled her emotional response to the painting, and quickly embellished the caption. She wrote a poem of five stanzas, each ending with a pointed challenge: "What have you given to ... left for ... borne for ... brought to ... the Christ?

Pausing to read through her completed verse, Havergal thought poorly of her endeavor, and threw the paper into the fireplace. Yes, into the fire.

But it didn't burn.

Retrieving the lines, she eventually showed them to her father, who suggested they be saved. The next year the poem was printed as a pamphlet, then in a magazine, then with its own tune in an American Sunday school songbook.

Years later she wrote what would become one of her most famous hymns, "Take My Life." The first phrase is reminiscent of the earlier "I Gave My Life," but here she claims the "I-my" as her own: "Take my life and let it be / Consecrated Lord to thee...."

A few lines of a Havergal letter further connect her two songs.The "what have I given for Christ?" question is poignantly answered in the context of these later lines: "Take my silver and my gold, / Not a mite would I withhold." Her letter:

"Take my silver and my gold" now means shipping off all my ornaments—-including a jewel cabinet which is really fit for a countess—to the Church Missionary Society where they will be accepted and disposed of for me. I retain only a broach for daily wear ... also a locket ... Nearly fifty articles are being packed off. I don't think I need tell you I never packed a box with such pleasure.

This giving-up is no duty-bound debt. It is no casting away of the unsatisfactory endeavor. It is sacrificial—something precious relinquished as Havergal consecrated her Hfe to the God who asks no more of us than he asked of himself.

In her relatively short life (forty-two years), Havergal wrote what has been called a "huge volume" of hymns. Time has borne away the memory of all but a score, including these two: "Take My Life" and the earlier "I Gave My Life"—the poem thrown into the fire.

Intended for destruction—like Christ led by the crowd to Calvary.

But not destroyed—like Christ whose executioners did not have the final say.

At Jesus' trial Pilate said, "Behold the man" (John 19:5 KJV). With spiritual insight John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29 KJV).

I gave my life for thee . . . That thou might ransomed be, And quickened from the dead.

This death would result in life—-an abundant life that could prompt a young woman to give away what she considered a "jewelers shop"-—with delight.

Two biblical men-—-Pilate and John the Baptist—saw one Son of God from two radically different perspectives.

And Havergal's story allows me to see new meaning in a throwaway line-—Jesus' hypothetical question: "What have you given for me?"

Lord, open my eyes to show me who you are and what you did for me. Allow me to feel such gratitude that I open my hands and my heart. Generously. Because I want to. Not because I have to.

From the book "Spiritual Moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence.

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Being saved by grace does not mean we can live any way we desire. Jesus said man was not to live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD of God (Mat.4;4). We are to be reading and studying from Genesis to Revelation to learn how to live by God's every word. You may be wondering how we can do this. I have on my website a study that will give you the keys, it is called "Living by Every Word of God - How?"

We are to give our life to Jesus as a living sacrifice; to serve, to love, to follow His example that was left for us in the Gospels. Sadly way too many "Christians" today, do not read the four Gospels as much as they should. Do not let this be you.

Keith Hunt  

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Joseph Striven, 1820-86

What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!  

This is a song for the lonely—-those  who ever have been, are, or will be—written by a man who was familiar with friendship and acquainted with grief. Various threads of his life story-—-the tragedy, the mercy, the mystery-—-bear retelling.

After graduating from Trinity College in Dublin and spending several years in a military college, Joseph Scriven was forced by poor health to switch careers. Taking up theology, he studied for the Anglican ministry though in time he decided not to "go for" ordination.

Then, the night before Scriven was to be married, his bride was thrown from a horse—into the river in which she drowned.

Some say Scriven never quite recovered from this loss. At the age of twenty-five he left Ireland-—-alone—for Canada, where he was a family tutor on Rice Lake in Ontario. There Scriven fell in love again, but alas tragedy struck twice: his fiancee died of pneumonia, shortly after being baptized in the biting cold lake.

It seems that Scriven wrote "What a Friend" at this juncture-—-in 1855, for his mother, possibly sending it to her with the news of his misfortune and grief. (Can a mother bear her son's sorrow?) One copy he mailed to Ireland. Another-—-of draft manuscript quality and titled "Pray without Ceasing"-— went into his own scrapbook. It's not at all clear how the poem-—-with no author attribution at all—found its way into an 1865 book published in Boston: Social Hymns, Original and Selected. Ten years later Ira Sankey made a last minute substitution to include it in a widely distributed gospel-song collection. He later noted that "the last hymn that went into the book became one of the first in favor."

Scriven never did marry. He was increasingly viewed as an eccentric—sometimes tormented by town toughs. But if eccentric, the element was entwined with a faith that worked. He was known for "preaching to everyone about the love of Jesus." There was nothing empty about his words; a friend to the needy, he went about doing good, for example, sawing wood for the sick and the widows too poor to hire help. (It's said he would be "handyman" only for people who couldn't pay for his services.) "When he saw a need, he gave people money (not that he had much), his own winter clothing, his time. After Scriven's death a liquor salesman in town said, "If ever there was a saint on earth, it was Joseph Scriven."

Never robust, Scriven's health failed him before he reached nature's allotted three-score years and ten. Hearing of his predicament, friends took him in. Thumbing through Scriven's scrapbooks, his host-nurse, a Mr. Sackville, found an old handwritten copy of the popular song. The wheels began churning. "Did you write this?" he asked.

For my mother, he explained. I didn't intend anyone else to see it.

When asked again—directly—-if he'd written the poem, Scriven answered, "The Lord and I did it between us."

This one statement makes me think this man knew the friendship of Christ as well as he knew grief. 

To Scriven, Christ was a present partner, a burden bearer, helpmate who came alongside to inspire, to encourage, and help carry the load. "Can we find a friend so faithful / Who will all our sorrows share?" This is the type of friend noted in Proverbs 18:24 - "who sticks closer than a brother." This is the Friend who "took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4).

And Jesus is the Friend who remains steady, still today. When we're lonely, feeling abandoned, in need of a soul mate. Jesus' word to his disciples might be his word to us: "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his masters' business. Instead, I have called you friends" (John 15:15).

Lord, allow me to know you as the friend who sticks closer than a brother. 

I might end the story there; but Scriven's death is shrouded with such mystery that I cannot cut short the account. October 9—10, 1886: Scriven was sick, feverish, possibly delirious. He was also by some accounts severely depressed over his deteriorating health and his inability to care, for himself, physically and financially. Some postulate that he was still haunted by the loss of his first love, river-swept from his life. With what intent or purpose, no one knows, but sometime in the night he left his bed. In the morning he was found down by the lake, on his knees as if in prayer, his forehead to the ground—drowned in six shallow inches of water.

From the book "Spiritual Moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence.

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Oh how tragic to loose two to-be wives like that. Yes through times of sorrow and hardship, some can write the most beautiful spiritual songs. This on "What a Friend we Have in Jesus" has to be now one of the most famous and beloved spiritual hymns of all time.

Keith Hunt

1. What a friend we have in Jesus,
   All our sins and griefs to bear!
   What a privilege to carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
   Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
   Oh, what needless pain we bear,
   All because we do not carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations?
   Is there trouble anywhere?
   We should never be discouraged—
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
   Can we find a friend so faithful,
   Who will all our sorrows share?
   Jesus knows our every weakness;
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy-laden,
   Cumbered with a load of care?
   Precious Savior, still our refuge—
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
   Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
   Take it to the Lord in prayer!
   In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
   Thou wilt find a solace there.
4. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
   Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
   May we ever, Lord, be bringing
   All to Thee in earnest prayer.
   Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
   There will be no need for prayer—
   Rapture, praise, and endless worship
   Will be our sweet portion there.

PASSOVER---- SPIRITUAL SONGS #2

 He Took My Feet

from the Miry Clay

African-American Spiritual

He took my feet from the miry clay.

Yes, he did. And placed them on the rock to stay.

Yes, he did.

Like a good hymnbook of any era, the Book of Psalms includes songs of praise that seem to be written and sung in a realm above the daily grind. They are about who God is. "Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise" (48:1); "The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble" (99:1).

But it also contains a good many more subjective songs about "me"-—-what I (the song's writer or reader) need or want or have received from God.

Consider Psalm 40:1—3, attributed to King David. It's a short-short story, with beginning, middle, and end. I paraphrase: I needed to be rescued. I called on God and waited. God delivered me, by pulling me out of "the miry clay" and setting my feet upon a rock. My desperation lifted; I sang a new song—of praise. Many people will see what God has done for me; they will hear my song and trust God.

The story, including the strong image—sinking in quicksand contrasted with standing on a solid slab of marble—has held its ground, having been revisited in the American tradition.

There's the old spiritual version. "What the Negroes sang were the psalm tunes of the whites... What finally emerged as the spiritual was the expression of a people torn violently from one tradition and thrust against their will into another."³ I can imagine this psalm being sung responsively across rows of tobacco.

He took my feet from the miry clay.

Yes, he did. And placed them on the rock to stay.

Yes, he did.

I can tell the world about this: I can tell the nations I'm blessed, Tell them that Jesus made me whole, And he brought joy, joy to my soul.

And there's also the white nineteenth-century camp meeting version, called "He Brought Me Out." Henry L. Gilmour, a dentist who spent his summers directing camp choirs, tacked this psalm-based refrain onto gospel lyrics by H.J. Zelley for which Gilmour was composing a tune:

He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the Rock to stay; He puts a song in my soul today, A song of praise, hallelujah!

Zelley's four stanzas fill in the Psalm 40 story line, and his last verse hammers out the psalmist's evangelistic challenge:

I'll sing of his wonderful mercy to me,

I'll praise him till all men his goodness shall see;

I'll sing of salvation at home and abroad,

Till many shall hear the truth and trust in God,

Neither of the American songs short-circuits the ancient story; both acknowledge God's grace.

God moved my feet from the quicks and to the rock. Yes, he did.

And then the songs spread the good news. And so can we.

I can tell the world about this. Yes, I will.

Lord, I thank you for your goodness to me-—your having "brought me out." And forgive me for not taking the opportunity to spread the good news of your deliverance with others. Give me an opportunity today.

From the book: "Spiritual Moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence.

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I can just imagine the blacks in slavery in the cotten fields, making up a rhythm to these words, and singing it out in the hot bazing sun as they worked.

Passover  tell's  us  in  no  uncertain  way,  that  Jesus  indeed  took  us  from  the  miry  clay  of  sin and  brought  us  to  reconciliation  with  the  Father,  and  His  righteousness.

We can tells others by doing what we can as part of the body of Christ, being as Jesus said, as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. It is not only our words, when someone may ask us about our religious faith, but we are to be lights to the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hid. We speak to others by the way we live.

Keith Hunt

THERE IS A GREEN HILL FAR AWAY

Cecil Frances Alexander, 1818-95

There is a green hill far away, Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified, Who died to save us all.

We mortals will always be surprised at what remains of our lives or of our centuries. This is evident in the pages of our songbooks. Any number of songs originally written for children have wound their way into hearts now old and hymnals edited for and read by adults. A prime example is Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander's much-loved "There Is a Green Hill Far Away." Before his death, William Alexander, eminent Anglican archbishop of Ireland, had a wry grip on the realities of the twists and turns of history. He who presided over the church's rules and rites said he would ultimately be remembered only for being the husband of the woman who wrote "There Is a Green Hill Far Away." Right he was.

Author of more than four hundred hymns, Mrs. Alexander, as she was known, generally wrote for young Sunday school children, in an attempt to bring the Christian faith and feasts down to their level.

"There Is a Green Hill" came to her as she sat at the bedside of a critically ill girl, who lived to relate the incident; as a child she was not called to test the gate-locks of heaven.

He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good, That we might go at last to heaven, Saved by his precious blood.

There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gate of heaven, and let us in.

When published in a collection of Alexander's Hymns for Little Children, "There Is a Green Hill" stood among several (including her memorable "Once in Royal David's City" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful") that explicated specific lines of the Apostles' Creed.

Alexander lived in Londonderry, a city bound by a stone wall and surrounded by rolling hills. Having never seen Jerusalem, she is said to have fancied a particular nearby knoll to be "like Calvary." In this regard, she may have been inventing her own version of history.

In subsequent verses she clearly lays out the basics of the historically orthodox understanding of the Creed's "I believe": in Jesus Christ who "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." For your redemption and mine.

On this count was she writing fact or fiction? She does have her critics. Is there a "price of sin"—or a penalty of sin and price of redemption? Is her whole notion of atonement "outworn"? Do scholars hunting for the historical Jesus prove the Christ of our creed a merely mythical figure? Do they put the poems of Alexander on a shelf, never to be dusted off?

I'm no theologian, but I find insight in the comments of philosopher C. Stephen Evans. After giving an overview of gospel-discrediting Jesus scholarship, he affirms that many scholars conversant with ancient languages and texts see the historical evidence as consistent with historic Christian faith. However, it is equally vital to realize that Christ's church does not stand or fall with the changing fashions of a contemporary academic field. My Christian beliefs are not primarily grounded in historical scholarship but in the testimony of Christ's church and the work of Christ's Spirit, as they witness to the truth of God's revelation.³

In the preface to The Course of Empire, Pulitzer-prizewinner and historian Bernard De Voto noted that although "history abhors determinism," it "cannot tolerate chance."⁴ And it is by no chance that our faith—in the redemptive death of Christ-—-has survived the millennia since his resurrection.

"I believe," says the church of Christ.

And all the people said, "Amen."

Lord, this song gives me such a simple rendition of the Good News of your redemption. Give me a new understanding of what it means, as I bear witness to the Word and as I live under the grace it offers me. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

From  the  book: "Spiritual Moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence.

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There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains he had to bear,
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate
Of heav'n and let us in.

Oh, dearly, dearly has he loved!
And we must love him too,
And trust in his redeeming blood,
And try his works to do.


[Alternate Version:]

There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all. 

Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved,
And died our sins to bear;
We trust in His redeeming blood,
And life eternal share. 

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there. 

He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might from our sins be freed,
Saved by His precious blood. 

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin,
He only could divine life give
And dwell Himself within. 

Oh yes some of the words of some of these hymns will need to be changed to conform to correct truth of God's word. "Kingdom" can be used instead of "heaven"   .....  for the truth is we do not go to heaven at death; actually heaven is coming to us; all expounded on my website in various studies.

But we take the overall of the truth these words in spiritual songs give us.

I grew up singing Once in Royal David's City  and  All things Bright and Beautiful ...... O my they should be sung today among God's children.

• Refrain:
  All things bright and beautiful,
  All creatures great and small,
  All things wise and wonderful:
  The Lord God made them all.
1. Each little flow’r that opens,
   Each little bird that sings,
   He made their glowing colors,
   He made their tiny wings.
2. The purple-headed mountains,
   The river running by,
   The sunset and the morning
   That brightens up the sky.
3. The cold wind in the winter,
   The pleasant summer sun,
   The ripe fruits in the garden,
   He made them every one.
4. The tall trees in the greenwood,
   The meadows where we play,
   The rushes by the water,
   To gather every day.
5. He gave us eyes to see them,
   And lips that we might tell
   How great is God Almighty,
   Who has made all things well.

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This was one of my most favorite spiritual songs

I loved to sing in church before Sunday school started.

I was sent to a "church school" [Church of England] at age 7 by my Dad. And I attended a local church for Sunday school.

Not one teacher, or priest..... no person ever told me Sunday was not the 7th day of the week. Calendars were not found on walls, in school or at home. I knew what I was doing each day of the week, so I needed no calendar. I grew up believing "Christianity" was observing the 4th Commandment, observing the 7th day as the weekly Sabbath.

It was my second year in Canada at age 20, when to my utter shock my Baptist landlord told me Sunday was the first day of the week. I just about fainted in shock.

Keith Hunt

PASSOVER---- SPIRITUAL SONGS #1

 TIME  TO  RESTORE.....PARTS  OF  THE  OFF-SHOOTS  OF  THE  WORLDWIDE  CHURCH  OF  GOD....FROM  OUT  OF  THE  FALSE  INFLUENCE  OF  HERBERT  W.  ARMSTRONG!!

CONCERNING.....HYMN  SINGING!!

FOR  YOU  WHO  MAY  NOT  KNOW,  AS  I  DO [BEING  IN  THE  WORLDWIDE  CHURCH  OF  GOD  FROM  1961  TO  1972]  IN  THE  YEARS  UP  TO  THE  MIDDLE  TO  LATE  1960s  THAT  ORGANIZATION  HAD  WHAT  I  CALL  A  "REGULAR"  HYMNAL.....MADE  UP  OF  HYMNS  THAT  ALL  FUNDAMENTAL  CHRISTIANS  KNEW  AND  SANG,  WITH  A  FEW  WORDS  CHANGED  IN  SOME  OF  THEM.

AS  THE  WCG  GREW  AND  HWA  BECAME  LESS  HUMBLE  AND  MORE  PRONE  TO  MOVING  INTO  THE  MIND-SET  OF  A  "CULT"  LEADER,  HE  BEGAN  TO  SAY  THE  WCG  SHOULD  SING  THE  PSALMS,  AND  IT  JUST  SO  HAPPENED  HIS  BROTHER  WAS  A  KIND  OF  MUSIC  WRITER,  I  SAY  KIND  OF,  BECAUSE  IT  TRUNED  OUT  HIS  WRITING  OF  MUSIC  FOR  THE  PSALMS  OF  THE  BIBLE  WAS  90  PERCENT  TERRIBLE;  HARD  TO  SING,  STANGE  MELODIES......JUST  TERRIBLE  AND  MORE  TERRIBLE.  AND  HWA  BROTHER  WAS  NOT  EVEN  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  WCG  CHURCH.

EVENTUALLY  THE  ENTIRE  WCG  HYMNAL  WAS  THE  PSALMS  AND  MUSIC  FROM  HWA  BROTHER.  MAYBE  IT  WAS  IN  THE  MIND  OF  HWA  THAT  SUCH  WOULD  MAKE  THE  WCG  "UNIQUE"  -  WELL  LIKE  SOME  OTHER  CULTIC  GROUPS.  DURING  THE  1980s  I  KNEW  OF  A  CHURCH  THAT  DID  NOT  ALLOW  MUSICAL  INSTRUMENTS  IN  CHURCH  SERVICES,  THEY  SAID  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  DOES  NOT  SHOW  ANY  WERE  USED  IN  SERVICES,  SO  WE  WILL  NOT.  OF  COURSE  MATTHEW  4:4  MEANT  NOTHING  TO  THEM  I  GUESS.

WELL  THE  WCG  WAS  UNIQUE  EVENTUALLY  BY  THE  END  OF  THE  1960s  TO  HAVE  THEIR  "OWN"  HYMNAL  OF  ONLY  SONGS  FROM  THE  BOOK  OF  PSALMS.  IT  IS  LIKE  THE  JEHOVAH  WITNESSES  HAVING  THEIR  "OWN"  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.  CULTS  TEND  TO  GO  THAT  WAY  EVENTUALLY,  SOMETHING  THAT  MAKES  THEM  "UNIQUE"  OR  DIFFERENT  FROM  EVERYBODY  ELSE.

THE  WCG  FORGOT  ABOUT  EPHESIANS  5:19  ....  I  GUESS  THEY  CUT  IT  OUT  OF  THEIR  BIBLE.  PAUL  WAS  INSPIRED  TO  WRITE: "SPEAKING  TO  YOURSELVES  IN  PSALMS  AND  HYMNS  AND  SPIRITUAL  SONGS,  SINGING  AND  MAKING  MELODY  IN    YOUR  HEART  TO  THE  LORD."

NOTICE  THE  WORD  PSALMS  IS  SEPARATE  FROM  HYMNS,  AND  SPIRITUAL  SONGS.  GOD  WAS  PLAINLY  TELLING  US  WE  COULD  WRITE  HYMNS  AND  SPIRITUAL  SONGS   OTHER  THAN  THE  PSALMS  OF  THE  BIBLE!

NOW  THAT  SHOULD  BE  PRETTY  SIMPLE  TO  UNDERSTAND  FOR  ANYONE  WHO  IS  NOT  IN  A  CULTIC  MIND-SET.  IT  IS  NOT  WRONG  TO  PUT  MUSIC  TO  THE  PSALMS  IN  THE  BIBLE'S  BOOK  OF  PSALMS.  BUT  WE  CAN  AND  FRANKLY  SHOULD  HAVE  OTHER  HYMNS  AND  SPIRITUAL  SONGS  WRITTEN  BY  OTHERS,  FROM  WHATEVER  AGE  WE  ARE  IN.

SO  YOU  WHO  HAVE  BEEN  LED  INTO  A  FALSE  PROUD  TRADITION  FROM  THE  OLD  WORLDWIDE  CHURCH  OF  GOD  UNDER  HERBERT  ARMSTRONG......WELL  YOU  NEED  TO  RESTORE  YOUR  MIND  TO  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  MATTER  CONCERNING  SINGING  HYMNS,  ANYTIME  AND  ANYWHERE.

HENCE  I  PRODUCE  FOR  YOU  THE  FOLLOWING  GREAT  HYMNS,  ESPECIALLY  FOR  PASSOVER  TIME.

Keith Hunt

Jesus Loves Me

Anna Warner, 1820 -1915

Jesus loves me! this I know, For the Bible tells me so; Little ones to him belong; They are weak, but he is strong.

This simple children's song has its high-minded critics who call it schmaltz. Bless them. May they someday learn ...

This same song has been memorialized by an eminent scholar .... One day the aging Karl Barth was asked a "deep" question. Would he—-could he—summarize the essence of his theological discoveries?

Barth had a ready response: "Jesus loves me! this I know. For the Bible tells me so." The first couplet of a children's song crisply condensed his lifelong journey in faith.

The song itself was first published a century before Barth's citation, and even then the words were written as a response— to a dying boy's request of his Sunday school teacher: "Sing." Not that this was a flesh-and-blood death. The sickly Johnny was a character in a popular but now long-forgotten novel, tided Say and Seal, coauthored by Anna Warner and her sister Susan. In this fictional world the impromptu lullaby "Jesus Loves Me" calmed the feverish child and introduced the reader to the assuring words now sung around the globe by children of all ages.

It takes a child's heart to appreciate this song, just as it takes a child's heart to know the heart of our loving God. Jesus made it clear: "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it" (Mark 10:15).

My friend Elsie recently spent a warm summer afternoon as a volunteer visitor in a hospital long-term-care unit. Intent on delivering inspiration to one particular woman, she dressed in a bright dress, bought a handful of flowers, and wore a smile. These visual signs of cheer did not dispel the gloom in the patient's room. "Nothing could be said to cheer her up," Elsie remembers. Until..."I began to sing softly, "Jesus loves me! this I know,... Little ones to him belong... .Yes, Jesus loves me!"

And a second verse-—-not part of Warner's original lineup: "Jesus loves me! He will stay / Close beside me all the way...."

Elsie continues: "When I started, she became very quiet. And with the last note, she could focus on hope. We talked of God's wonderful love for each of us and the hope of eternal life. After a short prayer, it was evident that peace had filled her heart."

In their book Songs for Renewal, Janet Janzen and Richard Poster tell of a man dying after a long battle with cancer. Knowing his hour was at hand, he started singing Warner's lullaby "and praying for God to receive his spirit."

Jesus loves me! He who died Heaven's gate to open wide; He will wash away my sin, Let his little child come in.

Janzen continues, "In the early hours of the morning he was indeed welcomed into the arms of Jesus."¹ Like a child. Like the children of another age, as described by the evangelist: "And [Jesus] took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them" (Mark 10:16).

In the words of another sentimental song: "Jesus loves the little children." All the children.Young and old. Healthy or feeble. He loves you. Are you child enough to claim it?

Lord, I want to know your love for me-—-not just on an intellectual level. Allow me to feel—emotionally—the assurance of your love. That means I have to become a child at heart? I'm not sure I know what that means, but . . . work your love in me.

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From the book: "Spiritual Moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence

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For the child of God-------There is indeed a "spirit in man" and it does go back to God at death [Ecc.12:7].

It does not think, act, do, all by itself, but it is the CD recording of your character without sin. God keeps it safe until the day of the resurrection, when the saints will be raised to immortal life, with a glorified body, and the "spirit" character united with it.

The Passover time reminds us Jesus loves me, and YOU!

Keith Hunt