****TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE CONSECRATED

What we call Contemporary Christian Music got its start in the middle of the twentieth century.  Baby boomers who were bored with the old music of the church brought new styles into the mainstream of American evangelical churches.

 

Much of the music deserved the criticism it got.  It was sometimes silly, doctrinally anemic, and borderline heretical; it was often man-centered and appealing to the flesh.  But, something amazing happened in the latter part of the century.   Contemporary Christian Music grew up. 

In the midst of all the clamor, emerged a plethora of excellent Christian composers, writers, and singers who brought us some of the best and most inspiring, classical and contemporary, God-honoring music in our lifetime.

 

It was in that musical environment, that a frustrated, renegade music professor developed a new, revolutionary approach to choral conducting.  Most of his contemporaries were highly critical but Dr. Gary Bonner’s master’s program produced hundreds of graduates who launched a rebirth in Church choir music throughout the Christian world.

Children’s music was elevated too.  A man named Ernie Rettino painted his face blue, put on some blue tights and a big foam costume in the shape of a book; and the character, Psalty, the Singing Hymnbook, was created.   Ernie and his wife, Debby, produced dozens of musicals designed to teach children biblical principles and doctrines using new and traditional hymns.

In one of their most successful productions, the characters took a Hymnological Adventure in a Time Machine.  They traveled back in history, to meet some famous hymn writers like David, the Shepherd King, Isaac Watts, and Fanny Crosby.  That musical resulted in teaching some of the greatest old hymns of our faith to a whole generation of children.

 

One of those hymns, TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE, is a prayer of consecration written by Frances Havergal.   It may have been inspired by these words in Leviticus; “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. “

In Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, he wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).

 

In this hymn, Frances Havergal holds nothing back in her offering to the Lord.  She starts with a dedication of her life but then she gets specific; not only her life but all her days and every moment.  When she offers her hands and her feet, she is asking God to direct everything she does and everywhere she goes.  She submits every word from her lips and every thought to His control.  Her treasures, her will, and her heart; everything she has is Consecrated to God for His use and His glory. 

****NO ONE EVER CARED FOR ME LIKE JESUS

(1 Peter 5:6)  “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time:  Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.”

There isn’t much background information available about this song but, almost every resource relates this same sad and disturbing story. 

 

Charles Frederick Weigle, a friend of Billy Sunday’s, was a poor itinerant evangelist.  He was often on the road preaching wherever he had an opportunity but his wife was not a willing accomplice.  She did not share his enthusiasm for the ministry.

 

During one of his preaching missions, his wife left him.  She took their young daughter and moved to a distant city where she thought she might find a more glamorous and exciting life.  When he returned home, he found this heartbreaking note:

“Charlie, I’ve been a fool. I’ve done without a lot of things long enough. From here on out, I’m getting all I can of what the world owes me. I know you’ll continue to be a fool for Jesus, but for me it’s goodbye!”

It was the worst time of his life; he was alone and suicidal.  He thought his work was finished and no one would care whether he was dead or alive.

In his desperation, his thoughts turned to God and he began to pray.  He begged God to forgive him and to assure him of his faith.  Then, after a long retreat, he returned to the work of the ministry.  About his heartbreaking experience he said, “A mantel of grief covered me, but God’s grace sustained me.”

About five years later, his wife was dying.  She said to someone who was at her bedside, “I wish I had my life to live over.”   She asked her daughter to look for her father and ask him to pray for her.  But it was too late.  She died before Charles could be found.

Once again, Charles sought the comfort of the Lord.  And that’s when he wrote NO ONE EVER CARED FOR ME LIKE JESUS.

The hymn is not especially deep or scholarly.  It is just the personal testimony of a man who seemed to have lost everything and had no other place to turn except to his Lord. 

****JESUS CALLS US

Miss Cecil Humphreys was just 21 years old when she published her first book entitled "Verses for Holy Seasons." It was a children’s book that contained a hymn or poem for each Sunday of the year.

In her Sunday School classes, her students were often confused about the meaning of some of the statements in the Apostle’s Creed. So, she began to write easy-to-memorize verses in the children’s terminology. Many of those verses were developed into hymns, some of which are familiar to us.

For example, the first phrase of the Apostle’s Creed is, "I believe in God the Father Almighty." The song she wrote to explain that phrase was, All Things Bright and Beautiful. For "Born of the Virgin Mary" she wrote, Once in Royal David's City. And to explain the meaning of the death of Jesus who was crucified and buried, she wrote, There is a Green Hill far Away.

In 1848, she married the Rev. Mr. William Alexander and in that same year, she published her second book titled, "Hymns for Little Children," which included the songs that were inspired by the Creed. 

In total, she wrote over four hundred hymns and poems but, of all her works, JESUS CALLS US is the most often sung and best-loved.  

It has been said that prayer is like having a direct telephone line to God.  We can call Him anytime.  But have you ever thought about the fact that the phone line goes in two directions? Do you realize that JESUS CALLS US? 

In our prayers, we tend to call out to God as if we think He should serve us or that He should do what we ask of Him. We expect Him to fix our messed-up situations, patch up our bad relationships, bail us out of financial difficulties, or heal our diseases. And sometimes maybe that is His will, but usually, that’s not the case. Our place is not to make demands or impose our wills on Him but rather to yield to His will for us.

JESUS CALLS US to serve Him regardless of our circumstances.  Paul’s words, in his letter to the Church at Philippi, are helpful.  “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11-13)

I think our best example, though, is Christ, Himself, when He was tempted in the wilderness. He was weak, hungry, lonely, and despised. Satan tempted Him with great promises of wealth, political power, and physical comfort.

Yet Jesus didn’t grasp for those things. He loved and trusted His Father more than His own life. And just as He had instructed His disciples when He taught them to pray, “Thy will be done,” He obediently did what He was sent to do. It was His Father’s will that He should suffer and die for our sins.

And that’s the way God works in our lives too; He doesn’t normally just make us comfortable or give us lots of stuff. He molds us in the presses and tests us in the fires because He wants to make us Holy.

The hymn starts with a note of encouragement; when our lives are full of hardship and turmoil, JESUS CALLS US, not to remove our difficulties but to follow Him in and through them.

Our God is a jealous god and He wants first place. If people or hobbies or wealth or other vain idols dominate or control our lives, JESUS CALLS US to “dump the junk” and love Him more.

Whether we are happy or sad, whether life is easy or tough, whatever conditions or circumstances we are in, JESUS CALLS US to love Him more than anyone or anything else.

The final verse begins with a subtle reminder; the very fact that JESUS CALLS US is evidence of His love and mercy toward us. The hymn concludes with a prayer, that, by His Spirit, we may hear Him, and that He would soften our hearts to serve Him and love Him best of all.

**** I GAVE MY LIFE FOR THEE

I GAVE MY LIFE FOR THEE is one of those songs that I generally try to avoid, not because of bad theology, but because, in casual singing or even a superficial reading, it could mistakenly convey the idea that some kind of reciprocal action or work on our part is required to earn our salvation.  Of course, there is nothing we can do to earn or buy our salvation. 

This hymn, written by Frances Havergal in 1858, asks four thought-provoking and pertinent questions that should cause us to consider our commitment to Christ and we should read them as if they were being asked by Jesus, Himself.

The questions center around four action verbs – Give, Leave, Bear, and Bring.  The interesting thing about these four questions is that we can find instructive examples in Scripture as to how we should respond.

In Luke 6:38, Jesus said,“…GIVE, and it will be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”  So how should we give?  The same way God has given to us - freely, abundantly, and running over. 

In John 8:11, Jesus told the women caught in adultery, “Go now and LEAVE your life of sin.”  The commandment He gave her is the same one He gives to each one of us.  When we were born again, we became new creations.  Old things are passed away.  We may not have committed the same sins that she did, but we are all expected to leave our old lives of sin.   

Col. 3:13 says, “BEAR with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.   Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”    How should we put up with people who are really annoying or even hurtful?  Paul’s instructions here are not recommendations, but commands to bear with each other and forgive one another because, after all, Christ forgave us.

There is a strange passage in chapter 1 of Malachi.  God says, “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you, and I will accept no offering from your hands.” 

A little further in that chapter, God asks a hard question, “When you BRING injured, crippled, or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?”  These are convicting verses even today. I know I am guilty.  I have brought Him offerings of time, and talents, and worship, and praise, that were less than my best and in this passage He is saying, “I am not pleased.”

So this song doesn’t really suggest any obligatory compulsion to try to earn God’s favor. That would be an insult to God.  We are saved by grace through faith.   Grace that is earned is NOT grace.

Instead, our reactions should be willful, loving responses to His grace that come from grateful hearts because of all that He has done. 

I gave My life for thee,

My precious blood I shed,

That thou might'st ransomed be,

And quickened from the dead;

I gave, I gave My life for thee,

What hast thou giv'n for Me?

I gave, I gave My life for thee,

What hast thou giv'n for Me?

My Father's house of light,

My glory circled throne,

I left for earthly night,

For wanderings sad and lone;

I left, I left it all for thee,

Hast thou left aught for Me?

I left, I left it all for thee,

Hast thou left aught for Me?

I suffered much for thee,

More than thy tongue can tell,

Of bitt'rest agony,

To rescue thee from hell;

I've borne, I've borne it all for thee,

What hast thou borne for Me?

I've borne, I've borne it all for thee,

What hast thou borne for Me?

And I have brought to thee,

Down from My home above,

Salvation full and free,

My pardon and My love;

I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee,

What hast thou brought to Me?

I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee,

What hast thou brought to Me?

****MY SAVIOR'S LOVE

  

I selected this song for our Sunday worship because my Pastor's sermon was about how we (Christians) are to be prepared for persecution and suffering because our Lord suffered persecution.

In this hymn, the writer, Charles Gabriel, refers to the Lord as “Jesus the Nazarene” which references a statement in Matthew’s Gospel:

“He [the Lord Jesus] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’.”

What does that mean?  To be blunt, Nazareth had a lousy reputation; it was the “lowlife neighborhood on the other side of the tracks.”  Nazarenes were despised by most people including the people of Galilee.

When Philip referred to the Lord as “Jesus of Nazareth”, Nathanael’s derogatory response was, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

Later, followers of Christ (who were associated with Paul), before they were known as Christians, were called, “the sect of the Nazarenes” which was intended to be an insult and a put-down.  (And, by the way, the world STILL hates us because the world hates Christ.)

This kind of scornful contempt for the Son of God was prophesied:

(Ps. 22:6-7) “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.  All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;”

(Ps. 69:20-21) “Reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair.  I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.  They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink.”

For Jesus to be called a “Nazarene” might allude back to Isaiah’s prophecy; “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him.

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.  He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

So all of this is to be expected.  We are all familiar with the first few verses in the second chapter of Philippians-- the “Humiliation of Christ.”  It details a remarkable description of how the Almighty God, the creator of the Universe, the Holy and Just One, would stoop so low and take on the form of a man and suffer and die for His creation.  Certainly, this humiliation would include rejection, persecution, grief, beatings, scorn, and maltreatment.

The hymn writer’s personal sense of “amazement” is that this One, so despised by humans, would love him enough to die for his sins.

MY SAVIOR'S LOVE

I stand amazed in the presence,

Of Jesus, the Nazarene,

And wonder how He could love me,

A sinner, condemned, unclean.

He took my sins and my sorrows;

He made them His very own;

He bore the burden to Calvary

And suffered and died alone.

When with the ransomed in glory,

His face I, at last, shall see,

’Twill be my joy through the ages

To sing of His love for me.

Refrain:

How marvelous, how wonderful!

And my song shall ever be:

How marvelous, how wonderful

Is my Savior’s love for me!

And that is the message of the gospel of grace, the Good News that the Son of God set aside His glory and humbled Himself to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

He suffered and died a terrible death, under the wrath of God, as our substitute, so that we, through faith in Him, might be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life.  How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

****WE ARE AN OFFERING

One Sunday morning I introduced a new worship song in our church service; "WE ARE AN OFFERING."  Actually, it isn't new; it has been around for over 40 years, but it was new to me and most of our congregation. 


Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

In one of its most commonly used forms, the word, "worship", means to bow down and obey.  Or to rephrase that, it means to submit to the lordship of God and do what He commands.

An offering is a sacrifice and throughout the pages of Old Testament Scripture, sacrificial blood offerings were regular and continuous acts of the worship that God required from His people.

     

How do YOU define worship?  Well, this might come as a surprise but It's not about our Sunday morning pre-message, entertainment. 

We’re all familiar with the Genesis account of Cain and Abel, and that story is instructive for us.  Abel’s worship was in submission to God’s lordship and obedience to His command.  And God was pleased with Abel's offering.

But Cain offered a strange sacrifice; the first fruits of his produce.  I’m sure that Cain was proud and he must have thought it was a generous sacrifice.  It was pleasing to look at and good to eat.  But it wasn’t what God required.  He required blood; something had to die.

And that’s the way it was until the crucifixion of Christ.  He was the perfect sacrifice; the spotless Lamb of God and His shed blood was all-sufficient to atone for our sin.   From the cross, He cried, "It is finished!"  His sacrifice was once for all. 

So now, on this side of the cross, God requires living sacrifices.   But there are still lots of people like Cain, who think they can please God with their own strange fire and well-intended sacrifices.  They try to worship Him with things that are beautiful in their own eyes or pleasing in their own ears.  They have an appearance of godliness but their worship lacks what God requires; submission to His lordship and obedience to His commands.

God wants us to submit ourselves to Him in love.  He wants us to serve Him willingly, with the kind of obedience that comes from our hearts.  He wants our lives because Christ gave His life for us.

So, as the song goes;    

    “We lift our voices, we lift our hands, 

     We lift our lives up to Him; we are an offering.   

     All that we have, all that we are, 

    All that we hope to be, we give to Him.”

(Listen to it here and then try it  -  I'm sure you will find this a beautiful and appropriate tool for your worship service)