The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord. And it is good for people to submit at an early age
to the yoke of his discipline: Let them sit alone in silence
beneath the Lord’s demands. Let
them lie face down in the dust, for
there may be hope at last. Let
them turn the other cheek to those who strike them
and accept the insults of their enemies. For no one is abandoned
by the Lord forever. Though
he brings grief, he also shows compassion because
of the greatness of his unfailing love. For
he does not enjoy hurting people or
causing them sorrow. Lamantations
3:22-33 (NLT)
For the second half of last week I woke up to the sights and
sounds of Lake Junaluska, sometimes known as Methodist Holy Land! The serene backdrop of mountains, lake and
God’s wonderful creation is a blessing.
It always leads me to reflect on the goodness of God in sharing this
beauty with his created beings. I am
always strongly moved to worship.
There is something about worship that demands we should have
our entire beings focused on God, thankful to God, and submitted fully to
whatever God wants to do with us in this moment and for a lifetime.
I believe Great Is Thy Faithfulness[1]
is one of those worship songs that truly helps us move in that direction. The words and heart-reaching music reflect
the thankful heart of one who is ready to surrender to the God of Heaven, and serve
Him forever.
As we sing this hymn today, place your worries and thoughts
of all you have to do this week on hold; give yourself fully
to the worship of our covenant God who died for us that we might be the
redeemed people of His flock.
This, after all, is the God whose mercies are new every
morning, and has provided everything you’ve needed since before you were born.
And isn’t that part of the “Great” in Great is thy Faithfulness?
Stanza 1. The Eternal and Unchanging
God
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Shadow of turning is a phrase that speaks of the passing of time. Our God is eternal; He is above time. As Creator, God would have to be greater than
what is created. The one who created
time, space, and every molecule in the universe has no time passing Him or
before Him – there is no shadow of turning.
Our God holds eternity in His hand…unchangingly.
“For I, the Lord, do
not change. Malachi 3:6a(NLT)
God is the only one whose character and actions are entirely
and eternally consistent. It is not so
with us – or the things we “create”. We
change, come unglued, and eventually come apart altogether. So does our stuff.
Our air-conditioner coughed, sputtered and gave up the ghost
a week ago. That’s not a good thing when
the temperatures are nudging towards 100°!
It’s also not very fair; the warrantee was supposed to be for 15
years.
But the one thing that I can say was right
on schedule with that machine is that it was entirely predictable; a
machine will break down and disappoint you at the moment you need it most! It’s that way with cars, boats, and certainly
air conditioners.
But it is never that way with God. His character, love, and promises are
faithful to us…eternally and unchangeably!
Stanza 2. The Sovereign and
Omnipotent God
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
To be “sovereign” means nobody
else is in charge; “omnipotence” means one possesses all power. Frankly, not everyone is pleased that only
God is sovereign and has the power to back it up.
A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a
series of lessons on God’s omnipotence. She
asked, “Is there anything God cannot do?”
There was silence. Finally, one little
guy held up his hand. The teacher,
disappointed that the lesson’s point had been missed, asked resignedly, “Well,
just what is it that God cannot do?” “Well,”
replied the boy, “He can’t please everybody.”[2]
The reality is that not everybody needs to be pleased. Every aspect of nature is witness to the
sovereignty and ultimate power of God.
Consider the examples
· The Creation testifies of God’s control and power. Psalm 90 declares that before the mountains were
created, God is sovereign.
·
The Exodus: Egypt’s ruler, Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth, keeping
God’s children in captivity; God declared through Moses, let my people go. Pharaoh objected, but in so doing brought
judgment down on his own head. The
people left anyway!
·
The Cross displayed the ultimate power of God’s sovereignty as Christ
claimed in resurrection victory over death for all who believe!
The Apostle Paul’s doxology as he signed off his letter to
the Ephesian church brings together glory and power, the sovereign God’s
character and omnipotent power:
Now all
glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to
accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all
generations forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21(NLT)
Stanza
3. The Gracious and Present God
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Can you imagine a life with the very presence of God
cheering and guiding you, providing strength as the day demands, and hope for
your tomorrow that is bright? That
should give anyone a disposition to grin from east to west!
But that’s not a reality for everyone! Some people (even quite a few Christians) go
through life with a sour look that announces they were raised on lemon juice
and never got over it.
There was a Peanuts cartoon with Lucy saying to Charlie Brown, I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!
Charlie says, But I thought you had inner peace.
Lucy replies, I do have inner peace. But I still have
outer obnoxiousness[3]
A peace that endures…lasting peace, strong peace, an
indestructible peace that passes all understanding…how rare is that?
It may seem rare, but it is readily available in
Christ. Genuine inner peace comes from
being forgiven of our sin, and having the assurance of a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ.
The cross provides a pardon for sin; that’s grace.
God’s presence is His promise to us because, when
we’re forgiven, we are also received into the daily relationship that is the
reality of the Kingdom of God on earth.
He walks with us, and talks with us, and tells us we
are His own!
What this all means
When you consider what Thomas Chisholm, a Methodist Minister
was thinking in 1923 when he wrote the words to this song describing an
eternal, unchanging, sovereign, omnipotent, gracious and ever-present God, you
can only come to the understanding that Rev. Chisholm had a picture in his mind
of God’s Kingdom here on earth – and an unconquerable God who reigns in love
and desires fellowship with every one of His creatures.
He sees God as the critical missing piece in our hearts and
souls; that which fills-up our longing and emptiness, and makes us whole and
complete.
He sees the great faithfulness of God as
the assurance Mr. Wesley met on May 24th at Aldersgate, when God
broke into a questioning, seeking heart that needed God-arms wrapped around him for comfort and strength.
This is that great faithfulness – God
promises us…Himself!
And when we have HIM….we need nothing else.
Dr. Tom Dooley was a young missionary who organized
hospitals, raised money, and literally poured out his life in the service of
the afflicted peoples of Southeast Asia in the mid part of the last century.
Here was a man whose deep relationship with God motivated him
to abandon a soft career in the United States for a desperately difficult
ministry overseas. In the end that
relationship [with God] enabled him to die victoriously at the age of
thirty-four.
Here is the letter which on December 1, 1960, he wrote to the
president of Notre Dame, his alma mater:
Dear Father Hesburgh:
They’ve got me down. Flat
on the back, with plaster, sand bags, and hot water bottles. I’ve contrived a way of pumping the bed up a
bit so that, with a long reach, I can get to my typewriter.…
Two things prompt this note to you. The first is that whenever my cancer acts up a
bit, and it is certainly “acting up” now, I turn inward. Less do I think of my hospitals around the
world, or of 94 doctors, fund-raisers, and the like. More do I think of one Divine Doctor and my
personal fund of grace.
It has become pretty definite that the cancer has spread to
the lumbar vertebra, accounting for all the back problems over the last two
months. I have monstrous phantoms; all
men do. And inside and outside the wind blows.
But when the time
comes, like now, then the storm around me does not matter.
The winds within me
do not matter.
Nothing human or
earthly can touch me.
A peace gathers in my
heart.
What seems
unpossessable, I can possess.
What seems
unfathomable, I can fathom.
What is unutterable,
I can utter.
Because I can pray. I
can communicate.
How do people endure anything on earth if they cannot have
God?[4]
This is the gracious and present God, Sovereign,
omnipotent, eternal and unchanging in His love and promises.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!”
“Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
Great is His faithfulness.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!
[1] Thomas O. Chisholm, ©1923, renewed 1951 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream,
IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission. United Methodist Hymnal #140
[2]
Omnipotence Questioned, A Treasury of Bible
Illustrations © 1995 AMG
INTERNATIONAL, INC. (adapted)
[4]
COURAGE IN THE STORM,
Illustrations
Unlimited © 1988 James S. Hewett. All Rights Reserved. (adapted)
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