"I was an outcast stranger on earth... but I've been adopted."

"I was an outcast stranger on earth... but I've been adopted."
Hymn: “A Child of the King” – Harriet E. Buell (1834-1910)
Tune: BINGHAMPTON

No longer on the edge… at the perimeter of life. God has welcomed me into his family.

How many times have you seen ANNIE? Whether the staged musical or the movie (with its exchange of July Fourth for Christmas!), few of us avoid the lump-in-the-throat excitement when Daddy Warbucks brings the mop-top waif into his Fifth Avenue mansion… and eventually wants to adopt her. It’s a story-line that works every time – on stage, on film, in novels and biographies: outcast child invited into a family. And it works every time in the faith-life, too!

We Christian people sometimes forget that we are adopted by the Heavenly Father, invited to participate in the Kingdom with all his other children. We share the family name of his only-fathered Child. And according to that Child, a mansion is being prepared for us to enjoy for all time… rent-free at that!

Those of us who have found ourselves on the fringes are the most likely to appreciate being invited to join the team during recess… to be considered on common ground with the coolest of kids… to play in the reindeer games!

Keep an eye out around you: marginalized humanity is waiting to be brought to the vibrant center of life. A grace-ful invitation may be all they need. An accepting attitude may be all they require. A saving Lord may be the answer they seek.

Miss Hannigan or not, there’s an orphanage out there filled with lonely, desperate, unloved seekers. Let’s help them find a home.

A youth choir leads the congregational singing of this hymn

"Fills my ev'ry longing (and) keeps me singing as I go."

"Fills my ev'ry longing (and) keeps me singing as I go."
Hymn: “There’s within my Heart a Melody” – Words and Music by Luther Bridgers (1884-1948)
Tune: SWEETEST NAME

Some of us know this hymn as “He Keeps Me Singing,” but more hymnals nowadays are using the first line of the first stanza as the title. Either way, this is one most of us evangelicals know pretty well!

The line I chose today is from the end of the refrain:
    Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Sweetest name I know
    Fills my ev’ry longing, keeps me singing as I go.

With all due respect to Mr. Bridgers, I’m not sure about the use of “every” in that last line. I’ve sung that phrase since I was knee-high to nothin’, but am a little quizzical about that concept. In the first place, I’m not sure it is a biblical teaching; in the second place, if Jesus filled my EVERY longing, I’d be in some deep trouble, wouldn’t you? Spiritually speaking, my Savior fills most of my sacred longings; but I have longed for some gifts, talents… even opportunities… that have not yet been achieved.

I’m okay singing that line because the second half is so very true for me. Though not a great singer (one of those unfulfilled longings!), I always have a song going in my head… and sometimes on my lips. To quote a couple of other hymns: “How can I keep from singing?” and “I sing for I cannot be silent.” It’s just part of my nature to be swimming in some melody or adrift in a great hymn text. Like some of you, many times it is a song – and not a scripture or a prayer - that pulls me out of the doldrums and invigorates my spirit.

With a few unfulfilled longings, we can still maintain a singing habit. It’s one habit worth nurturing!


Listen to a Group-Singing of This “Homecoming Style”!

"Lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King."

 

Hymn: “He Lives” – Words & Music by Alfred H. Ackley (1887-1960)
Tune: ACKLEY

I spent the first half of this week at Kempke’s Music Texas event in Dallas. [Did you miss me?] It’s one of those listen-to/sing-along-with music reading endurance courses! When we finished, one guy said he was in a “choral coma!” I saw a few friends from my former life in the local-church music ministry and got to spend those hours with MY minister of music… beaming when we read through something I liked and grimacing at things I couldn’t endure, hoping he noticed my reactions! :)

I came away from those seventeen packets even more convinced that praising God with music is a definite mandate for the body of Christ… even in the 21st Century. Admittedly, I am more prone to identify with the more sturdy, well-crafted choral styles – you know that already! However, as has always been my nature, I am drawn to the texts… the words… more than I am put-off by the musical style. And I love it when the composers actually pair the words and music in a way that they seem happily married. My favorite was Pepper Choplin’s “Bring It All.” Fortunately, my minister of music purchased it. The beaming worked!

I’ve visited “He Lives” twice already in these Hymnlines posts, and according to my notes, I will be back once more. These gospel songs I cut my teeth on have settled more deeply into my spiritual make-up than I might have realized. My guess is that is true for you as well. Who’d have ever thought that I’d find four phrases from this rollicking toe-tapper that still resonate with me when I sing them.

I am reminded here that whatever music we happen to sing in worship at our church, we need to be sure that it has lasting significance and that it draws attention to King Jesus… and not to itself or its presenter/performer.

This coming Sunday morning when given the opportunity, lift up your voice and sing. No mumbling into your chest allowed. (Those of you who watch THE MIDDLE will get that!)

Listen to Joel Raney’s arrangement of this hymn
(with a little of “Because He Lives” thrown in!)

"We wonder why the test when we try to do our best."

"We wonder why the test when we try to do our best."

Hymn: “When the Morning Comes” – Words & Music by Charles A. Tindley (1851-1933)
Tune: BY AND BY

The recurring line in this hymn is “We will understand it better by and by.” We seem to live by that belief – that what we don’t comprehend in this life will be better explained in the next.

Today’s hymnline is a statement we’ve all made… or at least thought… countless times during this earth-bound pilgrimage: “Why is it that when I am putting forth my best effort, I am still blocked by testings and seemingly insurmountable snags?” or more specifically, “Why do I face so many struggles when I try so hard to do what God has called me to do, and act in ways commensurate with my commitments to him?”

In 1981, the book WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE? became a best-seller, purchased by every “good person” who walked through Barnes and Noble! “Finally,” they thought to themselves, “someone is asking the same question I’ve been asking.” I have a lot of respect for its author Rabbi Harold Kushner. I realize it brought solace and hope to many, especially those grieving the loss of a loved one. But I never read the book – never had any interest in it really, because it is an unanswerable question. Like a lot of other distractions, we will understand it better by and by. [On the flip-side, I’ve often wondered why good things happen to bad people. How petty of me, I know!]

Fortunately, we understand this seeming imbalance in the cosmic system more and more each day of THIS life. We continue to do our best, problems still come our way, we deal with the complications, and God continues to sustain and bless us. We are strengthened in our faith in spite of the blockades… or perhaps because of them.

I don’t think Christ calls us to be “perfect” as the world sees perfection; I do think he calls us to be “complete” in our devotion to his cause and our reflection of his attitude. While some have accused me of being a perfectionist in my choral/handbell work, I would say I have been a “best-est” – because that is what is expected of us when we offer up music in worship, isn’t it?

Another hymn puts it this way: “Give of your best to the Master; give him first-place in your heart.” That’s my goal, and I realize that doing my best does not exempt me from difficulties.

A Very Upbeat Singing of This Hymn

"Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme, and speak some boundless thing."

"Goober" - Elizabeth Ann Lanham

"Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme, and speak some boundless thing."
Hymn: “Begin, My Tongue, Some Heavenly Theme” – Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Common Tune: MANOAH

I’m most often trying to get my tongue to stop! I sometimes think the letter from James was assigned to me; in that short book, there are six references to keeping the tongue under control.

Here, Isaac Watts calls upon the tongue to express praise and to tell of God’s faithfulness and power, pointing out the flip-side of the negative uses of the tongue.

Most hymns are addressed to God, to believers, to non-believers. Occasionally we come across one addressed to a Rock of Ages or to ourselves (Be Still, My Soul). This one is more unique because it is addressed to a body part! We are actually singing this hymn to our tongue!

There are many heavenly themes: kindness, grace, hope, encouragement, healing, assistance, etc. So beyond calling our speech patterns to the on-going praise of God, we are also reminding ourselves to start speaking words of kindness, grace, hope --- all of the above!

At some point in my ministry – probably too late – I made a blatant commitment to never intentionally say anything hurtful to anyone. The important key in that mantra is not to hurt someone “on purpose”, because as hard as we try, we are going to occasionally hurt someone with what we say. But if I set out to damage you with my speech, I am counter to the nature of Christ.

All of us who write would love to capture just once “some boundless thing” – a turn of phrase that encapsulates some profundity in a way that expresses it best. We all want to have an “All we have to fear is fear itself,”  “Ask not what your country can do for you,” or “I have a dream” phrase that sticks in the mind of all who read/hear it... forming our speech (tongue) into a group of words whose theme might be boundless - eternally remembered.

For most of us though, I guess we need to put the brakes on our not-so-positive tongue and release our tongue of blessing to glorify God, exhort our fellow pilgrims, and make stronger attempts at saying something worth remembering.

Ready? Set? Begin.

This Hymn (MANOAH tune)