HYMN LINES Available as e-Book!

https://www.amazon.com/Hymn-Lines-Devotional-Thoughts-Christian/dp/1698321538/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Hymn+Lines&qid=1590262952&sr=8-1

“Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee.”

“Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee.”

Hymn: “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”

Text: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Tune: BEECHER, HYFRYDOL

The Texas town we live in is filled with beautiful… sometimes gorgeous Victorian homes. The tree-lined streets of the downtown area seem frozen in time – and I love it, of course. That’s why Waxahachie is so often used for movies and television shows that need a preserved backdrop from years ago.

We also have several restoration companies. Their promise/aim/intention is to bring these homes back to their original southern glory. In most cases, they do a fine job.

But “perfectly restored”?

When Notre Dame Cathedral burned on April 15, 2019, it pained me deeply; the art-lover in me was devastated. Immediately, there was talk of restoration – of bringing it back to its original condition, the one we visited a few years earlier. That can’t really happen, you understand. It cannot be perfectly restored.

Given the way great poetry is constructed, this Hymn Line MIGHT read like this: “Let us see thy great salvation. (Let us be) perfectly restored in thee.” For me at least, that helps me get what this great Wesleyan hymn is saying: “Show us what your salvation looks like; then perfectly restore us to our original, sinless beauty.”

Bottom Line: My perfect restoration is possible through God’s great salvation.

[Sounds like something for the T-Shirt market!]

Choir at Temple Square sings this beautifully to HYFRYDOL tune:

https://youtu.be/JNpw-9pifXs

HYMN LINES Book

 

The HYMN LINES book of 75 devotionals based on lines and phrases from hymns of the faith is available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1698321538

“Beautiful Savior… glory and honor, praise adoration now and forevermore be thine.”

“Beautiful Savior… glory and honor, praise adoration now and forevermore be thine.”

Hymn: “Fairest Lord Jesus”

Text for This Stanza: Joseph August Seiss (1823-1904)

Tune: CRUSADER’S HYMN (ST. ELIZABETH)

If you need to brighten up your day, read that Hymn Line over to yourself several times. What a powerful moment you should have. Although this word-grouping is basically a restatement of Revelation language, for us whose life is inextricably merged with the Beautiful Savior, it speaks for us at a very deep level. If you’re finished reading it over and over, I’ll move on.

While this is powerful even when read, its strength is multiplied when it is sung together in congregation. This is one of those hymns in which my spirit never fails to soar… especially if there’s been a modulating interlude from the organ. Electrifying moments like these are probably why I am such the lover of hymns… and hymn-singing.

I don’t have to ask you what you think I have missed most during the pandemic. You know. I have missed singing with other believers down the pew from me -- hymnals in hand, voices at full-throttle!

My type has been disparaged during these sequestered weeks of being distanced from corporate worship. I’m being told on-line that it is not about the ritual or building. I value the liturgy (participation of the people) in worship; first because it is a biblical mandate, and second because it is therein that I have most-regularly encountered the Godhead throughout my life – usually in a beautifully-appointed worship room.

Tilted back in my recliner while attending two or three streamed services on Sunday morning has been pleasant. We’ve been able to visit far-away churches and enjoy their music, liturgy and sermons. I’ve been told that my living room is a sacred space during these services – I even wrote a well-used hymn about that. But down deep, I want to return to the totally holy place… the building we call a church. I want to resume the ritual. And I want to sing! O how I want to sing!

We won’t be rushing back to the sanctuary of a local church; fortunately, they aren’t rushing back either. But one of these days not too far in the future, I want light to spill through the windows and spread across my hymnal, giving me my cue to sing. We may be six feet from the nearest worshiper, we may be “masked singers,” and things may not be back to normal, but I really hope normal will include offering glory and honor, praise and adoration to the Beautiful Savior – with music.

I plan to weep.

Congregational Hymn (without organ modulation!): https://youtu.be/OWPTPGDeMZw

“Following him, I know I’m right.”

“Following him, I know I’m right.”

Hymn: “Jesus Is All the World to Me”

Words and Music: Will Thompson (1847-1909)

Tune: ELIZABETH

This is one of the first songs I sang in church. 70+ years ago, mama taught me this song, stood me on the stage, and I sang it unaccompanied – probably so I could find a good key!

This Hymn Line bothers me every time I sing it. Does it bring up some questions in your mind as well? It seems a little self-assured… even arrogant… as if we are saying, “As long as I’m a follower of Jesus, I am always right. So there!” Surely that’s not what Thompson meant – hopefully not what he intended.

If “right” means I am rightly-related to Christ… that I am righteous because of I followed him into the great salvation process — if that’s what is meant, I can sing this line with enthusiasm.

However, being “right” sometimes means that one has the correct opinion/answer… and that others’ differing views and beliefs are therefore wrong. We see a LOT of this in our divided culture and politics; and sometimes those who consider themselves “right” take that position because they are followers of Christ.

We have to re-follow Christ at every juncture. Following Christ into the Kingdom is initial; but upping that followship is required every time we have to make a decision as to what is right or wrong… valid or invalid… for good or for ill… for the best. If and when I have sought the divine leadership and follow it, then I may come away with an assurance that indeed this decision is the right one – for ME!

You have to admit: To believe I’m always right just because I’m a Christ-follower is a little scary; no it’s a LOT scary.

But to “go to him” for direction “o’er and o’er” on this life journey – seeking what is right – THAT seems a valid approach. And when we realize we were wrong, we need to admit that and move back to square one…and re-follow again. [Theologically, that is not redundant!]

Continuously following Christ I can know that I am in a right-relationship with him. Re-following Christ, I can make better decisions, take more legitimate stands for what is right, and more confidently reflect the image of the Friend who is all the world to me – my life, my joy, my all.

Listen to This Hymn: https://youtu.be/jh6TR7Szlgc