Father, it has been an odd sort of day. The weather started out bright and it is now overcast and raining. My heart started out overcast and now it is shining much more brightly. All praise to You for Your active presence in my life!
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Music is a wonderful communicator of the soul!
I have a friend who has been blessed with great musical gifts. She and her husband have ministered on so many levels to so many people. I met her several years ago and would say she is one of those with a sweet and gentle spirit, who lives a life where she doesn’t just occasionally seek to live out her faith in Jesus Christ but breathes it in and out with each breathe.
A year or so ago, she began sharing recordings of her playing wonderful arrangements of predominantly hymns, quite often accompanied by her singing. I listened to one of her posts, just a little while ago, and it was not the first time! Her video is posted here and I would encourage you to go to her YouTube page and subscribe…you won’t regret it!
This particular arrangement is a combination of the traditional spiritual, Give Me Jesus, and the Fanny Crosby hymn of the same title.
The first stanza of Fanny Crosby’s hymn reads,
Take the world, but give me Jesus,
All its joys are but a name.
But His love abideth ever,
Thro’ eternal years the same.
How many times on any given day does the clamor of the world call out to us? It offers so much if we can just get this thing, do this thing, think this way, or place ourselves in some given circumstances in which everyone else finds themselves. And the world claims that we would be so much more content and fulfilled and happy if we would do so.
But, if you haven’t already figured it out, it’s a total scam! There may be a time of contentment or fulfillment or happiness, but it is short-lived. It is there for the fleetest of moments but is gone far too soon, leaving us with a gaping hole to fill. And sadly, that is how we spend our lives – searching for something to fill that hole.
What is worse is that that hole, over time, seems to get bigger and bigger and it gets harder and harder to fill. As the second line of that first stanza states, All [the world’s] joys are but a name. The world promises great things, but in the end, they are but a name. And that is why the first line says, Take the world, but give me Jesus.
The world may satisfy us for a time, but Jesus’ love abideth ever, Thro’ eternal years the same!
And where the world leaves us empty, the benefits of life with Jesus fill us to overflowing! It’s like a cup under a faucet opened wide! Before too long, His blessings are splashing out – overflowing, drenching those around us, as well!
O the height and depth of mercy!
O the length and breadth of love!
O the fullness of redemption—
Pledge of endless life above!
The world will only drag us into the depths of despair. But Jesus said in John 10:10b,
I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]. AMP
Amen and amen!
June 6th, 2022, Mon, 8:52 pm
