How’s Your Attitude of Gratitude?

On the day of inspiration, Folliot Sanford Pierpoint was strolling in the countryside on a beautiful spring day.  I can so relate to that!  Can you?  Do you sometimes take a walk and receive a flood of inspiration?  (It happens to me on motorcycle trips, too.)

The old hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, was inspired by the beauty that’s all around us in creation. Pierpoint wrote his original poem after graduating from Cambridge and while teaching at Somersetshire College in his hometown of Bath, England.

Overwhelmed by God’s brilliant creation in Folliot’s view of the green ocean, the blue dome of heaven, and the Avon River flowing across a floral landscape, Folliot wrote his poem.

The original writing ended each verse with “Christ, Our God, to Thee we raise / This our sacrifice of praise” but was later changed to what we have now.

Falliot intended the poem to be used for Communion services in the Anglican Church.   But very soon, it flew over the Atlantic to America, where it became one of only a few hymns devoted solely to thankful praise.  It soon became associated with our Thanksgiving holiday.

As our prosperity grows here in America, it seems our gratitude wains.  The more we have, the less thankful we are.   Imagine seeing a beautiful starry night only once every couple of years.

Don’t you think we’d take notice and relish in it?  Not so, with our view of the sky and stars most any night.

How great you are, O Sovereign Lord!
There is no one like you.  We have never even heard of
another God like you!  (2 Samuel 7:22)

Maybe Falliot’s hymn will help us exhibit an attitude of gratitude that’s in proper proportion with the blessings we enjoy.

Among many other things, I’m grateful for another spectacular Sunday.  What about you?

Could you write a poem or hymn of praise for the blessings in your life?  Do you sit in awe as you think about the things that inspire your thankfulness?

Blessings~

 

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

It’s surprising to me sometimes how favorite old hymns originated – and the lives of those who wrote them.

Adelaide Pollard was born during the Civil War in Iowa.  Her given name by her parents was Sarah, but she liked the name Adelaide  better.  So, when she became old enough, she changed her name to Adelaide.

Adelaide went to Chicago to teach in a girls’ school after attending Boston School of Oratory (Emerson College).

While she struggled with frailty, health-wise, she met John Alexander Dowie, a Scottish-born faith healer who had a rather strange ministry.  Dowie claimed to be Elijah who would precede the Coming of Christ.

Uhh…didn’t John the Baptist already do that?  Didn’t Jesus say he was Elijah returned?  Yes…

And if you are willing to acept what I say, he is Elijah,
the one the prophets said would come. 
(Matthew 11:14)

Dowie bought 6,800 acres near Chicago and started building “Zion City”, which ended in failure.  Adelaide supposedly was healed of diabetes through Dowie’s ministry, failure or not.

Adelaide later joined in the ministry of Sanford, an evangelist who predicted the imminent return of Christ.   She moved to New England to assist Sanford, and it was there (in her 40’s) that she felt God calling her to minister in Africa.  But, she was unable to raise the financial support and became heartsick with disappointment.  Adelaide attended a prayer meeting where she met an elderly woman who prayed for her.

It doesn’t matter what you bring into our lives, Lord.  Just have your own way with us.

The prayer’s closing phrase pierced Adelaide’s heart so much that she started formulating “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” in her head.  She went home that evening and studied Jeremiah’s story of the potter and the clay in chapter 18.

Before bed that night, she wrote out a prayer that later became the hymn.

Did Adelaide ever make it to Africa?  Yes, she did…eventually.  As best, it was God’s  timing.

But she didn’t stay.  World War I broke out, sending her to Scotland and then back to America later.  She wrote poems there, spoke to groups, and ministered freely.

At 72, Adelaide purchased a train ticket at New York’s Penn Station for a speaking engagement in Pennsylvania.  While awaiting her boarding at the station, Adelaide had a seizure and died shortly thereafter.  The Lord had His way.  She’d lived a long, fulfilling life.

Isn’t that a neat story?  I love learning about people’s lives, don’t you?  Truth is often much more interesting than fiction!

Have a spectacular Sunday, y’all!

Blessings~

…and Give You Peace

The Lord Bless You and Keep You is a benediction hymn that comes from Numbers 6:24-26.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

This Biblical text of special blessing for God’s people was written 1400 years before the birth of Christ.

Peter Christian Lutkin set these words to a beautiful arrangement in his classic tune BENEDICTION.

This song has special meaning to many of us.  I recently read a commentary of this passage by J. Vernon Magee.  He said this blessing was given to the Israelites by the triune God.  These three verses are given by:

God the Father, Who is the source of all blessing,

The Lord Jesus, the One Who makes His face to shine upon us,

and The Holy Spirit, Who lifts up His countenance upon us and gives us peace.

The only way we can come to God is through repentant faith in Jesus, and then we experience the peace of God through the Holy Spirit, Our Helper.

Image Source

I pray the Lord blesses you and keeps you, His face shines upon you…and gives you peace.

Let us praise Him!  It’s a spectacular day!

Prone to Wander

Are you prone to wander?  The Israelites were.  I am.

How do we keep ourselves from wandering away from God?

Keep clear of sin, cleansing ourselves from everything that can defile us – body or spirit.

We need to strive toward complete holiness because we fear God.

Three years after hearing a haunting sermon, Robert Robinson gave his heart to Christ.   He soon entered the ministry in Norfolk, England.  While preparing his Pentecostal Sunday sermon, 23-year-old Robert wrote this hymn.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

It was a prayer that the Holy Spirit would flood into our hearts with streams of mercy and enable us to sing God’s praises and remain faithful to Him.  The hymn has been a church favorite since that day.

in 1790, 54-year-old Robinson was invited to preach for Dr. Joseph Priestly in Birmingham, England.  Just hours before his sermon, Robert died quietly in the night.

What a spectacular hymn we have to sing today because of Robert Robinson!  On this spectacular Sunday, let’s meditate on these final lines of the hymn as we thank our Heavenly Father for sealing our hearts.

Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander; Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Blessings~

Is It Well With Your Soul?

HH’s favorite hymn has origins from tragic events.  I recently read the account of how Horatio G. Spafford came to the point of writing the hymn It Is Well With My Soul.  It’s a faith story, and there’s a beautiful lesson in it.

As an attorney who was heavily invested in Chicago real estate, Horatio lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871.  About that time, his only son died of Scarlet fever at four years old.  Through his grief, Horatio poured himself into rebuilding the city and helping thousands left homeless by the fire.

Horatio was close friends with D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey.  He planned a trip for November of 1873 to their evangelic meetings in England, a trip which would combine a family vacation in the journey.  At the time to set sail, Horatio was delayed by a business matter.  He sent his wife and four daughters ahead, planning to join them soon.

During the journey, the ship (Ville du Havre) that carried Anna Spafford and the girls collided with an iron sailing vessel.  Within two hours, the ship sank.  Anna and 46 others survived, when 226 passengers did not.  Anna sent a cable to Horatio saying she had survived alone without the girls.

Can you even imagine it?

Horatio set sail immediately to join Anna.  While underway, the ship’s captain joined Horatio on deck one evening to say he believed they were over the very spot the Ville du Havre had gone down.

Naturally, Horatio had trouble going to sleep that night.  Unnaturally, he spoke these words to himself, “It is well; the will of God be done.”

Mr. Spafford later wrote this hymn based on those words.  (The melody was written by Philip Bliss, who soon after died along with his wife in a train wreck in Ohio.)  Get a tissue and brace yourself for a true blessing.

Horatio was faced with many hard trials within a span of a couple of years.  How many of us would have the faith Horatio Spafford had to write this hymn in his circumstances?

I praise God for the example of Mr. Spafford!  How many of us needed to hear this hymn today?

Do you know someone who is on a difficult faith journey?  Bless them with this faith hymn today.  Share Horatio’s song and story with them.

Let’s celebrate our God who brings us through all adversity!

He is faithful and true on this spectacular Sunday and every day.

Blessings!

This I Know!

Most of us learned this song as children.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

For the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me,

The Bible tells me so.

 

I remember Jesus Loves Me as the first song I learned in Sunday School.  What is your first memory of this song?

A few years ago, I found a book with many hymns, and each hymn tells the story of how, when, where, and why it was written.  HH and I both enjoy reading the different stories in Then Sings My Soul.

If you’re interesting in ordering this book, click the picture below and follow the link to the Amazon page.

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In reading the story of the song, Jesus Loves Me, I learned there were two sisters living in New York City with their father, a successful lawyer.  Anna and Susan Warner began writing poems and stories for publication as a way to earn money after the Panic of 1837 wrecked the family’s finances.  They had moved to Constitution Island into a Revolution War-era ramshackle.

Does the name Anna Warner sound familiar?  She wrote Robinson Crusoe’s Farmyard.  Susan wrote The Wide, Wide World.  These girls wrote a total of 106 publications, and eighteen of them were written by the two together.

One of the books the sisters wrote as a joint project, Say and Seal, became one of their most popular.  The book is about a little boy, Johnny Fox, who is dying.  His Sunday School teacher, John Linden, visits him and sings him a little tune while holding Johnny in his arms.  What a sweet story, huh?  It became a best-seller, second to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

When successful hymn-writer, William Bradbury, read the words to the little song written by Anna, he set it to musical notes, and thus was born Jesus Love Me as we know it.  This is the most well-known children’s hymn on earth!

The sisters became successful, but they never got over their devastation of their financial wows of 1836.  A friend told of a time when Anna picked up a delicate seashell from a shelf in their home.  With tears in her eyes, she said,

“There was a time when I was very perplexed, bills were unpaid, necessities must be had, and someone sent me this exquisite thing.  As I held it I realized that if God could make this beautiful home for a little creature, He would take care of me.”

Anna and Susan Warner conducted Bible classes for cadets at West Point for 40 years.  They were both buried in the military cemetery at West Point, the only civilians and with full military honors.

The home of Anna and Susan Warner on Constitution Island is maintained as a museum in their memory by West Point.

Click to visit source for additional family information.

What an impact these two women had, huh?

We all have God-given talents and gifts.  Are you using yours for His Kingdom?  Something to ponder this Spectacular Sunday as we head off to worship our Savior.

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