Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
We sang the refrain from this song in service this morning. It was the same service where we heard about one of our members, Don, who is in the hospital after having a liver transplant this week. He had the transplant and things seemed to be going well. Then yesterday things started going not so well...at all. I don't understand all of the medical jargon, but two of our pastors when to visit Don and pray with him. In the middle of their prayers, Don started singing "Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. He healed my body, He touched my mind, He saved me just in time". The doctors had just told him he was having serious problems, and this was his response.
When we heard the doctor's report, the chruch prayer chain started praying. In our service this morning, we were also able to report that, after the bad report Saturday morning and after the church began praying, the doctors came back and said things were looking up. They felt they could treat the symptoms he was having. (Side note: last I heard, Don made such a miraculious improvement today that the doctors wanted to send him home this evening).
But back to "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus". We sang this song in church today, and we heard the story about Don's trust in Jesus. I couldn't help but think about the Humanists that I debate with from time to time online. One guy in particular, a big wig in the American Humanist Association, has e-mailed back and forth we me a number of times. He's cordial enough, but he definitely holds to his beliefs (holds to his unbeliefs?) as strongly as I hold to mine. It's hard to debate with and/or witeness to him because he has it all figured out. He has certainly thought through his belief system (I keep calling that, but again, I guess could be better described as a 'lack of belief' system). Sometimes it seems like he has everything on the planet neatly compartmentalized. He sees no need for God. So as we sang this song today, and heard Don's testimony, I thought of the Scripture in Ephesians 2:8 that says, "For it is by grace you have been saved-through faith-and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Looking at this dichotomy (Don who trusted Jesus even when everything he could see was not good vs. my Humanist friend who 'has it all figured out' on his own), I had a fresh understanding of the idea of faith being a GIFT from God. I guess my Humanist friend would just say that Don was 'lucky'. I would much rather trust Jesus than rely on luck.
The longer I am a Christian and study God's Word, the more reasonable my faith becomes to me. But my e-mail address came from a Scripture God reminded me of when it comes to faith and reason. "Those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who dilligently SEEK HIM." (Hebrews 11:6). It has to start with a step of faith.
So I'll share Don's story with my Humanist friend and pray that he, too, can receive God's gift. Without trust in Jesus, he is doomed to figuring it all out for himself and living with the unfortunate consequeces of that effort on the day he stands before God in judgement. That would be pretty 'unlucky' for him.
- Rob
When we heard the doctor's report, the chruch prayer chain started praying. In our service this morning, we were also able to report that, after the bad report Saturday morning and after the church began praying, the doctors came back and said things were looking up. They felt they could treat the symptoms he was having. (Side note: last I heard, Don made such a miraculious improvement today that the doctors wanted to send him home this evening).
But back to "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus". We sang this song in church today, and we heard the story about Don's trust in Jesus. I couldn't help but think about the Humanists that I debate with from time to time online. One guy in particular, a big wig in the American Humanist Association, has e-mailed back and forth we me a number of times. He's cordial enough, but he definitely holds to his beliefs (holds to his unbeliefs?) as strongly as I hold to mine. It's hard to debate with and/or witeness to him because he has it all figured out. He has certainly thought through his belief system (I keep calling that, but again, I guess could be better described as a 'lack of belief' system). Sometimes it seems like he has everything on the planet neatly compartmentalized. He sees no need for God. So as we sang this song today, and heard Don's testimony, I thought of the Scripture in Ephesians 2:8 that says, "For it is by grace you have been saved-through faith-and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Looking at this dichotomy (Don who trusted Jesus even when everything he could see was not good vs. my Humanist friend who 'has it all figured out' on his own), I had a fresh understanding of the idea of faith being a GIFT from God. I guess my Humanist friend would just say that Don was 'lucky'. I would much rather trust Jesus than rely on luck.
The longer I am a Christian and study God's Word, the more reasonable my faith becomes to me. But my e-mail address came from a Scripture God reminded me of when it comes to faith and reason. "Those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who dilligently SEEK HIM." (Hebrews 11:6). It has to start with a step of faith.
So I'll share Don's story with my Humanist friend and pray that he, too, can receive God's gift. Without trust in Jesus, he is doomed to figuring it all out for himself and living with the unfortunate consequeces of that effort on the day he stands before God in judgement. That would be pretty 'unlucky' for him.
- Rob
1 comment:
That's a great post. I used to call myself a Christian Humanist. I hung out with humanists and even read Humanist magazine. But the more I studied humanism the more that I realize that it is oil and water. I thought it was faith and works together, but it was faith and antifaith. So you hit the nail on the head when you called it a dichotomy. -Brad
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