In my life, be lifted high. In our world, be lifted high. In our love, be lifted high.
Today I was listening to the radio (imagine that) I enjoy listening to intellectually stimulating talk radio (PBS, Sean Hannity, Dave Ramsey, or typically most anything on the Christian talk radio stations). Today I was flipping through and stumbled upon a man talking about the individual who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace and a friend of his. He explained that his friend was an extremely troubled man mentally and emotionally, a man who went into deep fits of depression and mental anguish but who, whenever he came out of them from time to time was eternally reverent and passionate in his faithfulness. I actually think it was a sermon by Ravi Zacharias who I have been intrigued with ever since I heard his sermon on the Atheist mentality.
William Cowper was the man's name and upon reading his biography I am again touched by the rawness of his anxieties, of his struggles transfigured into a salvation song from his madness. Any fear, anxiety, or depression I may have experienced pales in comparison to the terrors this man endured and yet still he was able to recognize the power and sacrifice of God's love...here is his hymn that sent shivers down my spine...
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.
So many amazing revelations in a single hymn. "Dear dying Lamb thy precious blood shall never lose it's power..." to grasp the entirety of its meaning, impossible as it is, powerful, BIG imagery. To read his humility in every word, a man lost in this world and eagerly awaiting his return to his Father...to be freed of a stammering tongue...to be able to sing a sweeter, perfect song one day...all day forever. Always singing and escaped from his bodily cage...wow. The patience, the determination, and the will to keep going...to press on through the madness.
Just wow.
