For God Alone

The first solo I sang in public worship was How Great Thou Art. One day, when I was around seven years old, my sister, Debbie, and I were sitting at the piano in our home in Columbia, Missouri; Debbie was playing and I was singing. Our Dad, who was about halfway through his master’s degree at Mizzou, walked through the room and asked if I would sing How Great Thou Art in worship the following Sunday. During his graduate studies, Dad held down five different jobs to support his family of seven (almost eight); one of those ‘jobs’ (though I very rarely refer to vocational ministry as a ‘job’) was pastoring a small country church outside of Centralia, Missouri, New Hope Baptist Church. So, the following Sunday, I stood up before a crowd of people and sang a solo in public for the first time.  The next solo I recall singing before a gathered assembly was when I was nine or ten, and it was the theme song from the musical, The Sound of Music. The Magyar family was living in San Jose, C...

Most protestant evangelicals love the Fanny Crosby hymn, To God Be the Glory, and for good reason! We have sung it with our brothers and sisters gathered in houses of worship as long as we can remember. Sing along as you read the words: To God be the glory, great things He hath done; So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life-gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! O come to the Father through Jesus, the Son, And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, To every believer the promise of God; The vilest offender who truly believes That moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;  But purer, and higher, and greater will be O...

One of my favorite classes at Southwestern Seminary was a course called Jesus and Personal Evangelism, which Dr. Roy Fish taught. Dr. Fish required only one text, The Great Physician by G. Campbell Morgan, a noted British evangelist, preacher, and author from a few generations ago. I will never forget the day we turned to Chapter Three in The Great Physician in which Dr. Morgan discussed the call Jesus extended to Andrew as found in John 1:35-41. Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). One of the two who heard John speak, an...

The past forty days of Lent, much of which were spent sheltered in-home, have granted us time to rest and reflect on God, His word, our loved ones, and many others dear to us. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we have considered our own frailty. You and I have considered and reflected on scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments through A New Day and For God Alone posts. God’s word has guided us on our journey toward this day - Resurrection Day - God's Final Word. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,  and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31) Every Easter for the past many years, Christians have begun Easter Sunday worship singing Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today to the glorious tune, LYRA DAVIDICA (1708). Gratefully, this Resurrection Day 2020, quarantined as we are, will be no different. Congregations across the globe, including our own, First Baptist Richardson, have prerecorded their...

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5) George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) composed his oratorio, MESSIAH, in 1741. His librettist, Charles Jennens, compiled the text using the King James Bible, and the Coverdale Psalter, which was the version of the Psalms used in The Book of Common Prayer.  The work was first performed in Dublin, Ireland on April 13, 1742, and was performed in London 1743. This sacred choral work remains to this day a worldwide artistic treasure. But for Christians, Handel’s majestic oratorio encapsulates the truth of the Gospel from Old Testament prophecy, to prophecy fulfilled in Christ, including His death by crucifixion, burial in a borrowed tomb, resurrection from the dead (Hallelujah), and the ...

Fairest Lord Jesus; Ruler of all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son. Thee will I cherish; Thee will I honor, Thou my soul’s glory, joy, and crown. Fair are the meadows; fairer still the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring; Jesus is fairer; Jesus is purer, who makes the woeful heart to sing. Fair is the sunshine; fairer still the moonlight and all the twinkling story host.  Jesus shines brighter; Jesus shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. Beautiful Savior! Lord of the nations! Son of God and Son of man! Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore be Thine!* Anonymous German hymn, Munster Gesangbuch, 1677 Beautiful Savior, arr. Wilberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WhTfEYmfcM Last evening at sundown was the beginning of Passover, the Jewish holiday commemorating God’s liberating His people, the Israelites, from slavery in Egypt. Passover is one of three Pilgrimage Festivals during which the Hebrew pe...

Thomas W. Hunt (1929-2014) taught music and missions, and music in worship, at Southwestern Seminary’s School of Church Music from 1963-1987, and it was God’s gracious blessing for me to study with this faithful man of God. (T. W. Hunt authored several books, including The Mind of Christ.) One day, Dr. Hunt walked into class - a bit late, as was his usual custom, placed his large stack of books on the piano, turned to his full class, and said: The Lord awakened me early this morning and placed the following stanza on my heart: Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’m come, And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. 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.* Then, our humble, yet deeply profound professor who was a devoted man of prayer said: I struggle with these words: prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. After guiding his studen...

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may one from the presence of the Lord. (Acts 3:19-20a) Yesterday morning, our pastor preached a sermon on Isaiah 40:1-31. He called the fortieth chapter of Isaiah one of the greatest chapters of the Bible, a statement with which I completely resonate. Pastor Ellis’s theme for his final Lenten sermon was Renewal, a consistent theme that runs through the Bible. Those of us who have heard countless sermons, and who are faithful students of the Bible will readily agree with this claim. Pastor and author, Ray Ortlund, Jr. subtitled his commentary on Isaiah: God Loves Sinners. And, indeed, He does! Pastor Ellis described how God’s plan for renewal, brokenness, and repentance, is found throughout the entire word of God: Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, and Moses. Job sings a song of renewal even when his body is covered with disease: For I know that my Redeemer lives...