Sunday, October 26, 2008

Blessed Assurance

Today, we went to First Baptist and heard the new preacher that they brought in after Charles Rosell retired last year. This new guy's name is Cliff, and he was awesome. As soon as service was over, Bill said, "I really like this church, and I really like this pastor". Well that was music to my ears!

The song choices today were also music to my ears - there were several old hymns sung, and this one elderly lady who was sitting behind me had a strong and powerful soprano voice, which sounded much like my mother's.
It was when the song, "Blessed Assurance" began, and I heard this dear woman singing, that the tears just flowed down my face. It sounded just like my mother was standing behind me singing this hymn, which I heard her sing many times throughout my life, as it was one of her favorites.

Here's a little history about this song:


This is Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), who wrote the words to this beautiful hymn.
Words:
bio("Fan­ny Cros­by","c/r/o/crosby_fj")
Fan­ny Cros­by, 1873:
My friend, Mrs. Jo­seph F. Knapp, com­posed a mel­o­dy and played it over to me two or three times on the pi­a­no. She then asked what it said. I re­plied, “Bles­sed as­sur­ance, Je­sus is mine!”
Music: As­sur­ance,
bio("Phoe­be P. Knapp","k/n/knapp_pp");lmn("a/s/s/Assurance")
Phoe­be P. Knapp (MI­DI, score).
This hymn was sung in the Acad­e­my Award win­ning mo­vies Plac­es in the Heart (1984) and Trip to Bount­i­ful (1985).
“During the re­cent war in the Trans­vaal,” said a gen­tle­man at my meet­ing in Ex­e­ter Hall, Lon­don, in 1900, “when the sol­diers go­ing to the front were pass­ing ano­ther bo­dy of sol­diers whom they re­cog­nized, their greet­ings used to be, ‘Four-nine-four, boys; four-nine-four;’ and the sa­lute would in­var­i­a­bly be an­swered with ‘Six fur­ther on, boys; six fur­ther on.’ The sig­nif­i­cance of this was that, in ‘Sac­red Songs and So­los,’ a num­ber of co­pies of the small edi­tion of which had been sent to the front, num­ber 494 was ‘God be with you un­til we meet again;’ and six fur­ther on than 494, or num­ber 500, was ‘Bless­ed As­sur­ance, Je­sus is mine.’”

If you're not familiar with this hymn, you can click on the midi link above, and if you are familiar with it, I'm sure you understand the emotion that this song brings.

Here are the words to this beautiful hymn:


Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.


Refrain


This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long;

This is my story, this is my song,Praising my Savior, all the day long.


Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.


Refrain


Perfect submission, all is at rest

I in my Savior am happy and blest,

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.


Refrain


Thank God for the talents he gives to each of us, and may we all use them to glorify Him!

Janelle

1 comment:

Country*Road*Primitives said...

Sounds like a wonderful church Janelle :) You are blessed! xox