The article below gives a very good overview of a doctrine that is often overlooked. Our being adopted into God’s family as His sons and daughters, becoming a co-heir with Jesus Christ is an essential teaching that is not stressed enough in our churches. Please take a look at this article and post comments.
http://covenantofgracechurch.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=11
DAY 18 – WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS
Of all of Isaac Watts’ hymns, this one is probably my favorite. Great words of truth mixed with a fantastic melody, this hymn is well worth singing regularly.
I particularly love the second stanza. There is nothing any of us have to boast about except our Lord. Are we brilliant? God gave us our intellect. Are we strong? God fashioned our body. Are we successful? God has blessed us.
All we are we owe to our Creator, especially our salvation. In God’s plan, in God’s time, in God’s power, He redeemed us to Himself through His Son. Salvation, as Jonah stated, is from the Lord.
Everything this world has to charm us with is nothing compared to what awaits us in glory. Why should I take my eyes off eternal perfection for temporal things? Truly, no offering I can give is enough. If I had, as the fourth verse states, everything in the world, it still would not be too great an offering to give. But what I do have, my life, I give freely to the One who is worthy of worship, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, reading again of Your Son’s death on the cross to pay the price for my sins, brings me both great sorrow and gratitude. Sorrow that I, like all other humans, failed to live up to Your holy standards; gratitude that You took it upon Yourself to pay my penalty. I can never repay You. I can only say, “Thank You.” Take my life. You created me, You bought me, take what is rightfully Yours.
WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS – Isaac Watts
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride
Forbid it Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ my God
All the vain things that charm me most
I sacrifice them to His blood
See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all
DAY 12 – I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY
The history of this hymn and her sister hymn Tell Me the Old, Old Story is fascinating. Taken from a long poem, some fifty stanzas written by Katherine Hankey, both songs draw a person to realize just how precious sharing the gospel truly is.
The first reason to tell the gospel story is, of course, because some have never heard. How sad that some 2,000 years after being given the command to go into all the world we have not been completely obedient.
Another reason is also mentioned in the hymn. Those who know the gospel best still long to hear it again and again. It never gets old. It still amazes everyone when they reflect on the depth of love that God has for us. We still marvel at Jesus’ sacrificial death. We still cry on Good Friday and jump and shout triumphantly on Easter Sunday.
When we arrive in heaven, our song – the song of redemption, will be unique in the cosmos; and we will never get tires of it.
Lord, I love to tell the story of Your salvation. From the choosing of Mary and Joseph as Your earthly parents to the birth in Bethlehem to the cross on Calvary, the story is marvelous and amazing. How deep Your love is. How merciful Your actions. Help me to tell the old, old story, both to those who have never heard and to those who long to hear it again.
I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY by Katherine Hankey
I love to tell the story of unseen things above
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love
I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true
It satisfies my longings like nothing else can do
I love to tell the story; more wonderful it seems
Than all our golden fancies of all our golden dreams
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me
And that is just the reason, I tell it now to thee
I love to tell the story; ’tis pleasant to repeat
What seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation, from God’s own holy word
I love to tell the story for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing a new, new song
‘Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long
REFAIN:
I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love
ta ethne 