Sunday, October 29, 2017

GRATEFUL


For the last four Sundays the four ministers at my church have preached four very different sermons based on the four stanzas of the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  Our magnificent choir sang a different version of this hymn each of the four weeks.  The overall theme was:  GRATEFUL.

Which, by the way, is not only a spiritually sound concept but is psychologically sound, and an excellent tool to keep us from going crazy in these weird times.

Come thy fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy, 
  never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise...

I love the symmetry of all this, what with my OCD leanings.  It's been like solving a big puzzle, trying to understand how it all fits together.

The first sermon was on coming out of the desert.  That is whatever desert you or I might currently be in.  Like worrying about finances, or kids, or if North Korea might drop a bomb in my back yard tonight.  So let's picture a fountain bubbling up out of the desert - and go with it.   

The second sermon was on getting rid of so many crazy things we count on that we know won't work and just going with our belief in God as the ultimate source.

...he to rescue me from danger...

The third sermon was about sheep.  And how they (we) wonder off from time to time.

...prone to wonder, Lord I feel it...

The fourth (and I suppose final, but don't know for sure) sermon this morning was again a reminder of the massive number of blessings God pours down on us.

...here's my heart, o take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above...


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