In the past few months it seems that there have been a lot of tragedies.  Many friends are suffering the loss of their loved ones; some were young and some had been married 52 years.  Others have a broken heart for one reason or another.  It seems that there is a lot of sadness going on in our land.  I think the words ‘Precious Lord Take My Hand’ is what gets many of God’s people through these trying times.

PRECIOUS LORD, TAKE MY HAND

By Thomas A. Dorsey, 1938

Precious Lord, take my hand,

Lead me on, help me stand.

I am tired, I am weak I am worn.

Through the storm, through the night,

Lead me on in the light.

Take my hand, precious Lord; lead me home.

When my way grows drear,

Precious Lord, linger near –

When life is almost gone.

Hear my cry, hear my call.

Hold my hand lest I fall.

Take my hand, precious Lord; lead me home

When the darkness appears

And the night draws near,

And the day is past and gone,

At the river I stand; Guide my feet, hold my hand.

Take my hand, precious Lord; lead me home.

THE BIRTH OF THE SONG ‘PRECIOUS LORD’

“Back in 1932, I was a fairly new husband.  My wife, Nettie and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago’s south side.  One hot August afternoon I had to go to St. Louis where I was to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting.  I didn’t want to go.  Nettie was in the last month of pregnancy with our first child.  But a lot of people were expecting me in St. Louis.  I kissed Nettie good-bye, clattered downstairs to our Model A and, in a fresh Lake Michigan breeze, chugged out of Chicago on Route 66.

“However, outside the city, I discovered that in my anxiety at leaving, I had forgotten my music case.  I wheeled around and headed back.  I found Nettie sleeping peacefully.  I hesitated by her bed; something was strongly telling me to stay.  But eager to get on my way, and not wanting to disturb Nettie, I shrugged off the feeling and quietly slipped out of the room with my music.  The next night, in the steaming St. Louis heat, the crowd called on me to sing again and again.  When I finally sat down, a messenger boy ran up with a Western Union telegram.  I ripped open the envelope.  Pasted on the yellow sheet were the words: YOUR WIFE JUST DIED.

“People were happily singing and clapping around me, but I could hardly keep from crying out.  I rushed to a phone and called home.  All I could hear on the other end was ‘Nettie is dead. Nettie is dead.’  When I got back, I learned that Nettie had given birth to a boy.  I swung between grief and joy. Yet that same night, the baby died.  I buried Nettie and our little boy together, in the same casket.  Then I fell apart.

“For days I closeted myself.  I felt that God had done me an injustice.  I didn’t want to serve Him anymore or write gospel songs.  I just wanted to go back to that jazz world I once knew so well.  But then, as I hunched alone in that dark apartment those first sad days, I thought back to the afternoon I went to St. Louis.  Something kept telling me to stay with Nettie.  Was that something God?  Oh, if I had paid more attention to Him that day, I would have stayed and been with Nettie when she died.

“From that moment on I vowed to listen more closely to Him.  But still I was lost in grief. Everyone was kind to me, especially one friend.  The following Saturday evening he took me up to Maloney’s Poro College, a neighborhood music school.  It was quiet; the late evening sun crept through the curtained windows.

“I sat down at the piano, and my hands began to browse over the keys.  Something happened to me then.  I felt at peace.  I felt as though I could reach out and touch God.  I found myself playing a melody, once into my head they just seemed to fall into place: ‘Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am worn, through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light, take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.’

“The Lord gave me these words and melody, He also healed my spirit.  I learned that when we are in our deepest grief, when we feel farthest from God, this is when He is closest, and when we are most open to His restoring power.

“And so I go on living for God willingly and joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead me home.

-Tommy Dorsey-

“For those too young to know who he is, Tommy Dorsey was a band leader in the Thirties and Forties.”

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Treasured Voices

By Horatius Bonar

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

“Come unto me and rest;

Lay down, thou weary one, lay down

Thy head upon My breast.”

I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary, and worn, and sad;

I found in Him a resting-place

And He has made me glad.

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”  Psalm 127:3

THE PENCIL BOX

By Doris Sanford

“I was deep in thought at my office, preparing a lecture to be given that evening at a college across town, when the phone rang.  A woman I had never met introduced herself and said that she was the mother of a seven-year-old and that she was dying.  She said that her therapist had advised her that discussing her pending death with her son would be too traumatic for him, but somehow that didn’t feel right to her.

“Knowing that I worked with grieving children, she asked my advice.  I told her that our heart is often smarter than our brain and that I thought she knew what would be best for her son.  I also invited her to attend the lecture that night since I was speaking about how children cope with death.  She said she would be there.

“I wondered later if I would recognize her at the lecture, but my question was answered when I saw a frail woman being half carried into the room by two adults.  I talked about the fact that children usually sense the truth long before they are told and that they often wait until they feel adults are ready to talk about it before sharing their concerns and questions.  I said that children usually can handle truth better than denial, even though the denial is intended to protect them from pain.  I said that respecting children meant including them in the family sadness, not shutting them out.

“She had heard enough.  At the break, she hobbled to the podium and through her tears she said, ‘I knew it in my heart.  I just knew I should tell him.” She said that she would tell him that night.

“The next morning I received another phone call from her.  She could hardly talk but I managed to hear the story through her choked voice.  She awakened him when they got home the night before and quietly said, “Derek, I have something to tell you.”  He quickly interrupted her saying, “Oh, Mommy, is it now that you are going to tell me that you are dying?” She held him close and they both sobbed while she said, “Yes.”

After a few minutes the little boy wanted down.  He said that he had something for her that he had been saving.  In the back of one of his drawers was a dirty pencil box.  Inside the box was a letter written in simple scrawl.  It said, “Good-bye, Mom.  I will always love you.”

“How long he had been waiting to hear the truth, I don’t know.  I do know that two days later Mom died.  In her casket was placed a dirty pencil box and a letter.

“Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things

You have for which you would not take money.”  Anonymous

More Stories for the Heart (Billy Graham Association c1997) p.119-120

Jesus said that we have to have faith like a little child if we want to go to heaven.  Did you ever notice how much Jesus loved children?  When the disciples scolded the mothers for bothering Jesus with their children, Jesus gently rebuked them and said for them to bring the children to Him.  He sat down and held them, prayed with them and probably laughed with them.  He loved them and they loved Jesus!  Once Jesus took a child and brought him into the middle of His disciples and told them, they had to become like this child.  The faith of children is spectacular!

A CHILD’S FAITH

-Helen Steiner Rice

“Jesus loves me, this I know,

For the BIBLE tells me so” –

Little children ask no more,

For love is all they’re looking for,

And in a small child’s shining eyes

The FAITH of all the ages lies –

And tiny hands and tousled heads

That kneel in prayer by little beds

Are closer to the dear Lord’s heart

And of His Kingdom more a part

Than we who search, and never find,

The answers to our questioning mind

For FAITH in things we cannot see

Requires a child’s simplicity

For, lost in life’s complexities,

We drift upon uncharted seas

And slowly FAITH disintegrates

While wealth and power accumulates –

And the more man learns, the less he knows,

And the more involved his thinking grows

And, in his arrogance and pride,

No longer is man satisfied

To place his confidence and love

With childlike FAITH in God above –

Oh, Father, grant once more to men

A simple childlike FAITH again

And, with a small child’s trusting eyes,

May all men come to realize

That FAITH alone can save man’s soul

And lead him to a HIGHER GOAL.

-By Helen Steiner Rice, In The Vineyard of the Lord (Fleming H. Revell Co. c.1979) p.22

I couldn’t help but think about some of the times that God used a child in the bible to accomplish His will.  The first one that comes to mind is Samuel.  He was the miracle child that God gave Hanna in response to prayer.  She gave him back to Eli the Priest so he could serve God.  God spoke to Samuel (this little child) and gave him a message for the Priest.  Samuel was frightened but bravely delivered the message after the Priest encouraged him and every word came true.

I like this humorous quote:  “Maybe children could keep on the straight and narrow path if they could get information from someone who’s been over the route.” Let’s try to remember, these children are precious in the sight of God.  We should be careful to try to raise them God’s way!

-          Quote from 14,000 Quips & Quotes  (Baker c. 1980) p. 71

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I believe we have all heard someone say, “Wow, that person is really full of himself”? After writing the article on what God wants us to wear, I began to think about what God wanted us filled with?

Are we filled with pride, anger, resentment, cruelty, selfishness, bitterness or worse?  When someone is so self-consumed that they cannot see the needs of anyone around them, they are miserable people.  Their words are usually all about “Me! Me! Me!”  When they aren’t talking about themselves, they are complaining about others.   Nothing is ever good enough and everything that goes wrong is always someone else’s fault!  This has become so commonplace that my husband and I saw a trinket that would have been funny if it weren’t so tragic with the message of ‘ME! ME! ME!’

With what does God want us to be filled?  Praise is one thing He talks about!  Are we filled with praise to God?  “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day.” God also says He wants us to offer the “sacrifice of praise to God continually.” What does that mean?  It is basically having a grateful heart to God even when things are going wrong.  It is easy to praise God when we are blessed but not as easy when our hearts are broken.

God was teaching us this truth when our 35 year old son was 1 ½ years old.  He was very sick and on medication.  I checked his fever and it wasn’t bad.  30 minutes later he went into convulsions from a high fever without warning.   During the twenty minute trip to the hospital, we sang praises to God as I tenderly held my convulsing baby.  It was the hardest thing Ken and I ever did but God so rewarded us for the sacrifice of praise that there was no brain damage and it never happened again.  It is not easy to do but choosing to praise God gives us God’s peace.

When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, God said that He wanted Moses to “speak unto all that are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom.”  God says He gave wisdom to his people so they could build the tabernacle.  He gave talent to people to be engravers, talented workmen, embroiderers and more.  Even if we were to have some of this wisdom, we could not get puffed up with pride when we realize that it is God who fills people with the spirit of wisdom.  Wouldn’t that be something to be filled with – the wisdom of God!  Do we have a talent or gift?  God gave it to us so we can’t boast in ourselves, only in Him.

Another thing God wants us to be filled with is laughter and singing (Psalms 126:2).  If you can laugh at everything, you feel better.  There is a time to grieve and we don’t want to laugh when others are hurting.  But when we drop something on the floor; if we would just laugh rather than get angry, we would certainly feel better.

God wants us to be “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord!” Wow!  I think that is pretty awesome!  I would really like to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God!  I think the only way to be filled with that kind of knowledge would be to spend time with God.   Acts tells about how the people were filled with wonder and amazement when the crippled man was healed.

God says we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit have free reign in our lives to produce the fruit of the Spirit.  Can you imagine everyone being loving, kind, peaceful, gentle etc?  What a wonderful world that would be?

God wants us to be filled with joy.  Have you experienced God’s joy?  How wonderful to be so filled with the joy of the Lord that you don’t know what to do with yourself!

God says we are to be full of goodness.  How can that be?  He also says there is no one that is good, no not one!  When we turn our lives over to Him, He forgives us and fills us with His goodness.   Have you met a good person who is always looking out for other people’s needs?  God says we are to be filled with goodness.  There are so many things.  I am going to make a small list of things with which God specifically says He wants us filled.

• “Filled with knowledge”
• “Filled with comfort”
• “Filled with fullness of God.”
• “Filled with fruits of righteousness”
• “Filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”

SOME THINGS GOD SAYS WE ARE NOT TO BE FILLED WITH!

• Contempt
• Scorn
• Filled with their own devices or ways
• Mischief (hurtful kind)
• Deceit
• Wrath and indignation
• Envy
• Unrighteousness

God has a long list.

Note:  The references to the above quotations will be given upon request

“He who walks purely walks securely, but he who walks in crooked ways will be found out.”  Proverbs 10:9 Complete Jewish Bible

Finding Treasure

By Marvine Scott

Proverbs 10 verse 9

Is an awesome verse to find!

It offers us security

In a world that’s lost its mind.

You will find God’s way is best.

It survived the ancient test.

He’s all powerful you see.

Follow Him and you’ll be free.

His word says walk in purity

And you’ll find security.

In a world that’s very blind

Here’s a treasure verse to find.

So, in conclusion:  when we are full of ourselves, life stinks.  When we are full of God, life is really good!

Have you ever thought about how precious Jesus is to the Father?  The Father spoke to John the Baptizer when He was baptizing Jesus, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” Matthew 3:17.

Jesus took three of his disciples to the mountain with him and was transfigured before them.  Remember how Peter started chattering nervously equating Jesus equally with Elijah and Moses and once again the Father spoke, “This is my beloved Son: hear him.” (Mark 9:7).  Being a chatterbox from childhood, I can really understand Peter!  Basically God was saying, “Peter, be quiet.  Listen to My Son!” Does God ever have to tell us to get quiet so we can hear Jesus?  Do we listen?

Peter later tells of this experience in 2 Peter 1:16-18.  “…but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  And this voice which came from heaven we heard…”

Jesus talked a lot to his disciples from John 14-16 about His relationship with the Father.  He talks to the Father in John 17 about His desire that all of His children would have the same kind of love and unity for one another that He and the Father experiences.  Have you thought about that?  Jesus is asking the Father that we would love one another and experience the same kind of fellowship, kinship, oneness that He and the Father experiences!!  Incredible!  Is this possible for us silly human beings who are so caught up with our own problems we cannot see beyond the end of our noses at times?  YES!  It is possible because Jesus asked it of the Father and the Father grants His Son the desires of His heart.

The only time when Jesus’ desire was not granted was in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus said, “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done!” Jesus and his Father was in total unity even during a testing so severe that He sweat drops of blood resisting the temptation of Satan.  Why?  He did this because of His tremendous love for US.

Another thought that blesses me is that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us day and night!  Jesus prays for us.  The Holy Spirit prays for us according to the will of the Father and so His prayer is granted!  Have you thought about how blessed we are as God’s children!  In addition to all this, the Father sent His Son to the Cross because of the Father’s love for mankind!  The Father turned His back on His Beloved Son because of His intense love for you and me!  He allows us in turn to call Him ‘daddy’ once we become His child.  Who can do that?  Anyone who goes to Him sincerely can become a child of the Living God!

INFINITY

By Olga J. Weiss

Tonight I look upon the sky and think of Thee

O God, Creator of those myriad stars and of vast space between;

And yet inside the hollow of the hand which made all these

My soul can find repose and rest and peace.

I see Thy mercy, limitless as space,

I see Thy love and feel Thy close embrace;

And though Thy presence fills the universe,

Yet close as hands and heart Thou art to me.

(Back to Poems for Sunshine & Shadow the Bible c1962) p.45

Rev. G. B. F. Hallock once wrote:  “’to produce a perfect chord in music one thing is necessary.  The things brought into play must be attuned to each other.  Unless there is this perfect adjustment when the notes are struck, instead of the faultless chord you will have jarring dissonance, torturing sound.’  So, before there can be harmonious living and true communion with the Father of our spirits, our wills must be attuned to his in loving dutifulness and submission.

“Our wills are ours, we know not how:

Our wills are ours to make them Thine.”

2500 Best Modern Illustrations (Harper & Brothers Publishers, NY & London) p.159

I love the songs dad wrote.  This poem really tells this story well.

CHRIST IS THE ANSWER

By Charlie Grier

Calling all young people, a message we must tell!!

Whisper it is secret—shout it in the dell!

The King became a hated slave that slaves He might set free!

Oh, glory, hallelujah!  One of those slaves was me!

O love past understanding, that He should die for me.

That God would give His own Son to suffer on the Tree!

The Word says whosoever will put his trust in Him

Is saved, oh Hallelujah!  I know I’m saved from sin!

Arise and shine for Jesus, ye Blood-washed, chosen Bride!

Souls all around us perish for whom our Savior died!

Go out and tell this dark world that no one need be lost

Oh, glory, hallelujah!  He paid the awful cost!

Christ is the Answer to this World’s problems.

There’s no solution apart from Him!

Go tell the world Christ died to save them!

There’s no solution, apart from Him.

God loves us.  What an amazing thought.  We can understand the Father’s love for the Son but can we understand that we are also His beloved?

• God speaks of His children in Zech 2:8 “…for he that touches you touches the apple of his eye.”
• God refers to His children in many different passages as ‘my beloved.’  One verse in Psalms 127:2 says “…for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”
• God says we are precious in his sight and that we can find favor and good understanding in the sight of God.  “Isaiah 43:4; Ps. 116:15; Prov. 3:4)

When we love God’s beloved Son, we become His beloved children.  How awesome is that?