Song
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus.
Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on the Lord.
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus,
Allelu, Allelu, Hallelujah!
As I remembered all the songs of old that flooded my soul of the love of Jesus. And I thought on all of the wonderful attributes and characteristics of God. I got to the scripture that said, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). What did that mean?
In Jesus, God incarnate, was embodied in Him so that all the love God had for all humanity was poured out of Jesus into us. He demonstrated His love by healing all the damage that sin did to us. Starting with Adam and Eve, sin uncovered their nakedness, but God covered them through a blood sacrifice of animal skins so that they were no longer naked and ashamed. That thought alone pierced my heart and opened my eyes once again to the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who died for my sin and your sin. He died for my sins and the sins of the world. Jesus died that we could once again have fellowship and reconciliation with God, our Father and creator of the Universe.
As some might say, all our thoughts will lead us to the cross. Two of the songs of worship that morning were hymns that I grew up under. One was my grandfather’s song of worship that he clung to. He was a deacon in our Baptist home church. Whenever he was there and it was testifying time, we knew what song he would sing, and we could mimic his prayer. The same with my father’s song that he would sing. My grandfather’s song was, “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross” and daddy’s would be, “I Will Trust in the Lord Until I Die. Both my grandfather and father have gone on to Heaven, remembering the cross and in whom they believed.
You see, my belief and commitment came to trust in God and the cross is exemplified as the song, “At the cross.” The song goes:
At the cross, at the cross.
Where I first saw the light.
And the burdens of my heart rolled away.
It was there by faith, I received my sight,
And now, I am happy all the day.
This is my salvation song that helps me to remember, without the cross there is no light in this dark world. There is no light nor life without Jesus. In my grandfather’s song, Jesus Keep me Near the Cross, as I sang the words my heart and soul flooded with the words that said,
Jesus keep me near the cross.
Theres’s a precious fountain.
Free to all a healing stream.
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, In the cross,
Be my glory ever
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
Chills engulfed me yet again, and I smiled. That precious fountain from the cross is Jesus’ shed blood that flowed from His body and ran down Calvary’s mountain where He was crucified. His blood flowed from His beaten body, His torn flesh from the 39 stripes He received from Roman soldiers. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. His thorn scared brow from the crown of thorns that was put on His head, mocking Him as the King of the Jews. And the blood that flowed when they pierced His side with a spear.
Jesus was crucified and His blood shed for the remission of sin. He paid the penalty, the wages for sin and death that was required for our forgiveness and our reconciliation with God. Like Adam and Eve who disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and became separated from God through spiritual death, blood had to be shared for them to be forgiven. Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, explains to us in Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Therefore, God made coats of animal skin to cloth their shame and nakedness (Genesis 3:21). The guilt, shame, and sin (disobedience) of Adam and Eve was covered by the shedding of an animal’s blood, a sacrifice.
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without the shedding of blood is no remission (Hebrews 9:22).
The last week of March 2024, we celebrated Holy Week. As Christian believers, we acknowledge daily, our faith and hope that Jesus died on the cross, shed His blood for the remission of our sin. God once again provided the final and only sacrifice there is today for the forgiveness of sin. It is only through Jesus Christ one can be forgiven for their sin and reconciled back to God for a relationship, worship, and fellowship. Ship is a noun suffix. When you add it to the end of a word, that word becomes a noun. It can be added to a word that is already a noun and becomes the state or condition of being something, the position, status, or duties of something. When that happens, the noun becomes a different noun, as described in our relationship with God, our duties to God to worship and fellowship with Him.
On Sunday, our faith and hope in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was celebrated as the most pivotal point of Christian history. Jesus is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Jesus before He went to the cross, John 6:23 says, Jesus wept. That day I wept, I cried as my heart and eyes opened to the revelation of what God was once again reminding me of the sanctity of the cross. Only Jesus’ blood can wash away my sin and yours, and the sins of the world. It also opened my eyes to the precious stream and fountain of Jesus’ blood is free to all who desire to be washed and covered in His blood.
You see there is power in the blood of Jesus. Once you have been washed you are every wit cleaned (John 13:10). You are cleansed and forgiven because Jesus gives us His righteousness when we confess our sin. He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). I could not help but thank God, as I remembered all my sins that I had committed throughout my life. I felt like Peter, Lord wash not only my feet, but my head, my hands, every part of me. Jesus’ comforting words to Peter, reassured me, “he that is washed needeth not to save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; and ye are clean, but not all” (John 13:10). It is refreshing to know that we are all clean who believe in the blood of Jesus and what He did at the cross to give us salvation and eternal life.
The sinful creatures we are, we sin everyday in some way, knowingly or unknowingly. This is where one day at a time comes to revelation. We can only live one day at a time. Unfortunately, many live in yesterday or the future. These are people who are consumed with depression (i.e., sadness, guilt, regret, shame, and anger). Some are living in tomorrow, consumed about their future (anxiety, worry, fear, panic). We cannot change yesterday, nor predict or change what will happen tomorrow. This is where my daddy’s song keeps me less worried, fearful, and anxious. I still have my doubts at times, but I remember the legacies my father left me in song and scripture. In song his favorite song was,
I will trust in the Lord.
I will trust in the Lord.
I will trust in the Lord,
Till I die, I will trust in the Lord
I will trust in the Lord.
I will trust in the Lord.
Till I die.
This song puts me in remembrance every time I hear it, need it, or sing it, that my heart and soul is anchored in the Lord, When I am troubled, uncertain, or overwhelmed with fear his scripture legacy is Proverbs 3:5-6,
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Wherever I hear it, whenever I read or recite it, or every preacher that preaches it, I remember my daddy and know that he is speaking to me. This is my faith imagination at work. James Fowler, an author, and other theorists on the stages of faith development says, the beginning of our faith is shaped by our parents when we are young. How we view and see God will be shaped by how we view our parents. In my case, my father was my example and shaped my faith by his trust in God to meet our family’s needs. I did not grow up in an elaborately enriched environment. I also saw my daddy as a loving, kind, caring and compassionate father. Nor did he tolerate disobedience. Ask my backside about that one.
I thank God for my daddy who showed me who God is. My eyes were opened that day to the reality of living one day at a time. Great is God’s faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All that I need, God’s hand provides (Lamentations 3:22-23). I also see the importance of staying near the cross and partaking of the precious fountain that streams from Calvary’s mountain and reminds me that I have been washed by the blood of Jesus and is by every whit clean. By the way, the work whit in Strong’s Bible Concordance means:
Whit: whole or all that is complete; all together, throughout whole.
This definition is so especially important as I read it, it tells me that Jesus’ blood has made me whole. There have been many times the world has broken me down. But Jesus, always put me back together again and restore me to wholeness. It’s like when I was a child and I fell and skinned my knee. My mother would pick me up, wash off the wound, put a little iodine on it. It would sting for a moment and you would think I would learn the lesson about running. LOL. But the song just rang in my spirit, Lord I’m running trying to make 100 because, 99-1/2 won’t do.
Jesus said, ‘in the world we will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). I close with a passage of scripture that imparts “true wisdom” for life in which we live in this world:
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6:24-34).
I pray your eyes be opened and you live one day at a time at the cross.