In these days of overhead projectors taking the place of hymn books, I find it a real blessing to sing the old songs of the cross from memory. One of those old hymns was going off in my mind early on this morning; I was thinking about a lady in Montreal who is going through a period of mourning over the loss of her best friend and husband. The words of that old hymn came clear to me and I sang them over to myself and to the Lord , they say, "The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come, the Holy Ghost from heaven, The Father's promise given. Oh spread the tidings round wherever man is found, The Comforter has come." One of the stanzas says, "The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last,And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!The Comforter has come!
Yes, the Comforter has come! And what a comfort to know that He has come and especially to one so undeserving as I. The next verse rather says it all, "Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings,To ev’ry captive soul a full deliverance brings;And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;The Comforter has come! Let me indulge one more verse "O boundless love divine! How shall this tongue of mineTo wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine—That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!The Comforter has come!"
So to my sister Catherine I say take comfort my dear Sister in knowing that Bro. Lucho is with the Lord and so shall he ever be and you will meet again on that great reunion day. "For we do not mourn as those who have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."
About Me
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
A lesson in grace from an oil spill (a blog)
Grace, an early lesson.
I was just a boy and the year I can’t remember,, it was sometime in the late 40’s I would guess My father had recently converted our wood burning kitchen stove to an oil burning one. Some of you may recall those old wick burners that had all those cylinder units that fit on a base with grooves in it tom accept the cylinders or sleeves. They were very inefficient, smelly and required a great deal of maintenance. The latest technology. There was a jug that was placed on a stand that had a piece of tubing which connected the oil jug to the burner. Outside, the oil barrel laid on its side on this wooden stand . It had two bungs just like they still do, a small one which was removed and a spigot screwed into and a larger one which when the barrel was laid on its side was oriented to the top. This was loosely screwed to provide a vent for easy oil flow. We would fill the jug here to carry the oil into the kitchen where the stove was and invert the jug onto it’s stand. On this particular day the barrel was full of oil…but not for long. For some stupid reason, I decided to investigate the setup and inadvertently knocked the drum filled with oil off the stand and onto the ground. Of course when the barrel hit the ground it rolled a bit so that the top bung now was the bottom bung and being loosely screwed to the drum, immediately fell off and the oil poured profusely on the ground. I’m in trouble…deep trouble I tried to stand it back up…not happening, my mind racing with the fact that we probably did not have any money for more. Besides the mess it would make. I ran to the kitchen window and saw Dad and Mom talking, so I rapped on the window with my fist to get Dad’s attention. Lo and behold my fist went through the window…I got his attention!......bigger trouble now. And sin is like that for many of us. we commit a sin, most likely a secret sin and then we commit another one to hide the first one. but God sees them all, just like Dad saw everything I had done that fateful day.
I knew that Dad would not be pleased with me and I ran away sobbing. I was in an attitude of repentance, genuinely sorry for my actions. I expected to get what I deserved. So, you ask, what did your father do and what did he say? My father put the oil barrel back where it belonged, cleaned up the mess that I made, then he took the window and put in a new piece of glass, and Dad never said one word. Never. It was just like it never happened, just as though I had never sinned. Jesus did the same thing for me when I surrendered to His calling. He never reminded me of the sins I had sinned, in fact He buried them in a place that even He can’t remember In Psalm 37 verse 24 speaking of a good man who falls, “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand.” The day I had my own personal oil spill, I learned a powerful lesson on grace, the undeserved, unmerited grace of GOD. I deserved punishment but instead, I got favor.
I was just a boy and the year I can’t remember,, it was sometime in the late 40’s I would guess My father had recently converted our wood burning kitchen stove to an oil burning one. Some of you may recall those old wick burners that had all those cylinder units that fit on a base with grooves in it tom accept the cylinders or sleeves. They were very inefficient, smelly and required a great deal of maintenance. The latest technology. There was a jug that was placed on a stand that had a piece of tubing which connected the oil jug to the burner. Outside, the oil barrel laid on its side on this wooden stand . It had two bungs just like they still do, a small one which was removed and a spigot screwed into and a larger one which when the barrel was laid on its side was oriented to the top. This was loosely screwed to provide a vent for easy oil flow. We would fill the jug here to carry the oil into the kitchen where the stove was and invert the jug onto it’s stand. On this particular day the barrel was full of oil…but not for long. For some stupid reason, I decided to investigate the setup and inadvertently knocked the drum filled with oil off the stand and onto the ground. Of course when the barrel hit the ground it rolled a bit so that the top bung now was the bottom bung and being loosely screwed to the drum, immediately fell off and the oil poured profusely on the ground. I’m in trouble…deep trouble I tried to stand it back up…not happening, my mind racing with the fact that we probably did not have any money for more. Besides the mess it would make. I ran to the kitchen window and saw Dad and Mom talking, so I rapped on the window with my fist to get Dad’s attention. Lo and behold my fist went through the window…I got his attention!......bigger trouble now. And sin is like that for many of us. we commit a sin, most likely a secret sin and then we commit another one to hide the first one. but God sees them all, just like Dad saw everything I had done that fateful day.
I knew that Dad would not be pleased with me and I ran away sobbing. I was in an attitude of repentance, genuinely sorry for my actions. I expected to get what I deserved. So, you ask, what did your father do and what did he say? My father put the oil barrel back where it belonged, cleaned up the mess that I made, then he took the window and put in a new piece of glass, and Dad never said one word. Never. It was just like it never happened, just as though I had never sinned. Jesus did the same thing for me when I surrendered to His calling. He never reminded me of the sins I had sinned, in fact He buried them in a place that even He can’t remember In Psalm 37 verse 24 speaking of a good man who falls, “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand.” The day I had my own personal oil spill, I learned a powerful lesson on grace, the undeserved, unmerited grace of GOD. I deserved punishment but instead, I got favor.
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