Hymn-ful Sundays! "There is a fountain filled with blood"

This week's hymn is by William Cowper, and is one of my favourites because it so poetically tells of the precious nature of the Covenant that was made between God and man when Jesus died for us.

Hymn-ful Sundays! "It Passeth Knowledge"

This week's hymn is one by Mary Shekleton. She is not quite as well known as some of the other hymn writers that I've featured here, but she was an invalid for many years, and wrote many hymns during that time. "It Passeth Knowledge" is one of the most well-known of these.

The Bronze Basin

via

The Lord spoke to Moses: You shall make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it; with the water Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to make an offering by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die: it shall be a perpetual ordinance for them, for him and for his descendants throughout their generations.

Exodus 30: 17-21

Something about this short passage about the basin for washing resonated with me when I read it a few weeks ago. I'm not sure why, but something about it just jumped out at me.

Characteristics of the Blessed (part 2)

In part 1 of this post, we talked about three characteristics of the blessed (as stated in Psalm 1), in the form of three questions: Whose advice are you following? Which path are you taking? Where are you sitting? Then we talked about what the delight of the blessed is: meditating on the Word of God.

In verse 3, the psalmist speaks of the characteristics of those who are blessed: the productivity of the blessed. The blessed one will be like a tree, planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season. The leaves do not wither and in whatever they do, they prosper. These words say a lot about the productivity of a blessed (or happy) person.

First Miracle

Many of you may know that Jesus' first miracle was at a wedding (John 2:1-11). Or at least you know that his first miracle was when he turned water into wine. Or maybe you just know that Jesus turned water into wine sometime in the Bible. 

The point is: Jesus + water -> wine = miracle. (Yes, I know that was part chemical and part mathematical equation.) But what if that one simple miracle was a foreshadowing of Jesus' entire ministry and purpose on Earth? What if in this trivial act Jesus was actually showing us why he came? Okay, so you might be really confused at the moment, but hold on, an explanation is coming! 

Taken Out of Context

John 5:1-15 Do you want to get well?

The story is told of Jesus, traveling to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. As he passes by the Sheep Gate, he passes an area where there are many invalids are laying. Of all the invalids there, only one of them is mentioned: a man who had been ill for thirty eight years. Particularly in a time when your life expectancy wasn't much above 50, if that much, it shows that this man has been ill for most of his life!

God's Professional Laundry Service

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. -Malachi 3:2

So, about that laundry…it piles up, doesn't it? If you're like me, and have enough clothes to go for about a month (or um, two) without doing laundry, it really piles up! The interesting thing about dirty clothes, is that individually, they are not usually offensive to the nose, but all together, piled up, they stink! In fact, clothes that didn't smell when you put them in the laundry basket absolutely reek by the time you get around to washing them! Don't make faces, you ALL know that this is the truth. Isn't sin the same way? Those things that didn't seem so bad by themselves, put all together and left to fester…ewww. And for the number of verses in the Bible that talk about being washed clean and cleansed, we don't talk about the laundering process enough! So let's ponder on this one: God's cleansing like the launderer's soap.