Hymn-ful Sundays! In the Cross

This week's hymn is another one by Fanny Crosby! I've featured a few of her hymns before, much earlier this year. Fanny Crosby was a blind hymnwriter from the nineteenth century. Called one of the most prolific hymnwriters ever, Fanny wrote over 8000 hymns.

Hymn-ful Sundays! "Tell me the stories of Jesus"

This week's hymn is one by W. H. Parker, and is usually considered to be a children's hymn.

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.

A Lesson in Testimony

Mark chapter 5 recounts one of the most memorable miracles of Jesus. Jesus and his disciples had just gotten off a boat in the country of the Gerasenes, and a man approaches them. The man is possessed by demons, who call themselves Legion, because there were so many of them. Apparently the demons made the man extremely strong and violent, and he was unable to be bound by chains, and was often seen hurting himself.

Anyway, when the demons see Jesus, they recognize him! The spirit says to Jesus, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" Jesus commands the unclean spirit to leave the man, sending Legion into a herd of pigs when the spirit requested not to be sent out of the country. The herd of pigs immediately runs off of a cliff and into the sea! Needless to say, people were amazed when they saw this happen (or later, when the swineherds returned to town and recounted the day's events).

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!

The Nine Other Lepers

I was reading the story of the ten lepers today, and I got to thinking: what happened to the nine other guys? The passage just says that one leper returned and was thankful to Jesus for healing him, and even Jesus asked where the other nine were. So I got to speculating, and I came up with nine scenarios which could have explained why the other lepers did not return. 

Mourning Jesus

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." (Zech 12:10)

When we think of Jesus, it's almost always with some positive emotion. We celebrate his birth, follow his life, commemorate his death and rejoice over his resurrection. These things are all great, and we should do them. But when do we take the time to "look upon the one we have pierced" and mourn for him? How often do we rend our hearts at what he had to go through for us so that we could have everlasting life?

Stretch out your hand!

In Matthew's gospel yet another story is told of Jesus provoking/defying/showing up the Pharisees. This time he heals a man with a shriveled hand (on the Sabbath). There are a couple things to be learned from this story. One thing to look at is the actual act of the man obeying Jesus. The verse says that "he stretched it out and it was completely restored" (Matt 12:13). Although his hand was shriveled, the man believed Jesus in his heart and used his mind to control the muscles of his hand. That is to say, there was both a faith component and an action of the mind which brought about the physical act of the man stretching out his hand. The man had to believe that he could stretch out his hand, then his brain had to tell the muscles of his hand (which were shriveled!) to stretch out.

Parallel Relationship

I was thinking about (Godly) relationships today, and that somewhat famous passage in Ephesians stuck out  to me (as expected). Most of us are familiar with the "wives submit to your husbands", and in fact, I find that we tend to focus on it, both believers and non-believers, men and women. Many women claim that it's a sexist, male chauvinist command; many men use it as an excuse to make their women do their bidding. 

And He will be called...

It's interesting to see the hype about Christmas when the actual birth of Jesus went by largely unnoticed, despite having been foretold for centuries. But perhaps it isn't such hype. I mean, today the celebration of the birth of Jesus is a minor part of what Christmas is in the 21st century anyway. So I guess the actual birth of Jesus is still going largely unnoticed. =(

How about what we take a look at a tiny portion of what the coming of the Christ really meant.