Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance!

God’s faithfulness is great!

Think of His Kingdom!

Hurry! Time’s late!

Redeemed is the proclamation!

His joy is mine!

Ready your white garments, and

Leave sin’s suitcase behind!

Calvary lifted burdens!

Holy hands bore cruel nails!

Victory in Jesus -

My eyes have no more scales!

Yon pilgrim, there a stranger

They have traveled so long

To reach the Home of the Faithful

To acquire white robe and gold crown!

Jesus Christ is leading

The Holy Spirit's pleading

God made He the Way, so

Stand up for Jesus - He slept in your cold grave!

And because of His great victory

You’re no longer a slave

So pick you up your sword now

And in glorious battle engage!

No retreat! No quarter!

No rabble on the Line!

No fainting! Hey! No falling!

We are covered! Don’t look behind!

With eyes ever fixed forward

Christ’s heart on open display

Christ’s blood is our armor-all

We will not cease nor give way

To that enemy of our own souls

To that foul fiend of the night

Whose stratagems are ignominious

Ignoble, and a right fright!

Sound you off the song number

Call the time and the tune

Mark you step, and step deftly

Board Fair Zion’s galloon!

We will not be becalm-ed

We will not be o’erblown

We will not be torpedoed

Jesus Christ is manning the ‘phones!

So stiffen your spine with your praying

Steady your heart with the Promises

No more time to be wasted -

You’re no more earth-bounded

For you have a date with Destiny

With the King of Love, oh, so Divine

The Table is set - Banquet Hall is bedecked

With such great displays it’ll take Eternity to inspect!

Remember you your manners!

Follow you your guide!

The King! At last! He is coming!

So let your joyous praise rise!

A joyful hallelujah!

A resoundingly great anthem!

Thank you, God, for this - the victory!

No sin again! Hallelujah!

Never see sin again! AMEN!

I Want To Get Paid!

HAPPY 

SABBATH!

I Want To Get Paid!

I don’t know about you but

I want to get paid!

Not with black pennies

But with gold crowns

Not with dread trumpets

But with Angel songs

Not with the tare bundles

But with the Glory Throng!

I want to get paid!

I want to get paid!

And I’m going to the Judge

Who will ensure

That that which I get

Is truly commensurate

With my labor of love and 

My faithfulness!

I want to get paid!

I’ve loved, and I’ve labored

Counselled with, and exemplified

The life of a true believer -

Christ’s cross I’ve not denied!

I’ve ministered to the miserly, the miserable, the cross

To those that were little children

And to those who suffered loss!

I’ve cared for the contemptuous and

I’ve been a good steward to the “Boss”

Who cheats me of my wages

For worldly work that pays dross!

 I gave to the ungrateful and

I blessed the banished thief

I loved and I labored on

Often without relief!

I’ve tried to be a light

To those who could not agree

That Jesus is the answer

The Truth, the Life, the Way

And kept to my position

No matter what they’d say!

And though the road has been long

I’ve held fast to my conviction!

In me is found no dereliction!

I love His people!

I fast!

 I pray!

My Jesus is coming and

In my heart is the song:

I’m about to get paid!

Dear Ones: 

This is no boast! God’s people are privileged to know what their payment is, and when/where it will be delivered, and to joyfully look forward to that Great Day! 

I encourage us all to hold fast to our profession in faith and in faithfulness, and to keep our prize in constant view!

John 14:27 - Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Prayer: Father, Help Me!

Draw Me Nearer / I Need Thee

Father, please help me!

Help me to not denigrate Your holiness as I elevate my humanity to be like Christ, under the agency of Your Holy Spirit, for You are God.

Father, help me to express godly sorrow and show true repentance when the Holy Spirit convinces and convicts me of sin and error.

Help me to be constant in my acceptance that You are true in Your Word when You say that You have cast my confessed sins into the sea of Your forgetfulness, and help not to allow Satan to make me trot out confessed sin, wearing it as a hair-shirt and indulging in self-flagellation and thereby displaying my total lack of faith in Your faithfulness.

Father, you have forgiven my sins time and again, and I am asking You to help me to forgive those who seemingly relish their sin against me as they gleefully pay me the lip service that is their repentance, and help me to measure their repentance by Your yardstick, and not my own, for my hands are not clean nor is my heart pure, and I am truly fearful of what I would do without Your help and leading.

Father, it is really very hard to be kind to the unkind, to love the unlovely in spirit, to not denigrate the disparaging, and to be a blessing to the hateful so I am asking you, Lord, to help me look beyond their faults to find their need, and to be willing to provide that needed and necessary assistance as Your Holy Spirit leads.

Help me to stop being judgmental.

Help me to stop procrastinating with the tasks You have laid before me.

Help to stop speaking with a forked tongue.

Help to not be arrogant in my conviction of my rightness but at all times to display a Christ-like spirit in my interactions.

Help me to display humble boldness in my defense of  truth, for truth does not require color, nor spin, nor explanation by a sharp and arrogant tongue.

 Help me, Father, to find it in my heart to feel pity for those who do not care to pity themselves nor their circumstance nor situation, and to remember that, were it not for my acceptance of Your free grace I, too, would be in their condition.

Help me to show Your love by my willingness to do for my fellow pilgrims on the journey that is this life.

Help me also, Father, to stop acting as though I can save the world, or anyone, and help me to give all my burdens to You, for You are able to save, to help, and to heal.

Father, help me to be like the Apostle Paul to, in all things, and at all times, hungry or full, in want or in abundance, give thanks.

And, Father, help me to so live my life, that Your name may always be glorified.

I ask these mercies in the name of Prince Immanuel, and thank You for hearing and answering my prayers.

I love You, Lord.

AMEN

Prayer to Receive a Mustard Seed Faith

Father, have mercy on me.

With every passing day of my life

I realize more and more that I lack faith.

I talk all the time about how much faith I have in You

And how I know that You will never fail me nor forsake me.

Problem is, Father, it is a very shallow faith because it works

As long as things go how I want them to go. 

Father, I am sorry for this good time faith that I have been practicing 

Whereby I have been looking at my situation, and not at You,

And I ask You, in mercy, to give me enduring faith. 

I am pleading, Lord, for the faith, the mustard seed faith

Of which the Master spoke. I need that faith which

lets me sit, or rest, in quiet and enduring confidence, 

Unshaken at the convulsions taking place around me. 

Help me to forget what tomorrow holds and, instead,

Remember Who holds tomorrow.

Help me to submit my will, and my way, to You and help me 

To accept, without murmur or complaint,

That all my trials are for the perfecting of my character.

Grant me, Lord, faith as big as a mustard seed

So that I can not just say that I have faith,

But that I will be unwavering in my belief that I truly have 

The faith which orders my life, so that my life, and living, will be an

Exemplar of Your faith, and faithfulness, working in me.

I ask this mercy in the matchless name of Christ, the King,

And I thank You for the gift that is today.

AMEN

Oh, For a Faith That Will Not Shrink

by Morgan State University Alumni Choir