Lord’s Day, Vol. 4 No. 23

Blessed Assurance

– The Most Cherished Hope

At the age of eighty Fanny Crosby moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to live with her sister. There she increasingly thought of heaven and the blessings the Lord had in store for her. She anticipated for the first time having sight and expressed her most cherished hope in the confident refrain of one of her last hymns:

Some day this earthly house will fall,

            And I no more as now shall see,

But this I know, my All in all,

            Has now a place in heaven for me.

 

And I shall see Him face to face,

And tell the story, saved by grace.

 

Fanny Crosby received her sight one month before her ninety-fifth birthday when that hope was realized as she opened her eyes to heaven. On her headstone is the verse of one of her most beloved hymns, “Blessed Assurance.”

 

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;

           O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

         Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

 

Perfect submission, perfect delight!

     Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

     Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

 

Perfect submission all is at rest,

            I and my Savior am happy and blest,

Watching and waiting, looking above,

       Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

 

Refrain

 

This is my story, this is my song,

            Praising my Savior all the day long,

This is my story, this is my song,

            Praising my Savior all the day long.

 

Fanny Crosby has left us one of the great legacies of our faith – hymns that have endured and blessed for one hundred years, and still inspire and nurture our experience in Christ. Her ministry in verse is one of the greatest testimonies that indeed, “God gives songs in the night.”

[Extracted and edited from Songs in the Night by Henry Gariep]

 

(2) Email from a Webcast Listener

The following is an extract of an email that was received from a webcast listener.

“My name is Retinna, and I live in the US. Because of some things which took place early on in life, most of my life has been plagued with fear. But God has been helping me with this, and my life is no longer crippled by fear. For about a year, I’ve been getting closer and closer to God, and the fear that used to…

But freedom is something that the enemy hates. For the past few weeks, I’ve been struggling with anxiety and fear. It was associated with stress and worry from my job as a school teacher. I found myself going back to some of my old ways of fear as I allowed stress and worry to pull me down.

This morning, I was listening to a sermon when I got a text message from a loved one. Here’s what it said:

Good morning. I just want to remind your to use the word of God to fight the devil causing fear. Isaiah 41:10, 13; 2 Timothy 1:7; Hebrews 13:6.  Love you and praying for you.

Right after I closed that message, I brought up the SermonAudio app on my phone. To my surprise, it said that a live broadcast was taking place. It was so early in the morning. Who was broadcasting at such a time of day?

Then I saw that it was a church in Singapore. Although I was getting ready for work, I clicked. What did I hear?

I heard a kind voice of one of God’s servants as he reminded me that those who are with us are greater than those with the enemy. I was reminded that God doesn’t want me to fear, and I was reminded of this by a brother I didn’t even know I had! The tears fell from my eyes and gave praises to God for making his reality even more known to me.

Thank you so much for letting God use you. Please get even closer to Him. I can only imagine what He must have in store for you. The world may not see it as wonderful, but it’s beautiful in the eyes of God and his people!

God bless you!

Retinna

Florida, USA

 

My reply:

“Dear Ms Bell,

Appreciate your letter. It’s an encouragement to hear from you that the Lord is indeed using His Word to minister to the hearts of God’s people. Recommend you to read Psalm 27. Also, the testimony of a brother in Christ attached.

Do keep in contact.

Aik Wee”

 

Please continue to pray for the Lord’s blessing on the ministry of His Word to His honour and glory! Amen.

 

Yours lovingly,

Pastor Lek Aik Wee