Rock of Ages
(Updated below)
Originally posted on 3/03/09 –
At Church, the praise and worship team, in the nearly 1.5yrs I’ve been going, have never used our hymn books. We have used them in other occasions, but we have never used them Sunday mornings because the band sings other songs. This past Sunday, their last song, they asked us to pull out our hymn books to hymn #465: Rock of Ages.
Monday night, bible study group, in Flint… We sing hymns before we start our studies. We pull up #465: Rock of Ages. Here’s the lyrics –
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee; let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's commands; could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone; thou must save, and thou alone. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling; naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath, when mine eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
No idea why this happened, but I’ll know eventually. There are no coincidences.
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Update (one week later):
A day or 2 after the above-mentioned, I was working in the shelter on some of their rooms. I was working in room 4 and realized I had to work in 5 next, then 6. I decided to follow the sequence of 465 in accordance to the #465 above.
I started to work in room 6 on Thursday and was jumping to room 5 this week (today). During Friday and Saturday of this past weekend, I was again blessed with a monetary gift from the Lord. I again prayed and asked Him to reveal where this should go to further glorify Him. I knew it had to go to a homeless person via previous answers to my prayers pertaining to helping the neediest in society. A small portion of the $ went to a homeless person in front of the Mission downtown, but I found out why I needed to wait for room 5 today. When I entered room 5, it was one of the neater rooms. I began to set my tools down on the dresser and there was a bible. It was the only room that I noticed a bible in. The person had many pages w/ sticky notes sticking out. I opened up the bible and noticed all kinds of highlighting. This was a person who was seeking the Lord and drawing near to Him. Praise God. I turned around, and in the corner of the room was a yellow balloon floating up against the ceiling. Balloons from God. He draws near to those who draw nears to Him. He is as close to us as we choose for Him to be. I believe the Lord was showing me to go into this room last because He was Providing for this person, through me, and through the gifts that He Provided. The gifts were not going to materialize until Friday and Saturday. If I would have done room 5 last week on Thursday, this person seeking the Lord would not have received this Blessing from our Father. I later found out that this room belonged to a homeless single woman with children. I wanted to find a good passage in her bible to leave the gift. I called a friend and the Lord Provided John 3 as the place to leave it. Praise God.
Blessings,
joseph
