Hymns

O Come All You Unfaithful

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

As much as I appreciate and enjoy the traditional Christmas hymns and carols – O Come All Ye Faithful high up on my list – here is a worthy addition to the Christmas song catalog: O Come All You Unfaithful. Though not an especially new song, (it has been around for several years,) this song beautifully captures the heart behind the reason for the Incarnation.

In Luke 5, Jesus declared:

31 “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Advent/Christmas should be a season during which we remind ourselves, and remind one another, of God’s love for the broken, the outcast, and even the sinner – like me.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1.15)

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5.8)

As Brennan Manning wrote in The Ragamuffin Gospel:

One of the mysteries of the gospel tradition is this strange attraction of Jesus for the unattractive, this strange desire for the undesirable, this strange love for the unlovely.

As C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

The son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.

Ashamed of Jesus?

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

This past Sunday I introduced the lyrics of an old hymn to our congregation, as part of a message from John 18.1-27 about Peter’s denial of Jesus.  The point I was making is that while we are easily “ashamed” of Jesus, whether conscious of it or not, our relationship with Jesus – and with God through Christ – does not rest upon our diligence, but rather upon God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on our behalf.  The point from the passage is that while Peter was struggling, and denying Jesus; three times declaring “I am not” when asked if he was a Jesus Follower, in the same scene Jesus was being interrogated, and beaten, as part of his final steps on journey to the Cross. It is on that Cross that Jesus died to redeem those who had sinned against him, like Peter – and like me.

The old hymn lyrics were written in 1765 by a British man named Joseph Griggs.  The song in the video is a tune composed and performed by Mo Leverett, after Leverett had read the lyrics authored by Griggs.

The gist of the song reveals the foolishness of being “ashamed” of Jesus – which is to be ashamed of or embarrassed by the gospel.  Griggs begins with a question in the first stanza:

Jesus, and shall it ever be,  A mortal man ashamed of Thee?  Ashamed of Thee whom angels praise, Whose glories shine through endless days!

Griggs then works through a few reasons why it is foolish to be ashamed of Jesus:

Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far Let evening blush to own a star: He sheds the beams of light Divine O’er this be-night-ed soul of mine.

Ashamed of Jesus! just as soon Let mid-night be ashamed of noon: ‘Tis mid-night with my soul till He, Bright Morning Star, bid darkness flee.

Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend On whom my hopes of heaven depend! No; when I blush, be this my shame, That I no more revere His Name.

Griggs, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, admits that maybe there is a circumstance when the gospel, and Jesus, might be dismissed:

Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may When I’ve no guilt to wash away; No tear to wipe, no good to crave, No fears to quell, no soul to save.

The irony, none of of us ever is in the circumstance where we are not in need of the grace of Jesus.

The beauty of the song, for me, comes in the last line, when we are reminded that despite our spiritual frailty, Jesus is never ashamed of those who belong to him:

Til then – nor is my boasting vain – Til then I boast a Savior slain; And O may this my glory be, That Christ is not ashamed of me!

Grace & Peace: The Song

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

This song from Sovereign Grace Music, that shares the same title as this blog,  is a three verse meditation on Romans 1.7:

Verse 1

Grace and peace, oh how can this be / For lawbreakers and thieves / For the worthless, the least / You have said, that our judgment is death / For all eternity / Without hope, without rest / Oh, what an amazing mystery / What an amazing mystery/ That Your grace has come to me

Verse 2

Grace and peace, oh how can this be / The matchless King of all / Paid the blood price for me / Slaughtered lamb, what atonement You bring! / The vilest sinner’s heart / Can be cleansed, can be free /  Oh, what an amazing mystery / What an amazing mystery / That Your grace has come to me

Verse 3

Grace and peace, oh how can this be / Let songs of gratefulness / Ever rise, never cease / Loved by God and called as a saint / My heart is satisfied / In the riches of Christ / Oh, what an amazing mystery / What an amazing mystery  / That Your grace has come to me

TAG

Oh, what an amazing love I see / What an amazing love I see / That Your grace has come to me / Oh, what an amazing love I see / What an amazing love I see / That Your grace has come to me

© 2013 Sovereign Grace Worship

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the Cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of this world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from the thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered into our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.

~ John Stott

How Deep

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

VERSE 1
You were broken that I might be healed
You were cast off that I might draw near
You were thirsty that I might come drink
Cried out in anguish that I might sing

CHORUS
How deep is Your love
How high and how wide is Your mercy
How deep is Your grace
Our hearts overflow with praise
To You

VERSE 2
You knew darkness that I might know light
Wept great tears that mine might be dried
Stripped of glory that I might be clothed
Crushed by Your Father to call me Your own

From: Valley of Vision

Help My Unbelief

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

If I had a favorite hymn from Red Mountain Music, this would probably be it.  It reflects the common duality of our hearts, simultaneously Believing and Struggling to Believe; simultaneously Saints & Sinners.  (See Mark 9.24) It reflects and explains the cause of Paul’s dimemma: Failing to do what he wanted to do, and doing what he hated.  (Romans 7.15) It points us to the answer: Resting in the Grace & Power of Christ.

I Asked the Lord to Grow in Grace

/ Dennis Griffith / 4 Comments

This song comes from a beautiful poem by John Newton.  It is a powerful reminder to me about God’s grace and how God works.

Like Newton in the opening lines of this poem, I often ask God to grow me in grace and faith and the fruits of his Spirit.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

And like Newton expresses in the third stanza, in my mind this is something noble and therefore should be experienced mystically, gently and painlessly:

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Spiritual growth is easy, right? It should be automatic. Like sleeping, or breathing.  Certainly it should be no more difficult than eating, or learning to ride a bike or drive…

Continue reading →

There is a Fountain Filled With Blood

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day;
and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away.
and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
shall never lose its power
’till all the ransomed church of God
be saved, to sin no more.
’till all the ransomed church of God
be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
thy flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.

Words: William Cowper

Video: Red Mountain Music

5 Songs for Good Friday

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

With Easter coming Sunday, the MOST Holy day on the Christian calendar, it is easy to overlook or undervalue Good Friday.  But to do so deprives us of great opportunity to glory in the Cross.

When I was a kid, I remember asking my mother one day: “Why do they call it Good Friday, if that’s the day they killed Jesus?”  My mother, who is not a theologian, gave the best answer she could: “Well, I guess it because we know he rose again.”

My mother was right. No doubt the death of Jesus cannot be considered apart from the Resurrection that was to follow.  All our blessings are wrapped up in these two inseparable events.

But there is even more to it than that. The death of Christ itself, not alone but as a distinct redemptive act, carries it’s own beauty when viewed from this side of the Cross.  It was Jesus’ blood shed on the Cross that paid the debt for all my depravity, and set my sin into remission.  It is by Jesus’ voluntary death that we most vividly view the love of God – that we most clearly see nearly all of God’s attributes, really.

So with this in mind, and in hope to redeem the day for our greatest good, here are 5 songs for Good Friday that focus us on the blessing of that GREAT first Good Friday:

NOTE: All songs played on MOG. You may have to sign up for this free app to listen. But once you listen, you’ll agree it was worth it.

Now Why This Fear

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

Now why this fear and unbelief?
Has not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for us?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt of sin
Now canceled at the cross?

Chorus
Jesus, all my trust is in Your blood
Jesus, You’ve rescued us
Through Your great love

Verse 2
Complete atonement You have made
And by Your death have fully paid
The debt Your people owed
No wrath remains for us to face
We’re sheltered by Your saving grace
And sprinkled with Your blood

Bridge
How sweet the sound of saving grace
How sweet the sound of saving grace
Christ died for me

Verse 3
Be still my soul and know this peace
The merits of your great high priest
Have bought your liberty
Rely then on His precious blood
Don’t fear your banishment from God
Since Jesus sets you free

~ from The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11

Lyrics by Augustus Toplady