Dear Harmony Plains Singing School friends,
As we look forward to singing school Sunday night July 20th through Friday night July 25th, we pray that you are able to attend. We also pray that this 61st session will be a very enjoyable and blessed week. Our theme this year is “Blessed Assurance”. Our theme song is “Blessed Assurance” (#445 in the Centennial edition of the OSH). Our Bible text this year is Acts 17:31, “…he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
Blessed means to have joy, and assurance means to be free from doubt. Blessed Assurance is a joyful confidence that Jesus is mine and heaven is secure.
Blind from six-weeks old, Fanny Crosby, a devout Christian, strong in faith, penned the lyrics to this song. She frequently wrote words to fit the music composed by others. One day her friend Phoebe Knapp played a song on the piano and asked Fanny if she could provide lyrics. As was her custom, Fanny first prayed and then she spoke, “It says, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!” She then dictated all the stanzas for this beloved hymn.
Written almost 150 years ago, its truths are still as relevant as ever! Blessed assurance! Glorious guarantee! All in Jesus belong to him forever. Wonderful news, but at times we all struggle. Our own conscience or Satan may whisper, “How could you be God’s child? Look at what you said, felt, or did?” This leaves us wondering, “Am I his? Will I live in heaven when I leave earth?”
Blessed assurance signifies the soul’s confidence that one is free from condemnation of sin and will certainly spend eternity with Christ in heaven. This sweet and blessed confidence is rooted in God’s grace and Christ’s redemption rather than one’s personal efforts. Note our text, assurance is rooted in Jesus’ resurrection. Christ said that eternal life was, well, eternal!
Anyone that God gives eternal life never loses it. This is not a license to sin; we do very well at that trying our best not to. The blessed assurance is that our sin will not separate us from heaven even though there are consequences of sin here on earth. John 10:28-30 reassures us of the permanence of salvation, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”
In Romans 8:38-39, Paul also declares that nothing can separate us from the love of God. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This verse emphasizes the totality of God’s love, providing confidence that your relationship with him stands firm.
Assurance does not come from looking at self; it comes from looking to Christ. Assurance is not how our hearts are set on God, but how his heart is set on us. Don’t ask, “How am I doing,” but rather, “What did Jesus do?”
The gospel directs us to Someone outside of us instead of something within us for assurance. The love we long for and the confidence we crave is found in Jesus alone. Though we labor to be like Jesus each day, it is Christ’s substitutionary work viewed each day that gives relief.
When we sin, we are to take it to the Lord in prayer, repent, and follow him more closely. In this ongoing battle though, the strength, motivation, and joy to keep living for Christ is not that we are becoming perfect, but that we are already perfect in the sight of God through Christ. Let us rejoice.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
In him,
Brother Dickie