Daily Christian thoughts music, poems based around God
I’m so glad you are enjoying this weekend tradition of Fun Facts. I learn something new each week, even if it’s weird. I love hearing your comments! Three presidents, all Founding Fathers—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe—died on July 4. Presidents Adams and Jefferson also died the same year, 1826; President Monroe died […]
Fun Facts That Will Amaze You
When life seems to fall apart around us, we want to know why it is happening. Job got some answers from God when he asked about his own brush with evil. Let’s take a look at what God said, and reflect on what it might mean for us.
When God Shows Up
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The above passage has got to be one of the most well known passages on Worry in the Bible. So much so I recall using it in a blog about a week ago called ‘No Worries’
While Jesus tells both you and I not to worry I must admit this is a very hard thing to do sometimes.
Granted some of us worry more than others and our partners or friends may use the phrase ” I don’t know what your worrying about” I’ve said it myself.
My Mother’s name is worry, In summer she worries about the water; In winter she worries about coal and briquets, and all year long she worries about the rice.
In daytime my mother worries about living; At night she worries about her children, and all the day long she worries and worries.
Then, my mother’s name is worry. My father’s name is drunken frenzy. And mine is tears and sigh.
It was at the tender age of 7 that, as a young boy, James McConnell trusted the Lord Jesus to be his Saviour. Kneeling down at an old bench in the Iron Mission Hall, together with his Sunday School teacher, Sammy Jamison, he prayed the sinner’s prayer, little realizing the calling that the Lord had on his young life.
Difficult years lay ahead for the young James McConnell. He would find himself orphaned, first losing his beloved mother during a subsequent childbirth, and later losing his father and other family members to the disease of Tuberculosis. Many nights were spent out on the streets, sometimes sleeping in the local park – Ormeau Park, but yet the Lord’s hand was very much upon this young servant of His.
After leaving Park Parade school, at the age of 14, his first job would be in the drawing office at Belfast Shipbuilders Harland & Wolff. It would be a few years before the call to full-time ministry would be realized.
But full-time ministry was indeed the Lord’s plan for this young life. Pastor James McConnell began his ministry at the age of 17. He first pastored a church in Newcastle-upon-tyne, but by the age of 19 he had moved back to his home city and begun a work on the Whitewell Road in North Belfast.
The first service began with just 10 People who had prayed together, plus 12 visitors making a grand total of 22 persons. One man recollecting the occasion, spoke with a smile as he recalled the young skinny preacher, announcing in revolutionary language about a great work that was going to start in Whitewell. Looking around that group it would have seemed impossible, but the Lord had indeed planned a great work for His servant, and for those people who stood with him that morning.
Of course, other changes were happening in the life of the young Pastor. Shortly after returning to Belfast and taking up the ministry at Whitewell, he would meet and later marry his wife Margaret. The couple would go on to have two baby girls, Linda and Julie.
The 57 years of ministry at the Tabernacle have already been well documented, and no doubt more detail on them will be made available on this website in the coming months – during his ministry three church buildings were built in the Whitewell area to accommodate the growing congregation. He has led services and preached the gospel in many leisure centres and community halls around the country. Under his direction the Whitewell church has held major gospel outreach events in the Kings Hall, Ulster Hall, Odyssey, Windsor Park, The Oval, Seaview, Ormeau Park, Ravenhill Rugby Ground, and many other venues throughout Northern Ireland and above all the Lord Jesus has saved literally thousands of souls through his preaching.
Aware of his need to have a successor in place, 4 years before retirement, Pastor McConnell and his pastoral staff invited Pastor David Purse, then Pastoring in Cullybacky Elim, to come back to his home church to become the Associate Senior Pastor. The timing was just right. Pastor would subsequently endure a heart-attack, a quadruple-byass operation with heart valve replacement, and treatment for prostate cancer. Nevertheless his spirit remained absolutely resolute, wanting to continue to do the Lord’s will.
Early in 2014 Pastor McConnell became convinced that this was the right year for his retirement, although his exact retirement date was not set until the summer.
Although, from 1 September he is now officially retired from his role as Senior Pastor, James McConnell continues to serve the Lord. Speaking recently to a member of the Tabernacle staff he said “I am waiting on the Lord every day now. I am asking Him daily what He would have me to do for Him.” There’s no doubt that Pastor still has much to give in the Lord’s service and we look forward to see what the God will continue to do with him throughout his retirement years.
Pastor Jim McConnell Died during Covid 19 and his funeral was well attended in the church he founded.
1 Praise the Lord.[a]
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honour
and sing for joy on their beds.
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them—
this is the glory of all his faithful people.
Praise the Lord.
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
Today I wish to continue along the John Gowans theme, only this time I include his longtime friend John Larrson. With the song Burning Burning.
I have never seen Spirit or any of the other musicals for that matter but there has always been something I have liked about this song. The words are so important, it’s also a song that can be appealing to the individual.
1.
Burning, burning, brightly burning,
Brightly burning Fire divine,
Satisfy my spirit’s yearning.
Fill this empty soul of mine.
Chorus
Burning, burning, always burning.
Holy Spirit, stay with me;
To your will my will is turning,
What you will I want to be.
2.
Burning, burning, deeply burning,
Deeply burning holy Fire,
Now, your perfect plan discerning,
Your design is my desire.
3.
Burning, burning, gently burning,
Gently burning Fire within,
From your love my love is learning.
Now I feel your work begin.
A prayer that priests and other religious pray in the cycle of our daily Liturgy of the Hours (or Office/Breviary) reads: “Lord, you renew the face of the earth announcing unforetold wonders. Through a virgin, you brought forth new birth to our world; through your miracles, new power; through your suffering, new patience; in your […]
Pentecost People
He gave up all His gloryTo come to earth a lowly childNo pomp or royal feast announced His birthHis childhood was quietThough His parents knew His fateThey knew just who He was and His great worthThen when the time was comesThat He should start to show HimselfHe submitted to the baptizing of JohnThe heavens opened […]
With Every Breath
Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations is a masterpiece of orchestral music, composed between October 1898 and February 1899. It consists of fourteen variations on an original theme, each representing a different friend or acquaintance of Elgar. The most famous variation is “Nimrod,” which symbolizes his close friendship with Augustus Jaeger.
The work was first performed in London on June 19, 1899, conducted by Hans Richter, and quickly gained international recognition. It has been performed by many renowned orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Christian Devotions, Health and General issues of the day 