He is Faithful

as emmit & i were headed to the grocery store this morning i turned on the radio to listen to the weather (it looked like we were going to get caught in some rain). i had left the radio on 89.9fm, a classical station located in canada, the evening before. what i heard in the next five minutes, or so, was almost surreal yet gripped my heart & mind with such a strong sense of the reality of my Lord i just couldn't change the station. so, i listened on. what i perceived to hear was an old man, a very old man, quietly singing...

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet,
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.
This one thing I know, for he loves me so.

he sang with such carefree & confident joy in his Lord. he continued to sing this simple song over & over & over. i thought this heavenly song would never end & wondered how in the world this got on national radio. as he continued to sing his voice began to fade out a bit & another strong younger male voice began singing the same words...

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet,
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.
This one thing I know, for he loves me so.

how beautiful! it was almost as if the younger man's voice was the old man proclaiming the same wondrous message in his earlier years. i thought to myself in these minutes how very much i desire these same words to be my heart's cry at the end of my life...the great faithfulness of my great God! He is faithful to the very end.

"Who will separate us from the love of God? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? just as it is written, 'For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is IN Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39 AMEN!!!

what a glorious, merciful, gracious, loving God we serve! His abundant strength is made perfect in our human weaknesses.

"Remember my affliction & my wandering, the wormwood & bitterness. Surely my soul remembers & is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I have hope in Him.' The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him" Lamentations 3:19-25

There is an unwavering, unfailing, steadfast, confident hope found in the Lord.




Jesus' blood never fails
By John Fischer

There is a quirky piece of music written and recorded by the British composer Gavin Bryars that features a continuous running tape loop of a homeless man recorded on the streets of London singing an old Gospel song, “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet.” The old man’s voice is wistful and wobbly, with a Cockney accent that somehow carries with it a toothless grin you can almost see, and a confidence that stands in stark contrast to his situation.

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet,
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.
This one thing I know, for he loves me so.

A reporter, who was a friend of the composer, recorded this little song by accident while researching a story on London’s poor, and Bryars was captivated by its simple grandeur. He was haunted by the power of the old man’s sincerity and the boldness of his hope even though, by his own admission, he does not share his faith. That’s when he got the idea to immortalize the man’s testimony by writing an orchestral accompaniment that would weave intricately in and around the sinewy voice as it repeated, over and over again, its confidence in the never-failing love of Jesus. The end result is a 75-minute recording that gradually works its way through various musical shades and colors while the toothless voice grins on and on.

Little did he know it was going to turn into something of a phenomenon. The piece scored a pop hit in Britain and did fairly well in America. Though it is considered a classical recording, its unique composition appealed to a broad range of people, especially a younger audience that turned it into a sort of pop icon.

Think about it: a bum out on the streets in the lowest of states, carrying a hopeful message to hundreds of thousands of people about the reality of Christ’s love that defies his health, his circumstances, and the physical conditions that are his daily reality. Hearing it always makes me see whatever I might be going through at the time in a different light.

“Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39 NLT Or, to put it another way, whatever happens to you or me, we can always say, “Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.”



http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/jesus_blood_never_failed_m.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnYA0w4cWiE (the full song)

copy & paste the link above in your browser to hear a brief clip of this song.

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