Just Pondering

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Rick Branan

         If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.   One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

Romans 10:9-10 (HCSB)

          Fanny J. Crosby was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  She was born at South East, Putnam County, New York, March 24, 1823. When six weeks old she lost her sight. About 1835 she entered the New York City Institution for the Blind. On completing her training she became a teacher therein from 1847 to 1858. In 1858 she was married to Alexander Van Alstyne, a musician, who was also blind. Her first poem was published in 1831; and her first volumes of verse as A Blind Girl, and Other Poems, 1844; Monteresy, and Other Poems, 1849; and A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers, 1858. Her first hymn was "We are going, we are going" (Death and Burial), which was written for Mr. Bradbury and published in the Golden Censer, 1864. From 1853 to 1858 she wrote 20 songs, which were set to music by G. F. Root. Her songs and hymns number some 2,000 or more, and have been published mainly in several of the popular American Sunday school collections, and often under a nom de plume. 

(John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology)

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.


Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight:
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest:
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Written by Fanny J. Crosby

          When we purchase big ticket items, we want a guarantee.  I used to work for Sears and Roebuck.  The store offered a basic warranty but also offered additional coverage including regular maintenance for up to three years.  The agreement offered more assurance to our customers.  As born-again believers, we have assurance of eternal life with God in heaven.  Our salvation, as Romans 10 states, is the result of our confession that Jesus is Lord.  We can do nothing on our own to purchase that assurance.  Sears’ service agreement was purchasable, our salvation is by God’s grace.

          Fanny Crosby spelled it out in the first stanza.  God purchased our salvation through His Son.  Christ’s work on the cross guarantees “glory divine.”  When Christ swoops down in the rapture, we will be caught up in His mercy.  We indeed need to submit to His will and way because He is our Lord.

          Crosby’s refrain needs to be our story and song too.  Our praise is also our message of salvation to a lost and dying world.  Tell the story!

Just pondering . . . Bro. Rick