Great Is Thy Faithfulness

© Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen
All Rights Reserved

   We are all often confronted with all kinds of opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

-          Charles Swindoll.

   When I was a lad of about ten during the middle fifties, I once saw an illustration in a popular Afrikaans (my mother-tongue) children’s magazine, the South African Patrys (direct translation ‘Partridge’) of a little boy winning a soapbox race down a dusty road in his hometown where he lived with his family. What a magnificent illustration by the artist, and I stared at it transfixed for what must have felt like hours. I mean, what healthy, energetic little red-blooded boy would not like to win a soapbox derby? While the blood rushed to my temples I thought, 'Can, or will, something as exciting as that, ever happen to a person as plain and ordinary like me?'  

   It nevertheless so transpired that, about three or four years later, in 1961, that I finally was confronted with an invitation to take part in a soapbox derby in a suburb in proximity to the Krugersdorp Hospital in the historical little town of Krugersdorp, South Africa. I was only 14 years old at the time and was living with my grandparents at Cottesloe, Johannesburg in order to finish Standard 7 (today Grade 9) at the Vorentoe High School (today again renamed Rossmore High School) that was situated in Crosby, also a suburb of the ‘golden city’ of Johannesburg, and not far from my grandparents’ home in Cottesloe.  My ‘aunt’, i.e. my mother’s kid sister Nettie (already deceased now) who was also 14 at the time, and I used to ride the red double-decker bus (so typically ‘London’!)  to school together everyday.   

   My young ‘uncle’, Frikkie Gouws, my Mother’s kid-brother, also already deceased now and at the time only 10 years old, had suddenly withdrawn from the race and I was automatically selected as just about the only suitable and available substitute for the event. Well, it so happened that I won that race, and my uncle also won his dads’ race in the same little black-and-white soapbox car (Our car was Number 12). My uncle’s prize was a handy tool for his toolbox and my prize was a small trophy, which I still cherish in our little showcase after 52 years. Another bonus was my name and picture in the local newspaper, Die Wesrander, of 1961 and guess what … my picture was almost an exact (and uncanny) replica of the illustration I had seen years before in that little children’s magazine. That was my first experience of the dream making power of the grace of God. I hadn’t prayed about it, I haven’t begged for it, and I really wasn’t a religious or spiritual type of person at all.  I was a naïve little 10 years old boy with no working knowledge of God or the Bible … yet this wonderful gift out of the blue, without me even asking for it!

   Years later, when I heard great pianists playing on the radio, and saw the fine pianists of the world performing on stage and with symphony orchestras on TV and in the movies (as well in the Church), I developed a vision for that kind of ministry (for myself) too. Over the years, that opportunity presented itself in many guises, and I availed myself of them with the reckless entitlement and unquenchable zeal of a fanatic who was not going to take “No!” for an answer.  On top of it all I married a woman in 1978, whose love for praise-and-worship music and (sacred) organ music, matched my love for the piano pound-for-pound. This year, 2013, we celebrate our 37^th year of music ministry in the Church, all made possible by the dream maker of an unselfish Creator and a magnanimous God who, inexplicably, loves to share His bounty with fallible and undeserving creatures like us and spread His joy to the ends of the Earth for everybody to share.

   That is the kind of faithfulness this song is referring to, and what’s even better is the faithfulness that will forgive our sins and save our souls, provided we will come to God, confess our sins and accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord.  The Bible says:

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:5-9 KJV, www.e-sword.net).

Hallelujah, great is His faithfulness … morning by morning His new mercies we see!    

YouTube

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

(T.O. Chrisholm, 1866-1960/William M. Runyan, 1870-1957

© Copyright W.M. Runyan 1923, Hope Publishing Co., Owner).

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness,

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten-thousand beside!

CHORUS

“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided –

“Great is Thy faithfulness” Lord unto me!

Piet Stassen

eLiterature/eLiteratuur:

1. Scribd Publishing Site:  www.scribd.com/PietStassen (ENGLISH & AFRIKAANS)
2. eBook: 'Evolution: The Science That Evolved Into A Fairy Tale' (ENGLISH)  
3. eBook:  'Bertrand Russell Revisited: Rebuttal Of Bertrand Russell's 'Why I Am Not A Christian''(ENGLISH)
4. eBook: 'Meditations & Contemplations: A Reader For Both Atheists And Creationists' (ENGLISH)
5. eBook: 'Conservation, Rhino Poaching And Hypocrisy' (ENGLISH)
6. eBook: 'Why Darwinism ('Evolution') Does Not Make Sense' (ENGLISH)
7. eBook: 'Names And Titles Of Jesus Of Nazareth (ENGLISH)'
8. eBoek:  'Darwin Of Christus: Suid-Afrikaners By 'n Kruispad!' [AFRIKAANS].
9. eBoek:  'Bevryding Van Die Anti-Evangelie Van Ateisme-Evolusionisme' [AFRIKAANS].
10. eBoek:  'Name & Titels Van Jesus Christus' [AFRIKAANS].
11. eTracts, Christian (Free, Downloadable):  Free, downloadable Christian eTracts for free distribution (ENGLISH)
12. eTraktate, Christelik (Gratis, Aflaaibaar): Gratis, aflaaibabre Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.  Hymnary.Org. 'William M. Runyan'. Accessed At <http://www.hymnary.org/person/Runyan_WM> [online] 2013.

2.  Hymnary.Org. 'Thomas Obadiah Chrisholm'.  Accessed At <http://www.hymnary.org/person/Chisholm_TO.> [online] 2013. 

3.  Smith, Alfred B. (1971) Favorites Vol.1. ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’. Singspiration® Inc. Zondervan Corporation. Grand Rapids, Michigan.