‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

Trust everybody, but cut the cards.

-       Fenley Peter Dunne, 1867-1936.

   There are those who appear to be doing their level best to reduce Jesus of Nazareth to just a ‘deluded prophet’ or a ‘fanatical ascetic’, among others the Jesus Seminar movement, known in South Africa as Die Nuwe Hervormers.  There is, in fact, a seminary professor attached to one of the biggest universities in the world who, in spite of the fact that he is one of the proponents of this movement, incredibly is still in charge of the training of proponents to the pulpit of one of the biggest protestant (‘reformed’) Churches in South Africa (who said miracles do not happen?).

   As to the divinity and divine Sonship of Jesus Christ, C.S. Lewis (friend of J.R.R. Tolkien) and writer of such books as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Problem Of Pain, Surprised By Joy, Fernseeds And Elephants and The Chronicles Of Narnia etc. writes:

   “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic ‒ on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg ‒ or else he would be the Devil of Hell.   You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.” (Lewis: 52).  

   May I remind the reader that C.S. Lewis was Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, originally an atheist who became a Christian in 1929.  With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the classical languages and the anatomy and lure of the myth in storytelling he surely ought to have known what the Bible teaches about Christ.  Lewis indeed always insisted that the story of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was certainly not mythology.

   Wikipedia quotes:   "From 1941 to 1943 Lewis spoke on religious programmes broadcast by the BBC from London while the city was under periodic air raids. These broadcasts were appreciated by civilians and service people at that stage. For example, Air Chief Marshal Sir Donald Hardman wrote:  'The war, the whole of life, everything tended to seem pointless. We needed, many of us, a key to the meaning of the universe. Lewis provided just that.' " 

   So, either Jesus was the Son of God and died for our sins, or He wasn’t and didn’t, in which case our faith is in vain.  Paul says:

   For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised:   and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.   But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:16-22 ASV, www.e-sword.net).  

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'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

(Louisa M. R. Stead, 1850-1917/William J. Kirkpatrick, 1838-1921)

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just to take Him at His word,

Just to rest upon His promise,

Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just to trust His cleansing blood,

Just in simple faith to plunge me

‘Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Yes, ‘tis sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just from sin and self to cease,

Just from Jesus simply taking

Life and rest and joy and peace.

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,

Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;

And I know that Thou art with me,

Wilt be with me to the end.

CHORUS

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!

How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er!

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!

O for grace to trust Him more!

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, aflaaibare Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.    Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.
2.   Lewis, C.S. (1942, 1943, 1944) Mere Christianity. Fount Paperbacks, Great Briatin.
3.   Peterson, John W. (1966)   Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesusl’.  Singspiration.  Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

It Is Well With My Soul

Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions! (King Claudius, Hamlet).

-      William Shakespeare, 1564-1616.

   Take a moment to reflect on the circumstances under which this hymn was written by Horatio Spafford after the following traumatic events in his life (according to Wikipedia):

·        The first was the death of their only son from Scarlet Fever in 1870

·        Second was the1871 Great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer and had invested significantly in property in the area of Chicago which was decimated by the great fire)

·        His business interests were further hit by the economic downturn of 1873 at which time he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du Havre. In a late change of plan, he sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sea vessel, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, "Saved alone …". Shortly afterwards, as Spafford travelled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.^[3] Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.^[4]

   Wikipedia further remarks:  “The Spaffords later had three more children. In 1881, the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Israel. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped  found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf”.^[3]  (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_is_well_with_my_soul).  
   The music was written by Philip P. Bliss.

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It Is Well With My Soul

(Horatio G. Stafford, 1828-1888/Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876)

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea-billows roll ‒

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Tho Satan should buffet, tho trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin ‒ O the bliss of this glorious thought ‒

My sin, not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I hear it no more:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll:

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,

“Even so” ‒ it is well with my soul.

CHORUS

It is well (It is well) with my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul.

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, aflaaibare Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.     Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.

2.     Peterson, John W. (1966)   Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘It Is Well With My Soul’.  Singspiration.  Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Blessed Assurance

Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

The world may be divided between those who take it or leave it and those who split the difference.

-       Fr. Ronald Knox 1888-1957.

   While I was posting this item, Vera Lynn (the WWII 'forces sweetheart') was singing such old World War II favourites (remember 'Hits Of The Blitz'?) in the background as 'When The Lights Go On Again All Over The World', 'We'll Meet Again' and There'll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover' ... a strange coincidence, as our lights in the apartment had been out for the past two days and only went on at about 5 pm. this afternoon to coincide 'magically' with the inserting of this post and the playing of the DVD.

   I am one of those incurable nostalgics who often try to revisit my old 'records' (read 'DVD's') and sit there listening while bawling my eyes out over the world of the forties, fifties, sixties etc. we had left so far behind.  

   I can still, as a toddler, vividly remember my parents and their friends dancing, in the late 1940's on New Year's Eve, to the tunes of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, while I lay tucked in in bed and only now and then stealing a glimpse of the gyrating couples on the dance floor from the small aperture in the doorway.  Strange, the same wartime memories from the music of the forties that make my mother shudder and cringe today is the same music that blesses me with that incomparable charm of the music from one's unforgettable childhood.  

   The forties and fifties  introduced many favourites, such as Laurence Welk, the Norman Luboff Choir, Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Patti Page, Jimmy Rodgers and many, many others. In South Africa in those days no respectable family went without a radio, and we just loved music ... Frankie Carle, George Feyer, Mitch Miller & The Gang, Ray Conniff and in South Africa: Eve Boswell etc. 

   In those days Gospel music (especially Southern Gospel) was very rare, except maybe for congregational singing in Church on Sundays, and also in certain pentecostal and some other denominations only.  It was only with the introduction of Gospel music on a mass scale via radio by such pioneers as Rex Allen, Jimmy Davis, Stuart Hamblen, Jimmy Dean, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Gordon McCrae, George Beverly Shea, The Blackwood Brothers, The Jordanaires and later, Jim Reeves, Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Swaggart and the Bill Gaither Trio that it really began to take off countrywide, even crossing over denominational boundaries in the process.  Contemporary 'Praise & Worship', especially the 'gentle alternative', came as a fresh wind of change to the Church in South Africa.        
   The recent introduction of so-called 'Gospel Rock' and 'Contemporary Urban Gospel' etc. introduced a new genre of music into the Gospel music scene with its peculiar challenges, idiosyncrasies and problems which are not necessarily wrong or theologically objectionable, but is 'enjoyed' with considerable difficulty by my generation with ears trained to appreciate the more refined sounds and gentle alternatives of (what I affectionately refer to as) at the one extreme, 'The Viennese School Of Music' tradition or, in a more recent vein (and at the other extreme) the 'Nashville Sound' tradition.    

   The question is: Will God bless us for our love for the music of the Gospel?  Does He value and appreciate our inputs, time spent on listening and appreciating good music (whatever the choice of genre)? Does He know of our periodic heartbreak, trauma, loneliness, melancholy and the debilitating nostalgia attached to waiting on the return of Christ and the establishing of His Eternal Kingdom?  Does He remember and cherish people like the blind Fanny Crosby who devoted her life to writing songs that honoured her Heavenly Father and Saviour Jesus Christ?  Does He enjoy our praise and worship, regardless of the choice of style?  I have a hunch that He does and that we have that blessed assurance from His promises in the Bible.                    

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Blessed Assurance

(Fanny J. Crosby, 1820-1915/Phoebe P. Knapp, 1839-1908)

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 

O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

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.

CHORUS

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. 

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, aflaaibare Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.     Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.

2.     Peterson, John W. (1966)   Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Blessed Assurance’.  Singspiration.  Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Come To The Savior

Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

-       Thomas Gray, 1716-1771.

   In Christian work, for me there is quite no bravery like the bravery of the full-time missionary in a foreign land.  How we sometimes marvel at the decades of backbreaking work by men and women sold out to the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Years of learning an often difficult foreign language trying to master grammar, syntax and accent, and getting accustomed to the local food and customs while probably trying to survive on a shoestring budget that cannot necessarily always be guaranteed.    

   One hears of the brave exploits of resolute men like David Brainerd, C.T. Studd and Hudson Taylor, and stand amazed at the valiant deeds of intrepid explorers and missionaries like David Livingstone and H.M.Stanley (whose biographies read as racy as a typical Rider Haggard, Alan Quatermain adventure). 

   The mass-murder of Protestant missionaries during colonial times (and also more recently) in Africa is not an uncommon phenomenon, and the report of the sacking of Catholic convents and parishes in darkest Africa not a stranger to the evening news. The persecution of missionaries attached to among others the London Missionary Society, the China Inland Mission etc. during the communist revolution in China (1949) never fails to elicit shock and admiration from those who read those stories for the first time.  Yet, in spite of it all, the non-negotiable ‘call of the wild’ still rings crystal clear: “Only one life that will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”  After all, Jesus has solemnly promised: 

   And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward.  (Matthew 10:42 ASV, www.e-sword.net).

   What a profound invitation below, a song that I’ve known since I was 14 years old in 1962:   

YouTube 

Come To The Savior

(George F. Root, 1820-1895)

Come to the Savior, make no delay ‒

Here in His Word He’s shown us the way;

Here in our midst He’s standing today,

Tenderly saying, “Come!” 

“Suffer the children!” O hear His voice,

Let ev’ry heart leap forth and rejoice;

And let us freely make Him our choice:

Do not delay, but come.

Think once again, He’s with us today ‒

Heed now His blest commands, and obey;

Hear now His accents tenderly say,

“Will you, my children, come?” 

CHORUS

Joyful, joyful will the meeting be,

When from sin our hearts are pure

and free,

And we shall gather, Savior, with Thee

In our eternal home. 

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, aflaaibare Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.     Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.

2.     Peterson, John W. (1966)   Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Come To The Savior’. Favorites No. 6.  Singspiration.  Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Lord, I’m Coming Home

Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

He who gives a child a home, builds palaces in Kingdom Come.

-       John Masefield, 1875-1967.

  

  When I was about 7 years old in 1954, my widowed great-grandmother, ‘Granny Gouws’, born in 1869, used to visit us from time to time to stay for a few weeks or so at our home in Randgate, Randfontein, South Africa.  She was about 85 years old at the time, a veteran of the Anglo-Boer War and a (rare) concentration-camp survivor of that war.  She was about 30 years old when they were herded together sometime between 1899-1902 and driven on foot to a concentration camp in Potchefstroom by the ‘Tommies’ attached to Lord Redverse Buller’s and later Lord Frederick Roberts’ British forces in South Africa ('Tommy' is slang for an English soldier, derived from the traditional English ‘Tommy Atkins’). 

   Later, when the first, and conventional, phase of the war was practically wrapped up as far as Lord Fred Roberts was concerned, he returned to England for the inevitable hero’s welcome only to leave the exasperated Lord Horatio Kitchener in charge of the gruelling and problematical last, guerrilla phase of the war.  This was during the days of the founding of the British army's scorched-earth policy with its notorious concentrations camps, the farm-burnings by the British, the thousands of blockhouses (about 8000, but I stand to be corrected) erected along railway lines all over the country where the conflict was raging, and with the legendary Jan Smuts, Christiaan De Wet and Koos De La Rey raids on unsuspecting British troops.  Some of those blockhouses can still be seen scattered over the South African landscape today.    

   This post is not meant to settle old scores with my British friends, as there probably were pros and cons and merit to both sides of the story as to the why’s and the how’s of the war, a terrain I will leave for the historians and ‘wannabe’ politicians to argue about; it is anyway common knowledge today that the 'Boers' (South Africans) later, in 1914 and again in 1939, went on to fight against the Germans alongside the British during World War I and the Nazis during World War II.  

   Incidentally, some historians actually believe that the Anglo-Boer War was the true First World War, because (i) so many countries were involved, (ii) the weapons-technology was so (relatively) advanced and (ii) it was, at the time, the biggest armada of warships (in history) ever dispatched by England across the ocean to engage in a war.

   Nevertheless, Granny Gouws was seriously injured one day during the Anglo-Boer War when a stray bomb from the ‘Tommies’ fell right through the roof to where she lay sleeping in her bed.  Apparently it did not explode, but the injuries sustained from the incident nevertheless left her maimed and hunchbacked for the rest of her life.  I can still remember the hunchbacked little woman sitting at our kitchen table in Randgate, folding and smoothing my Mother’s immaculately clean dishcloths over and over and over with her gnarled fingers while she spoke at length of her life as a child, and also of the later years.  How we loved the old woman, but we children had no idea of (or an appreciation for) the immense cultural chasm that separated our generation over space and time from hers.  
   What a shock when my pet white mouse disappeared one day and we at last discovered the impertinent little jerk sleeping blissfully in the hollow of Granny Gouws’ neck.     Incidentally, my Mother is almost as old today as Granny Gouws was in 1957 (how time flies ... it truly waits for no one).  

   Granny Gouws' significance for me today is in the habit she had to pray for us as children, every day of her life. During balmy summer evenings, while we used to play outside in the yard and games like dobbertjie, hide & seek, kennetjie and bobbies & thieves out in the streets until late at night, we sometimes could hear her beginning to pray for us in her room shortly after dinner.  In fact, we could hear her (the proverbial) ‘miles away’, mentioning each of us by name, one by one.  She was an experienced intercessor, an indefatigable ‘pray-er’ and a no-nonsense believer in the God (Yahweh) of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We used to marvel at her stamina … she simply seemed to pray for hours on end.

   At the time I could, as a child, never fully understand the purpose of all that strange ‘religiosity’ and incessant praying ... I only knew, instinctively, that some (if not most) grown-ups believed in God and that 'saying one’s prayers', for some reason or other, must have been critically important. But all that changed in 1962 when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour and for the first time in my mundane, small-town existence knew that at last I was ‘coming home’. 

   Of course, later came the barren ‘backslidden years’ of irresponsible young adulthood and the obnoxious transgressions, sins and indiscretions that usually go with the brazen arrogance and unbridled entitlement of youth  (it was to be expected, almost 'par' for the course) but I look back today and thank God for the prayers of a concentration-camp survivor called ‘Granny Gouws’, a small, hunchbacked, midget of a woman but a mighty intercessor and prayer-warrior in Christ!  Thanks to her (and other people like her) I have come home, never more to roam.  
   When I think back over my life, I hang my head in shame and acute embarrassment over the moral indiscretions, mistakes and failures of my inglorious past.  I cannot undo what I had done wrong, neither blot out the ugly memory of my many glaring imperfections, but what I can do is to kneel at the cross and ask that humble Carpenter-Rabbi from Nazareth for forgiveness and pardon, and by His great thirst on the cross of Calvary to bring the water of LIFE also to me.   Today the invitation for people to return to Christ and to come ‘home’ still stands:

         Revelation 22:16     I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.

          Revelation 22:17     And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely. (ASV, www.e-word.net).              

   

YouTube

Lord, I’m Coming Home

(William J. Kirkpatrick, 1838-1921)

I’ve wandered far away from God ‒

Now I’m coming home;

The paths of sin too long I’ve trod ‒

Lord I’m coming home.

I’ve wasted many precious years ‒

Now I’m coming home;

I now repent with bitter tears ‒

Lord, I’m coming home.

I’ve tired of sin and straying, Lord ‒

Now I’m coming home;

I’ll trust Thy love, believe Thy word ‒

Lord, I’m coming home.

My soul is sick, my heart is sore ‒

Now I’m coming home ‒

My strength renew, my hope restore ‒

Lord, I’m coming home.

CHORUS

Coming home, coming home,

Never more to roam;

Open now Thine arms of love ‒

Lord, I’m coming home.

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, aflaaibare Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.     Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.

2.     Peterson, John W. (1966)   Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Lord, I’m Coming Home’.  Singspiration Inc.  Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan.