Come Thou Fount

 My first introduction to iWorship was exciting. I wanted to be able to open training events with worship, and though music does not equal worship, it can be an excellent way to focus our ‘mind’s attention, heart’s affection, and will’s ambition’ on the Father. The plug-and-play option was made for me; my giftedness and skill set for music is a negative number. One of the first songs available on iWorship was a contemporary arrangement of Robert Robinson’s hymn Come, Thou Fount. The eighteenth-century hymn is rich in the gospel.

I appreciate so much:
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
  Wand’ring from the face of God;
He, to save my soul from danger,
  Interposed His precious blood.

I had to look up ‘interposed’ – place or insert between one thing and another, intervene between parties… thank you, Jesus! Then…

O to grace how great a debtor
  Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter,
  Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee...

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
  Prone to leave the God I love:
Take my heart, oh, take and seal it
  With Thy Spirit from above!

I'm using this year Paul David Tripp’s New Morning Mercies as part of my daily disciplines. Scripture reading for August 2: All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)  The rescuing, redeeming grace of the Gospel!

Matt and Lauren Chandler’s recommendation of New Morning Mercies reminds us, ‘We feel the pull daily away from God’s goodness and toward a pursuit of our own, away from God’s gracious acceptance and toward the exhausting, impossible weight of trying to tip the scales in our favor.’

Tripp writes: 
When you quit celebrating grace, you begin to forget how much you need grace, and when you forget how much you need grace, you quit seeking the rescue and strength that only grace can give. This means you begin to see yourself as more righteous, strong, and wise than you actually are, and in so doing, you set yourself up for trouble.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me…. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:10 & 58

Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional (Crossway, 2014)