{"id":2689,"date":"2018-07-16T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?p=2689"},"modified":"2018-07-16T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T05:41:00","slug":"blessed-assurance-15-07-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/?p=2689","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Assurance 15-07-2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blessed Assurance<\/i>.<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 24;\u00a0 <\/span>Ephesians 1: 1 – 14<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is very interesting researching the background to that famous song of praise, \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>Looking at an old Methodist Hymn Book one reads that Mrs. J.F. Knapp wrote the music and Frances Jane van Alstyne wrote the words.\u00a0 <\/span>However the \u2018Songs of Fellowship\u2019 music book simply has Phoebe Palmer Knapp as the music composer and Fanny Crosby the lyrics composer. Who did what? And, why the interest anyway in this hymn?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Well let me answer the second question first. The other day we celebrated the life of Pat Kelly and she had chosen three very lovely old hymns. One of them was \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>A few people remarked on how they appreciated singing \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019 again.\u00a0 <\/span>I know it so well that I can sing the first verse without looking at the words! It is a \u2018stand out\u2019 song of praise. So I thought I would return to the hymn and look at what we are singing about.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But before we look at the content of the hymn let us look at its background. It is so very interesting.\u00a0 <\/span>The story goes that Fanny Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp. The Knapps were having a large pipe organ installed in their home. The organ was incomplete, so Mrs. Knapp, using the piano, played a new melody she had just composed. When Knapp asked Crosby, “What do you think the tune says?”, Fanny replied, “Blessed assurance; Jesus is mine.” Fanny immediately wrote down the words of \u2018Blessed Assurance\u201d.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The hymn appeared in the July 1873 issue of Palmer’s\u00a0Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany<\/i>. It appeared on page 36 (the last page) with complete text and piano score, and noted that Fanny Crosby had copyrighted it that year. Because of Crosby’s lyrics, the tune is now called “Blessed Assurance.”\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The mystery of the names is relatively simple. The musical score was composed by Phoebe Palmer Knapp (nee. Palmer) and she married Joseph Fairchild Knapp so naturally, as you would in the 1900s, Phoebe\u2019s work is acknowledged by her married name of Mrs J. F. Knapp. Fanny Crosby was born Francis Jane Crosby and she married Alexander van Alstyne. Likewise she is noted as F.J van Alstyne. But Fanny became famous and published many of her songs of praise under her family name of Fanny Crosby.\u00a0 <\/span>Phoebe and Fanny composed together and another well know Gospel song is \u2018Nearer the Cross\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Fanny Crosby or (Mrs) Francis J Alstyne also wrote \u2018To God be the Glory\u2019 (AHB 147).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But this is not a history lesson about names and what marriage did to women\u2019s identity, but a reflection on their faith.\u00a0 <\/span>These two women, Phoebe and Fanny both deeply loved Jesus, contributed largely to congregational singing in the 1900s and the proclamation of the Gospel. Ira Sankey said that Fanny Crosby\u2019s music contributed significantly to the success of the Sankey and Moody evangelistic campaigns.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So what can we learn from this song.\u00a0 <\/span>The first verse contains in a nutshell the Gospel \u2013 the good news that God saves us, makes us whole, welcome us, redeems us \u2013 what ever speaks to you and your experience of God in Christ Jesus. The first verse tells us about our salvation.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Blessed<\/i> assurance, Jesus is mine:<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

O what a foretaste of glory divine<\/i>!<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Heir of salvation, purchase of God;<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How magnificent are these opening lines by this gifted woman of faith and poetry. They declare boldly the assurance we have that we are God\u2019s because God has promised to restore us to the image of God.\u00a0 <\/span>They tell us that we don\u2019t have to strive to please God. They tell us that the way to peace with God is trust grounded in God\u2019s faithfulness to us.\u00a0 <\/span>Listen again to Paul\u2019s words to the Church at Ephesus.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,\u00a0 <\/span>just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.\u00a0 <\/span>He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will <\/i>[Eph 1: 3-5].<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These thoughts begin with \u2018blessedness\u2019 that comes from heaven to us on earth. This is followed by God\u2019s choosing us from the foundation of the world, which tells that from the beginning God wants a relationship with us for our good \u2013 our blessing.\u00a0 <\/span>God will bring us into the presence of God blameless. That is, our sins will be washed away and we will become God\u2019s children. If we are God\u2019s children then we are heirs of God\u2019s fullness and richness. \u00a0 <\/span>And all this is achieved through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus \u2013 purchase of God, washed in His blood<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m not taking these expressions just literally, but images of that our salvation is God business not our own achievement.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These thoughts are not Paul\u2019s, or whoever the author of Ephesians might be. These thoughts are found scattered through the Scriptures. It is God who called Abraham and Sarah; it is God who called forth Moses, Miriam and Aaron to liberate the slaves in Egypt. When Jesus speaks of himself saying; the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many<\/i> [Mk 10:45], he is saying he has come to serve like the \u2018suffering servant\u2019 in the Prophet Isaiah\u2019s book [Is.53] and is the \u2018Son of Man\u2019 who comes from heaven to redeem us as described in the Daniel prophecy [Dan 7]. \u00a0 <\/span>Jesus tells Nicodemus if he wants to be a child of God he must be \u2018born again of the water and the Spirit\u2019 and later says that all who believe in him will be saved [Jn 3:3,16].<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Fanny Crosby\u2019s lyrics are pure Scripture \u2013 the truths of Scripture revealed fully in Christ Jesus. Read Romans 8: 14-17 and John 1:12 and the same truths emerge. \u00a0 <\/span>Fanny Crosby, inspired by the beautiful music of Phoebe captured in poignant prose where we stand in our faith.\u00a0 <\/span>We are grounded in God\u2019s will and promises. That is why we can say we are Christian.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The second verse picks up the fruit of our trust in God and reflects something of Jacob\u2019s vision of angels ascending and descending bringing a message to him from heaven – God [Gen 28:10].<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Perfect submission, perfect delight<\/i>,<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

visions of rapture burst on my sight;<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

angels descending bring from above<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

echoes of mercy, whispers of love.<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Once more we are reminded of the compassion of God in Christ in the angels descending from heaven with echoes and whispers of mercy and love. This is poetry that conveys an in expressible beautiful truth. And that is how it is with us. The gentle echoes and whispers in life that touch our lives are carried by God\u2019s angels to us. These angels don\u2019t have wide white spanned wings, but the touch and smile and help of our neighbours and friends about us. These angels are those that comfort us and those who stand for what right and just.\u00a0 <\/span>God\u2019s whispers of love and echoes of mercy come to us from those about us. Oh, how sad it is that we often fail to recognise God\u2019s grace to us in the familiar face.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The third verse continues to re-enforce the truth of the Gospel message. Here on earth I watch and wait looking to heaven.\u00a0 <\/span>As I have taught from this pulpit waiting is a positive activity and heaven is God\u2019s \u2018control tower\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>As in the Lord\u2019s Prayer we pray that God\u2019s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven give us the direction by which we are to live our lives. And so we sing:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Perfect submission<\/i>, all is at rest,<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I in my Saviour am happy and blessed;<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

watching and waiting, looking above,<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

filled with His goodness, lost in His love.<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The final phrase recalls for me Charles Wesley\u2019s hymn, love divine all love excelling <\/i>[Tis 217] and its last line, \u201cLost in wonder, love and praise\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>It is not surprising to find \u2018Charles Wesley\u2019s thoughts captured her, for Fanny was a Methodist. Would we all be \u2018lost\u2019 in Christ\u2019s love.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We have paused to reflect on this beautiful song of praise that Fanny Crosby wrote to Phoebe Knapp\u2019s music, albeit couched prose and using a particular theological perspective.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope when you sing these words you know that you are saved in Christ, an heir of the riches of our God and stand before God cleansed and forgiven.\u00a0 <\/span>I know I am a Christian not because of any goodness in me or dutiful service I have given, God forbid both are so fraught with questions, but because I trust Christ Jesus and God\u2019s promises in him, and have the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart and mind [Rom 8: 15-17].\u00a0 <\/span>This is my prayer for you. I hope you can sing this old song of praise with the confidence that you are God\u2019s because you trust Christ Jesus.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I find it so sad when I come across Christians unsure of their position with God. I recall coming to the bedside of a parishioner. She was a pillar in the Church. Well educated in the faith. Ran the local church\u2019s library. She was not shy to point out certain liturgical shortcomings in my ministry. But I found her critical sick in hospital that day. As is my custom I checked with her how she was travelling with God. She was unsure and doubted whether she was good enough. I was surprised. Anyway I shared Gospel as I have shared today. She seemed to find peace in that.\u00a0 <\/span>There was a positive sequel to that moment, but enough is said. It is true many seem uncertain of their position with God. John says it well when he says, to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God<\/i>. [Jn 1:12]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I want you to walk tall with God, not because you are worthy, but because you have been made worthy and are being made worthy through the work of God in Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 <\/span>Be bold and claim what is yours. Through Christ you are a child of God and an heir to the promises of God. You have nothing to fear – just to sing a song of praise: blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

*******<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC:\u00a0 <\/span>15\/07\/2018<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

pcwhitaker@icloud.com<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessed Assurance. Psalm 24;\u00a0 Ephesians 1: 1 – 14 It is very interesting researching the background to that famous song of praise, \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019.\u00a0 Looking at an old Methodist Hymn Book one reads that Mrs. J.F. Knapp wrote the music and Frances Jane van Alstyne wrote the words.\u00a0 However the \u2018Songs of Fellowship\u2019 music book simply has Phoebe Palmer Knapp as the music composer and Fanny Crosby the lyrics composer. Who did what? And, why the interest anyway in this hymn? Well let me answer the second question first. The other day we celebrated the life of Pat Kelly and she had chosen three very lovely old hymns. One of them was \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019.\u00a0 A few people remarked on how they appreciated singing \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019 again.\u00a0 I know it so well that I can sing the first verse without looking at the words! It is a \u2018stand out\u2019 song of praise. So I thought I would return to the hymn and look at what we are singing about.\u00a0 But before we look at the content of the hymn let us look at its background. It is so very interesting.\u00a0 The story goes that Fanny Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp. The Knapps were having a large pipe organ installed in their home. The organ was incomplete, so Mrs. Knapp, using the piano, played a new melody she had just composed. When Knapp asked Crosby, “What do you think the tune says?”, Fanny replied, “Blessed assurance; Jesus is mine.” Fanny immediately wrote down the words of \u2018Blessed Assurance\u201d. The hymn appeared in the July 1873 issue of Palmer’s\u00a0Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany. It appeared on page 36 (the last page) with complete text and piano score, and noted that Fanny Crosby had copyrighted it that year. Because of Crosby’s lyrics, the tune is now called “Blessed Assurance.”\u00a0 The mystery of the names is relatively simple. The musical score was composed by Phoebe Palmer Knapp (nee. Palmer) and she married Joseph Fairchild Knapp so naturally, as you would in the 1900s, Phoebe\u2019s work is acknowledged by her married name of Mrs J. F. Knapp. Fanny Crosby was born Francis Jane Crosby and she married Alexander van Alstyne. Likewise she is noted as F.J van Alstyne. But Fanny became famous and published many of her songs of praise under her family name of Fanny Crosby.\u00a0 Phoebe and Fanny composed together and another well know Gospel song is \u2018Nearer the Cross\u201d.\u00a0 Fanny Crosby or (Mrs) Francis J Alstyne also wrote \u2018To God be the Glory\u2019 (AHB 147). But this is not a history lesson about names and what marriage did to women\u2019s identity, but a reflection on their faith.\u00a0 These two women, Phoebe and Fanny both deeply loved Jesus, contributed largely to congregational singing in the 1900s and the proclamation of the Gospel. Ira Sankey said that Fanny Crosby\u2019s music contributed significantly to the success of the Sankey and Moody evangelistic campaigns.\u00a0 So what can we learn from this song.\u00a0 The first verse contains in a nutshell the Gospel \u2013 the good news that God saves us, makes us whole, welcome us, redeems us \u2013 what ever speaks to you and your experience of God in Christ Jesus. The first verse tells us about our salvation.\u00a0 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. How magnificent are these opening lines by this gifted woman of faith and poetry. They declare boldly the assurance we have that we are God\u2019s because God has promised to restore us to the image of God.\u00a0 They tell us that we don\u2019t have to strive to please God. They tell us that the way to peace with God is trust grounded in God\u2019s faithfulness to us.\u00a0 Listen again to Paul\u2019s words to the Church at Ephesus. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,\u00a0 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.\u00a0 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will [Eph 1: 3-5]. These thoughts begin with \u2018blessedness\u2019 that comes from heaven to us on earth. This is followed by God\u2019s choosing us from the foundation of the world, which tells that from the beginning God wants a relationship with us for our good \u2013 our blessing.\u00a0 God will bring us into the presence of God blameless. That is, our sins will be washed away and we will become God\u2019s children. If we are God\u2019s children then we are heirs of God\u2019s fullness and richness. \u00a0 And all this is achieved through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus \u2013 purchase of God, washed in His blood.\u00a0 I\u2019m not taking these expressions just literally, but images of that our salvation is God business not our own achievement. These thoughts are not Paul\u2019s, or whoever the author of Ephesians might be. These thoughts are found scattered through the Scriptures. It is God who called Abraham and Sarah; it is God who called forth Moses, Miriam and Aaron to liberate the slaves in Egypt. When Jesus speaks of himself saying; the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many [Mk 10:45], he is saying he has come to serve like the \u2018suffering servant\u2019 in the Prophet Isaiah\u2019s book [Is.53] and is the \u2018Son of Man\u2019 who comes from heaven to redeem us as described in the Daniel prophecy [Dan 7]. \u00a0 Jesus tells Nicodemus if he wants to be a child of God he must be \u2018born again of the water and the Spirit\u2019 and later says that all who believe in him will be saved [Jn 3:3,16]. Fanny Crosby\u2019s lyrics are pure Scripture \u2013 the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Leighmoor.Master","author_link":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/author\/leighmoor-master"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Sermons<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Blessed Assurance. Psalm 24;\u00a0 Ephesians 1: 1 – 14 It is very interesting researching the background to that famous song of praise, \u2018Blessed Assurance\u2019.\u00a0 Looking at an old Methodist Hymn Book one reads that Mrs. J.F. Knapp wrote the music and Frances Jane van Alstyne wrote the words.\u00a0 However the \u2018Songs of Fellowship\u2019 music book…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2690,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}