I Don't Know 'Bout You, But I'm Stayin' in the Vine!

I'd like to share a couple songs with you that have been particularly meaningful to me in these past couple months. The first one is the second verse of "Be Thou My Vision" (though the other verses are very significant for me as well) and the second is "The Solid Rock." Below you're find my thoughts on these songs and why I hold them so dearly.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

The Solid Rock
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

When all of my life is transient and I am living out of two suitcases and a backpack there is one thing I can cling to -Jesus Christ, The Solid Rock. When I don't have a clue about raising support and becoming a missionary, He is my Wisdom. He is always with me and will never, EVER let me go. Even though I get distracted by various things and just generally mess up, my Father still loves me and calls me His beloved daughter. His grace is sufficient for me and His power is made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). I am "faultless to stand before the throne." Wow. Praise the Lord!

I think both of these songs are so powerful to me because they have something in common that leaps out at me. To me, the lines "Thou in me dwelling and I with thee one" and "O may I then in Him be found" seem to come straight out of John 15, one of my absolute favorite Scripture passages. The whole theme of John 15 is abiding. Remaining in God, resting in Him. The Message puts it as "making our home in Him." That's a neat little twist. And over the last 2 years or so, abiding has been a theme for me. I want my relationship with Jesus Christ to be one of abiding. Yes, I want to serve, worship, give, reach out, and do all those other things Christians are supposed to do. But, if I'm not abiding, those things are empty and vain. In John 15, there is a sort of cycle/connection thing between abiding, loving, and obeying. We are to abide in the Vine and His love. How do we abide? We obey. How do we obey? We love. What does love lead to? Abiding.

So, "when all around my soul gives way," and things are stormy and unstable, I am again reminded to abide, to stay in the Vine. Maybe I'll share more thoughts on abiding soon, but this is long enough for now. "Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches, His banner over me is love..."

Oh, and a very random, silly, unrelated note about "The Solid Rock." It is the only place where I have EVER seen the word "whelmed" alone. One of my friends once showed me a quote "You can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" I guess so! ("His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood" Ok. That's all for now.