What a friend we have in Jesus
Yesterday, at the end of the
devotion from Higher Things that I posted, there was a verse from a favorite old hymn of mine,
What a friend we have in Jesus. I remember many years ago, when I was a boy, my mom had typed this out and fastened it somewhere near the kitchen sink, I recall singing it as I did dishes. Here is the whole hymn from The Lutheran Hymnal:
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus"
by Joseph Scriven, 1820-1886
Text From: THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)
1. What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Ev'rything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Ev'rything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a Friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev'ry weakness--
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our Refuge--
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He'll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
It just goes to show that today's Lectionary reading is true, (Proverbs 22:
6)
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. In spite of decades of rebellion in between, in the end the early training as a Lutheran Christian won the day.
Thanks Mom! :-) and, more importantly, Thank God!
Yesterday it got up to 101 degrees here in Dublin. Today it's supposed to be even hotter. I've closed up the house and set the A/C in anticipation. The good thing is that this is a "Spare the air day."

So BART is free all day to encourage people to ride transit rather than drive. That means when I go to San Francisco to attend the Symphony tonight, free tickets as usual, even my train ride will be free. Plus I'm
not skipping church because Pastor Ledic is off at the English District convention today and there is no church tonight. Woo Hoo! Symphony sans guilt! :-)