"Tho' sundered far; by faith they meet"

This line comes from the hymn "From Every Stormy Wind That Blows", written by Hugh Stowell and composed by Thomas Hastings. The entire third verse is as follows:

"There is a spot where spirits blend, Where friend holds fellowship with friend, 

Tho' sundered far; by faith they meet Around the common mercy seat."

I love prayer, and I love praying with other people. It ties you together like nothing else can. I have a prayer group that meets once a week, and this past week one of the girls mentioned how amazing it is that the four of us there were all from different states (and I could add: different backgrounds, schooling, families, etc.), yet the Lord brought us together this semester to live on the same hall and to pray together. Crazy. God is too good to us.

"Spirits blend." There is no strife when prayer is present. When two or three are gathered in God's name, he is there among them. Like-minded believers become even more like-minded when they pray together. Your spirits meld and you understand one another better as you come before the throne of God with each other. 

"Friend holds fellowship with friend." The best thing you can do for someone is to pray for them, and the most enriching thing you can do for a relationship is to pray together. Prayer is intentional, intimate, the baring of our hearts before our Father. To pray with someone is to have close fellowship with them.

"Tho' sundered far; by faith they meet." This is what I was getting at earlier. The word "sundered" means to be separated or parted. It's amazing to see the bond that Christians have with each other even though they have never met. This past summer I felt closer with some people from Mexico that I had met ten minutes prior, than other people that I have known most of my life, simply because I knew we had the same Father and we prayed to Him together. The prayer group with the girls on my hall has given me a deeper relationship with them that I don't believe could have happened otherwise. 

"Around the common mercy seat." The mercy seat is a place of glory and reverence, but it is also a place of acceptance and familiarity. We do not need to "prepare ourselves" to pray, for our Father is always ready to hear us. The mercy seat is common in that it is widespread. I believe there are people all over the world that are praying to God right now. That is amazing to think about, and to know that God hears them all! 

What an awesome God we have! Let us not take the privilege of prayer lightly!

"Where Congregations Ne'er Break Up, And Sabbaths Have No End"

This line is from a hymn that I just heard for the first time today, entitled "Jerusalem, My Happy Home". It is a description of heaven and the believer's eager anticipation for it. The text was written by Joseph Bromehead and the music was arranged by Annabel M. Buchanan, published in 1938.
I love thinking about heaven. It seems as though spending a lot of time thinking about heaven would cause us to be daydreamers rather than doers, but it is quite the contrary. The promise of glory to come is a large motivator for action in this life. The knowledge that there is a heaven and that we will be taken someday to stay there forever puts this life in perspective. This world is not our home, but nevertheless what we do in our time here does matter and has a lasting effect on eternity.
I like the description of heaven - "Where Sabbaths have no end". Over the past couple months I have been convicted and inspired by the Holy Spirit to truly keep the Sabbath day holy and dedicated to God. At first it seemed like a daunting task to actually find things to do on the Lord's Day that weren't all the activities that I did on every other day of the week. But after getting used to it, I realized that I wanted Sundays to go on forever. I long for heaven even more than ever now that I know what a real Sabbath is like. Our Sabbaths on this earth will never be perfect, but nevertheless they point us to the eternal Sabbath where we will worship our King endlessly.
The first part of the line has great significance as well - "Where congregations ne'er break up". Too often have I seen or heard about churches breaking up or being divided by sin within the congregation. There will be none of that in heaven, for all hearts will be aligned to one goal: the glorification of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will be worshiping with all of God's children at this everlasting worship service. How amazing that will be! Worship without sin and struggle! "O For a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise!"
Let us look long and often at the glory that is to come. I don't think our problems come from thinking about heaven too much, but rather too little. It will give us perspective and persistence in our race.

"Jesus Paid it All"

This is the title line to a hymn with lyrics written by Elvina M. Hall and music by John T. Grape, which both happened to be written at the same time within the same church and "happened" to go together. Cool stuff. 

I have three things to say about this line. The first is: Jesus. 

There is no sweeter name to a believer's ear than that of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who could be placed as the subject of this sentence. At the mention of His name, broken hearts and weary souls should listen and find relief. This statement becomes very important because of who it is about. What is to be said about Jesus? Many things, but the verb used here is: Paid. 

Jesus Paid. 

The greatest transaction in the history of the universe. Our lowly broken souls, released from eternal judgement and imprisonment, bought through Christ's sinless life and painful death in taking the weight of the sins of the world. His name was stained through so that ours might become washed white as snow. Justice and Mercy meet at the foot of the cross. It was a fair transaction, though we as believers cry, "why?", with tears falling as we struggle to comprehend the unbelievable. The gravity of the situation is explained through the last word of this sentence. Jesus paid what? 

Jesus Paid it All. 

All of it. All of our sin, guilt, judgement - he took it. He not only took it, he placed it on Himself and said, "I did this. I did these things." The Father's wrath was taken out upon His Son for the sins of the world. Only God has the authority to use these all-inclusive words such as "all." He is fully aware of how much sin we have, and he made sure that He washed it all away. Our debt is paid; we are free! We shall never fear, for in any situation or trial, we have peace with God because "Jesus Paid it All." 

Connections

So I am a music major, and I have to practice a lot. I also am a vocalist, and I have to sing a lot. But I don't always sing for my practice time. Sometimes I watch masterclasses on the internet to get another teacher's viewpoint on this nebulous thing known as the voice, and sometimes these masterclasses become educational beyond the musical realm, whether it was the instructor's intent or not.
There are so many parallels between the life of a musician (particularly a vocalist) and the life of a believer. Thus I have dubbed the practice room as the "sanctification room", and actually started writing a book on all of my discoveries over the past few years.
This masterclass that I watched the other day ended up being primarily about the breath, which wonder of all wonders was what I was struggling with at the time. I am loosely quoting the teacher (who was Joyce DiDonato for those of you that want to know), when I say the following:
"We can never grab onto the air and hold onto it. We have to do the actions that give us the effect, not go for the effect itself. The second we start thinking about making sound, we're in trouble. We go to try and make the sound, instead of creating the environment for the sound to happen. If we create the environment for it, freedom is there."
Wow. That makes so much sense as a vocalist. Usually the biggest thing that keeps a singer from reaching the full potential of their voice is that something is getting in the way of their breath fully releasing. As sinful human beings, we are all control freaks. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's true. I have seen this carry over into the practice room, the stage, the ensemble, friendships, school, etc. etc. We would choose control over what is best for us. Why live by faith when you can live by sight? Why trust someone or something else when you can just "believe in yourself"?
Let me substitute the word "life" in place of the words relating to the breath.
"We can never grab onto our life and hold onto it. We have to do the actions that give us the effect, not go for the effect itself. The second we start thinking about living a good life, we're in trouble. We go to try and make a good life, instead of creating the environment for it to happen. If we create the environment for it, freedom is there."
Crazy. God does not call us find our life, but rather lose it for His sake (Matthew 10:39). When we see the flaws and inconsistencies in our life, we can't just decide to "be better". All of our good works are as filthy rags. We will continue to be discouraged as long as we are trusting solely in ourselves to live a better life.
We do not go for the effect, but rather the actions that give us the effect. What are these actions? Meeting with God, praying for the Holy Spirit to enter your life and change you from the inside out. Your focus becomes not on being a better person but rather on letting God invade every part of you and making you like Himself. We must create the environment for spiritual fruit to happen, and not try and make it out of nothing ourselves. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 says, "I (Paul) planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."
It's amazing to see that when we give our life over to Christ, everything that we once attributed to ourselves becomes nothing. Our personality, our likes and dislikes, and experiences, all fade away in the light of Christ that shines so brilliantly through us. Just as we have to stay out of the way of our breath when we sing and let it fully release, we have to stay out of the Holy Spirit's way and let Him do His work.
"Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way!"