Notes on the Notes – March 15, 2020

Lent 3

The Edge of Our Need

Exodus 17:1-7        John 4:5-42

This week’s music:

“Come Just as You Are”

“Come just as you are,
Hear the Spirit call.
Come just as you are –
Come and see, come receive, come and live forever.

Life everlasting,
And strength for today,
Taste the Living Water and never thirst again.”

Our opening song invites us to come as we are, with all of our faults and failures, and cast the burdens we have on the Lord to find the healing only God can provide.

Those who are feeling weighed down in life are allowed to cry out in hope or just soak in the words and music, while those who are experiencing a time when life seems perfect can sing this song to encourage others and remember how God has brought healing in their life. The song was written by Joseph Sabolick in 2003.

Lenten Response (VU #121)

“Living Water of salvation
Be the fountain of each soul;
Springing up in new creation,
Flow in us and make us whole,
Flow in us and make us whole.

Gentle Jesus, mighty Spirit,
Come inflame our hearts anew,
May we all your joy inherit
If we bear the cross with you,
If we bear the cross with you.”

Each week during the season of Lent, we will be using selected verses of the hymn “Tree of Life and Awesome Mystery,”  written by Marty Haugen (1984).

“All Who are Thirsty” (MV #4)

“All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the streams of life

Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy
As deep cries out to deep, we sing

Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come.”

This song was written by Brenton Brown in 1998.  In John 7:37b-39, Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Are we thirsty? Humans inherently feel that there is something more to life than just living and dying, or gaining reputation and amassing great wealth. There is a deep hunger and thirst for some spiritual meaning in our lives.   Jesus satisfies us.   Through the lyrics of this song,  all who are “thirsty” are invited to come, and Jesus will give us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us.  Through this, we find meaning in and through our lives.

Hear the song at:  https://youtu.be/zviSoihOEHU

“I Need Thee Every Hour” (VU #671)

“I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their pow’r when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.”

The author for “I Need Thee Every Hour,” Annie Sherwood Hawks (1835-1918), wrote over 400 hymns in her lifetime.  When speaking of writing this hymn, she said,  “I remember well the morning when in the midst of the daily cares of my home, I was so filled with the sense of the nearness of the Master, that wondering how one could live without him either in joy or pain, these words ‘I Need Thee Every Hour’ were ushered into my mind. The hymn was wafted out to the world on the wings of love and joy, rather than under the stress of great personal sorrow. It was not until long years after when the shadow of a great loss fell over my way that I understood something of the comforting in the words I have been permitted to write.”  The music for the hymn was written by Robert Lowry.

Hear a traditional a capella version of the hymn at:  https://youtu.be/ZkgiDDO-fOg

Hear Fernando Ortega sing the hymn at:  https://youtu.be/tZIMDcgrF-Q

“Living Water”

“I am filthy from my travels;
I am thirsty from the heat;
I am tired and worn and wasted in defeat.
You come offering Your water,
Saying ‘Come, believe and drink.’
In my heart, You’ll be an everlasting stream.

Living Water, flood my soul;
Fill me till I overflow.
Living Water, pour through me to a thirsty world in need
of Living Water.

Lord, I want to be Your witness,
Tell the world how I love You,
How Your grace has cleansed,
Your hope has made me new.
On my own, I am not worthy;
I am barren, I am dry,
Yet Your love in me springs forth an endless supply.

Cleanse me,
Renew me,
Sustain me, Flow through me.

Living Water…”

The words of this song by Sarah Moore are a plea for God to cleanse, renew and sustain us and that, by flowing through us, God’s Living Water is taken to the world.  The choral  arrangement of the song is by Mary McDonald (2010).

See the song with mass choir and dance at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=299C6rZxnL0

“People Need the Lord”

“Every day they pass me by,
I can see it in their eyes;
Empty people filled with care,
Headed who knows where.

On they go through private pain,
Living fear to fear;
Laughter hides their silent cries
Only Jesus hears.

People need the Lord,
People need the Lord;
At the end of broken dreams,
He’s the open door.
People need the Lord,
People need the Lord;
When will we realize
People need the Lord?

We are called to take His light to a world where wrong seems right.
What could be too great a cost
For sharing life with one who’s lost?

Through His love, our hearts can feel all the grief they bear;
They must hear the words of life only we can share.

People need the Lord…”

Steve Green is the son of missionaries. It therefore seemed natural that this song written by Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh (1983) which pictures hungry, hurting people who are unaware of the Christian message, would resonate with him. However, Green had a life-changing experience when he realized he’d been living a fake and phoney life, where he’d been doing the right things but with the wrong motives. He’d therefore understood his “desperate need for a Saviour” and “ran to Jesus for what He alone can provide.” As a consequence, when this song was pitched to him, Green had just come through “a pretty significant life turn-around.” The singer recalled to CCM Magazine presents 100 Greatest Songs In Christian Music: “It resonated for two reasons – first, because my parents had given their lives to evangelize, and their love for the people they were serving around the world was motivated by Christ’s love for them; so that was definitely one of the reasons why I gravitated to the song. The other reason was that for the for the first time, I suppose, I was realizing that it isn’t just those who never heard about the Lord who needed him. I knew that I was surrounded by people just like me who were living kind of an external, performance-based Christianity, but they had no light. I started thinking of us as the ‘elder brothers’ – those who never ran away from home but were just as lost as the prodigal.”  (Source:  Songfacts)

Hear the song at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZcGaixMhg

“Fill My Cup Lord”

“Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy.
And then I heard my Saviour speaking:
‘Draw from the well that never shall run dry.’

Fill my cup, Lord,
I lift it up, Lord.
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup,
Fill it up and make me whole.

There are millions in this world who are craving
The pleasure earthly things afford.
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Fill my cup, Lord…

So, my brother, if the things this world gave you
Leave hungers that won’t pass away.
My blessed Lord will come and save you
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray:

Fill my cup, Lord…”

This song was written by Richard Blanchard in 1959.  The first verse directly references today’s gospel reading about the women at the well.  The second and third verses extend the invitation for a more meaningful life through Jesus to everyone in the world whose lives feels empty.

“For Those Tears I Died”

“You said you’d come and share all my sorrow,
You said you’d be there for all my tomorrow.
I came so close to sending you away.
But just like you promised,
You came there to stay
I just had to pray.

And Jesus said,
‘Come to the waters, stand by my side.
I know you are thirsty, you won’t be denied.
I felt every tear drop when in darkness you cried;
And I strove to remind you that for those tears I died.’

Your goodness so great I can’t understand,
And, dear Lord, I know that all this was planned.
I know you’re here now and always will be.
Your love loosed my chains and in you I’m free,
But, Jesus, why me?

And Jesus said,
‘Come to the waters, stand by my side.
I know you are thirsty, you won’t be denied.
I felt every tear drop when in darkness you cried;
And I strove to remind you that for those tears I died.’

Jesus, I give you my heart and my soul,
I know that without you I’d never be whole.
Saviour, you opened all the right doors.
And I thank you and praise you from earth’s humble shores.
Take me, I’m yours.

And Jesus said,
‘Come to the waters, stand by my side.
I know you are thirsty, you won’t be denied.
I felt every tear drop when in darkness you cried;
And I strove to remind you that for those tears I died.'”

Marsha J. Stevens wrote this song in 1969 and it is often considered to be the first contemporary Christian song.   Hear her talk about the song at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUpQ_WoKWYI

Bonus video: