eternity – Song Dive

At Calvary

Years I spent in vanity and pride
Caring not my Lord was crucified
Knowing not it was for me He died
At Calvary

By God’s word at last my sin I learned
Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned
Until my guilty soul imploring turned
To Calvary

[Chorus]
There Your mercy and Your grace was free
There Your pardon multiplied to me
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary

Now I’ve given Jesus everything
Now I gladly know Him as my king
Now my raptured soul can only sing
Of Calvary

[Chorus]
There Your mercy and Your grace was free
There Your pardon multiplied to me
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary

I used to be a worship leader in a small church many years ago and on Sunday evenings, I let the members of the congregation select the songs we would sing. Every Sunday evening, one young boy around eight years old, would ask to sing #226. This hymn number was “At Calvary” and every time I hear it or sing it, I think of that little boy so many years ago. It seems as if so many people in the world go about their daily lives and never think about the sacrifices others made so they could even have a life. These people revel in their successes and their families and how successful they have been. I think it is great that people are willing to work hard to succeed, but it is important that everyone is aware of the one decision that determines eternity for them. I don’t believe people think much about eternity and what is next in their lives, they are too focused on today. Wouldn’t it be great to know that we all have the opportunity to maybe once again see our loved ones who passed away over the years? These people don’t realize what took place over 2000 years ago and how their future is truly determined. To me, this is the time the song is referring to when referencing vanity and pride. These people have probably heard about Jesus, the son of God, dying on a cross and have probably seen pictures of the crucifixion; but they don’t realize that he willingly gave his life so each of us could have eternal life. He died on that mount called Calvary, just for us.

The reason for his death was to clear a path for all of us to an eternal home in heaven. His death provided us with forgiveness for every sin or wrongdoing we have ever committed as well as any future wrongdoings. All of this was done without us having to spend any of our time or money. You ask, so what is the catch, no one does anything for free. The only requirement given by God and his son is that we accept Jesus as our personal savior and acknowledge that he is the only way to eternal life. All of the burdens that we carry inside of us are lifted at the time we accept Jesus. We are told this in the book of Matthew 11:28-30. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It doesn’t mean we won’t worry and fret about things, but it does mean that we have someone to turn to in prayer whenever our hearts are burdened. We are no longer alone when the weight of our worries start to overcome us.

As we start a new spiritual life as a result of accepting Jesus, we become eager to learn more about him. This quest for knowledge leads us to the bible, which is God’s word and lays out the life we are supposed to lead; a life of love, compassion, forgiveness, praise, and worship. Hopefully the quest for knowledge leads us to a wonderful church and church family. As we compare how we have lived our life to the way God wants us to live, we have a sadness that comes over us when we think about all of the things we have done wrong in our lives. We learn the real meaning of sin and how Jesus died because he loved each of us so much and wanted to take away all of our sins. Not only does he want us to get on the right path in our lives, but he also wants each of us to spend eternity with him.

God has a master plan for all of us, his plan starts before we are born, it encompasses our life on earth, and it concludes with our eternal home with him and others who will be joining us in heaven. In the book of Jeremiah 1:5, we find this scripture about God knowing about us before we are born, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

It is because of God’s master plan that we have hope, even in the darkest of days. Take some time and think about the darkness and hopelessness of this world and contrast that with the eternal life we are promised. We also learn how we can escape this darkness of life and enter a life of pure love and hope, this is the gap that God bridged for us by sacrificing his son. What an amazing plan that God has put into place!

It is all because of the execution of God’s master plan on the mount called Calvary. Isn’t it time for you to accept Jesus and become part of God’s plan for you? God is always willing to accept us back into his flock. He promises us this in Isaiah 53:6. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The next entry for my Blog is Hymn of Heaven, which was written Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham, Bill Johnson, and Chris Davenport. It was first released June 25, 2021. A link to Phil Wickham singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Hymn of Heaven

How I long to breathe the air of Heaven

Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets
To look upon the One who bled to save me
And walk with Him for all eternity

There will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord

And every prayer we prayed in desperation
The songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear
In the end, we’ll see that it was worth it
When He returns to wipe away our tears

Oh, there will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord

And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”

And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”
“Forever He shall reign”

So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord

Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord

Many times, I have heard people say, that person is such a breath of fresh air; meaning the person brings light into a challenging situation. The writer of this song starts by saying they long for the breath of fresh air that only heaven can bring. No matter how good or bad things are for us today, heaven will far surpass all of our hopes and dreams. It is a place where there is no pain or sorrow and everywhere we look is perfection. We get to spend time with Jesus, who is the one who died for us so we could spend forever with him. That day will come when we will bow down to him in reverence as well as thankfulness for what he did for us. Some of the greatest things in heaven, other than time with our savior, will be that there will be no more death, no more sadness, no more suffering, no more tears of sadness, and we will be reunited with friends and family who had accepted Christ and passed on before us. Every time we experience this joy, we will be thanking Jesus for dying for us and reuniting us with our loved ones.

It is challenging to talk about anything after thinking about the above, it all will be so so wonderful. The problem is that we let the challenges of our life take over our daily thoughts again and again. It all seems to be an act of desperation. Part of the problem is that we do no pray enough, which leads us to forget about God and his role in our lives. We are told in 1^st Thessalonians 5:16-17, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. We need to thank God for everything he has done for us in our lives. We should also pray for the needs of our families, our friends, our enemies, our country, and the entire world. All of these are God’s creations, he put all of us here. We sometimes give up hope after praying for so long, it is almost as if our desperate pleas are not being heard. We maybe go to church and sing the songs of glory, and hear the strong message of God’s promises. I love to listen to songs about Jesus and faith on the radio and I sing my heart out. After I leave the church building and after I get out of my car, I seem to lose some of that joy I was just experiencing; I let life take away my joy. As the song says, it will all be worth our pain, our suffering, and our frustration with life. The day will come when Jesus, the one who died for us, will wipe away all of our tears and fill our hearts with joy as we begin life in our new home. We are told this in the book of Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” This promise is for those who have accepted Jesus as their personal savior.

The day that Jesus comes in the clouds, the people who have accepted him will rise into heaven to join all others who accepted him and died before us. We will be part of the resurrection of millions of others. We will all of a sudden be side by side with some of the greatest people of faith who ever lived. Many of these will be people we have read about in our bibles, others will be some of the great leaders of faith that came after the time of Jesus, and most will be people who are regular everyday people who accepted Christ as their personal savior. We will be standing with people who might have lived since mankind was first created, all of the God’s faithful will be together for the first time. This entire gathering of the saved, which will be larger than we could ever imagine, will start singing Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, finally gets to hear all of his family sing praises to him and the father.

Wow, I am not sure I can even imagine the billions of voices from people of all eras of time and representing the entire earth singing at one time. The angels will be also be joining in as the music reaches a crescendo that we ever thought possible. What better way to honor our savior, who is the definition of holiness. Holy, holy is the Lord indeed.

Click to See Phil Wickham Perform Hymn of Heaven