Hymn of Heaven

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

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 1st 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

Jesus is Coming Soon

The next entry for my Blog is Jesus is Coming Soon, which was first released in 1968 by The Sheltons. The original lyrics were written by W. E. Winsett in 1942, during WW II. A link to The Oak Ridge Boys performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Jesus Is Coming Soon

Troublesome times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear
Freedom we all hold dear now is at stake
Humbling your hearts to God saves from the chastening rod
Seek the way pilgrims trod, Christians awake

Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon
Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound
All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies
Going where no one dies, heavenward bound

Troubles will soon be o’er, happy forevermore
When we meet on that shore, free from all care
Rising up in the sky, telling this world goodbye
Homeward we then shall fly, glory to share

Oh, Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon
Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound
All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies
Going where no one dies, heavenward bound
Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon

Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound
All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies
Going where no one dies, heavenward bound
Heavenward bound, heavenward bound

I am writing this entry during a time when the world is experiencing a lot of chaos, fear, and transformation. Most of the world has been impacted by the COVID-19 virus for several months. We are now facing numerous protests, riots, and lootings as we struggle with racial equality issues. It is almost as if this song was written for today, although it was written over 75 years ago during the time of World War II. People are scared. They fear for their lives due to the virus pandemic that has seen millions of people become infected. Now, people are afraid of being attacked by angry mobs seeking violence, note that I am not saying that all protestors are violent, I am only referring to the individuals who are more interested in violence and looting than they are delivering a peaceful message. People are starting to ask, what’s next? Are we going to have to live through the seven plaques of Egypt before we are free again? Our freedoms have been slowly disappearing via the pandemic quarantines and the violence in our streets. Where do we turn? I think this is one of those times in life when we cannot handle the challenges before us alone. It is time for us to fall to our knees, turn our lives and challenges over to God, and put our trust completely in him. We do not want to be beaten by the wickedness of our world. By putting our hearts completely in God’s hands, we have hope knowing that he can overcome every challenge put in front of us. Psalm 25:9 reminds us of the value of being submissive to God, “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.” It is time to put our fears behind us and trust in God and to let him lead the way. The lyrics of the song say to “seek the way pilgrims trod” and I view this as us putting ourselves out there as Christians and following the path that God has commanded us to follow. It doesn’t mean we have to take a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Mecca or any other location known for its place in religious history; to me it means we follow the unique path that God has laid out for each of us. As Christians, we have the same savior in Jesus, we have the same eternal home in Heaven, but our paths are unique in that God has a special purpose for each of us. The real question is, what are you waiting for to get back on your path and letting God lead you?

Everyday puts us a day closer to the day Jesus will be returning and taking us to our eternal home. As long as we have accepted him as our personal savior, our home/mansion in heaven awaits us. Maybe he will come the day you are reading this, maybe tomorrow, or maybe fifty years from now. The day and time of his return is not what we should focus on, the real focus should be on making sure our hearts are ready! Our hearts are ready if we know him as the only way to heaven. When Christ returns, the heavenly trumpet will sound and all of those who are bound for heaven will meet him in the skies as he takes us to our new home where there is only eternal life. We find this good news in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Sadly, there will be millions of people across the earth who are left behind, those who have rejected Christ as their savior.

Once we get to our final home and arrive on that heavenly shore, there will be no more sadness and no more troubles; we will only know love and happiness. Imagine being in a place with no worries, no pain, no depression, no death, no wars, and everyone is equal and treated as equal. Think about telling this despairing world goodbye as you rise up in skies. I keep envisioning meeting those who went on before me, to hold them in my arms once again, and knowing I will be spending eternity with my savior as well as those I loved during my brief time on earth.

As the world seems to be crumbling around us, are you prepared to join our savior in our heavenly home?

Click to Hear The Oak Ridge Boys Sing Jesus is Coming Soon