Jack’s Winning Words 6/3/16
“It might not be tonight, tomorrow or the next day, but everything’s gonna be OK.”  (froot loop inspired by Drake)  You can insure a house, a car, even a mustache, but you can’t insure peace of mind.  That’s where assurance comes in.  Our faith assures us that everything will work out in the end.  Blind hymn writer Fanny Crosby called it, “Blessed Assurance.”  I can’t explain it, but I have this assurance:  God is with me now, to the end of time…and beyond.    ;-)  Jack

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Love the hymn "Blessed Assurance". Everything is gonna be OK. Reassuring WW -- thanks for e-mailing them out.====JACK:  I'm amazed at what Fanny Crosby was able to do with her life...in spite of her blindness.  She wrote over 8000 hymns.  Many are favorites of mine...like, "All the Way My Savior Leads Me."

FROM TARMART REV:  BLESSED ASSURANCE, Jesus is mine!  O, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. . . . Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight, Angels, descending, bring from above, Echoes of mercy, whispers of love . . . Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest; Watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love . . . (Chorus) This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long.====JACK:  Are you you this as you're writing it? ====REV:  I am...one of my favorite hymns and sung often as I'm traveling in my car alone when needing encouragement.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Love that song!  God has kept me safe thus far and I believe everything is going to be okay!====JACK:  It's good that you had insurance last winter when your house flooded...but more important that you have "Blessed Assurance."

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  good stuff today, Jack.  thanks.   eye has not seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man even begun to conceive what God has prepared for those who love Him... ====JACK:  When it comes to seeing God, Fanny had as good eyesight (maybe better) as we have.
====SP:  point well taken.   was blind, but now i see (through the eyes of faith)   seeing is believing and believing is also seeing...

FROM JAN IN CALIFORNIA:  just nice to hear.====JACK:  Which is more important when it comes to liking a hymn, the lyric or the tune?  For me, it's the words.  The music helps remind me of the words.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  She dealt with many tragic circumstances, her blind husband dying before their baby girl was born, then the baby dying soon after birth (when she wrote Safe in the Arms of Jesus) and dealing with blindness because the wrong eye drops were put into her eyes as a baby....She could have been bitter and resentful, but she was an upbeat, and victorious Christian .Amazing !  Bless her devoted Grandma who had her memorize great portions of Scripture as a child.  Inspiring words today...the assurance that things are SOMEDAY going to be O.K. in the world!!  That is our hope and promise...====JACK:  I may have told you this story before....A young child was buried from the church on a Saturday.  The next day the parents and other family members were at the Sunday services, as usual.  A little boy poked his mother and whispered, "They really do believe, don't they?"

FROM BB IN ILLINOIS:  I have it too and the words of the hymn are now playing in my mind. ====JACK:  Blessed Assurance has an interesting story connected with the hymn's tune..."Fanny Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp as the Knapp home was having a large pipe organ installed. The organ was incomplete, so Mrs. Knapp, using the piano, played a new melody she had just composed. When Knapp asked Crosby, "What do you think the tune says?", Crosby replied, "Blessed assurance; Jesus is mine."