Safe is my soul in His keeping

Born in Hordeland Fylke Norway in 1885, hymn writer Haldor Lillenas, the son of Ole Paul­son Lil­le­nas and Anne Ma­rie Jons­dtr Tvei­ta, emi­grat­ed to Am­eri­ca with his fa­mi­ly as a child. They set­tled first in South Da­ko­ta, then moved to Ore­gon in 1889.

Lillenas, who stu­died mu­sic at the Sie­gel-My­ers School of Mu­sic in Chi­ca­go, is said to have writ­ten 4,000 hymns, and sup­plied songs for ma­ny ev­an­gel­ists.

According to one biography online: “In 1900 the family moved again to Roseville, MN, where he worked as a farm laborer and began attending a Lutheran high school at Hawick, MN. He sold a few songs at age 19.

"At age 21 he began writing more songs, encouraged by some earlier ones becoming popular (“He Set Me Free” was one). His mother died in 1906 and his father returned to ND, but Lillenas decided to move back to Astoria, OR, to finish a chemical correspondence course he had been taking. There he found employment in a chemical factory. He started attending a Lutheran church, but one evening he heard the song, “Tell mother I’ll be there,” sung at a rescue mission. It made him decide to commit his life to Christ. An elderly lady who worked there told him about Jesus and he started working at the mission himself. He was later appointed leader of the mission and saw many there come to know Christ and felt called to the Lord’s work.”

Here are some of the lyrics to “He Set Me Free”:

The Com­fort­er di­vine is dwell­ing
Within my soul to­day;
His love to oth­ers I am tell­ing
Since Je­sus came to stay.

He set me free, He set me free,
I was blind, but hal­le­lu­jah, now I see!
I shall ne’er for­get the day
When He washed my sins away,
And He set, He set me free.

The grace of Je­sus hath abound­ed
For all my sins I see,
Salvation walls have me sur­round­ed,

From sin I am set free. 

Here are the lyrics to his song, "My Wonderful Friend":

I found such a won­der­ful Sav­ior
In Je­sus, my Lord and my king!
Undying and true His de­vo­tion;
My heart shall his glad prais­es sing.

Oh, what a won­der­ful Sav­ior is He!

Constant and true is Je­sus.
More than I fan­cied He ev­er could be
Is Je­sus, my won­der­ful friend.

Surpassing the love that a mo­ther
May have for the child of her care;
The love of a sister or bro­ther
With His we can nev­er com­pare.

The plea­sures the world could af­ford me
Are naught to com­pare with His joy;
The rap­ture and peace that He gives me,
Earth’s sor­rows can nev­er de­stroy.

Refrain

When sor­rows and pain are my por­tion,
When tears of be­reave­ment must fall,
My Sav­ior, my friend, my com­pan­ion,
Will com­fort and keep through it all.

Refrain

When tem­pests around me are sweep­ing,
My pi­lot and guide He will be;
And safe is my soul in His keep­ing,
My migh­ty de­liv’rer is He.

*****

The first priority God has in your life is to make you more and more and more, day by day, like His Son. To conform you to the image of His Son; to have Christ formed in you, says Richard Jordan.

In your ups and in your downs, to take that vital thread of that relationship you have with Jesus Christ, that's rooted in the truth of His Word, and authentic living with Him, to little by little have Him transforming your thinking and thus your life.

It's so that there's someone who thinks and talks like Jesus Christ. Then in your life you bring this outrageous attitude of gratitude, thanksgiving and contentment. And in the midst of the injustices of life and the injustices of work, you think like Jesus Christ thinks.

Living out the sufficiency you have in the Lord Jesus Christ takes teachableness. You have to choose to be thankful, focus on what you have in Christ and then step back and look around and ask, "What do I need to learn where I'm at? What does God's Word say about this that I can bring into my circumstances?"

Philippians 4: [11] Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

[12] I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

[13] I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Poverty doesn't have the power to take away contentment. Paul says, "I''ve had more and I've had less. More can't bring contentment, less can't take it away."

We really don't believe that latter one, do we? We really fear the poverty and yet, in the midst of abounding poverty, you can see people with contentment, joy, that people in the midst of luxury are all the day longing for.

(new Bible study tomorrow. I have been dealing with several health issues the past week but I feel like I am now getting back to normal and so thankful to be able to report this)