'Thrills the joy chords within' . . .

(here's a short piece since I'm now running out of time and will have a longer article tomorrow. As I've reported, I finally got this flu bug, in which Ohio is said to lead the nation in cases, and boy, does it zap you of energy. I actually had a co-worker tell me today of several people at my job who've had relapses. Today, we had temps around 60 and the high tomorrow is only predicted to be 35 with temps dropping to the teens in the evening!)

In 1915, Harry Dixon Loes listened to Paul Rader give a Sunday morning sermon at Moody in Chicago entitled “All that I want is in Jesus.” He was so inspired he sat down after the service and wrote the lyrics to the classic song, "All Things in Jesus”:

Friends all around me are trying to find
What the heart yearns for, by sin undermined;
I have the secret, I know where tis found:
Only true pleasures in Jesus abound.

All that I want is in Jesus.
He satisfies, joy He supplies;
Life would be worthless without Him;
All things in Jesus I find.

Some carry burdens whose weight has for years
Crushed them with sorrow and blinded with tears.
Yet One stands ready to help them just now,
If they will humbly in penitence bow.

Refrain

No other name thrills the joy chords within,
And through none else is remission of sin.
He knows the pain of the heart sorely tried.
Both need and want will by Him be supplied.

Refrain

Jesus is all this poor world needs today.
Blindly they strive, for sin darkens their way.
O to draw back the grim curtains of night,
One glimpse of Jesus and all will be bright!

*****

Paul begins Philippians 3: [1] Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

[2] Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
[3] For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

When he talks about the concision, he’s talking about these dogs, these evil workers who only focus on what they can do in the flesh, but we’re verse 3, explains Richard Jordan.

We have this identity in Jesus Christ that produces a spiritual reality in life because of our identification with Him. We’re one with Him and we’ve been cut off from what we do. If we’re going to glory, we’re going to glory in Him.

I Corinthians 1: [30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.