Hello OCBC family,
“May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:18-19.

There is a old poem in Latin called, “Jesu dulcis memoria” and its author was Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153). He was the son of a knight, from a very wealthy family. His desire was to follow a military career, but he was very sick when he was young, then he became a monk. He founded a famous monastery near Clairvaux. He became a very powerful preacher in his era, and is remembered as a pious man. Even Martin Luther admired him, and said, “Bernard, the best monk that ever lived, whom I admire beyond all the rest put together.”

This poem was translated into English, and now we know it as the famous hymn, “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee.” The text expresses the feeling of joy and bliss that only Christ can provide.

“Jesus, the very thought of Thee
with sweetness fills my breast;
but sweeter far Thy face to see,
and in Thy presence rest.”

Let me share with you some excerpts from his writing and sermons:

• I was made a sinner by deriving my being from Adam; I am made righteous be being washed in the blood of Christ.
• You wish me to tell you why and how God should be loved. My answer is that God Himself is the reason He is to be loved.

Bernard was not a perfect man, but he served a perfect God, and we can see his love for his Savior through his hymns and sermons. We just sang another of his hymns last Sunday, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.”
Please, use “Jesus, the Very thought of Thee” for your quiet time and adore our wonderful Savior, Jesus the Christ.

“Jesus, our only Joy be Thou,
as Thou our Prize wilt be;
Jesus, be Thou our Glory now
and through eternity.”
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
Psalm 27:4-5 says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.” (ESV). 

This Psalm was one of Fanny Crosby favorites, because she was blind since she was a little girl, and like David, many times she felt alone, in darkness, but it was her Lord who give her comfort. You can read or sing many of her hymns, and you will find that she uses the picture of the Lord as her refuge. “Hide me” (Psalm 17:8b, “hide me in the shadow of your wings”), “Shelter” (Psalm 31:20, “In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.”). Inspiration came and she wrote, “He Hideth My Soul.”

“A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He's hiding my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.”

Another image that she uses a lot is the Rock, but not just for her but for many Christians through the centuries. And who is the Rock? Jesus himself. An explosion of praises will be in our lips, knowing that he will protect us, that he will cover us, that he will protect us.

“With numberless blessings each moment he crowns
And fills with his fullness divine;
I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God
For such a Redeemer is mine.”

Enjoy this lovely hymn during your quiet time.

“He's hiding my soul in the cleft of the rock
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He's hiding my life in the depths of his love
And cov'ring me there with his hand,
And cov'ring me there with his hand.”
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
 “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” (Psalm 17:8) This is a very sweet and powerful verse, showing us that God is always taking care of His children. And this was one of the verses that Charles Wesley used to penned one of his famous hymns, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.”  

Charles Wesley was converted in 1738 and wrote this hymn shortly thereafter. Some people said that while he was riding his horse, going to a different town to share the Good News, he wrote this lovely hymn. This activity was not new for Charles Wesley; in fact, he wrote many of his hymn while he was traveling to preach the gospel somewhere else. It was published under a title, “ In Temptation” in 1740.

“Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.”

You can see how deep the language of the hymn is, that even Charles’ own brother, John, did not want to publish it, because he thought that this poem was not good for a public worship service, especially for the use of the word Lover; this is just a speculation.

“Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find:
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind:
Just and holy is Thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.”

This hymn has been popular for many people and groups, especially for sailors, because of the picture of the storm and tempest on the sea. Use this hymn as your personal prayer, call the Lord as your Savior, and he will be with you during trials and troubles. He is faithful.

“Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within:
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.”
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8a). This is a very wonderful and powerful passage, and this is the verse that was the inspiration for Keith Getty and Margaret Becker to write a lovely modern hymn, “Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer.”

You are very familiar with Keith Getty’s name, after all, he and his wife wrote a vast number of modern hymns with a sound doctrine, “In Christ Alone”, “My Worth Is Not in what I Own”, and many more. He composed the melody for this hymn while his friend, Margaret Becker, wrote the lyrics. She is from Bay Shore, New York, and she started her musical career as a rock singer, but she transitioned to more like pop music style, working with several Christian artists, including Keith Getty.

This is a prayer that became a hymn, encouraging us to trust in the Lord during our trials and troubles.

The second stanza is a powerful picture that our Lord will be our guide even during the tempest, like he was with the disciples over 2,000 years ago.

“Jesus guide me through the tempest;
Keep my spirit staid and sure.
When the midnight meets the morning,
Let me love You even more.”

What comfort we can have, knowing that the Lord who calmed the wind and the sea, is the same Lord that will calm our storms.
This modern hymn closed with this refrain, that reminds us that we are on a journey, but one day we will be with our Lord forever.

“May this journey bring a blessing,
May I rise on wings of faith;
And at the end of my heart’s testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.”

“ Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13)
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19). This is the commandment that our Lord gave us, to preach the gospel everywhere. And this was the call to many men and women through the centuries to preach the good news of salvation. A very famous missionary is this young man who was born in A.D. 373 in a place that now we call Scotland. His father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest, and his name was Patrick. When Patrick was 16 years old, pirates came to his little town and took him to Ireland as slave. There is when he gave his life to the Lord Jesus.

He wrote this as a testimony. “The Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God.”

Patrick eventually escaped and returned home, but his life was not the same, and now he had a love for missions and to preach the gospel in the land where he was a slave, Ireland.

When he was 30 years old, he returned to Ireland with just one book, the Latin Bible. His preaching touched many lives, and the church in Ireland became a reality; even his former captors became Christians. His testimony and influence and his preaching in Ireland were so strong, that he received opposition from the Druids, nevertheless, the gospel was growing. According to tradition, Patrick planted 200 churches and baptized several thousand new converts.

The church in Ireland produced many hymns, poems, sermons, and songs of worship, and in the eighth century, an unknown poet wrote these lyrics.
Rop tú mo baile, a Choimdiu cride:
ní ní nech aile acht Rí secht nime.
Rop tú mo scrútain i l-ló 's i n-aidche;
rop tú ad-chëar im chotlud caidche.

In 1905, Mary Elizabeth Byrne translated the poem, and became the very familiar hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.” Also, Eleanor Hull prepared the version that we know now.

“Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Be all else but naught to me, save that Thou art;
Be Thou my best thought in the day and the night,
Both waking and sleeping, Thy presence my light.
High King of heaven, Thou heaven's bright Sun,
O grant me its joys, after vict'ry is won;
Great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be Thou my vision, O Ruler of all.”

Please, use this hymn as a prayer, asking the Lord to be your Vision, your Wisdom, your Father, your Breastplate, your Sword for the fight, your Armor, your Shelter, your strong Tower, your King.
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
 “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3. Last Sunday, during our evening worship service, as congregation, we sang the hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”.  This is not a too familiar hymn for many members, but we learned it and enjoy the powerful lyrics of this lovely hymn.

Who wrote this hymn? A man called George Matheson, a Scotch minister. When he was a teenager, he learned that his poor eyesight was deteriorating further. His plans, nevertheless, were to enroll in Glasgow University; sadly, at that time, during his studies for ministry, he became totally blind. His sister helped him study. But his spirit collapsed when his fiancée told him that she was not willing to marry a blind man, broke the engagement and returned his ring.

He never married, and the pain of that rejection never left him. Several years later, his sister shared with him that now she is engaged and to be married soon. He was happy for his siter, but his own pain for the rejection of his former fiancée returned to him. During this sad moment, he wrote,
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

George Matheson tells us how this hymn was written.
“It was composed with extreme rapidity, and I felt myself rather in a position of one who was being dictated to than of an original artist. I was suffering from extreme mental destress, and the hymn was the fruit of pain.”
In times of pain or sorrow, you might use Matheson’s hymn to find comfort.

O cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to hide from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red,
Life that shall endless be.
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family!
Let me open this article with the words of the book of Lamentation 3:22-23, “It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” I quoted this passage from the lovely King James Version of the bible, because this perhaps was the version that Thomas O. Chisholm used to have inspiration to write his famous hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

Thomas Obediah Chisholm was born in Kentucky and at the age of sixteen years old he was teaching school. He came to Christ at age of twenty-seven and served as an evangelist. But his health was not good, and he worked in many places, depending on his health. Through ups and downs he found the blessings from God every day, especially in God’s word. And he wrote this hymn.

“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.”

Chisholm shared once that it was not a dramatic story behind the writing of this hymn; it just came as a poem from his quite time. He sent these words to a good musician friend, William M. Runyan, and he was very touched by this poem, and composed the melody that we are very familiar with. This hymn was published in 1923. It became popular around the world when George Beverly Shea and the choirs at the Billy Graham Crusades sang it in their revival meetings.

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!”

Let us always remember the words of our brother Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:13, “if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”

“Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family!
During my quite time, normally I use, beside my Bible, a hymnal, and read a hymn as a devotional lecture, and many times, I read a Christmas hymn during non-Christmas  time. This happened to me last week. I read, and enjoyed, the old hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”

This hymn is from an ancient liturgy, the Liturgy of St. James, from the 4th century. The lyrics that we sing during Advent season are more modern than the original ones, a work by Gerard Moultrie in 1864.

This hymn evokes the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the melody is in minor key and to be sung in unison; this brings some mysterious feelings that makes you to meditate in this mystery, God in flesh, coming to this world to save man from his sins.

Read the first two stanzas of this hymn.

1 Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly minded,
for, with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

2 King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood.
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heav'nly food.

The last stanza is a reference of the vision of Isaiah in the temple, when God called him to be a prophet.

Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
(Isaiah 6:2-3)

 4 At His feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the Presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry,
“Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia, Lord Most High!”

OCBC use this hymn to worship our incarnate God.
​
In His service,
Israel

Hello OCBC family,
Psalm 72:1-2 says, “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!” What a wonderful psalm. Isaac Watts, the father of the English hymn, used this psalm to write a hymn to proclaim that Jesus is the real King of the whole universe. This is a very familiar hymn for us, its name is “Jesus Shall Reign.”  

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He was a very intelligent boy; he learned Latin when he was four years old, and he was able to write verses when he was seven years old. In 1702 he became pastor in London. 

“Jesus Shall Reign” is a wonderful missionary hymn, but when Watts wrote this hymn there was not a great mission effort in England. Sixty years later, England sent its first missionary, William Carey, to India.

The first stanza tells us about Jesus as the real King, and His kingdom is over the whole world,
“Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
does its successive journeys run,
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.”

Some churches use this hymn for Advent season, the time when Christendom is waiting for the long-expected Messiah, but we can and must use this hymn in any season, because our King, who came as baby, is coming back to this earth as the triumphant King.

“Blessings abound where'er he reigns:
the prisoners leap to lose their chains,
the weary find eternal rest,
and all who suffer want are blest.”

Please, use this hymn as part of your quiet time, rejoicing in our glorious King.

“Let every creature rise and bring
the highest honors to our King,
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud amen.”
​
In His service,
Israel

Announcements                                                                          Pastor Shannon Whisenhunt
Adoration
- Prelude
- Psalm – Psalm 19
- “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”                                                                                      #26
Confession
- Welcome and Invocation                                                                  Pastor Hunter Hawkins
- New Testament – 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
Assurance
- “Jesus Shall Reign”                                                                                                              #120
- “At the Name of Jesus”                                                                                                       #140
Thanksgiving
- Gospel – Luke 4:14-21
Petition and Intercession
- Pastoral Prayer                                                                                          Pastor Matt Jackson
- “I Need Thee Every Hour”                                                                                                  #416
Instruction from God’s Word
- Sermon                                                                                                        Pastor Matt Jackson
- “Jesus Paid It All”                                                                                                                  #281
Charge and Benediction
- Benediction
- “I’m So Glad, Jesus Lifted Me”                                                                        Worship Hymn