One day when heaven was filled with His praises

This is a wonderful testimony of what must of been be the writer’s experience of salvation.

Earlier in the week, I went to a local campus with some brothers to preach the gospel. It was wonderful to see people get saved and see their reaction to that initial salvation.

When I saw this song this morning, I realized the chorus is truly the Gospel of initial salvation in a nutshell shell (a seed). It is the basic rudimentary experience of salvation that Paul preached and clearly unfolded in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. You have to believe it!

Beautiful Hymn. Will always love it.

This hymn brings to light the need for personal evangelism. Our testimony is that as Jesus has brought us out of the kingdom of darkness to his marvelous light, so we too should share the wonderful gospel of unconditional love and hope to those going through various emotional, physical, social and spiritual turmoil. It's Christ the power and wisdom of God in us at work and not we ourselves. Amen.

The chorus to this hymn lays out the theology to salvation: "Living He oved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified, freely forever. One day He's coming, Oh glorious day."

This song has been in my spirit for the last two days.. we used to sing it over 20 yrs back in high school... since that time it has never again in my heart... but for last two days it comes at night .. until I had to look for it... I than God because am meditating it over and over again.. Thank Jesus that you reigns in my heart.

For some reason this hymn came to mind this morning…I have not heard it sung in years. It really is the gospel - it’s all about Jesus, my Redeemer, Savior, and coming King! In my weakness, His strength is perfected…Christ be magnified!

This is a hymn among hymns. It's been on my mind the past few days. We used to sing it at Scripture Union meetings in the 80s. It's a glorious declaration of the Person and Work of Christ. It is a song that deserves to be sung again and again in our churches and Christian meetings.

Wilbur Chapman, the writer of this hymn was born in 1859 and died in 1918. He is best known for the hymn, Jesus What A Friend For Sinners. It was written from experiences in his personal life. At the age of 51, when he wrote the hymn, he had gone through his share of heartache. His first two wives and a son died within a period of about 20 years, leaving him alone with four children in his 40s. Yet his persistent focus on evangelism led many in North America and Asia to Christ. Chapman joined several evangelism teams in the Philadelphia area that resulted in the conversion of many-a-sinner. It was following the death of his second wife, as Wilbur prepared to marry for a third time, that he wrote the hymn about his friend Jesus. He had begun preaching with D. L. Moody in 1863, as well as leading some evangelistic events on his own. Chapman was also involved in promoting Christian summer conferences. For a while, he was the director of the Winona Lake Bible Conference in Indiana. He also helped to establish Bible conferences in Montreat, North Carolina, and the Stony Brook Assembly conferences on Long Island. Wilbur expended all his energy as he ministered, and as a result, suffered at least 13 serious breakdowns with his health over the course of his career, being laid up for extended periods during his latter years.

First stanza:

Jesus! What a friend of sinners!
Jesus lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me,
Foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Refrain:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Hallelujah! What a friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end
(Commentary by Lewis-Els Codington)

Was reminded of this hymn by another member of our group on an oak hall trip to israel recently.. The lyrics are so Christ focused and helpful to preach the gospel to myself before I preach it to others. Glad to have access to all the verses.

A glorious hymn