Ultimate Hope is a place where those of us who are retired or getting close to it, can receive encouragement and have an opportunity to share and comment on what is being said here. This blog is unashamedly Christian in nature and it is hoped that our Followers and visitors will get the chance, together with us, to learn from one another.
We want Ultimate Hope to be somewhere where it is possible to share encouraging Scripture, talk about what it is to be a grandparent, what hymn has helped you lately or any lessons learnt from your own experiences that may help others. There are a great deal of helpful items in all sorts of places and we want to bring them to you where possible. Our only proviso is that it glorifies our Heavenly Father and is true to His word. We are hoping that Ultimate Hope will become a place for refreshment and friendship. To help with the enjoyment of and access to our site, some of the longer items have an audio transcription found at the end of the relevant post.
Richard Foster's seminal book, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, takes the reader through the various expressions of prayer with a number of anecdotes, Biblical references and life testimonies of some of the saints of old. His intimate literary style helps one grasp and understand the multi faceted landscape of this beautiful pursuit.
When he talks about the different types of prayer in Part 2 of the book he takes us ever deeper into that intimate dialogue with God. He reserves the most awe inspiring manifestation till last as he opens up the concept of Contemplative Prayer or Prayer that transcends the need for words. He helps with the understanding of it by saying:
Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism! We have become, as the early Church father Clement of Alexandria says, like old shoes – all worn out except for the tongue. We live in a wordy world with our sophisticated high-tech telecommunication systems. We now have the dubious distinction of being able to communicate more and say less than any civilisation in history.As a major part of the ministry of Ultimate Hope is to those that are in the eventide of life it was so encouraging to read the last paragraph of this important chapter and to find there, reference to the importance of this type of prayer for this slice of society. It cannot be overstated just how vital this is when words fail and where just being in the intimate presence of God, where He immerses us in His powerful silence and we can be seen for who we are, is more than enough. Richard Foster's last paragraph reads like this:
One final note of encouragement about Contemplative Prayer. One of its great values comes when we are at the sunset of life and our rational faculties begin to falter. A time may come when we are no longer able to utter words, but – and here is the glory – we are still able to pray, to pray without words. At the end of life, as at the beginning, we find ourselves, in the words of Gerhard Tersteegen, ‘looking at God, who is ever present, and letting Him look on us’.
Italics - Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (1992, ISBN 0-06-062846-4) Pages 164 - 176
Lewis Edgar Jones USA 1865-1936. Born in Yates City, IL, his family moved near Davenport, IA, where he lived on a farm until age 21. He went into business for awhile, and attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He was a classmate of evangelist, Billy Sunday. After graduating, he worked for the YMCA in Davenport, IA; Fort Worth, TX (1915, as general secretary); and Santa Barbara, CA (1925 as general secretary). Hymn writing was his avocation, and he wrote 200+, advising that many came from pastors’ sermons. He married Lora May Wright (1872-1950), and they had a daughter, Frances Ellen (1897-1982). He died in Santa Barbara,
This hymn was one of those that was formative in my own young life. As a then member of the Salvation Army I both sang and played this inspiring song and its frequency of use during my life has seared it into my memory. Many decades later I am encouraged and uplifted by its unrestrained testimony to the power of what our Saviour, Jesus Christ did on Calvary's hill.
Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
Refrain:
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide–
There's wonderful power in the blood.
Would you be whiter, yes brighter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow–
There's wonderful power in the blood.
Would you do service for Jesus, your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
This stirring hymn written in 1899 is sung and played beautifully by the pupils of Fountain View Christian school in British Columbia, Canada. The fact that young people can bring such youthful enthusiasm to a hymn that is more than 120 year's old is so encouraging. As I prepared this blog entry it was on a cold rainy day in January and I was not particularly high spirited about things. This all changed when I found this YouTube video and I found myself singing it through that otherwise dark and dreary day.
Citations:
Lewis E. Jones (1865-1936): both the lyricist and composer of this Lewis E. Jones life story: https://hymnary.org Image of Lewis E. Jones: Ron West
