Dear Brothers and Sisters, Prayer will be held at the Burke Home.

You all are invited to the Brown family annual, Celebrate the Light of the World Luminaria Drive… Friday night, Dec 19. We will have a campfire and hot chocolate and snacks…

Our scripture focus this week is Isaiah 38:9-22, where we see two things. First, what was going through Hezekiah’s mind when he “turned his face to the wall” as he was contemplating what it meant to be so near death (v9-14). Second, we read of the impact his near death experience had on his life (v16-22). Here in this text is the instruction of a man who has just experienced a near death experience. Some events grip your soul and re-define your life. They are markers that bring changes. They cause reflection and often redirection. This is his journal of the lessons he learned. Matthew Henry spoke of the importance of this, “It is good to write a memorial of our afflictions.” In this section, you see some of Hezekiah’s weaknesses coming to the surface. This should not surprise us or put us off, for the pressures of life bring out our sins. In the same way the heat of the silver smelter brings the dross to the surface – sometimes, for all to see. This all happens at an opportune time in Hezekiah’s life. At this point in the narrative, Hezekiah is around 39 years old, There has been a wonderful revival and the joy of the Lord, has been restored in peoples hearts as dead religion has been confronted and replaced. The Assyrian army had been tearing through the cities of Judah and was finally stopped in their tracks – quite literally and terrifyingly. Now, Hezekiah looks back and reflects on what the Lord taught him in the days of his great trial. Let us also do the same and consider what good our trials have done for us. One of the beautiful parts of our text is that it reveals what salvation does to a soul. It makes you want to play instruments and sing in the house of the Lord. Hezekiah says, “we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.”

Special Note on Prayer During the Holidays: We will be having prayer on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve at the Brown Home. Let’s make this a special time of praise for the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve and a time of hopeful dedication to Him on New Years Eve.

On Sunday, we will be singing the following songs:

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Come, Thou long-expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in Thee
Israel’s Strength and Consolation
Hope of all the earth Thou art
Dear Desire of every nation
Joy of every longing heart

Joy to those who long to see Thee
Dayspring from on high, appear
Come, Thou promised Rod of Jesse
Of Thy birth we long to hear!
O’er the hills the angels singing
News, glad tidings of a birth
“Go to Him, your praises bringing;
Christ the Lord has come to earth”

Born Thy people to deliver
Born a child and yet a King
Born to reign in us forever
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone
By Thine all-sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne

Joy to the World
Joy to the world! the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heav’n and nature sing
And heav’n and nature sing
And heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing

Joy to the world! the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy

No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found

He rules the world with truth and grace
And make the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders of His love

Like a River Glorious
Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller ev’ry day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,
Finding, as he promised,
Perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Ev’ry joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love.
We may trust him fully all for us to do;
They who trust him wholly find him wholly true.

Come, All Ye Pining
Lord we adore thy boundless grace.
The heights and depths unknown,
Of pardon, life, and joy, and peace,
In thy beloved Son.
Come, all ye pining, hungry poor,
The Savior’s bounty taste;
Behold a never-failing store
For ev’ry willing guest.

O wondrous gifts of love divine,
Dear Source of ev’ry good;
Jesus, in thee what glories shine!
How rich thy flowing blood!
Come, all ye pining, hungry poor,
The Savior’s bounty taste;
Behold a never-failing store
For ev’ry willing guest.

Here shall your num’rous wants receive
A free, a full supply;
He has unmeasured bliss to give,
And joys that never die.
Come, all ye pining, hungry poor,
The Savior’s bounty taste;
Behold a never-failing store
For ev’ry willing guest.

Emmanuel’s Land
The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I’ve sighed for,
The fair sweet morn awakes;
Dark, dark, hath been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

The King there in his beauty
Without a veil is seen;
It were a well-spent journey
Though seven deaths lay between:
The Lamb with his fair army
Doth on Mount Zion stand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

O Christ, he is the fountain,
The deep sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted
More deep I’ll drink above:
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

—
Michael Davenport