As I Come Singing. . .

[Lead sheet is available here, and you may listen to a recording here.]

Christ went to a wedding,
And when the wine had run out,
Nobody else knew just what to do.
He asked that six large stone jars
Be filled up with plain water;
When they tasted it,
The water had turned to finest wine.

He turned ordinary water into extraordinary wine;
Nothing is too commonplace for God to use.
I can never know what kind of wine He’ll make from me
Till I place my life in His hands.

Jesus had been preaching,
And the crowds were getting hungry.
Only five loaves and two small fish could be found.
He took that food and blessed it,
And thousands ate their fill.
Twelve baskets full of crumbs were left when they were done.

He turned meager bread and fish into a feast to feed a crowd.
Nothing is too everyday for God to use.
I can never tell what type of feast He’ll use me for
Till I place my life in His hands.

Jesus had been walking,
When He came upon a blind man,
One who’d been sightless ever since his birth.
Christ made a spittle mud mask
And placed it on the man’s eyes.
On rinsing them, that man found he could finally see.

Christ turned worthless dirt and spit into a cure for sightless eyes.
Nothing is too unclean for God to use.
I can never tell whose eyes I might turn to the Lord
Till I place my life in His hands.

About This Song:

A number of years ago, Ron Crawford, my pastor at the time, preached a sermon one Sunday from John 2:2-10.

2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
⁴ “Woman,^[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰ and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

Then he preached on Mark 6:35-44 the following Sunday:

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
(NIV)

Both sermons had to do with God’s ability to use the plainest, simplest, most seemingly unusable materials to perform the most extraordinary of miracles.

Years later I came across the familiar story from John 9:1-7:

9 As He was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples questioned Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. ⁴ We^[a] must do the works of Him who sent Me^[b] while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
⁶ After He said these things He spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. ⁷ “Go,” He told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.
(HCSB)

While turning water into the finest wine, creating a feast to feed thousands from a little boy’s lunch, and using dirt and spit to cure a blind man are major miracles, the fact that God not only wants to make us His children but allow us to participate in the family business–reaching out to others and loving them in our Father’s name–is pretty amazing, too.

None of us is up to carrying out our assignment as Christians on our own. We all need God’s help to become the people He wants us to be. But that kind of help is readily available. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Viewed from a different perspective, “God doesn’t call the enabled. He enables the called.” And each of us is called. The question is whether we’ll respond to the call and allow Him to enable us. He isn’t going to assign the same tasks and talents to each of us, but He’ll give us what we need to do our part in advancing His Kingdom on earth.

What do you think? Will you allow God to turn you into something miraculously useful in spite of your weaknesses? That should be the prayer of all of God’s children.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

Links you might be interested in:

• Visit Roger’s website, RogerBruner.com
• Check out Roger’s free Christian lead sheets
• Shop for Roger’s books on Amazon