Indelible Grace Hymnbook

Reflection

Come ye souls by, sin afflicted / Bowed with fruitless, sorrow down
By the broken law convicted / Through the cross, behold the crown
Look to Jesus, look to Jesus, look to Jesus / Mercy flows through Him alone

This, our ninth project, comes out of an incredibly difficult season for many in our Indelible Grace community. As I reflect on how God has met us, I am struck again by two themes reflected in this collection of hymns. We long for a place of true rest and wholeness and we need songs that give voice to that ache, that homesickness that we feel so viscerally in our sorrow. But many of us would also testify to the reality that we have found the Lord’s presence and tasted His sweetness in new ways during this season. This collection of hymns centers around these two realities. We long for heaven, but in the meantime taste the "joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory" (1 Peter 1:8).

Augustine once said, “He who sings, prays twice.” Singing intensifies what we are feeling, both the longing and the sweetness we can taste even in the midst of our sorrow. As we look to Jesus through the cross, we behold that our King wears the crown of thorns. He knows sorrow beyond what we have experienced. This does not make light of our suffering. In fact, it gives us a doorway into experiencing sweet communion with Jesus and tasting just a hint of what it felt like for Him to love us to the utmost on the cross.

Sweet as home to pilgrims weary / Light to newly, opened eyes
Like full springs in deserts dreary / Is the rest the cross supplies
All who taste it, all who taste it, all who taste it / Shall to rest immortal rise

Rev. Kevin Twit