Hope Secure

"The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my hope secure;

He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease,

I shall possess within the veil, A life of joy and peace."

  Do those words sound familiar to you? They didn't to me. They come from the amazing hymn "Amazing Grace," the 4th and 5th verse to be exact.

Most of us know four verses of this hymn for it is sung often and greatly enjoyed. But sometimes it is interesting to know there are other verses in the original text, such as these two, by John Newton, and others in their hymn writing.

"The veil, of all the elements in the wilderness tabernacle, was the clearest message of God's love for the human race, but it would be more than 1,000 years before that message would be delivered," Jack Zavada wrote.

"When Jesus died on the cross, God tore the veil in the Jerusalem temple from top to bottom. No one but God could have done such a thing because that veil was 60 feet tall and four inches thick. The direction of the tear meant God destroyed the barrier between himself and humanity, an act only God had the ability to do.

 "Every follower of Christ can now approach God directly, without the intervention of earthly priests. Christ, the great High Priest, intercedes for us before God."

 It is always interesting to me when I find a little gold nugget such as this as I read about different hymns and who wrote them.

I've always liked this quote from Billy Graham:

 "I can tell you that God is alive because I talked with him this morning."

 Did you?