Sweet Memories & Encouragement

Yesterday was a day filled with sweet memories and encouragement and I just felt led to share some of that with you today!  It all began as I was getting ready for church…

The Sirius XM Southern Gospel channel enLighten plays classic hymns on Sunday mornings.  Sometimes, like yesterday, it is just what my soul needs to start the week and prepare for the Sunday service that I’ll be attending… even if the music there is TOTALLY different than these hymns which were on the cutting edge of Christian worship across the globe in the 1700’s and extending into and beyond the early 1960’s.  I have fond memories of the look of shock on some of the faces in the congregation when a young Piper and I would occasionally sing a contemporary Christian song on a Sunday morning in the early 1970’s at the First Baptist church that Piper grew up in.  

But she was raised on the classic hymns and in the twelve or so years (before and after our wedding) that I attended that church, I grew to love and appreciate them as well.  It’s actually a bit funny in that I would find myself on many mornings singing our favorite hymns to Piper as I prepared her for the day during those final years of her life, instead of the modern songs we sang as we led and participated in countless Praise and Worship services in the 36 years following our attendance at First Baptist!


As I gathered my Bible and notebook for church, my attention was drawn to the acapella group on the radio as they began to sing:


♫ “There's a sweet sweet spirit in this place

And I know that it's the spirit of the Lord.

There are sweet expressions on each face

And I know that it's the presence of the Lord.

Sweet Holy Spirit

Sweet heavenly dove

Stay right here with us

Filling us with your love.

And for all these blessings

We lift our hearts in praise

Without a doubt we'll know

That we have been revived

When we shall leave this place...”♪        Doris Mae Akers (1923-1995).



I stopped in my tracks and had to call out, “We sang that at our wedding!”  Then as I paused there in the dining room, I sang those precious words while all the memories washed over me.  This was Piper’s favorite hymn at the time and she had requested that we sing it as a congregational song at our wedding.  She wanted the congregation’s agreement that our wedding and the ensuing years together would be led, blessed and filled with the Holy Spirit… and you know?  I think that she more than got her wish!

An hour or so later, while we were enraptured in a time of open worship as the Praise and Worship part of the service reached its crescendo at church, it suddenly felt to me that Piper was at my side and quietly grasped my right hand in her left… as we would often do at church during such times of intimate worship unto the Lord.  Then I imagined her wrapping her arms around my right arm and softly draw near to me… Now, I know that this was all in my head, but it felt so real, so natural to us, that I suddenly felt like it was just the two of us, all alone, worshipping together in that crowded auditorium.  It was a wonderful blessing to me!

Hours later, in the quiet of the afternoon after I had returned from a ride out to the new house, I sat down in my favorite living room chair to read from my brand-new Message Devotional Bible.  As I opened it up to where I had last read in the book of Romans, I glanced up to a very familiar picture of Piper that I’d taped on the side of the entertainment cabinet in view of my seat by the window.  I had taken the picture on the grounds of the Fort Ross Lodge on one of our two night “Holidays” together in the early 2000’s.  The picture to me, is one that perfectly captured the heart of my wife.  She is happy, content in our love for each other, smiling, and bundled up against the chill of the summer weather on the northern California coast.  And as became her trademark, she is wearing her bright red lipstick!

I am not sure why, but as I locked my eyes on the picture and thought of the many fun times we had together and the life we chose to live, I found myself singing another of our favorite hymns written in 1873 by a women that Piper highly admired named Fanny Crosby.  It was entitled “Blessed Assurance” and I sang:



♪ “This is my story, this is my song

Praising my savior all the day long

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my savior all the day long” ♫



Well… if truth be known, I do know why I sang it while thinking about us… for it WAS our story!  We began our story praising the Lord as we asked the Holy Spirit to be in the center of our relationship, did our best to live a life of praise unto the Lord and witnessed Piper’s last hours of life while praising Him for giving me such a wonderful women of God, to bless me for the best 48 years of my life!  In times of joy as well as in times of sorrow, our immediate response was to praise HIM and give Him all the glory.  To invite Him into any and every day, hour and minute of our lives, to do our best to seek out and follow HIS plan. 

If you recall, Ephesians 1:12 tells us that: “He planned all of this so that we who had already focused our hope on Christ would praise him and give him glory.” (God’s word ©) 


So, what’s your need today?  Are you full of joy, in a place of sorrow or just dealing with a bit of unrest?  The answer is the same… simply lift up your arms in surrender to HIM and begin to sing PRAISES to Him!  In doing so you open up the door for Him to enter into your life to bless you, to encourage you and strengthen your heart with precious memories of the good times that you’ve experienced in your past and the realization that there are more good times just around the corner!  Don’t give up, you’re on the brink of a miracle.  Let HIM be your encourager today!  


Have a great and encouraging week, and as you do, sing with me… “I m expecting the story of my life to be HIS story as I trust in Him to be my encourager today!”