He continued to stay in Canada. It was said of him that he was a man of faith, willing and able to help the poor, widows and the sick and all without accepting any wage. A friend visiting one day discovered a poem that Scriven had written intended for Scriven Mother still at home in Ireland. It was an encouragement for her as she lay in her sick bed so far away. He called it "Pray Without Ceasing." His poem made its rounds and was eventually set to music in 1868 by musician Charles Converse, it has since become one of the classics.
Scriven died in 1886.
That hymn is called "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."
Check out the words.
Friendship.
Were did he get the idea that he had a friend in Jesus?
How do you get friendship with Jesus?
Well, like you I think you get it from the general thrust of Gods words that He is a friend, but in particular there is something about being Jesus friend in John 15.
There is a whole chunk of scripture that is very much tied together.
Well in fact that whole chapter but there in v14-15 we read
Joh 15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Joh 15:15 I do not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
And previously in v12-13 he said
Joh 15:12 "This is my command: that you love one another as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13 No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends.
He says that we are his friend if we obey and carry out his commands and the command he mentions is this, “that you love one another as I have loved you” and reinforces his statement of friendship by saying “No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends”. And he has laid down his life for us. So it must be true! Obey me he says.
Man you'd be happy enough to be called a servant of Jesus, but friend.
Friend is intimate.
We know of his compassion, his mercy and the grace that God supplies but surely, surely this is getting much more than we deserve?
To call us friends when it wasn't so long ago we were enemies of God!
Not only does he die for us, saving us, which tells us how much he loves us, but just in case we are in any doubt thinking he might love us, but no like us so much, he says, Your my friend.
Joh 15:9 Just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
Joh 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
What, joy as well ?
Joy along with love, as well as friendship, on top of being saved and add on all those other good things you talk about Jesus! WOW!
I will show you the greatest love he says, I will die for you and all I ask is that you follow my commands that you “love one another as I have loved you”.
Who are we?
Man, who does he think we are?
I'll tell you, he thinks we have the potential to be a lot like him!
1Pe 2:5 like living stones, being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God (through Jesus Christ).
He says You who are a
1Pe 2:9 a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession
He thinks we have the ability to love others in a way that He loves.
He thinks we are something!
Is that true? Is it true? Because if it is I think we need to “up” our game!
Living stones? Royal priesthood.
Love one another ! Not like one another, love one another as I have loved you.
You are my friends, he says, if you do what I command you.
My friends.
How does that impact you / us?
We have two wonderful House Groups and we are a family and we are friends of the Christ. We live by his commands as Christ friend and therefore connected to each other in friendship.
And that stating the blindly obvious, for how could we be Christ friend and not be friends of each other?
We have wonderful opportunity as Christ friends to fully support each other as his command to love each other reflects.
In out-reach and in our in-reach, the network is there failure to use it and work with it means ? Failure to run with the commands to love one another.
But it's good news.
Some bad news.
Unfortunately something always comes along and tries to spoils the good news. Sometimes that friendship is going to feel tested.
It may feel at times our friend Jesus isn't always there but you must remember,
Lazarus story.
I think you could call Mary and Martha and Lazarus friends of Jesus.
But where was this friend when they needed him? When he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was for two more days.
Joh 11:21 Martha said to Jesus (when he finally got there) "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
You can just imagine their anguish.
Jim McGuiggan said this about that.
It wasn’t because he couldn’t be bothered; it wasn’t because he didn’t care for the sisters or thought that death was trivial. It was because he had something more glorious in mind. And if he chooses to this very day to allow suffering and loss and death to have our loved ones, or us to be subjected to grief, we can be sure it isn’t because he’s callous or indifferent. No, all these experiences that drive a ploughshare across our souls are in the service of faith that is the creation of a larger and glory-filled agenda. And one of these days we’ll know that our trust in him was well placed when we see what he has done with all our pain and loss. He chooses to make himself absent so that he can be present in a way he could not be present if he did not make himself absent. In the day when we fully realise that we too will say, “Lord we’re glad that you chose not to be there.
Whether we like it or not God has an agenda he is pursuing but if we can give him a brave hearing we'll be assured that we'll see it all with shining eyes and astonished at its wonder. He will glorify himself and in the process bless us.
He is always there. And we are very much part of his plan, we may not always know it. Trust him.
Just before I go.
Just before we finish off I'll says this, there's no "friendship" in friendship if the relationship isn't a mutual thing.
(Jim McG again).
No "friendship" in friendship if the relationship isn't a mutual thing.
We are not pets of Jesus!
It's weighted in our favour I know that, we get the better deal.
Let me ask you this question.
What's important here, that we are his friend or he is ours?
I think we want to say, that he is ours. But I think that's right as well as wrong. You would break his heart if you were not his friend and I mean break it ! And surely that's an important fact to know and that must, Must, show the importance of our friendship. He's made it important, yes. But it shows the depths of feeling he has for us and the intimacy which is shared. He wants you! Your actions and reactions stir something in this God, this Jealous God, this God in flesh.
And all we have to do is obey or to say it more fully,
all we have to do is love, love God, follow his commands, seek friendship with him and live it, bear fruit.
Love him, love one another, actions.
Because I think he is planning to have us around for sometime after all he invited us to his Fathers mansion.
So what a friend we have in Jesus indeed.
A friendship that calls us to higher and lovelier things.
Just imagine for a moment,
If we are a spiritual house
A holy nation
A royal priesthood
A friend of Jesus
What would we be doing with our life?
How would we act?
What choices would we make?
Man, we have something to live up to here if we want to glorify God and have a friend in Jesus.