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Martin Luther. This is The Bright Forever. The Bright Forever Hello, and welcome to The Bright Forever, where each week we rediscover the power and richness found within some of the greatest hymns of the faith. My name is Andy Peavyhouse, and I am your host and guide on this amazing adventure through the world of hymnody. I am so glad to be back with you all this week. We are coming closer and closer to the end of our first season and it's getting bittersweet. I am amazed at how far we have come. I am excited for where we're going. But at the same time, I'm going to miss these weeks together with you. Just know that while we are away, there will be some amazing things happening behind the scenes here at The Bright Forever. We are already looking into the hymns we will be exploring next season, scheduling some great special guests, and even recording some original versions of some of the hymns we will be sharing. I can't begin to tell you how exciting it is to already be planning and preparing for next season. Last week, we talked about the classic consecration hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be by Havergal. If you haven't had a chance to listen yet, take some time and listen to it. The song itself and what it calls us to is amazing and one of my favorites. And not to give away too many spoilers, but you even get to hear the angelic voice of the 90s sensation and upcoming 11-year-old star from the 1990s First Baptist brand in Florida, young musicians, choir production of Salty's Hymnological Adventure Through Time, Andy Peavyhouse. That's right. You get to hear me as a fifth grader. And let's be honest, singing celebrity. Pictures. Pictures of which have been used to blackmail me into doing various things in the past. We're actually going to post a few of those pictures on Facebook, Twitter, and our Instagram account for you to see in my blue songbook glory. But in the meantime, this week, we are looking at another beautiful hymn that may be a little less known to many of you. I had heard the original tune before, sung to a different hymn. But I truly fell in love with this hymn when one of my favorite Indelible Grace artists, Matthew Smith, recorded their own version of the song on the album Wake Thy Slumbering Children, Indelible Grace No. 5. The original song is called Through the Love of God Our Savior. Or on the Indelible Grace album, All Must Be Well. This song is written by Mary Boley Peters, was first published in Hymns Intended to Help the Communion of the Saints in 1847. According to HymnologyArchive.com, that publication is now lost to history. We can't find it. But it was then published again in Edward Walker's Psalms and Hymns for Public and Social Worship in 1855. The text is in three stanzas. Each stanza containing eight lines, and contained in between the lines of text, you find the refrains, All will be well, all, all is well, and all must be well. Little is known about Peters, except she was married to John William Peters, rector of the church at Quinnington, Gloucestershire. and she was an avid writer. Her prose work, The World's History, From the Creation to the Ascension of Queen Victoria, was published in seven volumes. Yes, that's correct, seven volumes. Several of her hymns were contributed to the Plymouth Brethren's Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, London, 1842. Those hymns, along with others, 58 in total, were published by Nesbitt and Company London, 1847. This is the hymns intended to help the communion of the saints. Mrs. Peter's hymns were introduced and reintroduced in various hymnals throughout the years. Many of her hymns had no title and were simply indexed under their respective first lines. From the book, The Worshiping Church, Worship Leaders Edition, author Anne Devine offers this assessment of the hymn. Through the love of God our Savior is a text of comfort that speaks of the security believers have in Christ. While today's society tends to expect the quick fix in emotional healing, Mary Peters' hymn acknowledges that Christians will have difficulties and tribulation. However, Divine points out that Peters paints a picture of God's plan to insulate his people from devastating hopelessness. And she does this in the end of her opening stanza. Strong the hand stretched out to shield us. All must be well. Another author I read said her hymns breathe a spirit of calm and joyous assurance. And the secret of her comfort in sorrow, her assurance and joy, is that she knew Jesus not only as a Savior, but as her Savior. We see it so clearly in her hymns. As a matter of fact, another of her hymns begins, Jesus, how much thy name unfolds to every opened ear. The pardoned sinner's memory holds none other half so dear. And it ends with, The mention of thy name shall bow our hearts to worship thee, the chiefest of ten thousand thou, whose love has set me free. Miss Peters died in Bristol on July 29, 1856, at the early age of 43. Yet her hymns live on. through the faith and praise of those who continue to sing her amazing words. So let's look at this hymn together. Now, before we do, I just want to go back to the quote we started with at the opening from Martin Luther. He said, the sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent and that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands. Gosh. How often do we do that? I know the best way for me and I take matters into my own hands and I always come up short. In my own life, when things don't go my way, People aren't doing what I wish they would do, whether it's my kids or my wife, friends, other family, or maybe the bank account is looking kind of small. And my financial planning can be summed up with the words survival mode. I tend to want to take control. The idea of all will be well, or all is well, or all must be well, is a distant, if not completely unconsidered thought. The only way to combat the lies of the serpent is with our strongest weapon, God's word. When Jesus was tempted, he went to scripture. And I don't know about you, but if Jesus's weapon against the lies of Satan is to quote scripture, then we need to know scripture. One of the things I love about hymns is they literally take God's word and they put it to music. They take the truths of God's word, those things that remind us to stand up, to not succumb to the lies of the serpent. Those things that are telling us that we're not good enough. Did God really say that? Did God really do that? Did God really mean for that to be it? And hymns come along with the presence of God's word buried in it, the deep theology and doctrine. And they help us. They remind us of God's word. Let's take a look. Through the love of God, our savior, all will be well. Does God really love you? Did he really say those things? You hear that voice in your ear. telling you, you can't believe that. But John 3.16 tells us, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And you're going, oh, Andy, everyone quotes John 3.16. Okay, okay. Lamentations 3.22-24 says,"...the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in Him." So when he's telling you, when the serpent's coming out and saying, did God really say that? Does God really love you? Quote him scripture. Free and changeless is his favor. All is well. Is God really changeless? Really, Andy? Are you sure about that? Is he still changing? Favoring you? Really? Go to Hebrews 13.8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He doesn't change. The power of what he has done on the cross doesn't change with his mood. God's not moody. God's not up there going, well, today I'm not really feeling you, Andy, so sorry, you've lost your salvation. Nope, you've lost favor with me. Oh, you wanted to do that on your own? Bye-bye. No. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can't believe the lies of the serpent. Precious is the blood that healed us. Perfect is the grace that seals us strong. The hand stretched forth to shield us. All must be well. First Peter chapter one, starting in verse 18, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was forsaken before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Precious is the blood that healed us and perfect is the grace that seals us. Psalm 18, 2, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Strong the hand stretched forth to shield us. All must be well. When you hear that voice saying, really, did God really say that? Did God really say that? Yeah. Yeah, he did. The second verse, though we pass through tribulation, all will be well. Ours is such a full salvation. All is well. Happy still in God confiding, fruitful if in Christ abiding, steadfast through the Spirit's guiding, all must be well. Really? You sure about that? 2 Corinthians 4, verses eight through 10. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Romans 15, three says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope, happy, still in Christ confiding, fruitful if in Christ abiding, steadfast through the Spirit's guiding. All must be well. We expect a bright tomorrow. All will be well. Faith can sing through days of sorrow. All is well. On our Father's love relying, Jesus every need supplying. Yes, in living or in dying, all must be well. Did God really say he'd give you a hope and a future? Really? Yeah, it's true. In fact, in Psalm 30 verses 11 and 12, the Psalmist says, you have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness that my glory may sing your praise. And not be silent. Oh Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And then in Romans chapter 14, verses eight and nine, for if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. We expect a bright tomorrow. All will be well. Faith can sing through days of sorrow because our morning has been turned to dancing and all is well. On our Father's love relying, Jesus every need supplying. Yes, in living. or in dying, all must be well.

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Through the love of God our Savior, all will be well. free and changeless is his favor all is well precious is the blood that healed us perfect is the grace that sealed us strong the hand stretched forth to shield us all must be well who we partake Through tribulation all will be well Ours is such a full salvation All is well Happy still in God confiding Still fighting, steadfast through the Spirit's guiding All must be well I will. That

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was All Must Be Well from Wake Thy Slumbering Children. Indelible Grace No. 5, performed by Matthew Smith. If you have not had a chance to look at Indelible Grace, please do. They have all sorts of amazing resources and great, great versions of some of these timeless hymns of the faith. Take a moment and look at them. Thank you, as always, for listening to this podcast. Please take a minute to subscribe or to follow this podcast either through Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, Amazon, iHeart. There's so many platforms that we are on. Please find us, like us, subscribe to us, follow us. And you can, when you do, Whenever we post something new, you will automatically get it through Apple or through Spotify. I know for myself, I follow us on Spotify. And so every week when I post something, I get a reminder from Spotify. Hey, you need to go and listen to The Bright Forever. So please like us or follow us or subscribe to us on one of these platforms. You'll be glad that you did. You can also find us at www.thebrightforever.com. And we'll see you next time. We always want to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show. Let us know what you think of this season, of what we've been doing so far. Give us some hymn suggestions. We already have the rest of this season planned, but for next season, we're still looking at some hymns. So if you have any suggestions for what we should do next season, please let us know. Give us your comments, your stories, your prayer requests, whatever you want to talk to us about. We would love to hear from you. And you can send those comments to podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, that's podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, thank you for listening. I hope you have a great week and let me close us out in prayer. Lord, I thank you that God, we have a greater voice and greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. We have a stronger weapon than the voice of the serpent. We have your word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword. and pierces to bone and marrow. God, we can trust you. We can trust your love. We can trust your grace. We can trust what your son, Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. The finished work of our savior is strong and it's stronger than anything this world has or even things we cannot even see can do to us. What Christ has done for us is so much greater. So let us find our hope in that. Let us find our strength and our boldness in that. And let us know your word. Draw us ever closer to you through your word. Every day. God, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for who you are, who you have been, and who you will always be. Our unchanging God. And it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you all. Have a great week, and I'll see you back here next week. We're out.

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