Speaker 1 0:01

The secret is Christ in me, not in a different set of circumstances. Elizabeth Elliott, this is the Bright Forever, where each week we rediscover the power and richness found in some of the greatest hymns of the faith. My name is Andy Peavyhouse and I am your host on this incredible adventure in hymnody. Andy Peavyhouse and I am your host on this incredible adventure in hymnody. It is great to be back with you again in season three. Last week we dove into the Fanny Crosby and John Swinney hymn Tell Me the Story of Jesus, and we discussed how important story is in our lives and how amazingly the story the gospel story that is greater than any other, sets the stage for every good and epic story we love and cherish. I issued a challenge to all of you to tell me your story of Jesus. What is something he has done for you or triumphed over or challenged you with? And, much to my surprise, I got a response. I was told I could share this. So here goes. This is a story from Janice. I don't know where she listens from, but wherever you are, janice, thank you for listening and thank you for sharing the story Janice writes.

Speaker 1 1:46

I never thought my story mattered. I mean, I knew Jesus had changed me. But I always assumed it wasn't dramatic enough to share Just ordinary faith, with ups and downs. But after listening to this last episode, I felt this quiet nudge Tell the story. And when I sat with that for a bit, one moment from my life came rushing back.

Speaker 1 2:12

A few years ago I hit a wall. I had become exhausted physically, emotionally and spiritually. I was doing all the quote-unquote right things, but my heart felt dry. I started questioning whether Jesus was really leading me or if I had just been following a routine. Then one night, in a way I can only describe as unmistakable, I heard him whisper, come to me. It wasn't a loud voice, but it cut through all the noise going on in my life. I opened my Bible, but not like many times before, not to check a box, not to find an answer, but to simply be with him. But to simply be with him. And for the first time in a long time I felt his presence. I realized I had been running on my own strength, carrying burdens he never asked me to carry. That night I surrendered in a way I never had before, letting go of my routines and just sitting there with Bible open, waiting on him to speak and he met me there. I didn't walk away with all the answers, but I walked away lighter. It wasn't flashy or dramatic, but it was real and I felt like Jesus moved in my life for the first time in a really long time.

Speaker 1 4:01

Like I said, it's nothing flashy, but if sharing this helps somebody else, even one other person, see that Jesus is still writing their story too, that I wanted to tell it, wow, that's awesome. Thank you, janice, for sharing your story of Jesus in your life. This is what I would love for this season and even moving forward, for this whole podcast to be about. If you have a story of what Jesus has done in your life, or what he is currently doing or teaching you right now, email it to podcast at the bright forevercom or send us a message through the contact us form on our website. We would love to share more stories each week of what Jesus is doing among the listeners of our podcast.

Speaker 1 4:52

Well, today is a special episode. Not only are we looking at an incredibly beautiful hymn, we are also speaking to an incredibly amazing person about this hymn, my dad, steve Peavyhouse. Our hymn for this week is Be Still my Soul, which my dad has been asking for us to do for a very long time, and I keep giving him other hymns to talk about. But today he actually gets to talk about this hymn that he's been dying to talk about for the last couple of seasons, and it is a beautiful hymn with captivating words by Katarina von Schlegel I love that name Set to a beautifully haunting tune by Jan Sibelius from his piece Finlandia.

Speaker 1 5:43

Usually I do a segment on the history of the song and then go through each verse, but we cover some of that in our conversation and there was just so much good stuff I was having such a hard time cutting some of it out. I just want to jump right into it and let you hear what he has to say about this amazing song. As always, before we get started, don't forget to click subscribe and follow us at the Bright Forever so you never miss an episode. And with that let's get started. Well, we are here with an amazing special guest, as I always say, probably one of the most special guests we have, but not to be confused with the greatest special guest, my mom, who has the most downloads. Still, although Aunt Pam is coming close with hers, you are actually getting even closer with your two combined, but it's my dad, steve Peavyhouse. Welcome again.

Speaker 3 6:55

Oh, thank you, Glad to be here.

Speaker 1 6:58

It's great to have you on and it's great to be talking about this particular hymn. To be talking about this particular hymn. It's a hymn that you and I have talked about multiple times and we've never really got it on the podcast. And now it's here.

Speaker 3 7:12

I'm glad I made it Hot time.

Speaker 1 7:15

Yes, thank you, and it's the hymn Be Still my Soul. I won't say it's an obscure hymn. I've heard it a lot and I've heard it done a lot, but it's not one of those that you just think of off the top of your head. Oh, be Still my Soul.

Speaker 3 7:32

It is a song that is like naming your child Alma. I mean, it just sounds old, it sounds like an old archaic kind of song, and I understand that because it's an old archaic kind of song. But, boy, is it a powerful message in it. And of course you take those gorgeous words and you link them with Finlandia by Jan Sibelius. Finlandia by Jan Sibelius.

Speaker 1 8:32

And it's just you know. I mean, it is a wonderful combination that just tugs at the heart as you sing it and you as I like to go. But two of my favorite parts of this song are the fact that the music is by Sibelius, which I think is just an amazing name, and the words are by an even cooler name, I think, which is Katarina von Schlegel. I just Schlegel is a coming from somebody with the last name Peavey House, and I think you might be able to join me in the fact that it's not a common name and just Schlegel just sounds like a really fun last name to have.

Speaker 3 9:03

Well, it's a wonderful last name. It is German and you have to remember that PV house comes from by big housing, which is true. Varian is a German. We, our predecessors, came over a couple of years ago. They were Moravian brethren and they came over here from that part of the country as well. True, maybe?

Speaker 1 9:25

we have some Von Sch of the country as well, true? Maybe we have some Von Schlegel in us too.

Speaker 3 9:28

Yeah, that'd be nice, I think the copyright's up though. So darn.

Speaker 1 9:35

Okay, let's kind of talk about that, the the kind of the origins of the hymn in a little bit. So it's a Lutheran hymn. Katerina Von Schlegel was, um, the author, uh, it was authored in 1752, which makes it a yeah, it's, it's, it's an old hymn. Um, it's not one of those new fangled hymns that are out there, although there are some really great hymns that are out there, although there are some really great hymns that are coming out now too. But um and uh, and the tune, the tune of finlandia, it's, it's, um. I was reading a post and I mentioned this to you back a few days ago when we were talking about it that the author was talking about it was a blog post on it that this song has what is in music called prosody, where the words and the music just fit, like the words give way to the music, the music gives away to the words and it's just like they're meant to be together.

Speaker 3 10:55

Yes, Well, the wonderful thing about it is that you have what I think are pretty deep thinkers in the sense of von Schlegel. I mean, she came out of a. It was a Lutheran, but it was a pietist Lutheran, and there were—the pietists. Whether Lutheran or Baptist or Anabaptist. The pietists almost always were more linked by their pietism than they were divided by their theology. Then they were divided by their theology.

Speaker 3 11:30

I mean the pietism was just a drawing close to God and a sense of seeing him not just as providence, not just as being the God who created, the God who is sovereign over the universe. But personally they took what Jesus did for them in a very personal way and how they responded back toward him in a very personal way, and so that is an aspect of pietism. And then you have someone like Sibelius who writes it's almost close to a dirge, I mean it's sort of da-da-ous as it moves along there, but it doesn't go faster or slower than the words, because you need the words to go slow. So you hear them and you understand them, yeah, and you even have a chance almost to think about them as you are listening to them, yeah.

Speaker 1 12:31

Well, and I think the words call for a response, oh yeah. And so you have to be able to sing the words while beginning to understand the words so that there's a response, and I think the music lends itself to that, while beginning to understand the words so that there's a response, and I think the music lends itself to that, and that's one of the great things about this song. I want to say, it was the last time you were on and we were talking about.

Speaker 1 12:57

Fanny Crosby's song Bloods of Assurance, and she actually talks about that. She talks about how there's something about it. When you match words to the perfect tune, it just clicks and just that tune is just. It's in my head, it's stuck in my head, that's what you sing Blessed Assurance to. There's no other music for it, just it fits the words.

Speaker 3 13:23

Well, I'll tell you one that you talked about in one of your earlier podcasts and I forgot who was on with you. It might have been mom, it might have been your mama. He keeps me singing yeah, I mean prosody for the word go, yeah, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da da. I mean it's very positive. It's what you call the happy song. Yes, it's one of those happy songs, and because the words he keeps me singing as I go, it just fits perfectly with the music. It's just light and lilting and just carries you along.

Speaker 3 13:52

Well, this one doesn't carry you along in the same way. It almost pulls on your heartstrings the entire time that you are listening to it. Because it time that you are listening to it, because it takes you deep into your relationship with Jesus and also into the woes and trials and tribulations and difficulties of life. And it says I mean, it tells you be still.

Speaker 3 14:23

And to me, the thing that really hits me on this and hit me from the very start is the first line, because that is a perspective on life that if you have it, then everything else in life makes sense, even the things that don't make sense really make sense. Because it says be still my soul. Why? Because the Lord is on your side, and if you can get the understanding that God is on your side, then nothing else matters, because he's the king of the universe, and so that, to me, is the most powerful thing about the song, is that it calls you to. Here's why you should be still, here's why you should be quiet, not be anxious, not be overwhelmed by what's going on in your life, because God's on your side and he always will be.

Speaker 1 15:20

It's almost like it's scriptural.

Speaker 3 15:25

Almost, almost. Yes, golly, I thought. I wonder if you're going to bring that up or not?

Speaker 1 15:30

It's almost like Katerina von Schlegel. Mike maybe had a Bible out when she was writing this.

Speaker 1 15:37

Could be. Psalm 46, verse 10 says be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. And then the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. We can trust him in that. And if you jump to Romans 8, verse 28, it says and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, be still and know the Lord is on your side, that everything is going to work out. It may not work out the way you thought it was going to Right, but it's always going to be good.

Speaker 3 16:28

It's always for your good.

Speaker 1 16:29

It's always for your good.

Speaker 3 16:30

As a matter of fact, that same passage. If you go a little farther, it actually says the words if God be for us, who can be against us?

Speaker 1 16:38

Yes, as a matter of fact, it says. What, then, shall we say to these things? This is in verse 31. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us? How will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things? And then it keeps on going.

Speaker 5 17:03

It doesn't stop.

Speaker 1 17:04

The one thing about Paul that I love is that, I mean, he says something absolutely stunning, like, if God is for us, who can be against us? Then he turns around and says he gave us Jesus. I mean, what more do you need? Oh, you need more. Okay, hold on.

Speaker 1 17:23

Well then let me tell you what will separate you from Jesus Nothing, he goes. Not just nothing. No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him, who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation just in case you didn't catch it from everything else I just listed will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, you can be still, yeah, you can be still, and know that he is God and that he is on your side.

Speaker 1 18:06

And then it goes right into that next line bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. And one of the things about this song, and I think it goes back to the whole the music gives way to the lyrics and the lyrics give way to the music is. This song is great at reminding us that life isn't always easy and that it's hard, and that there is grief and there is pain and there is suffering, and but we can remember the whole time. I think I'm just going to start saying it every single podcast now, because I keep telling myself I really should say something different, but then I get into it. I'm like no, you've got to preach the gospel to yourself. Absolutely, you've got to preach the gospel to yourself. This is what this song does.

Speaker 3 19:02

The famous story of Luther was the fact that after he had nailed his 95 theses and he was really really nailing down the idea that justification by faith I mean it was grace, faith that was the only chance of salvation. The only way that we could get salvation was through what Jesus had done for us. And it was not about us, not about what we could do in response, it was about him and what he had done. And so he would begin to preach every single week. He would I mean it's kind of funny when you hear it. I mean it's kind of funny when you hear it but he would preach the gospel to his congregation every single week.

Speaker 3 19:58

And after a while they were getting really tired of it and they were saying can you do something else? He says no, no, I can't do it until you get it down, because I keep telling you every single week about the gospel and by the time you come back the next Sunday you've forgotten all about it. And I got to tell it to you again because you're not living, you're not looking like, you're not acting like, you believe that it's all Jesus and it's not you that you can't do enough, you can't do anything to save yourself. It is all him, and his grace is sufficient for everything, including all the sin in your life, to overcome it and make you a victor.

Speaker 1 20:39

And that's one of the things I love about the song is that this song, if left just with that, if all it left you with was look, life stinks, you're going to be in grief, you're going to be in pain, then, yeah, this would be a really sad and kind of I don't think this song and the great thing about this idea of being still before God it reminds you be still. The Lord is on your side the whole time. It's saying just be patient, Be patient, Wait. God is on your side, he's working all things for good. Yes, there will be grief, yes, there will be pain. And then it says leave to your God to order and provide. In every change, he, faithful will remain. He'll be faithful. You can trust that he'll be faithful. Yes, there's going to be problems. Yes, things are not going to turn out the way you want them to.

Speaker 1 21:45

And yes, this song I hear this song sung a lot at either funerals or after there's been a tragedy in our country or something. You may hear this song and there's a reason for it. There's a reason why we sing this song when tragedy hits, when things in life are hard, because this song preaches that gospel to us. It says, first of all, number one you are not in control. God is sovereign. You live in a sinful world that is filled with pain and with grief, but be still, the Lord is on your side.

Speaker 3 22:29

You know this song, I think emotionally tracks along with it Is Well With my Soul. Very much like that because, as you said, you are looking at situations, situations and you know they're going to happen. They're going to occur. I mean. Jesus said if you want to be my disciple, you have to take up your cross daily. Follow me. That's it, the cross, bearing it with patience, knowing that he is the one who is supporting, sometimes carrying you, but leading you along the way. And at the very end of that first verse, there, your best, your heavenly friend, through thorny ways, leads to a joyful end. He is leading you to a joyful end. Everything is going to turn out fine, because he is the author of everything and he knows how to make things turn out fine.

Speaker 1 23:36

In my classes that I'm teaching, we just got through talking about how God has incommunicable attributes, things that are only His. He is omniscient and omnipresent and we aren't, obviously. But then he has communicable attributes like love and grace and wisdom and righteousness, things that we can also have those things.

Speaker 3 24:02

Yeah, but mainly because he can give them to us.

Speaker 1 24:05

Oh, but not just that. He can give it to us, and this is what I, we just got done talking with this, and it was really neat to see some of my students begin to understand this. God isn't just the author of those things Right, he embodies them. Yeah, he is those things. He is the joy of those things Right, he embodies them. He is those things. He is the joy at the end. He is our joy.

Speaker 3 24:32

I mean, it says for God is love, yes, and if he is love and you are in him, then you are in love. Yes in love? And what else can you do if you are in love but have that love permeate you and hopefully spread?

Speaker 1 24:52

out to others as well. Yeah, and so you can be still. You can be still and stand before God and go. I don't know why this is happening. I don't know why I've had this loss or this tragedy, or why things aren't going the way I want them to go, and God's just saying I'm here, I'm here, I'm faithful. There's a reason Don't worry and that, in the end, even if you lose it all and this is why I love Job too Even if you lose it all, even if everything is gone, I'm still your. Joy At the end of the, even the thorny way, ends in joy. Even if you lose it all, we can still trust that he is sovereign, that he is who he says he is, and he tells us that he'll be faithful. He will be faithful even in those hard times.

Speaker 3 25:54

Absolutely. I think that the one thing I learned in my life. I'm 76, now there's not a young guy.

Speaker 1 26:03

Whoa really.

Speaker 3 26:04

Yeah, you don't act like you're a young guy anymore either. The one thing that I started to say with the age is that I learned about myself that I, truly deep within my heart, cannot be trusted. God can, yeah.

Speaker 3 26:20

You know, he will always come through. He will always do the right thing. I will try to do the right thing, but a lot of times I don't do the right thing. You cannot put your stake in me or any person, but you can always sink deep into the truth and the love of God and Christ Jesus and because he is who he is, he will always come through.

Speaker 5 26:56

Be still my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change he, faithful, will remain. Be still my soul. Thy best, thy heavenly friend, through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Be still my soul Though dearest friends depart and all is dark and in the veil of tears. Then shalt thou better know His love, his heart, who comes to soothe Thy sorrows and Thy fears? Be still my soul that Jesus can repay From His own fullness All he takes away. Thank you, be still my soul. The hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord, when disappointment, grief and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still my soul. When change and tears are past, all safe and blessed, we shall meet at last. All safe and blessed, we shall meet at last.

Speaker 1 31:21

That was Be Still my Soul, performed by Tammy Nielsen and Don McGlashan from the 2019 album Offering, part of the Offering Project, who graciously gave us permission to use this recording on our podcast, and we thank them for allowing us to use it. The Offering Project is a collaboration of New Zealand's finest recording and visual artists is a collaboration of New Zealand's finest recording and visual artists. The Offering album is a collection of 12 gospel hymns that have provided comfort and peace for centuries. You can find out more about the Offering project at wwwofferingorg. Thank you, as always, for listening and thank you for being a part of this podcast. Please take a minute and visit our website at thebrightforevercom. From there, you can follow this podcast, either through Apple or Spotify, amazon or many other podcasting platforms that are there, or you can take our RSS feed and you can plug it into wherever you listen to podcasts, and we always want to hear from you. You can email us at podcast at the bright forevercom. You can also click the contact us tab at the top of our website and send us a message through our contact form. You can click the radio microphone in the bottom right corner and record a message of up to two minutes and let us know what you think of our podcast. And now you can text us from your smartphone. In the description and notes of every episode, there's a link at the beginning that says send us a text. If you have your cell phone, you can click that link and it will open up the messaging on your phone and you can send us a text through there, and it comes directly to our website. And, last but not least, you can always show us what you think by leaving a review on our website, on Apple Podcast or on Spotify. Give us all the five-star reviews you'd like. Thank you again for listening to this podcast.

Speaker 1 33:22

Let me close us in prayer and we'll head out. Lord, thank you for showing us that we can still our souls, we can still our lives and we can sit and wait patiently because you are on our side, god. The trials and the turmoil of this world does not compare to the one that we know, who holds this world in his hand. And so, father, we trust you. We trust you with our lives, so that we can truly be still and know that you are God, know that you are working everything for our good and for your glory, and then nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and it's in his name that we pray. Amen. God bless you all. Have a great week and we will see you back here next week no-transcript no-transcript.

Speaker 1 1:05:44

Something that I'm doing this season is this idea of tell me the story of Jesus. Tell me a story. Tell me a story of Jesus in your life. What's something that's happening in your life right now that you're like Jesus? This is it.

Speaker 3 1:06:04

Well, it's something that I hadn't thought about for a while, but I began thinking about again and every so often it really comes to my mind and it is something that for many, many years I mean, I grew up with a mother who was just a giver and a doer and just a servant person and so on, and so she sort of taught me to be that way too. And I remember years ago and I may have even told you said this same thing in a podcast past but I got this eye-opening experience where I was just I've been told by many people and my loving, beautiful wife keeps telling me even nowadays how wonderful I am, what a wonderful heart I've got toward other people and how I like to serve, and so on. And there is a there's. Sometimes you get a sense that that is who you are and that's what you're like and that that is a virtuous thing. That that is a virtuous thing. But I got the glimpse back years ago that where Jesus came and says, no, that's yes, you're behaving with love toward these people, you're behaving with kindness toward these people. What do you think about them? What does your heart say? And I realized my heart wasn't saying anything.

Speaker 3 1:07:32

I just learned to behave a certain kind of way, and because of that, one of our questions this week in Bible Study Fellowship was a time of suffering. Well, that was a difficult time for me, because what was basically happening was I was being confronted with the fact that I was fakey, I was a fake. I was you basically happening was I was being confronted with the fact that I was fakey. I was a fake. What I was behaving like was not what was going on inside me and inside my heart, and so that was tough, and I mean many times since then I've had that same question Is this really what I'm doing? Is this really who I am? Or am I really false? Am I really not real inside?

Speaker 3 1:08:20

And this is what's amazing. This is why I say it's a great Jesus point is that Jesus sort of says it doesn't make any difference to me, I like the fakey. You too, your mind, whether or not. No matter what goes on in your mind as to whether you think you're being real or you think you're not being real. That's why I said earlier, I have learned I do not trust myself. I cannot trust myself. I cannot trust myself. I have to trust in the one who can be fully, always trusted, and that's Jesus. Take your best and say filthy rags, it's rot, it's nothing, it's worthless cow dung, that's my best day, and yet he says you're mine. To me I don't know how to say what a wonderfully joyous thing that is to know that I belong to him, even when I stink up the place with my attitude or my behaviors.

Speaker 1 1:09:41

Wow, that's awesome. Thank you for that. It reminds me there was a reel that I was looking at on Facebook just the other day from John Piper. I just want to play it for you, just real quick. I'm going to try. I'm going to try and play it on here. I'll actually have it cut, so it's actually good.

Speaker 4 1:10:09

I do enough good works to outweigh my bad works. I haven't cut, so it's actually good. I do enough good works to outweigh my bad works. Can I do one good work? And the answer is no. There are no good deeds before regeneration, None. And after regeneration they're all imperfect. None. And after regeneration they're all imperfect. Which is why justification, our right standing with God, has to be not 99.9% grace and Christ alone, through faith alone to the glory of God's infinite, beautiful, superior worth alone. Faith is a receiving of Christ for all that he is. It's a receiving of Christ as a savior I desperately need in my sin, receiving of him a Lord in whom I happily comply and a treasure that satisfies my soul, and I treasure it above all other treasures in the world. That's what faith is. Therefore, whatever is not from faith is sin, because Romans 1 to 3 said the root of sin is preferring anything to God. Faith doesn't do. Faith prefers God over all things, Wow.

Speaker 1 1:11:49

I'll probably like chop that and just don't need the whole thing, but just that part. I love how he talks about before regeneration nothing, nothing good, even our good, is bad. After regeneration, even that it's imperfect Because we're still in a fallen world, we still are living in these sinful, in this sinful flesh. But I loved what you said, this idea that Jesus reaches out and says I can't remember what I was saying. Oh, oh, that even.

Speaker 3 1:12:39

He even loves that.

Speaker 1 1:12:40

That, even the imperfect that you were saying, oh that.

Speaker 3 1:12:47

He even loves the fakey me.

Speaker 1 1:12:49

He loves the fakey you and I love that because I love the idea that the fakey me.

Speaker 3 1:12:51

He loves the fakey you and I love that because I love the idea that that's not me, all of me, is the fakey me in some ways.

Speaker 1 1:12:59

Even as wonderful as I can be, now that I have Jesus Christ living in me. And I'm trying, and I'm giving him more and more of myself and he's chipping away and sanctifying me, I still fail him more and more of myself and he's chipping away and sanctifying me. I still fail him over and over again and he says I don't know, of course you did that, of course, you're going to fail.

Speaker 1 1:13:20

That's why I came Well again. Thank you so much for being on the podcast Every time. I love having it, I love having it, I love having it, I love having you, I love being able to talk about these amazing hymns, and I know we said last time that you were going to do Praise to the Lord the Almighty, and then I switched up and I went, ooh, we need to do this one because we haven't, and we've been talking about it forever and ever. So next time we'll do Praise to the Lord Almighty.

Speaker 3 1:13:55

Sounds like a great plan.

Speaker 1 1:13:56

Awesome. Thank you again.

Speaker 3 1:13:58

You're welcome no-transcript.

Speaker 1 1:24:15

This particular word or this particular phrase or this. This is something. This is one of the reasons why I love the song.

Speaker 3 1:24:23

I think. Well, I went to a funeral today and this is not a young person. People who are friends of ours are not young people for the most part. They're up there where we are or something a little older than we are. But I went to this funeral.

Speaker 3 1:24:41

Now understand about this funeral. This is a person whose life was sunk deeply into God, into his word, absolutely loved Jesus and was loved by Jesus, and you could just tell it in the way she acted and the way she responded to people. But for the family it was still a difficult time, even knowing that she was with her Lord and being happy about that. You know that they are going to miss her and so there were some difficult things. Well, that third stanza Be still my soul.

Speaker 3 1:25:18

When dearest friends depart and all is darkened in the veil of tears, then shall you better know his love, his heart. I mean you'll better know his love, his heart. Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears. Be still my soul. Your Jesus can repay from his own fullness all he takes away. That's just you know, and I'm you know. I'm not anticipating you tomorrow, but my father-in-law used to say at all of our birthdays and I hope you have as many in front of you as you had behind you. Well, I'm long past the possibility of having as many in front of me as I've had behind me. Hey, if you don't?

Speaker 1 1:26:08

know there's some medical advances out there. You could live to be 150-something. Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:26:18

Yeah, me and Seth and Methuselah. I'm not anticipating that that's going to be happening anytime soon Okay. But the point is it's still something that I know is there. I know it's coming, but at the same time I'm assuming that there will be people around me after I'm gone that may feel some sorrow and some tears that I'm gone, maybe not, I don't know. You never can tell about these things.

Speaker 3 1:26:48

I'm sure there'll be a few yeah, I'm seeing—but to know that Jesus says, out of His fullness, he's saying to us out of my fullness, I will repay everything you lost. It's sort of like talking about the locusts, that the Lord will pay back to you everything the locusts have taken. All the years the locusts have wasted and that's what's happened. Whatever you do, whatever you lose, he more than gives it to you, he more than pays it back.

Speaker 1 1:27:27

I like the line. He, more than pays it back. I like the line, then. Shall you better know his love, his heart, who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears? It reminds me of why Jesus came. Be still my soul when darkest when darkest, when dearest friends depart and all is darkened in the veil of tears. Jesus entered our world in the darkness of our world, in the darkness of our sin, when things just felt like they couldn't get any worse. God stepped into time and he came so that we could know his love and know his heart and that he could soothe our sorrows and our fears. That's why Jesus comes.

Speaker 3 1:28:13

That's why he came into this world. But let me tell you a little bit, because this may give you a perspective on why this song means so much to me. He stepped into my life in a really unique way. Well, I won't say it's necessarily unique. People may have had similar kinds of experiences. But I actually made a profession of faith. I don't think I had any clue what I was doing. I think I went up there because my cousin, dickie, was going forward and.

Speaker 3 1:28:39

I did too, but I went through in my later high school and in my college years I had panic attacks. I was subject to panic attacks and they were pretty terrifying, very scary, and the whole idea of being still just calming yourself down was something that was amazing to me. To me and this is one of those songs that I can still remember, loving it in my later high school, my college years, and, believe me, during that time I was not, you know, gung-ho. I want to be the biggest, best Christian I can possibly be.

Speaker 3 1:29:27

I was not there, but even though I was wandering there, but even though I was wandering, sometimes in the wilderness, he was still speaking to me and he was seeking to quiet my soul, because when your soul is quiet, you already can hear him. When your soul is quiet, then he can speak and you can listen in ways that you can't when you've got so much chatter going on. I mean, right now we have a world of chatter because there is. If you don't want to, you don't have to have a single thought in your head. You can pump stuff in from your phone, from your television, from anywhere, anything in the world. You can just keep your mind going all the time, but when you are able to be still, then you can develop an eagerness to hear what he has to say to you.

Speaker 3 1:30:34

And if you don't develop that eagerness, if you don't even want to hear what he has to say to you, then there really isn't a lot that you can do to one mature as a believer or to really learn how to be still and how to know that he's God, know that he's in control. If you know that God's for you, then you can behave like God's for you, and things that would otherwise crush or scare or rile you and make you angry they don't have to Now. It doesn't mean that we're perfect and we're going to go ahead and have nice responses all the time. But when we're able to back off and be still, then all of a sudden all the stuff out there in life, all the chatter that's going on, doesn't really affect you the way it could and would. If you didn't have an understanding, it didn't have that perspective on life that you can be still because he is for you always and forever.

Speaker 1 1:31:36

Here's my question with this how do you be still? Because I keep going back. What's really interesting? I did not plan this at all, but I'm going through each of my classes that I'm teaching juniors and sophomores and freshmen. We're talking about bits and pieces that all fit into what we're talking about right now. We're talking about art and entertainment right now because I'm going through this book called Understanding the Culture and we're going through.

Speaker 1 1:32:09

We've talked about technology and how technology and screen time has changed the way we think.

Speaker 1 1:32:16

We're now talking about art and entertainment.

Speaker 1 1:32:18

We talk about the value of human life, we talk about war, we talk about marriage and sexuality and things like that, and we look at it from a Christian perspective, but we also look at it from, uh, from the ideas of islam and secularism and, uh, new ageism and things like that and this particular um, we, we just started talking about entertainment and how we are just bombarded with stuff and you just kind of kind of like hinted at too.

Speaker 1 1:32:52

If we don't want to be still, we don't have to, because we can be bombarded with music and TV and something on a screen or games or whatever. We don't have to sit still, we don't have to stop for anything. As a matter of fact, I want to say it's Huxley's book Brave New World, oh yes, is all about the dystopian picture he paints. Is we're going to be so bombarded with entertainment and with things that amuse us that that's going to be what ends up destroying us. Destroying us is that nobody's going to want to actually open a book because we're just going to have to. We're going to be entertained by other things.

Speaker 3 1:33:39

I was about to interrupt you a minute ago and say our biggest problem is we don't want it. We don't want to be still, we don't want silence, we don't want serenity, we don't want those things. We want our minds so cluttered, so full of stuff, that we never have to think about what we're really like.

Speaker 1 1:33:58

Silence equals thinking what the world is like.

Speaker 3 1:34:02

What God really wants to be and do in our lives and the fact that we are hopelessly and completely fallen and depraved. We don't want to think about that. You know people talk about we don't think about death. They don't want to think about this. They were no, we don't want to think about anything. But I, you were asking how do you, how do you become that? Yeah, so, so, yeah, so so how do you?

Speaker 1 1:34:30

how do you, when you're bombarded with all this, how do you take that time and be still Okay?

Speaker 3 1:34:35

here's. It is a matter of spiritual discipline, and when I say discipline I mean actual, truly. When you think of the spiritual disciplines, you know you think of prayer, bible study, worship. There are things that you do in your life service. There are things that you do in your life that are things that make you more like Jesus, that make your trek on to be with the Lord sort of open the path and make the paths more straight for you because you're engaging those disciplines. What we don't think very often about are some of these, like, for instance, silence, solitude.

Speaker 1 1:35:23

When you say solitude and maybe it's just me when you say solitude, the first thing that comes to my mind is Superman and his fortress of solitude. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one, maybe there's nobody out there going. That's what I was thinking too, but I'm sitting there going. When I think of solitude, I think I have to get away from everything, like I can't have solitude in my house. I can't do. And so when I start thinking of I need to have solitude, I'm like, oh, I don't have time for that Because I've got to go somewhere and get away from everything in order to have solitude. But it's not that, but that's what comes to mind when you say solitude. I'm thinking I need a fortress of solitude somewhere. I need a place where I can go and hide. I'm thinking I need a fortress of solitude somewhere. I need a place where I can go and hide. I need to be in one of those sensory deprivation tanks. I don't have any influences from the outside world anywhere near me.

Speaker 3 1:36:26

Our problem is that we think just like you said. You think of solitude as being a long period of time. Well, it would be wonderful if you could have a long period of time, but it's really taking the time to have solitude if it's only breaks of solitude. I could either use my time fruitfully doing something that's going to nourish me spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally I mean I can do things like that or I can just sort of numb my brain. And when von Schlegel was talking about being still, it didn't mean to be still and just listen to something to fill your mind up so you wouldn't have to think about your problems or difficulties or anything else. It means to be still and allow yourself to learn how to hear what God's saying to you, because he has lots to say to us. But I think our big problem is that we don't really want to hear what he has to say to us, because it's going to make us change. And I look back and I think to myself back in those days, 1700s, 1800s. Well, they didn't have all the technology we have now, because they could do that, they could sit there and they could be still, and that they had it much easier. And so and cause. All they had to worry about was not dying, you know, not starving to death, having a way of having shelter, not freezing all the things that you know we take for granted now. Those are the things that sort of consumed them, but there was still. You needed to have those times of quietness.

Speaker 3 1:38:21

I remember I think Susanna was her name, and I can't remember if it was Charles. I think it was John Wesley's wife. Susanna Wesley had 22 children and she used to regularly I don't think this would work for me or for my wife when you boys were young but she would take her apron and she would pull it over the top of her head. She was sitting in a rocking chair. She would pull her apron from, you know, in front of her and she would pull it over the top of her head and her children knew to leave her alone. Because that was her quiet time. That was her with 22 children. I don't see that as a quiet time because there's gotta be incredible noise going on around you, but that was, that was her finding the time to be still, because she was able to shut out other things and know who he was, remind herself of what he meant in her life, and so I think that's you know, I don't think we need large chunks.

Speaker 3 1:39:21

Well, I take that back. It would be wonderful to have large chunks of time of silence and of solitude, but our problem is will we accept solitude and will we let God fill it with things he wants for us?

Speaker 1 1:39:39

So in what ways do you think this hymn can minister to believers today? We live in uncertain times. We live in a time when people do suffer and they are going through some hard times Like how, how can this song minister to them?

Speaker 3 1:40:04

Well, I think, first of all, recognize the times. I mean you have to if you see the times that are going on around you, what's happening, especially nowadays. I mean right now we are looking. I'm taking a class, I'm actually leading a class at Bible Study Fellowship. I'm one of many group leaders talking about the book of Revelation. We've been in there this whole year and, as a matter of fact, we're just now looking at chapter 12 and chapter 13, where it talks about the great dragon, and it was a picture of Satan and the beast that comes out of the sea and the beast that comes out of the earth and how they are going to wreak havoc. They are given the authority to go ahead and attack and overwhelm believers. And the whole book of Revelation was really about the difficulties. I say difficulties but it's way beyond that the martyrdom that those early believers were suffering at the time. And looking at it in terms of throughout the years, there's always been people who had to take a difficult stand for Jesus and they suffered for it.

Speaker 3 1:41:37

And with Revelation, that book is just all about. What do you need? And the verses in chapter 13 talk about? You need patient endurance and you need wisdom, the way you have patient endurance and you need wisdom. The way you have patient endurance is by being still, by recognizing that it's not up to you, it's not even about you. I mean, all that's going on in your life is not about you, it's not.

Speaker 3 1:42:12

And all the things that we see in the world today. We look at the political things that are going on, we see the behaviors of people and so on, and we think of it as being those are human characteristics, fallen humanity doing so and so and so and so and so and so. No, that is the superficial level. There are principalities and powers beneath that. We are always under attack and sometimes the attack is purely satanic. Sometimes it is just his effect on the world, sometimes it's our own flesh and so on. But the cure for all those things is that silence where we can step back and then look at him, look at his word, take our eyes off of the beast and put our eyes on Jesus.

Speaker 1 1:43:16

And when we do that, it makes all the difference in our lives, the lives of people around us. Even if the suffering and the trials and the problems that we're having are caused directly by Satan, or if it's his effect on the world, it's our sin, it's his effect on the world, it's our sin. Even in the grief, even in the pain, even in the suffering. I think it goes back to God, has a plan in it Because he doesn't leave us in it. He never left us in it. Even when he is dispensing the curses in Genesis 3, we have a glimpse of the gospel when he's pronouncing the curse on the serpent, the seed of the woman will crush the head. Who is that? That's Jesus. That even in the midst of our sin, even in the midst of our suffering, we have fallen, we've betrayed him. Even in the midst of that, there's grace. He's showing us grace. He's going look, I'm not going to leave you here. And he walks with us. And we betray him. And he picks us back up, dusts us off and says come on, let's keep going. And we betray him. And he picks us up and he dusts us off. And he keeps going and we betray him. And we betray him. He exiles us out of the land that he promised us.

Speaker 1 1:44:56

And even in the midst of exile, he sends Jeremiah to say I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. It's not so that I'll have a great job one day or that kind of future. No, he's saying you're in exile, you've forgotten the covenant that I made with you. You've betrayed me again.

Speaker 1 1:45:22

And so now here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna come, I'm gonna do what you can't do. I'm gonna put on flesh. I'm going to become man. I'm going to live the life you can't live. I'm going to die the death that you deserve to die, but I'm going to take your place and my righteousness is going to become your righteousness. Who I am is what I'm going to impute to you through my son. I'm not going to leave you in your suffering, which I think is why when Paul in Romans, chapter 5, says therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 1:46:13

Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice check this out and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in what Our suffering, why? Knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Speaker 3 1:47:04

Paul could certainly turn a phrase, couldn't he? Especially when the Holy Spirit is prompting him?

Speaker 1 1:47:09

Yeah, he doesn't leave us there. No. And I think that's the beauty of this song. It is Be still my soul. Your God does undertake to guide the future as he has the past. Your hope, your confidence. Let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still my soul. The waves and winds still know his voice. Who ruled them while he lived below, even in the midst of the storm, his voice ruled the winds and the waves.

Speaker 3 1:47:49

Oh yes.

Speaker 1 1:47:49

Even when he was asleep, his voice controls the wind. His voice controls the waves. Even when he was asleep, his voice controls the wind. His voice controls the waves. He controls the ebb and the flow of our life and the good and the bad. He has control over it. He doesn't always take us out of it because he has a plan in it and I think it goes back to Romans 8. It's a plan to take that bad and work it for good.

Speaker 3 1:48:27

Well, and finally, the ultimate good is actually expressed beautifully in the fourth verse, because his plan is not just for our good and our well-being here, while we are here on this earth, because he recognizes and he tells us we are not citizens just of this world, we are citizens of heaven. And if we recognize that we're just sojourning, we're just traveling a path nowadays, but we are living because, you know, jesus says I'm the resurrection of life, he who believes me will never die and even if he dies, he will still live. I mean that is the truth that he tells us there. And then, fourth verse here be still my soul.

Speaker 3 1:49:07

The hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joy is restored. Be still my soul. When change and tears are passed, all safe and blessed, we shall meet at last. I mean that's the ultimate truth. We are going to be with Him forever and ever. That's not what temporary hassles we undergo here. We can be and recognize they will pass, they will pass and even if the difficult results in our physical death, then it's still going to pass and we still have that bright forever future.

Speaker 1 1:50:08

Very, very nice With him. Nice job Well with that.

Speaker 2 1:50:13

Thank you Thank you for being on the podcast, as always.