This week was the most low key week I've ever had! We just worked in the office all week. We got to sleep over at the mission home twice this week! Pres Bunnell needed some technical support, so that means we are on call. I love the Bunnells, they are amazing and so loving. Went on another Brussels trip, which was great and way less stressful than last time!
Spiritual thought for the week:
My favorite Hymn has always been "Come Thou Fount" and this week the hymn really meant something more to me. I listened to about 10 different versions, several times each. This lead me to research the author of this piece. Robert Robinson was a young man in England in the 1700s. During his childhood he lost his father as an 8 year old, and was forced to start working young because of this. While working he came in contact with other boys that ended up being a bad influence on him. At age 17 his friends and him decided to go to a church service to disrupt it and harass those that were there. While there Robinson felt the spirit but because of the influences around him he chose to ignore the prompting he received. For the next 3 years he was continually haunted by this feeling.
Robert Robinson followed the prompting and became a Christian at age 20. Because of the Joy he felt, Robinson studied to become a Preacher. At age 22 he wrote what we now know as "Come Thou Fount" The words of the song are below:
Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
I'll praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer (Note this is a reference to the bible and mean "stone of help)
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
I especially love the section highlighted in Orange above. I feel like we are always "prone to wander" and to leave the God we love, but in spite of all of the times we leave, or the distance we wander, God and Christ are always there for us. They watch over us and protect us from danger. There is not a place where God won't accept us. He Loves all of his children, just like he loved Robert Robinson when he touched his heart amid his intentions to fight against God.
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Elder Talyon Anderson Perry
Belgium/Netherlands Mission