In the Nick of Time (Appreciate His Love)
1-3 - All of us have been set free.
Oh, thank GOD-he’s so good!
His love never runs out.
All of you set free by GOD, tell the world!
Tell how he freed you from oppression,
Then rounded you up from all over the place,
From the four winds, from the seven seas.
4-9 - Some of us were searching for truth, wandering in the desert like the Hebrews so long ago. We were thirsty for what we didn’t know, our throats dry, begging for just a drop, just one drop of water. We longed for something that would fill us, like the never-thirst-again water Jesus offered the Samaritan woman. We staggered, stumbled--starving and aching with thirst. We longed to hear the Voice calling us, “Come, whoever hears, whoever is thirsty, all who will, come and drink freely of the Water of Life.” We so desperately wanted just one morsel, just one crumb that had fallen from a Heavenly Table (set with love). We searched for fulfillment in relationships, yet we did not find it. We wanted to find the road to a home we had never been, but found ourselves lost in the wilderness.
Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to GOD.
He got you out in the nick of time;
He put your feet on a wonderful road
That took you straight to a good place to live.
So thank GOD for his marvelous love,
for his miracle mercy to the children he loves.
He poured down great draughts of water down parched throats;
the starved and hungry got plenty to eat.
10-16 - Some of us had been locked in a dark cell, cruelly confined behind bars of our own choosing. We imprisoned ourselves with golden chains, we locked up our emotions, choosing to hid in rules and regulations, instead of feeling free to be ourselves. We could not leave these chains, they were of our own choosing, we admired their gilded glint, thinking that we had finally arrived. Yet in the depths of night, voices haunted us, nagging, “you’ll never be good enough, you’re a disappointment, a failure...no one will ever love you...” sing-songing that no man cares for our soul (though we searched desperately for someone), we longed to belong, to be set free. But the Judge had ruled that the wages of sin is death, and we knew that we deserved to die--wretched and woeful were we, our sentence too hard to bear, too much to carry. Our hearts were broken...all hope seemed gone.
Then you called out to GOD in your desperate condition;
He got you out in the nick of time.
He led you out of your dark, dark cell,
Broke open the jail and led you out.
So thank GOD for his marvelous love,
For his miracle mercy to the children he loves;
He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors,
He snapped the prison bars like matchsticks.
17-22 - Some of us were violently sick, sin had tainted us in the worst of ways. Smeared with blood and mud, our sense of uncleanness permeated our soul. We were haunted in night and day sleep. The guilt, like an overgrown mutt with a bone, worried at us, we ached, longing for forgiveness, but fearing none would be found. We felt like we couldn’t eat at the table set so loving with holy laughter, so we hid in the corner, saintly wallflowers too scared of rejection to join in the fun. Our guilt, our sin, separated us from a Love unlike any other-we were unwilling to let Him take it and cast it in the Sea of Forgetfulness. We condemned ourselves, our heart whispered deceits that brought us the most painful sense of comfort. Yet still we longed for love and for belonging...
Then you called out to GOD in your desperate condition;
He got you out in the nick of time.
He spoke the word that healed you,
That pulled you back from the brink of death.
So thank God for his marvelous love,
For his miracle mercy to the children he loves;
Offer thanksgiving sacrifices
Tell the world what he’s done - sing it out!
23-32 - Some of us had forgotten God. We set sail in massive ships of ambition, romance, success, sex--anything, anyone, as long as it brought us pleasure. We were renowned for our cleverness, our wit, our beauty, our efficiency--the world revolved no longer around the Son, but around ourselves. We were the wind and the wave and the ocean...or so we thought, entranced, like Narcissis, with an overestimated view of self. But out at sea, we saw GOD in action, saw his breathtaking ways with the ocean: With a word he called up the wind--an ocean storm, towering waves! Our desires, our longings, were swept away in His Love. The Lion stalked us, tearing cares and concerns away. The Lamb held us, wiping our tears away and whispering, “I cannot pour down blessings into hands already full.” Yet still like the insolent children we were, we fussed and complained and longed for quails in the wilderness. Not understanding that a life of fulfillment looks nothing like what Hollywood or Wall Street proclaims. Like drunks who stagger in the street, we spun, grasping at illusions that promised us happiness. Our hands came back empty. Our hearts remained broken.
Then you called out to GOD in your desperate condition;
He got you out in the nick of time.
He quieted the wind down a whisper,
Put a muzzle on all the big waves.
And you were so glad when the storm died down,
And he led you safely back to the harbor.
So thank GOD for his marvelous love,
For his miracle mercy to the children he loves.
Lift high your praises when the people assemble,
Shout Hallelujah when the elders meet!
....
33-44
GOD turned rivers into wasteland,
Springs of water into sunbaked mud;
Lucious orchards became alkali flats
Because of the evil of the people who lived there.
Then he changed wasteland into fresh pools of water,
Arid earth into springs of water,
Brought in the hungry and settled them there;
They moved in--what a great place to live!
They sowed the fields, they planted vineyards,
They reaped a bountiful harvest.
He blessed them and they prospered greatly;
Their herds of cattle never decreased.
But abuse and evil and trouble declined
As he heaped scorn on princes and sent them away.
He gave the poor a safe place to live,
Treated their clans like well-cared-for sheep.
Ephesians 2:20-22
You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all-irrespective of how we got here-in what he is building...a holy temple...a temple in which God is quite at home.
42-43
Good people see this and are glad;
Bad people are speechless, stopped in their tracks.
If you are really wise, you’ll think this over-
It’s time you appreciated GOD’s deep love.