{HSCRC13} Hymn #15, He Leadeth Me

Hymn Challenge #15: He Leadeth Me
Words by: Jo­seph H. Gil­more
b. April 29, 1834; d. Ju­ly 23, 1918

Music by: Wil­liam B. Brad­bu­ry
b. Oc­to­ber 6, 1816; d. Jan­u­ary 7, 1868

Joseph H. Gilmore was the son of New Hamp­shire Gov­er­nor Jo­seph A. Gil­more, and he was his father's assistant while he was governor. He had an arts degree from Brown University and a theology degree from New­ton The­o­lo­gic­al In­sti­tu­tion. In a weekday service, Joseph H. Gilmore was preaching on Psalm 23. As he began reading Psalm 23, he was struck by the words "He leadeth me." Mr. Gilmore goes on to say:

"It was the dark­est hour of the Ci­vil War. I did not re­fer to that fact—that is, I don’t think I did—but it may sub­con­sciou­sly have led me to real­ize that God’s lead­er­ship is the one sig­nif­i­cant fact in hu­man ex­per­i­ence, that it makes no dif­fer­ence how we are led, or whi­ther we are led, so long as we are sure God is lead­ing us. At the close of the meet­ing a few of us in the par­lor of my host, good Dea­con Watt­son, kept on talk­ing about the thought which I had em­pha­sized; and then and there, on a blank page of the brief from which I had in­tend­ed to speak, I pen­ciled the hymn, talk­ing and writ­ing at the same time, then hand­ed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watch­man and Re­flect­or, a pa­per pub­lished in Bos­ton, where it was first print­ed. I did not know un­til 1865 that my hymn had been set to mu­sic by Will­iam B. Brad­bu­ry. I went to Ro­ches­ter, New York, to preach as a can­di­date be­fore the Se­cond Bap­tist Church. Go­ing in­to their cha­pel on ar­riv­al in the ci­ty, I picked up a hymn­al to see what they were sing­ing, and opened it at my own hymn, “He Lead­eth Me.”

Wow, isn't that amazing what God can do even with our scribbles on a scrap piece of paper!

Most of you know that we took two of our girls to college last weekend. As we drove home on Monday, we listened to a Focus on the Family broadcast. As we were listening, Sheri Rose Shepherd said "Don't put a period where God has put a comma."  That was a very powerful statement to me, and I even had my daughter write it down while I was driving—a scratch piece of paper I didn't want to lose!

Think about it—"Don't put a period where God has put a comma." Where have you given up or decided that something will not happen or work out or maybe you have decided "it just wasn't meant to be." Is that truly the case? Are you putting a period where God might have other plans? Are you taking charge of a situation instead of responding to His leading? Mr. Gilmore didn't think anything of the paper he gave to his wife yet God used her to see that His Sovereign plan was accomplished. Wow! God's plans cannot be thwarted!

Job 42:2 "I know that You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."

Let's look at the refrain of this hymn:

"He leadeth me, He leadeth me; 
By His own hand He leadeth me.
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me."

To see the rest of the hymn, please click here.

So, what is going on in your life today? Is it wearing you out or are you trusting God to lead you and help you through it? Faith should govern how we live our lives. Are you actively trusting Him with your life? He is all-powerful and can be trusted. He carries us, and He rescues us. Here are some scriptures that I hope encourage you today and allow you to let Him lead you through all things each and every day!

Exodus 15:13 "In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling."

Psalm 27:11 "Teach me Your way, Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors."

Psalm 32:8 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you."

Psalm 48:14 "For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end."

Psalm 73:23-24 "Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory."

Psalm 94:18-19 "When I said, 'My foot is slipping,' your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy."

Isaiah 48:17 "This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: 'I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.'"

Romans 12:2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will."

Below you will find the sheet music for today's hymn. And click here to here an amazing trio sing this song. I believe they are triplets. Yeah!

As you can probably tell from my late post today, I was behind in getting our study together for today. So, in an effort to create a quick page, I used the two cards I created earlier this week as inspiration for my 6x6 page today. It certainly helped me create my page very quickly. For this page, I used the Blue Fern Studios Bits of Honey chipboard and the Directions chipboard. The arrow reminds me to allow Him to lead; not me. I also used a Project Life card to type my scripture which is Isaiah 48:17b noted above. I also left the sheet music larger today. I wanted not only the title and author to show but also the first line of the refrain. Can you see it at the very bottom?

Papers: Paper Trey Ink kraft cs 
Blue Fern Studios chipboard: Bits of Honey and Directions (painted with gesso, Adirondack sunshine yellow dabber, and Lindy's Stamp Gang summer lovin' sun mist) 
Stamp Ink: Tim Holtz gathered twigs 
Embellishments: Prima Valentine Vine white; Sizzix Notebook embossing folder; 5th and Frolic PL card; A Flair for Buttons flair; misc. dew drops; misc. hand-dyed seam binding; sewing machine

Remember to use Keyword HSCRC13 when posting your creations in any online galleries. Also, please leave a link to your creation here using Inlinkz! To see all of the information regarding this challenge and the previous studies, please see this post here. Have a blessed week ahead!