{"id":933,"date":"2018-03-29T06:18:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T10:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/?p=933"},"modified":"2018-03-28T21:58:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T01:58:02","slug":"before-the-world-i-now-confess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/before-the-world-i-now-confess\/","title":{"rendered":"Before the World I Now Confess"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Remembering<\/a><\/p>\n

For many in this world, it is costly to follow Christ. Being identified as a Christian can mean the loss of friends, loss of fortune, loss of employment, even loss of life. But Christ exhorts us:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it\u201d (Matthew 16:24\u201325).<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it\u201d (Matthew 10:38\u201339).<\/p>\n

We are called to live for Christ and declare the good news of salvation in Him. We are called to follow Him and unashamedly acknowledge our sinfulness and need for His abundant grace.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek\u201d (Romans 1:16).<\/p>\n

The following hymn is a confession of faith in Christ. It includes publically professing Christ through baptism (verse 3) and corporately remembering Christ in the Lord\u2019s Supper (verse 4).<\/p>\n

The idea for the hymn came from a message on Matthew 10:26\u201333 entitled \u201cDeclaring Our Allegiance to Christ\u201d preached on Sunday, February 25, 2018 at Grace Baptist Church, Cape Coral, by our associate pastor, Jared Longshore.<\/p>\n

The message began with a quote from Rosaria Butterfield\u2019s book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor\u2019s Journey into the Christian Faith<\/em>. In the book she describes the cost of becoming a follower of Christ and turning away from her old lifestyle. She said, \u201cI was driving away from the place, the life, the career, and the people that I knew and loved. But Jesus Christ was more real to me at that moment than any of these material things.\u201d As I thought about her words, I wrote what became the final lines of the hymn:<\/p>\n

More real to me is Jesus Christ
\nThan all this world can give,
\nMore than this world, I need His grace,
\nFor by His grace I live.<\/p>\n

The hymn is set to a familiar tune: CLEANSING FOUNTAIN, the tune often used for \u201cThere Is a Fountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the World I Now Confess<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSo everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven\u201d (Matthew 10:32).<\/em><\/p>\n

Before the world I now confess
\nChrist Jesus as my Lord.
\nThe scorn of men, I will not fear,
\nNor danger, nor the sword.
\nThough friends and loved ones turn away,
\nPossessions all be lost,
\nTo lose this world, if I gain Christ
\nIs not too great a cost.<\/p>\n

Before the world I humbly bow
\nTo Jesus as my King,
\nAcknowledging so all will know
\nHe\u2019s Lord of everything!
\nNo flood so great or tear too small,
\nHe knows my thoughts and ways,
\nMy life I fully trust to Him
\nAnd give Him all my praise.<\/p>\n

Baptism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the world I here confess
\nThat Christ has made me new.
\nHe gave me life, now I believe
\nHis Word is sure and true.
\nThrough baptism I now submit
\nUnto my Lord\u2019s command,
\nMy old life buried, new raised up,
\nUpon His Word I stand.<\/p>\n

Lord\u2019s Supper<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the world I take my stand
\nWith Jesus and His bride
\nTo cleanse His church and bring us near
\nHe suffered, bled and died.
\nHis body broken on the cross,
\nHis blood He freely shed,
\nRemembering Christ died for me,
\nI take this cup and bread.<\/p>\n

Before the world I sing His praise
\nThat all the world may hear.
\nI give allegiance to my King,
\nWhose Kingdom now is near.
\nMore real to me is Jesus Christ
\nThan all this world can give,
\nMore than this world, I need His grace,
\nFor by His grace I live.<\/p>\n

Words \u00a92018 Ken Puls
\nMusic \u00a9Public Domain<\/p>\n

Download the lyrics and free sheet music for this hymn<\/a>, including an arrangement of the tune CLEANSING FOUNTAIN for classical guitar.<\/p>\n

More Hymns and Songs<\/a> from Ken Puls Music<\/p>\n

More Hymn tunes<\/a> arranged for classical guitar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many in this world, it is costly to follow Christ. Being identified as a Christian can mean the loss of friends, loss of fortune, loss of employment, even loss of life. But Christ exhorts us: \u201cIf anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,22,102],"tags":[203,50,56,15,98,63,18,41,28,57],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hymn","category-music-for-worship","category-songwriting","tag-baptism","tag-church-music","tag-evangelism","tag-gospel","tag-hymn","tag-lords-supper","tag-music-2","tag-standing-for-truth","tag-trials","tag-witness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4lLgO-f3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpulsmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}