Ling wu, Japan
“If I were not saved by God, I would still be drifting in this world,
struggling hard and painfully in sin, every day bleak and hopeless.
If I were not saved by God, I’d still be crushed below the devil’s feet,
snared in sin and its enjoyments, ignorant of what my life would be.
All the word and truth God expresses, it has all given me new life.
I have seen my God face to face and have tasted God’s true love.
Finally I’ve understood God’s loving hand holds mine as we go.
Now I have heard the voice of God and been raised before God’s throne.
The feast of my Christ I attend, to be perfected and purified by Him.
What I’d hoped for is finally realized, I have now been saved by God.”
(“If I Were Not Saved by God” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Whenever I hear this hymn of experience, I am always deeply moved. If it weren’t for God saving me, as described in the hymn, I might still be wandering aimlessly in the world, tiring myself out chasing after money, even to the point that I would long since have lost my life and died abroad in a foreign land …