Wonderful hymn! The Chinese Hymnal has a 6th verse:
The center of my being art Thou;
My heart became Thy home.
Now stage by stage, from glory to glory
All that I am transform.
Caleb Lin translated this in about 1999, and I polished it into metric, rhyming form. At one time everyone in Wilmington had a slip of paper with this verse pasted into their hymnal. Now, few paper hymnals are used.
sept.32022
Christopher Burk
Seattle, Washington, United States
Lord Jesus, Thou art the Spirit! Thank you for the working brothers house we’re enjoying this in.
nov.172020
YR
To all my needs both great and small though art the rich supply!
mars82020
Francis Y Chow
Anaheim, California, United States
O Lord, Thou art the Spirit!
How dear and near to me
déc.292019
Ben Kayekjian
Lubbock, Texas, United States
Praise the Lord the Spirit is in us and so available to us!
nov.242019
Glory Jung
Anaheim, CA, United States
All the time !!!
juill.182019
Jared Huang
Austin, Texas, United States
To all my needs both great and small, Thou art the rich supply!
févr.32019
Sue
Calgary, Canada
Praise our Lord!
sept.172018
Karen Rukstelis
London, United Kingdom
Step by step glory unto glory my whole being transform.
English Hymns, #539 (Chinese Hymns, #400) has an additional stanza which is translated from Chinese:
6. O Lord, in all my being dwell;
Make home in all my heart.
From glory unto glory fill;
Transform my every part.
Christ had two becomings. As God He became flesh, and as flesh He became the life-giving Spirit. From 1933 until 1963 I had the burden to come to the United States particularly to tell the Christians here that the very Christ in whom they believe is the Spirit today. When we were compiling our hymnal in 1963, I could not find any collection of hymns in Christianity that included songs about Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, I decided to write some hymns on this matter. Today a number of our hymns written by Brother Nee and by me speak of the Lord being the Spirit (see Hymns, #489-493, 539). The chorus to Hymns, #539 says, "a Lord, Thou art the Spirit! / How dear and near to me! / How I admire Thy marvelous / Availability!" Another short chorus says,
Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit;
Now Christ is the Spirit today.
Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit;
So turn to your spirit and say—
O Lord, Amen,
O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!
O Lord, Amen,
O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!
The chorus of #539 in Hymns says: "O Lord, Thou art the Spirit!/How dear and near to me!/How I admire Thy marvelous/Availability!" The Lord today is not only approachable but also available. If food is only approachable to us, this is not sufficient. The food has to be available for us to eat so that we can become one with the food. Approachability is not so good as availability. Today in God's New Testament economy, God is not only approachable but also available to us. The Lord said, "I am the bread of life...he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me" (John 6:35, 57). To eat is to take Him, the available One, as our food. He also said that we need to drink of Him as the living water (John 4:10, 14). In the book of John, all the items concerning Christ are not just approachable. All of them are available—good for us to enjoy, that is, good for us to eat and drink.
I came to the United States with the burden to teach that Christ is the life-giving Spirit. Hymns, #539 is on this truth. I wrote it in 1963.
In today's Christian meetings, we mostly use the New Testament. But when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 14:26, there was no New Testament as we know it. What they had was mostly the Old Testament. In the ancient times, the time of the first apostles, although the Christians did not have the New Testament, they had many new psalms, hymns, and songs written according to the apostles' teaching. First Timothy 3:16 was probably a quotation of a short song that was very popular in the apostles' time. When they met together, they used these psalms, hymns, and songs very much. Some teachers would say that psalms also refer to the old psalms in the Old Testament. I do not disagree with this, but I believe they used more psalms, hymns, and songs written according to the apostles' teaching for the purpose of meeting. I am very thankful to God that we have a New Testament and a hymnal. Our hymnal is very good for speaking.
We need to learn to speak the stanzas of the hymns in our hymnal. Hymn #539, "O Lord, Thou art the Spirit," is an excellent hymn for speaking to one another. I enjoy singing this hymn, but we also must learn to speak it. The first two words of this hymn—"O Lord"—will stir up the meeting...
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Wilmington, Delaware, United States
Wonderful hymn! The Chinese Hymnal has a 6th verse:
The center of my being art Thou;
My heart became Thy home.
Now stage by stage, from glory to glory
All that I am transform.
Caleb Lin translated this in about 1999, and I polished it into metric, rhyming form. At one time everyone in Wilmington had a slip of paper with this verse pasted into their hymnal. Now, few paper hymnals are used.
Seattle, Washington, United States
Lord Jesus, Thou art the Spirit! Thank you for the working brothers house we’re enjoying this in.
To all my needs both great and small though art the rich supply!
Anaheim, California, United States
O Lord, Thou art the Spirit!
How dear and near to me
Lubbock, Texas, United States
Praise the Lord the Spirit is in us and so available to us!
Anaheim, CA, United States
All the time !!!
Austin, Texas, United States
To all my needs both great and small, Thou art the rich supply!
Calgary, Canada
Praise our Lord!
London, United Kingdom
Step by step glory unto glory my whole being transform.
San Francisco, CA, United States
To ALL my needs both great and small
Thou art the RICH supply;
SO ready and sufficient too
For me NOW to apply!