MACK WILBERG AND RYAN MURPHY
Conductors
BRIAN MATHIAS
Organist
DERRICK PORTER
The Spoken Word
ANTIPHON
from Five Mystical Songs
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Text: George Herbert
THERE IS SUNSHINE IN MY SOUL TODAY
Music: John R. Sweney
Text: Eliza E. Hewitt
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
IN CHRIST THERE IS NO EAST OR WEST (ORGAN SOLO)
Music: Spiritual hymn
Arrangement: Gilbert M. Martin
CONSIDER THE LILIES
Music and Text: Roger Hoffman
Arrangement: A. Laurence Lyon
THE SPOKEN WORD
“In God We Trust”
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Music: William H. Doane
Text: Fanny J. Crosby
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy
COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING
Music: American folk hymn
Text: Robert Robinson
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
In God We Trust
The Spoken Word, March 16, 2025
By: Derrick Porter
A few years ago, a young boy in fifth grade was praying in the school hallway. His aunt had unexpectedly passed away earlier that week i, and the family had agreed to pause at 11:30 that morning to unite in prayer for all who were affected by the tragedy.
A classmate noticed the young boy praying and later approached him on the playground, giving him a United States dollar bill. Like every United States dollar bill in circulation, on the back it read, “In God We Trust.” The classmate told the fifth-grade boy to trust in God and that all would be well.
Three years later, the young fifth-grade boy was now an older and more mature eighth grader. He learned of another man, nearly 40 years his senior, who needed comfort. The boy wrote a short letter to the older man that essentially said: “Someone gave this to me when I was having a hard time. And I now want to give it to you.” Included in the letter was the same dollar bill given to that little fifth grader on the playground three years earlier. And there on the back of the bill was, of course, the same inscription: “In God We Trust.” With tears in his eyes, the man took the dollar bill home and placed it on his dresser, where he and his wife could look at it each day and be reminded to trust God in their every need.
Trusting God builds our confidence, dispels our fears, and lays the groundwork for miracles to occur.
This was true for King Hezekiah when his people faced the vast invading armies of Assyria. He told his soldiers, “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed, . . . for there be more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon [his] words.”[1] And they were saved.
Like King Hezekiah and the fifth-grade classmate, as we each strive to trust in God, we can be assured that God will fight our battles. He will be “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”[2] “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”[3]
[1] 2 Chronicles 32:7–8.
[2] Psalm 46:1.
[3] Luke 1:37.