Not What My Hands Have Done - Sharon Phelps

On May 3, 1988, as a girl of four-and-a-half I was delighted to add a new baby to our family.  Although I was still quite young I have some memories of that time.  As I anticipated his birth, I remember making my new brother a Kleenex box out of plastic canvas.  I remember noticing the full moon in the sky when my dad dropped my sister and me off at a friend’s house while he took my mom to the hospital.  I remember my dad teasingly calling my baby brother, Chip as a nick name for Charles Richard Phelps, III.  I know that my life was changed forever when Chad joined our family!

Recently, I was flipping through the flyleaf of one of Chad’s Bibles.  On July 6, 2008  (just a little over five years before he was promoted to heaven) Chad penned, “Resolved to live the reality of this text.”  Following that statement Chad wrote out the lines of this hymn.

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has born can make my spirit whole;
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and fears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your pow’r alone, O Son of God can all my sin erase;
No other work but yours, No other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear my safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, Thy love so rich and free,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free.

I praise the Christ of God, I rest in love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
‘Tis He who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

Chorus:
Jesus blest Redeemer; Thou shedst Thy blood for me
And paid the price for all my sin upon the cruel tree.
O may I never wander from the path Thou hast for me
As I seek to live my life dear Lord committed all for Thee.

Sharon holding baby Chad

It is a tremendous comfort to know that on July 27, 2013, Chad went home to heaven living his life in the reality of this text.  Today my brother would have been 27 years old.  He is spending his second birthday in heaven face to face with His Savior, the One who Chad lived his life committed to.  



WRITTEN BY SHARON PHELPS (Sister of Chad Phelps)