Perfect timing

Isn't it great when things just jell? When you're wondering what to do about something or maybe haven't even gotten to the wondering stage yet and you click or turn a page and there is the answer. Someone writes an article or blog that is just exactly what you need, just when you need it. That has happened at least once a day this week and it is so cool and so much fun.

Faith's Check Book - C. H. Spurgeon

Set Apart

Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. (Isaiah 61:6)

This literal promise to Israel belongs spiritually to the seed after the Spirit, namely, to all believers. If we live up to our privileges, we shall live unto God so clearly and distinctly that men shall see that we are set apart for holy service and shall name us the priests of the Lord. We may work or trade as others do, and yet we may be solely and wholly the ministering servants of God. Our one occupation shall be to present the perpetual sacrifice of prayer, and praise, and testimony, and self-consecration to the living God by Jesus Christ.

This being our one aim, we may leave distracting concerns to those who have no higher calling. "Let the dead bury their dead." It is written, "Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers," They may manage politics, puzzle out financial problems, discuss science, and settle the last new quibbles of criticism; but we will give ourselves unto such service as becomes those who, like the Lord Jesus, are ordained to a perpetual priesthood.

Accepting this honorable promise as involving a sacred duty, let us put on the vestments of holiness and minister before the Lord all day long.

Do I really believe in that?

Another question that I’ve been asking a lot lately: Do I really believe in that? Is that really my thought/belief or is it something that I've just accepted as being the correct way to think or believe? Do I know whatever claim someone is making is true or have I just been hearing it so long that I have just accepted it as true? Have I really thought it out or studied it for myself? 

Do I really understand what it is that I'm agreeing with or conversely what I'm railing against? 

A reason to blog

I’ve been giving the topic of blogging a lot of thought lately. Over the years I have gained so much from reading other people’s blogs. But I’m not really sure what I’ve gained, or more especially, contributed by my own blogging. As I was thinking about this today, I “happened” upon (through Tim Challie’s A La Carte) David Porter’s A Boomer in the Pew blog. As I was reading through some of his recent posts and generally looking around, I noticed a button on his nagivation bar entitled “Mission Statement.” It was one of those “aha” moments.

David writes:
“It is a interesting fact that millions of people start a blog each year. Another interesting fact, is that millions of people give up on blogging each year as well.

Just as in starting a business, building a successful marriage, or any other enterprise one might endeavor, at the root you must ask, and answer, an all important question: Why?

Here, the question is: why am I blogging?

Here, therefore, is this blog's mission statement:” (You can read the rest here.)

As I was reading through his Statement, I noted that much of what he wrote were reasons I had started blogging in the first place and had lost sight of, (no doubt in large part due to the fact that I didn’t have a mission statement) leading to my recent questioning of why I’m blogging.

So how cool is that? Because David decides to give away a beautiful calfskin ESV Study Bible, Tim writes about it, and I (who would really dearly love to have one) go to David’s site and find direction.

Sunday Hymn

“Rejoice, the Lord is King!”
Words: Charles Wesley

Rejoice, the Lord is King! Your Lord and King adore;
Mortals give thanks and sing, and triumph evermore;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Jesus, the Savior, reigns, the God of truth and love;
When He had purged our stains He took His seat above;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

His kingdom cannot fail, He rules o’er earth and Heav’n,
The keys of death and hell are to our Jesus giv’n;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

He sits at God’s right hand till all His foes submit,
And bow to His command, and fall beneath His feet:
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

He all His foes shall quell, shall all our sins destroy,
And every bosom swell with pure seraphic joy;
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Rejoice in glorious hope! Jesus the Judge shall come,
And take His servants up to their eternal home.
We soon shall hear th’archangel’s voice;
The trump of God shall sound, rejoice!

Sunday Hymn

“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”
Words: William Williams - 1745

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
[or Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer…]
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield;
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold:
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,
Sin, and Satan and the grave,
Sin, and Satan and the grave.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.

Musing on my habitation,
Musing on my heav’nly home,
Fills my soul with holy longings:
Come, my Jesus, quickly come;
Vanity is all I see;
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
Lord, I long to be with Thee!

Sunday Hymn

“Alas! and Did my Savior Bleed”
Words: Isaac Watts, 1707; Ralph E. Hudson wrote the refrain in 1885.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?
[originally, For such a worm as I?]

Refrain
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BN95l8UuTQ&feature=related

Noticing/Project 365

Sunday Hymn

“All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night”
Words: Thomas Ken, circa 1674

All praise to Thee, my God, this night,
For all the blessings of the light!
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
Beneath Thine own almighty wings.

Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son,
The ill that I this day have done,
That with the world, myself, and Thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious at the judgment day.

O may my soul on Thee repose,
And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close,
Sleep that may me more vigorous make
To serve my God when I awake.

When in the night I sleepless lie,
My soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of darkness me molest.

O when shall I, in endless day,
For ever chase dark sleep away,
And hymns divine with angels sing,
All praise to thee, eternal King?

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.