At the Name of Jesus

At the name of Jesus

Every knee shall bow,

Every tongue confess Him

King of glory now;

‘Tis the Father’s pleasure

We should call Him Lord,

Who from the beginning

Was the mighty Word.

At His voice creation

Sprang at once to sight,

All the angel faces,

All the hosts of light,

Thrones and dominations,

Stars upon their way,

All the heavenly orders,

In their great array.

Humbled for a season,

To receive a name

From the lips of sinners

Unto whom He came,

Faithfully He bore it

Spotless to the last,

Brought it back victorious

When from death He passed.

In your hearts enthrone Him;

There let Him subdue

All that is not holy,

All that is not true:

Crown Him as your captain

In temptation’s hour;

Let His will enfold you

In its light and power.

-- Caroline Maria Noel

The Soul That Loves God Finds Him Everywhere

Oh Thou, by long experience tried,
Near whom no grief can long abide
My Love! how full of sweet content
I pass my years of banishment.

All scenes alike engaging prove
To souls impress'd with sacred love,
Where'er they dwell, they dwell in Thee,
In heav'n, in earth or on the sea.

To me remains nor place nor time,
My country is in ev'ry clime,
I can be calm and free from care
On any shore, since God is there.

While place we seek, or place we shun,
The soul find happiness in none,
But with a God to guide our way,
'Tis equal joy to go or stay.

Could I be cast where Thou art not,
That were indeed a dreadful, lot,
But regions none remote I call,
Secure of finding God in all.

My country, Lord, art Thou alone,
Nor other can I claim or own,
The point where all my wishes meet,
My law, my love, life's only sweet.

-- Madame Guyon

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #15

I'm thankful for:

0281. Kleenex

0282. 5:45 AM

0283. the lottery scholarship

0284. patience in trying to find a job

0285. "Twelve Ordinary Men" by John MacArthur

0286. earrings

0287. hangers

0288. sucker fish

0289. crabs

0290. index cards

0291. the weakness of sickness that makes me realize Christ's strength

0292. God's faithfulness, even when I am faithless

0293. envelopes

0294. news articles

0295. people who are willing to take a stand for what they believe in

0296. history books

0297. Valentine's Day

0298. red roses

0299. a whole shelf full of books to read

0300. bookends

He is opposed to earning

* I know it's already the middle of February, but I wanted to share this article that has it's focus on "the new year".  I think it's definitely still applicable.  On another note, Happy Valentine's Day to everybody!

The Pilgrim's Progress
Three wishes and ways for moving forward in the new year

The pilgrim is meant to make progress.  This is a great joy for many of us.  But perhaps it has to be contended for in our day.  In Bunyan's tale, our protagonist puts miles between himself and the City of Destruction on his journey heavenward.  But in real life one sees uncertainty as to how much progress can be made on this side of the Jordan's icy flow.

C. S. Lewis, critiquing his book The Pilgrim's Regress 10 years later, said it suffered from "needless obscurity." (He was right.)  Here are three simple wishes for your new year:

Pray to have friends (at least one) who have more faith than you do.  It is much easier to understand the Scriptures when you have a living, breathing, walking example beside you.  It helps hermeneutics like nothing else I know, putting sinews on spiritual words, coalescing a page of instruction in a seamless incarnation you can imitate.  Paul was bullish on imitation (Philippians 3:17; 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:9).  Faith-filled friends give a godly infection.

Specify that it be a friend who knows how to do spiritual warfare, like how to employ the weaponry of truth and promises to argue himself from a spirit of heaviness to a place of joy (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).  He will have details and experiences, not vague generalities.

God "has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13)--where all things are possible.  Your friend will keep you honest.  He will remind you of how to press into that ocean of possibilities, through concerted prayer, and fasting, when necessary.  Start asking today.  Good traveling companions are the glorious ones who will be your delight (Psalm 16:3).  They will keep you established (Romans 1:11-12) and walking within the guardrails of grace.

The prophet Isaiah (who never read Bunyan) describes the time of the Messiah thus: "And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.  It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray" (35:8).

So my next wish for you is to get rid of everything doubtful in your life this year, since the unclean may not pass by that highway.  "Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1).  "If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work" (2 Timothy 2:21).

Some will balk at your resolution, or your language.  Get used to that and get serious with God by fleeing from defiling entanglements that nibble away at the life of the Spirit in you.  The one whose heart is set on pilgrimage "shuts his eyes from looking on evil" (Isaiah 33:15).  The mature do not confuse this resolve with the false asceticism Paul denounces in his letter to Galatia.  It is a self-centered, Christ-independent technique.  God is not opposed to determination; He is opposed to earning.  The early church saw salvations by the thousands as normal (Acts 5:14).  We see no hint that they dissipated their spiritual power on preoccupations that divide the heart.

My third wish for you is mastery of the tongue.  The Lord liked that advice so much He put it in both His Old and New Testaments: "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit" (1 Peter 3:10; Psalm 34:12-13).  You want to love life in 2011, don't you?  You want those 365 days to be "good days"?  Here is the short version for readers too busy to bother with wishes No. 1 and 2: Speak slowly, put on a filter, let out no lie.

The year 2011 is a woman on the birthing stool, and we don't know what's in there yet: weal or woe; the sun rising or the sun setting on our nation; the beginning of the end times, or the end times in earnest.  In any case, "a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you" (Psalm 91:7).  You will pick your way among the dead and make it home.

-- Andree Seu

Sledding

We got a bit more snow yesterday!  This afternoon Chloe went sledding, and I wanted to share some pics of that.

Everday's Thanksgiving, Part #14

In this very wintry post, I'm thankful for:

0261. the cool distinction, at this moment, of living in the coldest place in the nation; it's twenty degrees warmer in Antarctica!

0262. that all of our animals survived the -25 degree weather last night!

0263. warm blankets

0264. that our water is finally back on!

0265. times like these, that make me thankful for "the little things"

0266. fuzzy socks

0267. satellite images

0268. four days of having nothing to do; it's been amazing!

0269. amazon mp3 downloads

0270. a place to live that provides shelter from the cold

0271. almost a foot of snow!

0272. that the Waites got out and headed to Texas before the storm hit

0273. the Internet

0274. icicles

0275. the weather channel

0276. the weather people who are willing to brave the elements and tell us about...well...the weather

0277. chocolate

0278. the diversity of names

0279. warm showers

0280. roaring fires