Monday, October 16, 2023

In the center of the circle...

In the center of the circle 
Of the will of God I stand, 
As I launch from sheltering harbor 
To obey all His commands. 
What though waves overwhelm my vessel, 
And grim fears my faith assail, 
Still I’ll stay upon His promise, 
For that cannot, will not, fail. 

In the center of the circle, 
Of the will of God I stand, 
Where the warfare wages fiercest— 
’Tis the place that He has planned. 
Though dread foes may storm my castle, 
And the battle seem but lost,
I will claim in Him the victory, 
And hold on what ere the cost. 

In the center of the circle, 
Of the will of God I stand, 
There can be no second causes, 
All must come from His dear hand. 
When dark clouds obscure my vision, 
And the way I cannot see, 
I will trust Him in the darkness, 
For I know He pilots me. 

In the center of the circle, 
Of the will of God I stand, 
Though the universe around me 
Shows small trace of His dear hand, 
Yet in darkness as in daylight, 
In the gloom or sunshine fair, 
I will trust Him, for His presence, 
For I know He’s always near. 
-Betty Scott Stam

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

I Speak Jesus...

I Speak Jesus - Charity Gayle

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Only a Holy God...

 
Only a Holy God / Holy, Holy, Holy

Who else commands all the hosts of heaven
Who else could make every king bow down
Who else can whisper and darkness trembles
Only a Holy God

What other beauty demands such praises
What other splendor outshines the sun
What other majesty rules with justice
Only a Holy God

Come and behold Him
The One and the Only
Cry out, sing holy
Forever a Holy God
Come and worship the Holy God

What other glory consumes like fire
What other power can raise the dead
What other name remains undefeated
Only a Holy God

Come and behold Him
The One and the Only
Cry out, sing holy
Forever a Holy God
Come and worship the Holy God

Who else could rescue me from my failing
Who else would offer His only Son
Who else invites me to call Him Father
Only a Holy God
Only my Holy God

Come and behold Him
The One and the Only
Cry out, sing holy
Forever a Holy God
Come and worship the Holy God

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing...

 
Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

The Sin Breaker 
by Paul Levy

Excerpt: As those who have been united to Christ by faith we have been delivered from the penalty of sin, and the power of sin, and one day gloriously we will be delivered from the presence of sin. There are different ways of putting that – we have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved. The theological words that express this are justification, sanctification and glorification.

It’s that deliverance from the power of sin I think is so helpful in our fighting with sin.

Charles Wesley in his magnificent hymn ‘O for a Thousand tongues’ captures it well: He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free.

Without exception, sin affects every human being: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is deep in our hearts. Those who haven’t known God’s regenerating grace try to fight against sin, some with incredible acts of willpower but ultimately we cannot in our own strength root out sin. Read it all...  

Monday, October 2, 2023

Where Thou Leadest Me...

Where Thou Leadest Me
Keith & Kristyn Getty, Bryan Fowler

Where Thou leadest me
I dare not find complaint
For Thou hast never left
Nor will for all my days
Thy presence is my good
And it shall ever be
I will go where Thou leadest me

Sovereign is Thy hand
To guide me when I’m worn
Thy good and perfect will
Holds fast through every storm
What time I am afraid
My faith looks up to Thee
I will trust where Thou leadest me

On the mountain high
Through the valley deep
I will go where Thou leadest me

O Shepherd keep me near
For I am prone to stray
The frailty of my flesh
Seeks refuge in Thy grace
This promise is my peace
My soul is safe in Thee
I will rest as Thou leadest me

On the mountain high
Through the valley deep
I will go where Thou leadest me

Savior light my path
Until that final day
If Thou art Lord of life
Why should I fear the grave?
Proud death has lost its sting
For all eternity
I will rise where Thou leadest me
Home with Christ where Thou leadest me

On the mountain high
Through the valley deep
I will go where Thou leadest me

Thursday, September 28, 2023

There is a stream, whose gentle flow...

There is a stream, whose gentle flow
Supplies the city of our God;
Life, love, and joy, still gliding through,
And wat’ring our Divine abode.

That sacred stream, Thy holy Word,
Supports our faith, our fears controls;
Sweet peace Thy promises afford,
And give new strength to fainting souls.

Loud may the troubled ocean roar:
In sacred peace our souls abide;
While every nation, ev’ry shore.
Trembles, and dreads the swelling tide.
-Isaac Watts

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Monday, September 25, 2023

It is as if the Spirit stands behind us...

It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never, “Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me,” but always, “Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste his gift of joy and peace.” The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together. -James I. Packer Image

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts...

Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts,
Thou fount of life, Thou Light of men,
From the best bliss that earth imparts
We turn unfilled to Thee again.
 
We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the Fountain-head,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
 
O Jesus, ever with us stay,
Make all our moments calm and bright;
Chase the dark night of sin away,
Shed o’er the world Thy holy light.
-Bernard of Clairvaux

Saturday, September 23, 2023

Thursday, September 21, 2023

"Christianity in America is 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep" -- Dr. J.I. Packer

By David Virtue, Virtueonline
September 19, 2023

Excerpt:
In an article entitled "What is the Future of Evangelicalism?: Evangelicalism Now", the late Dr J. I. Packer, a distinguished Canadian Anglican theologian and author, lamented that North American evangelicalism had entered a "winter" from which it is unlikely to emerge any time soon.

A recent book The Dechurching of America by three authors, Jim Davis, Ryan Burge, and Michael Graham argue that 40 million Americans have left the church with most not likely to return any time soon, if ever.

"We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in U.S. history," an excerpt from the book summary reads. "It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined but in the opposite direction."

Sex abuse and corruption scandals that have rocked the evangelical community -- also well-documented by the media -- have played a role in growing disillusionment with the church. It is not just about COVID. The Gospel Coalition research team found that the dechurching phenomenon is far more complex. They drew their conclusions from an in-depth analysis of data drawn from a trio of surveys of 1,000 individuals, with100 data points per person surveyed. These data points included "demographics, size, core concerns, church off-ramps, historical roots, and the gravity of what is at stake."

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Jesus, Strong and Kind...

 
CityAlight - Jesus, Strong and Kind/Jesus Loves Me

Monday, September 18, 2023

Our God Will Go Before Us...

 
 Our God Will Go Before Us (Lyric Video)  
Keith & Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa

Friday, September 15, 2023

God Is Not Prissy...

God is not prissy. God is not proud. “Immanuel” means God repairs the ruin of the world by humbling himself. The high One shows just how high he is by taking the lowest seat. Sometimes the Lord comes in glory—in a fiery cloud on Sinai, in a pillar of fire in the wilderness, surrounded by blazing angelic chariots and horsemen. Not when he comes as Immanuel. When he comes to be with us, he doesn’t enter the world in a blaze of light, astride a winged stallion. He comes inauspiciously, in weakness and dependence. “Immanuel” means God is with us in our very flesh. He doesn’t recoil even from becoming one of us. He doesn’t despise Mary’s uterus. He doesn’t refuse to become a man, or to live a human life, or to die a human death. Immanuel is the God who became baby and dwelt among us. He lived and suffered all we live and suffer. He knows creation, he knows humanity, from the inside. Immanuel reveals the breathtaking humility of God....

...He’s with us in our sin and brokenness, in our joys and triumphs, in our failures and sorrows. Nothing we can do can make him recoil or leave. He won’t be God at all if it means being God-without-us. He’s determined to be God only as God-with-us. No matter what it takes or what it costs, he’ll stay with us. He will go to hell and back—he has gone to hell and back—to be Immanuel. 

That’s what God is like. (Read it all!)

Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me...

 
Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

I Set My Hope On Jesus...

 
 I Set My Hope: Keith & Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

God has called us to shine...

God has called us to shine, just as much as Daniel was sent into Babylon to shine. Let no man or woman say that they cannot shine because they have not so much influence as some others may have. What God wants you to do is to use the influence you have. Daniel probably did not have much influence down in Babylon at first, but God soon gave him more because he was faithful and used what he had.  
-Dwight Lyman Moody

Saturday, September 9, 2023

My God is All I Need...

 
 CityAlight: My God is All I Need/My God is So Big

Friday, September 8, 2023

Highlights Of The 1904-1905 Welsh Revival

Bill Muehlenberg
September 8, 2023

Excerpt: 
There are plenty of highlights one can look at when discussing the issue of revival. Here I want to look at one of the two major revivals that broke out in Wales – the one of 1904-1905. There were actually many revivals in Wales, and I have already examined the Welsh Revival of 1859 in another piece.

Heaven-sent revival is an incredible thing. One can only pray, “Do it again Lord”.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved...

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  
-Colossians 3:12-17

Kindness has converted more sinners 
than zeal, eloquence, or learning.
-Frederick William Faber

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy...

If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy, we must go this way of renunciation. And if we are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later bring us to this test. Abraham’s testing was, at the time, not known to him as such, yet if he had taken some course other than the one he did, the whole history of the Old Testament would have been different. God would have found His man, no doubt, but the loss to Abraham would have been tragic beyond the telling. So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.  
-A.W. Tozer image

Monday, September 4, 2023

Time for Another Great Awakening...

September 3, 2023
By Jeff Lukens

We live in an age of unbelief.  The foundations of American life are eroding.  America is entering an uncharted, revolutionary time.  We are no longer the America of our founders or even the America that existed twenty years ago.  We are in trouble, and a cataclysm of ominous events may soon overwhelm us.  We need a national spiritual revival.   

Two seminal revival movements were such game-changing events in American history that historians were compelled to call them Great Awakenings.  The First Great Awakening in the mid-1700s created the moral climate for the Declaration of Independence and the founding of a new country, conceived in liberty, that would truly become a light to the nations. 

The Second Great Awakening in the mid-1800s was even more potent and culminated with Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of slavery.  As a result of this movement, the United States has liberated more people economically, politically, and spiritually than any other nation in history.

The problems of America today cannot be solved by politicians or our broken culture.  We need another Great Awakening on a scale and resolve equal to the first two.  There are some hopeful signs this may be happening.  Read it all! image

Saturday, September 2, 2023

O, my friends, we are leaky vessels...

A great many think because they have been filled once, they are going to be full for all time after; but O, my friends, we are leaky vessels, and have to be kept right under the fountain all the time in order to keep full. If we are going to be used by God we have to be very humble. A man that lives close to God will be the humblest of men. I heard a man say that God always chooses the vessel that is close at hand. Let us keep near Him.  -Dwight Lyman Moody

Friday, September 1, 2023

The New Testament begins with the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ...

The New Testament begins with the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. No part of the Bible is so important as this, and no part is so full and complete. Four distinct Gospels tell us the story of Christ’s doing and dying. Four times over we read the precious account of His works and words. How thankful we ought to be for this! To know Christ is life eternal. To believe in Christ is to have peace with God. To follow Christ is to be a true Christian. To be with Christ will be heaven itself. We can never hear too much about Jesus Christ.  -J.C. Ryle 

Thursday, August 31, 2023

“Yes, for Him I want to be kept...

“Yes, for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His work in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for Him, that He may do just what seemeth Him good with me; kept, so that no other lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall have all there is to have;—little enough, indeed, but not divided or diminished by any other claim.”   -Frances Ridley Havergal

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Holiness...

Holiness comes not of blood—parents cannot give it to their children: nor yet of the will of the flesh—man cannot produce it in himself: nor yet of the will of man—ministers cannot give it you by baptism. Holiness comes from Christ. It is the result of vital union with Him. It is the fruit of being a living branch of the True Vine.   -J.C. Ryle

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

“Everything that God brings into our life...

“Everything that God brings into our life 
is directed to one purpose: 
that we might be conformed to the image of Christ.” 
-Erwin W. Lutzer

Monday, August 28, 2023

Prayer and a holy life are one...

Prayer and a holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone... We are in danger of substituting churchly work and a ceaseless round of showy activities for prayer and holy living. A holy life does not live in the closet, but it cannot live without the closet. If, by any chance, a prayer chamber should be established without a holy life, it would be a chamber without the presence of God in it.  -E.M. Bounds

Saturday, August 26, 2023

“The ability of God is beyond our prayers...

“The ability of God is beyond our prayers, beyond our largest prayers! I have been thinking of some of the petitions that have entered into my supplication innumerable times. What have I asked for? I have asked for a cupful, and the ocean remains!  I have asked for a sunbeam, and the sun abides!  My best asking falls immeasurably short of my Father’s giving: it is beyond what we can ask.”  –J. H. Jowett

Friday, August 25, 2023

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord...more

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord; but few of us willing to do little things... Look at that wonderful sermon that [Jesus] preached to that lone woman at the well of Samaria. He was tired and weary, but he had time and the heart to preach to her. This is but one of many instances in the life of the Master from which we may learn a precious lesson. If the Son of God had time to preach to one soul, cannot every one of us go and do the same?  
-Dwight Lyman Moody image

The Death of Church and Pub

by Carl R. Trueman
8/24/23

Excerpt:
The nature of community is changing. The old village has gone. One can lament the passing of parish churches and village pubs, but the type of community that birthed them has gone forever. But the human need for community—rich, real, personal community—will exist as long as our individual identities are tied up with looking into the faces of those who are “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.” In other words, that need will exist as long as we are human beings made in God’s image. And the answer is hospitality. Churches and Christians need to think about what this looks like in our modern world as much as they think about other aspects of the faith. And the good news is that the very things Christian decry in our current culture, from its superficiality to its instability to its hopelessness—make this a time of unparalleled opportunity.  

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Behold, I have refined you...

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; 
 I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 
 -Isaiah 48:10 

As sure as God puts His children in the furnace of affliction, 
He will be with them in it.  ~Charles Spurgeon

Friday, August 11, 2023

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice...

 
Pastor Rob Burns: Peace Within

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. -Philippians 4:4-9

Let us pardon those who have wronged us...

Let us pardon those who have wronged us. For that which others scarcely accomplish—I mean the blotting out of their own sins by means of fasting and lamentations, and prayers, and sackcloth and ashes—this it is possible for us easily to effect without sackcloth and ashes and fasting, if only we blot out anger from our heart, and with sincerity forgive those who have wronged us.  -St. John Chrysostom

Saturday, August 5, 2023

No matter what we pray for...

No matter what we pray for, whether it be temporal or spiritual things, little things or great things, gifts for ourselves or for others, our prayers should really resolve themselves into a quiet waiting for the Lord in order to hear what it is that the Spirit desires to have us pray for at that particular time.  
-O. Hallesby

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Jesus! where’er thy people meet...

Jesus! where’er thy people meet,
There they behold thy mercy-seat;
Where’er they seek thee, thou art found,
And every place is hallow’d ground.
 
Dear Shepherd of thy chosen few!
Thy former mercies here renew;
Here to our waiting hearts proclaim
The sweetness of thy saving name.
-William Cowper

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Every full-time Christian worker needs a prayer team standing with him...

Every full-time Christian worker needs a prayer team standing with him, strengthening him, and covering him with intercession. Every Christian ministry needs a burden-bearing team of prayer warriors. The effectiveness of any such ministry will depend upon the godliness of the team and the power of prayer that is marshaled behind it. God will bless any person or ministry as prayer support is deliberately enlisted and the prayer partners kept carefully informed and guided in prayer. Blessed is that person or ministry that has not only enlisted the aid of prayer helpers, but has intercessor-watchmen who carry a continual burden for the ministry.   -Wesley L. Duewel

Thursday, July 27, 2023

When the poor and needy seek water...

When the poor and needy seek water,
    and there is none,
    and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
    and the dry land springs of water.
 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
    the plane and the pine together,
 that they may see and know,
    may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    the Holy One of Israel has created it.
-Isaiah 41:17-20

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Christ Victorious

Christ Victorious (Lyric Video) – Kenwood Music

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Christ is building His kingdom...

Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth’s saddest failure up to heaven’s glory.   —J.R. Miller

Saturday, July 22, 2023

We find the Christian life so difficult...

We find the Christian life so difficult because we seek for God’s blessing while we live in our own will. We should be glad to live the Christian life according to our own liking. We make our own plans and choose our own work, and then we ask the Lord Jesus to come in and take care that sin shall not conquer us too much, and that we shall not go too far wrong; we ask Him to come in and give us so much of His blessing. But our relation to Jesus ought to be such that we are entirely at His disposal. -Andrew Murray

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

The Spirit-filled life...

“The Spirit-filled life is not a special, 
deluxe edition of Christianity. 
It is part and parcel of the total plan of God
 for His people.” -A.W. Tozer

Monday, July 17, 2023

The great need of our day is prayer...

We live in a day characterized by the multiplication of man’s machinery and the diminution of God’s power. The great cry of our day is work, work, work, new organizations, new methods, new machinery; the great need of our day is prayer. It was a master stroke of the devil when he got the church so generally to lay aside this mighty weapon of prayer. The devil is perfectly willing that the church should multiply its organizations, and deftly contrive machinery for the conquest of the world for Christ if it will only give up praying.  -R.A. Torrey 

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Come Love, come Lord...

Come Love, come Lord, and that long day
For which I languish, come away;
When this dry soul those eyes shall see,
And drink the unseal’d source of Thee;
When glory’s sun faith’s shades shall chase,
Then for Thy veil give me Thy face.
-Richard Crashaw

Saturday, July 15, 2023

O Lord our God, grant us grace...

O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart; that, so desiring, we may seek, and seeking find Thee; and so finding Thee may love Thee; and in loving Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us, Amen. -St. Anselm

Thursday, July 13, 2023

“Our prayers may be weak...

“Our prayers may be weak, stammering, and poor in our eyes. But if they come from a right heart, God understands them. Such prayers are His delight.” -J.C. Ryle

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Franklin Graham: ‘Never Before In America Have We Seen Such Open Contempt For The Word Of God’

Franklin Graham: ‘Never Before In America Have We Seen Such Open Contempt For The Word Of God’

Excerpt: "Just a few weeks before I was in Seoul, I spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Florida, the world’s largest association of Christian communicators. NRB member organizations represent millions of listeners, viewers and readers. 

I touched on how my father used television and radio from the early days of his ministry, and today at BGEA, we work to proclaim the Gospel by every effective means available to us. 

I also shared how my father used his platform to help others in ministry. As large corporate tech companies are increasingly hostile to the Christian faith, we at BGEA are taking proactive steps to help ensure we can keep on proclaiming the Gospel regardless of “progressive” policies that seek to silence us. These moves make it possible to offer strategic help to like-minded ministries that face the same dangers.

Make no mistake, the cancel culture from woke businesses, schools and corporations is coming hard after Christians who are faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in matters involving mankind’s sin, God’s holiness, and Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). As Jesus advised His disciples on His last night with them: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18).

I warned the thousands at the NRB convention that a storm is coming, and we’d better be ready because it appears as if all the demons in hell have been turned loose. Never before in America have we seen such open contempt for the Word of God.

And when I say demons, I mean just that." 

Monday, July 3, 2023

Prayer for our nation...

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure conduct. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom, in Thy Name, we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  -2019 BCP

Friday, June 16, 2023

O God of earth and altar...

O God of earth and altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die;
The walls of gold entomb us,
The swords of scorn divide,
Take not Thy thunder from us,
But take away our pride.
 
From all that terror teaches,
From lies of tongue and pen,
From all the easy speeches
That comfort cruel men,
From sale and profanation
Of honor and the sword,
From sleep and from damnation,
Deliver us, good Lord.
 
Tie in a living tether
The prince and priest and thrall,
Bind all our lives together,
Smite us and save us all;
In ire and exultation
Aflame with faith, and free,
Lift up a living nation,
A single sword to Thee.
-Gilbert Keith Chesterton 

Monday, June 12, 2023

I, a pilgrim of eternity, stand before Thee, O eternal One...

O Eternal God, though Thou art not such as I can see with my eyes or touch with my hands, yet grant me this day a clear conviction of Thy reality and power. Let me not go forth to my work believing only in the world of sense and time, but give me grace to understand that the world I cannot see or touch is the most real world of all. My life to-day will be lived in time, but eternal issues will be concerned in it. The needs of my body will be clamant, but it is for the needs of my soul that I must care most. My business will be with things material, but behind them let me be aware of things spiritual. Let me keep steadily in mind that the things that matter are not money or possessions, not houses or lands, not bodily comfort or bodily pleasure; but truth and honour and meekness and helpfulness and a pure love of Thyself.

For the power Thou hast given me to lay hold of things unseen:
For the strong sense I have that this is not my home:
For my restless heart which nothing finite can satisfy:
I give Thee thanks, O God.

For the invasion of my soul by Thy Holy Spirit:
For all human love and goodness that speak to me of Thee:
For the fullness of Thy glory outpoured in Jesus Christ:
I give Thee thanks, O God.

I, a pilgrim of eternity, stand before Thee, O eternal One. Let me not seek to deaden or destroy the desire for Thee that disturbs my heart. Let me rather yield myself to its constraint and go where it leads me. Make me wise to see all things to-day under the form of eternity, and make me brave to face all the changes in my life which such a vision may entail: through the grace of Christ my Saviour. Amen.  -John Baillie image

Saturday, June 3, 2023

How Great Thou Art!

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Book: "A Praying Church", by Paul E. Miller

Hey all-I am reading "A Praying Church" by Paul E. Miller.  A great read-biblical, encouraging and a great reminder for the contempary church of the importance of corporate prayer in the body of believers. -PD

Excerpt: “The American church is functionally prayerless when it comes to corporate prayer,” he writes. “Of course, a remnant does the hidden work of prayer, but in most churches corporate prayer doesn’t function in any meaningful way.”

 
Cultivating a Praying Church with Paul E. Miller 

Sunday, May 28, 2023

A Prayer for Memorial Day

A Prayer for Memorial Day

Holy God, your love is stronger than death,
and your life-giving power has no end.
We commend to your eternal care
all who have died in the service of others,
even as we lament the violence of war.
Comfort and sustain all those who mourn.
Heal the wounded body, mind, and spirit.
Bring justice, freedom, and dignity to all people
and bring an end to war throughout the earth
so that all may know your promised peace;
through Christ, the resurrection and the life.
-David Gambrell

O God of burning, cleansing flame...

O God of burning, cleansing flame:
Send the fire!
Your blood-bought gift today we claim:
Send the fire today!
Look down and see this waiting host,
And send the promised Holy Ghost;
We need another Pentecost!
Send the fire today!

God of Elijah, hear our cry:
Send the fire!
And make us fit to live or die:
Send the fire today!
To burn up every trace of sin,
To bring the light and glory in,
The revolution now begin!
Send the fire today!

It’s fire we want, for fire we plead:
Send the fire!
The fire will meet our every need:
Send the fire today!
For strength to always do what’s right,
For grace to conquer in the fight,
For power to walk the world in white:
Send the fire today!

To make our weak hearts strong and brave:
Send the fire!
To live, a dying world to save:
Send the fire today!
Oh, see us on Your altar lay,
We give our lives to you today,
So crown the offering now we pray:
Send the fire today!
-William Booth 

Thursday, May 4, 2023

National Day of Prayer 2023: Praying for America

Thursday May 4th, 2023

God is sovereign and nothing comes as a surprise to Him. Whether we face fluctuating economics, threats from abroad, unrest at home, or other troubling circumstances, our Heavenly Father is not caught unaware. Through prayer, we are able to tap into His wisdom, strength, protection, and peace. He stands ready to respond to our needs when we humbly ask for divine intervention in the affairs of men.

As we Pray for America whose pledge of allegiance recounts that we are “one nation under God,” and whose currency states that it is “in God we trust,” we want Americans to encounter the God who rules over their country. “He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals His thoughts to man, He who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth—the LORD God Almighty is His name.” -Amos 4:13 NIV

He is the One who gave us this promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” As we humbly and diligently seek Him, we’ll be changed, and we’ll see transformation in America through prayer!