Sunday Hymn - Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

We sang this in church this morning. Such rich words. We sang the version from Indelible Grace with music by Laura Taylor.

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
©2001 Laura Taylor Music. Words: John Newton. Music: Laura Taylor.

1. Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Savior’s name
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has brought us nigh to God

2. Let us love the Lord Who bought us
Pitied us when enemies
Called us by His grace and taught us
Gave us ears and gave us eyes
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He presents our souls to God

3. Let us sing though fierce temptation
Threatens hard to bear us down
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
Holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown
He, Who washed us with His blood,
He, Who washed us with His blood,
He, Who washed us with His blood,
Soon will bring us home to God

4. Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood
He Who washed us with His blood
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God

5. Let us praise and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high
Here they trusted Him before us
Now their praises fill the sky
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou art worthy Lamb of God

You can hear a demo here. The words and music are also available on the RUF Hymnbook site. It is a great congregational hymn.

Prayer for pastors

I have been reading the first volume of Arnold Dallimore's biography of George Whitefield (pronounced "Whitfield"). I commend it to anyone - it is well-written and interesting.

Dallimore writes this in his introduction:

Yea, this book is written in the desire - perhaps in a measure of inner certainty - that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more bring into being HIs special instruments of revival, that He will again raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be 'fools for Christ's sake', who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth's accolades but to win the Master's approbation when they appear before His awesome judgement seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness 'signs and wonders following' in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.

Our son is looking to pastoral ministry as he studies at Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College. As I read this, I thought that this would be my prayer for him - that God would give him that passionate desire to share Him. But as I typed this, I thought that we all should pray this prayer for our pastors. Pray that they will be men who have learned to die to self and who have a big vision of the greatness of God. Pray this morning that your pastor will have a vision of who God is and share that vision with his people.

A Praying Life - Quotes

I am continuing to read A Praying Life by Paul Miller.

The chapter on living life in the desert is rich.

"You cry out to God so long and so often that a channel begins to open up between you and God." p. 185

"When we don't receive what we pray for or desire, it doesn't mean that God isn't acting on our behalf. Rather, he's weaving his story. Paul tells us to 'continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving'(Col. 4:2). Thanksgiving helps us to be grace-centered, seeing all of life as a gift. It looks at how God's past blessing impact our lives. Watchfulness alerts us to the unfolding drama in the present. It looks for God's present working as it unfolds into future grace." p. 187

"When God seems silent and our prayers go unanswered, the over-whelming temptation is to leave the story - to walk out of the desert and attempt to create a normal life. But when we persist in a spiritual vacuum, when we hang in there during ambiguity, we get to know God. In fact, that is how intimacy grows in all close relationships." p. 192