The Call to Spiritual Reformation - quotes

I've been reading Don Carson's The Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and his prayers. I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm reading through it fairly slowly, taking notes, so I can really absorb what he is saying but as it is, I'll need to go back and study each prayer again as I learn to pray through them.

I've been writing down some quotes from the book and meaning to put them up here - both as an encouragement to read the book and as an encouragement to think more deeply on these things.

p. 36 - "If we 'pray until we pray', eventually we come to delight in God's presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will."

p. 44 - "... we must look for signs of grace in the lives of Christians and give God thanks for them."

"Do we make it a matter of praise to God when we observe evidence in one another of growing conformity to Christ?"

p. 53 - "That (Paul's prayer that God would count the Thessalonian Christians worthy of their calling) means these believers must grow in all the things that please God so that he is pleased with them and finally judges them to be living up to the calling that they have received."

p. 54 - "That cannot mean less than that we should become increasingly holy, self-denying, loving, full of integrity, steeped in the knowledge of God and his word, delighted to trust and obey our Heavenly Father."

p. 56 - "The truth is that unless God works in us and through us, unless God empowers these good purposes of ours, they will not engender any enduring spiritual fruit; they will not display any life-transforming, people-changing power."

p. 59 - "To think that rebellious, self-centered mortals become children of God, increasingly mirroring his character and one day enjoying the unclouded bliss of a perfect existence in the presence of the Triune God - this could not possibly be the fruit of our own endeavours. Rather, Christ is glorified, he receives the praise that is his due as we are glorified..."

p. 60 - "...everything he has asked for is available only on the basis of grace."

p. 62 - "... at the heart of all our praying must be a biblical vision. That vision embraces who God is, what he has done, who we are, where we are going, what we must value and cherish. That vision drives us toward increasing conformity with Jesus, toward lives lived in the light of eternity, toward hearty echoing of the the church's ongoing cry, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" That vision must shape our prayers, so that the things that most concern us in prayer are those that concern the heart of God."

First Sunday of Advent - Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

An instrumental version:


A choral version:

Sunday Hymn - Moment by Moment

Moment by Moment

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;
Living with Jesus, a new life divine;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Refrain

Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a trial that He is not there,
Never a burden that He doth not bear,
Never a sorrow that He doth not share,
Moment by moment, I’m under His care.

Refrain

Never a heartache, and never a groan,
Never a teardrop and never a moan;
Never a danger but there on the throne,
Moment by moment He thinks of His own.

Refrain

Never a weakness that He doth not feel,
Never a sickness that He cannot heal;
Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,
Jesus my Savior, abides with me still.

Refrain

Sunday Hymn - Brethren, We have Come to Worship

I've just started reading A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson about prayer. This hymn was on this morning and it matches well with what Carson is saying about prayer.

Brethren, We Have Come to Worship

Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God;
Will you pray with all your power, while we try to preach the Word?
All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down;
Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.

Brethren, see poor sinners round you slumbering on the brink of woe;
Death is coming, hell is moving, can you bear to let them go?
See our fathers and our mothers, and our children sinking down;
Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around.

Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses’ sister aided him;
Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior, tell them that He will be found;
Sisters, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.

Is there here a trembling jailer, seeking grace, and filled with tears?
Is there here a weeping Mary, pouring forth a flood of tears?
Brethren, join your cries to help them; sisters, let your prayers abound;
Pray, Oh pray that holy manna may be scattered all around.

Let us love our God supremely, let us love each other, too;
Let us love and pray for sinners, till our God makes all things new.
Then He’ll call us home to Heaven, at His table we’ll sit down;
Christ will gird Himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.

A few versions:







This one takes me back! Remember how low the bass can go?


This hymn is apparently very popular and well-known. There are lots of versions on youtube, unlike some of the other hymns I've posted.