Sunday Hymn - How Firm a Foundation

Well, it's been a long time since I posted one but here's a hymn that my husband quoted in his message this morning.

How Firm a Foundation

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Here's a great version:


I also recommended a message this week to a friend which is based on this sermon by David Powlison. It's one of the best sermons I have heard about suffering. You can listen to it at Desiring God. You can also read the book that came out of the conference, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. Start at p. 154 for Powlison's chapter.

Book Review - Rid of My Disgrace

Rid of My Disgrace, written by Justin & Lindsey Holcomb is a new book that was recommended from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I ordered it and read it through.

Rid of My Disgrace is addressed to sexual assault victims. It recognizes the tremendous hurt victims of sexual assault experience but unlike other books, points the victims directly to Christ, instead of asking them to heal themselves. The authors say, "What grace offers to the victim experiencing disgrace is the gift of refuting distortions and faulty thinking and replacing their condemning, counterfactual beliefs with more accurate ones that reflect the truths about God, yourself, and God's grace-filled response to your disgrace." (p. 45)

The first section, entitled "Disgrace" defines sexual assault and talks about its effects. The second section, "Grace Applied", deals with the many possible emotions and responses of a victim. It includes a personal story for each response. The third, "Grace Accomplished", looks at sexual assault from the perspective of sin, grace in the Old Testament and grace in the New Testament.

I think this is a tremendously helpful book both for victims and Christians wishing to help sexual assault victims. The theology is sound and points back to Christ and the grace He has extended to all. It honestly discusses the many feelings a victim can have and shows how God's grace extends to each in order to have healing. They don't try to whitewash any of these emotions but deal with them honestly and in a straight-forward way.

The notes are extensive at the back of the book. One interesting feature is that Scripture is footnoted and notes are endnotes. I liked having the scripture references, which are many, immediately available.

My only disappointment with this book is that I got to the end and it was done. In that, I mean that I was looking for a conclusion and a "what now" response at the end. Certainly each chapter exhorts the reader to consider how change is possible for Christ but I felt like there could have been a broader summary, both for victims and counselors.

I am happy to see this type of book being written. I think that churches and Christians can be perceived as "having it all together" and that those experiencing brokenness will not find acceptance in the church. It's possible for a church to never address real problems of assault and brokenness. Books like this one help to dispell that image and encourage those within the church to reach out to those who need the help, both inside and outside the church.

Just for Parents

I just came across this great post about dealing with fussing, whining children. No, it's not just about telling them to stop complaining. Take a look - I know even with my older children, I'll be talking about this!

Listening Material

I was searching for some messages to listen to and came across this page at Monergism. There are lots to choose from.

I started listening to the ones by Elyse Fitzpatrick (Walking in the Light). Session 1 was good but Session 2 was particularly convicting this morning. She talks about how being "nice" to our fellow Christians by not really talking about things that matter is actually not showing love to our neighbour. Taking the time to pray when needed, taking time to listen & talk and sometimes to admonish - all are really showing love to our fellow believers. Well worth listening to and I'm looking forward to finishing that message and hearing the others.

Not all the links seem to work to download but there are enough there to keep me going for a while.

Sunday Hymn - May the Mind of Christ, My Saviour

May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.

May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.

May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.

Fantastic explanation of the gospel

This blog post is a fantastic explanation of how the gospel changes our lives. My story is very similar to hers but she says it better!

(and then read her post from today about the cartoon characters on facebook. I couldn't agree more!)

I listened to an interesting message this morning from Karen Lorits at the True Woman Conference. You can listen to it here (scroll down to find her message).

She ended with a quote from Max Lucado that I really appreciated:

Praise to God! You are a great God. Your character is holy. Your truth is absolute. Your strength is unending. Your discipline is fair. You are a great God. The mountain of Your knowledge has no peak, the ocean of Your love has no shore, the fabric of Your fidelity has no tear, the rock of Your Word has no crack. You are a great God. Your patience surprises us. Your beauty stuns us. Your love stirs us. You are a great God. Your provisions are abundant for our needs. Your light is adequate for our path. Your grace is efficient for our sins. You are a great God. We even declare with reluctant words, “Your plan is perfect.” You are never early, never late, never tardy, never quick. You sent Your Son in the fullness of time and will return at the consummation of time. Your plan is perfect. . .bewildering, puzzling, troubling, but it's perfect.

Even in the midst of trials, God is great and His plan is perfect.

True Woman Conferences

I've been interested to hear about the True Woman conferences with Nancy Leigh DeMoss and others. I just found their site with conference messages to download so I'm looking forward to listening to them. It looks like the 2008 ones are complete and they'll keep adding to the 2010 lineup.

A Cool Tool

Within the past few weeks, I discovered a neat tool for tracking food and exercise. It's available both as an application for ipod touches/phones and online. You can find the online version at My Fitness Pal or search for it in the applications on your ipod. Best of all - it was free!

I really like the comprehensive database for both food and exercise. Other sites I have tried don't have a lot of exercises listed for strength training. This one has a fair selection and you can add more in. The cardio training is also quite comprehensive.

It also syncs automatically with the online version so it's easy to go back and forth. I like having it all on my touch. The ipod version also doesn't require wi-fi, which is also a bonus. At the gym, I keep track of the exercises I'm doing so I don't have to remember what I did later.

It's always a bonus to find something that works!

Habits of the Mind & Body

At the Common Room blog, the Deputy Headmistress has been writing about habits. Today's post is particularly good, in a convicting sort of way. The questions at the end are some that I know I need to sit down and work through, instead of just grumbling that my children don't do as they are supposed to. It reminds me of a message I heard once by Kenneth Maresco. His main point was that we cannot expect our children to be obedient unless we have trained them to know what that means.

The DHM has been working through a series of Charlotte Mason posts. I really need to read one or more of the six volume series. Anyone up for a reading group?

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

Sunday Hymn - From Every Stormy Wind that Blows

I was playing from a hymn arrangement book this morning and this one was joined in a medley with You are My Hiding Place. I'm still working on learning the arrangement but I'm going to play this hymn for the offertory today. I remembered the words being very comforting but I didn't realize until I read them their connection with prayer. I thank God for His mercy seat that we can come to at any time, anywhere.

From Every Stormy Wind That Blows

From every stormy wind that blows,
From every swelling tide of woes,
There is a calm, a sure retreat;
’Tis found beneath the mercy seat.

There is a place where Jesus sheds
The oil of gladness on our heads;
A place than all besides more sweet;
It is the blood bought mercy seat.

There is a scene where spirits blend,
Where friend holds fellowship with friend;
Though sundered far, by faith they meet
Around one common mercy seat.

There, there, on eagles’ wings we soar,
And time and sense seem all no more;
And heaven comes down, our souls to greet,
And glory crowns the mercy seat.

Oh, let my hand forget her skill,
My tongue be silent, cold, and still,
This bounding heart forget to beat,
If I forget the mercy seat!


An a cappella version:



The line that stuck out to me today was "Where friend holds fellowship with friend; Though sundered far, by faith they meet around one common mercy seat." I praise God that we can by faith meet friends from far away around the mercy seat!

Jam and Books

A few people have asked me recently about my blog name. It comes from a quote I read years ago. It's probably about time to quote it again:

"Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it? You aren’t stupid because you’re a housewife. When you’re stirring the jam you can read
Shakespeare." [quoted from The Private World of Tasha Tudor]

I was making raspberry jam today while reading Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson. If you enjoy beautiful writing and interesting characters, check out D.E. Stevenson.

The Praying Life

I just started reading a book called The Praying Life by Paul Miller . So far I'm finding it to be challenging and encouraging.

"The quest for a contemplative life can actually be self-absorbed, focused on my quiet and me. If we love people and have the power to help, then we are going to be busy. Learning to pray doesn't offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet. Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love...and thus to be busy, which in turn drives us even more into a life of prayer. By spending time with our Father in prayer, we integrate our lives with his, with what he is doing in us. Our lives become more coherent. They feel calmer, more ordered, even in the midst of confusion and pressure." (p. 23-24)

"The gospel, God's free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don't have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to - our helplessness - is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can't do life on our own.

Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks at the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers." (p. 55)

Sunday Hymn & Quote

From Don Carson:

"Small wonder, then, that the 'new Jerusalem,' one of the images for the final abode of God's people (Rev. 21-22), is shaped like a perfect cube. Already Christians have access to the throne of God by the merit of Jesus Christ; in the consummation, however, we will stand unafraid and overwhelmed by joy and adoration in the unshielded splendor of his holiness." For the Love of God, vol. 2


I Stand Amazed in the Presence

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

Sunday Hymn - Come Thou Almighty King

"Come, Thou Almighty King"
by Unknown Author

1. Come, Thou almighty King,
Help us Thy name to sing,
Help us to praise!
Father all-glorious,
O'er all victorious,
Come and reign over us,
Ancient of Days.

2. Come, Thou Incarnate Word,
Gird on Thy mighty sword,
Our prayer attend;
Come and Thy people bless
And give Thy Word success;
Stablish Thy righteousness,
Savior and Friend!

3. Come, holy Comforter,
Thy sacred witness bear
In this glad hour.
Thou, who almighty art,
Now rule in every heart
And ne'er from us depart,
Spirit of Power!

4. To the great One in Three
Eternal praises be
Hence evermore!
His sovereign majesty
May we in glory see
And to eternity
Love and adore!

The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Rev. 4:8
Author: unknown, 1757, ab.
Composer: Felice de Giardini, 1769
Tune: Italian Hymn

Here's an organ version of it - I think this is the most musical version I found on youtube.

The Commercialization of Childhod

I came across this video on Challies a few weeks ago but just got around to watching it. Some good things to consider, especially the questions at the end.

Sunday Hymn - I am not Skilled to Understand

I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know that at His right hand
Is One Who is my Savior!

I take Him at His word indeed;
“Christ died for sinners”—this I read;
For in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior!

That He should leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? So once did I,
Before I knew my Savior!

And oh, that He fulfilled may see
The travail of His soul in me,
And with His work contented be,
As I with my dear Savior!

Yea, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this Spring;
That He Who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior!

Here is a link to a piano midi file - it's not fancy but it is the tune I grew up singing. I found a dreadfully slow choir version here.

And I didn't know that there's a modern version by Aaron Shust. I still like the original tune but it's so great to see the older hymns revived.