"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"

This hymn was written by Welsh preacher William Williams (1717-1791), although it was the approximately 800 hymns he wrote in his native Welsh language for which he was famous. If you go here, you will find a brief history of the hymn, lyrics, a piano accompaniment of the tune, and a sketch of Williams.


"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

I decided to print only the first verse of the hymn this week. It, alone, is quite powerful. If you wish to see the other verses, go here.

Narrow is the Way

"Enter ye in at the strait [narrow] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there are that find it." Matthew 7: 13-14 (KJV)

If God's mercy is wide, how can Jesus tell us that the path to life is narrow? Paul states, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..." (Eph. 2:4-5a NKJV)

Not only does God's great love make us, who are dead, alive; but it is also a mercy full of richness. We are not just seeds that sprout into beautiful flowers. We are dead dandelions which He transforms into beautiful, fragrant roses! This is truly a marvel!

May I never take His mercy for granted.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

We were visiting a church today that did not make any mention of this being Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, so I almost forgot. Lord, forgive me.

There are only two letters of difference between the words abortion and adoption. And yet, those letters mean the difference between murder and life!

Pray that our country comes to realize that it is a life that is being ended when abortion occurs. Pray that we repent of this terrible sin.

"There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"

God's mercy is indeed wide! That He would search me out, when I wasn't looking for Him, and draw me to Himself....that is mercy both wide and deep.

I share these words in memory of my father, Lee Cadle McMillen (April 14, 1928-May 25, 2004).


There's a Wideness in God's Mercy
by Frederick William Faber (1814-1863)

There's a wideness in God's mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in God's justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in his blood.
There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings
have such kindly judgment given.
There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader
than the measure of the mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we should trust God's every word;
and our life would be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.


This site has a recording of a non-traditional melody using the words of this hymn.

Worship--Part 3

In Worship--Part I I wrote about the first time a form of the word "worship" appears in the Bible. (Genesis 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.")

Although the word worship isn't mentioned specifically, certainly God lays a foundation for worship back in Genesis 2 at the end of the Creation account. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it...

In contrast to the previous six days of creation, there is no mention of 'evening and morning.' Some scholars speculate that this is because the Sabbath ordinance is to be continued, and that man is supposed to participate in it.

So, what did God do on the seventh day? He ended His work, He rested from His work, He blessed the day, and He sanctified (made holy, set apart) the day. We, too, must set aside the Sabbath as a holy day.

If an earthly father rests from his work, after six days of difficult labor, what do his young children do? They spend time with him, they marvel in his presence, they have more leisurely meals, they talk, the father helps his children do things, he instructs them, they enjoy one another's company. Doesn't this look a little like the very things that we should be doing with our heavenly Father on the Sabbath? If we spend our earthly dad's one day off watching TV, talking to friends, or going to the mall, it would be a sad day indeed. Yet, if we go to church and the highlights are watching the drama team perform, the praise band perform, the pastor tell funny stories, visiting with our friends, having put together a pretty outfit,... Well, you get the picture.

Worship--Part 2

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved singing hymns in church: learning to sing alto at my mother's side, the sound of familiar voices around me, the harmonies, the succinct theology, and feeling the tie to past generations who have sung the same hymns. My very first favorite hymn was "Holy, Holy, Holy." I was about age 7 or 8, and was always so awed at people who could sing the hymns without referring to their hymnal the whole time. In "Holy, Holy, Holy," I, too, was finally able to look up from my hymnal for a few seconds!

But the hymns I sang as a girl, and in my most recent church are being cast aside in favor of insipid praise songs. Or modern words are being put to wonderful old hymn melodies. The longest chapter in the Bible (Psalm 119) is a song of praise to God. The entire Book of Psalms is in the heart of the Bible. It is certainly pleasing to God's heart to hear us sing praises to Him.

As I've been pondering music in worship, I've been lamenting the loss of old hymns in many of today's churches. Perhaps you will find the following to be some food for thought. This article from Christianity Today discusses the negative effects of modernizing old hymns.

"Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners"

The music for this hymn was written in 1830 by Rowland H. Prichard (1811-1887). The tune comes from a Welsh folk song and has had about seven different texts put to its melodies. This particular text was written by Evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918) in 1910.

As an aside, a blog search didn't turn up an audio recording of this hymn. But it DID turn up the text to a sermon preached on June 29, 1862, by Charles Spurgeon, entitled The Friend of Sinners.

JESUS! WHAT A FRIEND FOR SINNERS

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Refrain

Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my Strength, my victory wins.

Refrain

Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
While the billows over me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my Comfort, helps my soul.

Refrain

Jesus! what a Guide and Keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night overtakes me,
He, my Pilot, hears my cry.

Refrain

Jesus! I do now receive Him,
[or Jesus! I do now adore Him,]
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am His, and He is mine.

Refrain

Worship--Part I

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we are searching for a new church home. Over the five months we have been visiting churches, we have observed a distressing absence of serious thought or reverence. The services appear to be trying to entertain man rather than worship God; the Creator of the universe, the Redeemer of our souls. The majority of churches we visit seem to be saying, "Come as you are, We don't want to make you too uncomfortable, We don't want you to have to think too hard, We'll try to show you how 'hip' we are, Newer is better," etc.

I've been doing some reading about worship, and will spend some future blogs sharing what I've found. I've started looking up the verses from my Concordance entry for "Worship." Now, I know this is a pretty low-tech method of study, but even thus far, it's yielded some interesting observations.

The first time any variation of the word "worship" is used in the Bible, is in Genesis. Abraham, in obedience to God, is taking Isaac to be sacrificed as a burnt offering. Abraham has taken along two of his servants on this three day journey, and has the wood already cut for the offering.

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
Genesis 22:5 NKJV

No doubt, it's a miracle that Abraham is spared from sacrificing his son when God provides a ram to be offered instead. But what is just as amazing is Abraham's prompt obedience (he leaves home early the next morning after receiving God's instructions) and total reliance on God. Abraham is to sacrifice Isaac, the long-awaited son of the promise. My husband and I waited 11 long years to receive our first child; Abraham and Sarah had waited almost 25 years! I could no more take our son to be sacrificed than fly to the moon. And yet, Abraham DID take Isaac to be sacrificed.

And then, of course, as a model to us all, is Abraham's amazing faith in God's provision. Abraham either believed that God would provide another substitute for the sacrifice or that God would bring Isaac back to life. Remember that Abraham told his servants, "[We] will go over there, we will worship and then WE will come back to you." Abraham had faith that Isaac would be taking the return trip home. Alive!

So what must we learn from this? I have pencilled in my Bible margin, a quote from John MacArthur. "Aside from Christ, Abraham is our greatest role model for trusting in God. He is the epitome of submission and obedience to the will of God at any cost."

We must obey God, we must be willing to not withhold anything from Him, we must have faith that He will provide what is necessary, and we must worship Him in any circumstance! Our worship must be glorifying to the great God we serve. How can we do anything less than take worship seriously?

From Euphoria to Shock--Part 2

My mother and I went to the airport this evening to pick up a neighbor of hers. This neighbor had just been to visit her parents in West Virginia for the past two weeks. As would be expected, our conversation drifted to talk of last week's coal mining tragedy. As the three of us compared various news stories we had heard and read, we all agreed how difficult the whole thing has been for the families involved.

I've been wondering this past week, what such a tragic unfolding of events would have done to me, had I had a loved one in that mine last week. It's easy to glibly quote Paul, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances," when our circumstances don't test our faith quite like last week's story from the mine. In keeping with the comments I made last week about thanking God even in times of difficulty, here's an excerpt from a recent Christianity Today article.

Augustine of Hippo witnessed much sorrow. After the Goths ravaged Rome in 410, many complained that Christian faith had weakened the empire. In his great defense of Christianity, City of God, Augustine argues that faith in Jesus weathers the temporary triumphs and tragedies of this world. "If God did not bestow [the good things of life] with patent liberality on some who ask him, we could possibly argue that such things did not depend on his power. On the other hand, if he lavished them on all who asked, we might have the impression that God is to be served only for the gifts he bestows."

To read the entire article, go here.

"Holy Spirit, Ever Dwelling"

This morning we visited a church that sang no hymns. Only meaningless, repetitive praise choruses. I can't stand a steady diet of this. I am starving for hymns!

This evening I went to the Sing for Joy website, looking for some inspiration. They choose hymns appropriate for each Sunday, given the scripture readings, and play recordings of them during their weekly radio show. As I was familiar with only one of the hymns listed for today, I opted to try my hand at a new one. If you go here, you can listen to a recording of the hymn "Holy Spirit, Ever Dwelling." Written in 1942, the words are still under copyright, so I will not publish them here.

I am unable to find any other information about the hymn, but I am too tired to come up with another substitute. I am sorry. Perhaps next week we will attend a church that sings some good hymns, and I can share one of those with you.

Cain and Abel Revisited

Ever since Cain slew Abel, men have been at war with each other. Cain, whose name means something akin to "Here he is," was brought forth with such promise. Adam and Eve looked upon him as the much hoped for deliverer, promised by God. The first baby born on earth grew up to be, not the deliverer, but a destroyer. Humankind didn't get past the first born of Adam and Eve before angry thoughts were translated into deadly action.

Support for the war in Iraq seems to wane, mainstream media and the entertainment industry swirl around in a constant Bush/war bashing mode, President Bush's approval ratings drop, and the Bush haters circle like sharks smelling blood in the water. Despite what you think of the president's handling of the war, the fact is the people who wanted us dead on September 11, 2001, haven't called a truce. They are still at war with us. And many of "us" don't seem to think our future hangs in the balance.

My husband and I have family members who want the U.S. out of Iraq yesterday. They think wars are awful and should not be fought for any reason. Oh, that it were that simple. Of course wars are awful! But the absence of war isn't always peace. It's often tyranny or oppression.

Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, recently wrote a good article comparing the worldview of many Americans with the Muslims who wish us dead. In part, he stated, "Postmodern Americans and Europeans may believe wars of conquest are obsolete, a discarded relic of the distant past. They may even see war itself as an aberration, an unnatural disruption of what they have convinced themselves is the “normal” state of peaceful coexistence. But our enemies view the world differently. Their perspective is of an older vintage.

"'The ordinary theme and argument of all history is war,' observed Sir Walter Raleigh in the early 17th century. Wishing that were no longer true does not make it so. We infidels pretend otherwise at our peril."

To read the entire article, go here. Then pray. Pray for our country. Our leaders. Our soldiers. Our children.

From Euphoria to Shock

Last night before retiring, I checked the news on my computer. Not one to normally talk to my computer, I uttered "Praise God!" more than a couple of times when I read that the remaining 12 miners from the West Virginia coal mine were found alive. I went to bed feeling so happy for their families. The happiness was dimmed somewhat by the one man's body who had been found a little earlier, but it seemed like a true miracle indeed that the other 12 had survived and been found before it was too late.

This morning, as I woke up, the words of the Doxology came to me and I decided to post them after completing my morning chores. I checked the news on my computer again, to see what the most recent articles had to say, and I read in disbelief, a quite different headline. I read it a second time, hoping, praying, that I had read incorrectly. Unfortunately, I had not.

I lived in West Virginia (Charleston area) while I was in junior high and high school. My high school band played a concert in Buchannon (close to the area where the mine is) when I was 15. So it was with somewhat heightened interest that I followed the news stories of the trapped coal miners these past few days. I prayed, along with the rest of the country, for a happy ending.

Now my prayers are for recovery for the sole survivor, and comfort for the families and friends of the 12 who perished. If it were MY husband who did not make it out alive, I daresay, I could not utter these words. But Paul tells us, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.(I Thess 5:16-18)" Some years ago, I added, in pencil, in my Bible: "IN, not FOR." We can't give thanks FOR all circumstances, but we must give thanks IN all circumstances. Obviously easier said than done. But this means, I suppose, that I must still sing praises to God, even when my heart is so heavy this morning.

"Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow"

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

"Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming"

"I the Lord do not change."
Malachi 3:6

I like new beginnings; a new calendar year, a new growing season in the garden, a new school year, a new year after one's birthday, the Advent season. They can give us the opportunity to reassess our lives and make necessary adjustments. But newness can become a narcotic and keep one from sticking with a thing when that is precisely what is needed. This article by Peter Leithart has some good food for thought regarding our fast-paced modern world.

In our quest to find a new church home we visited here today. Part of the liturgy preceeding communion struck me in a powerful way. It says, in part, "We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table. But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy." We, who are not worthy to stoop and untie His sandals, nor gather up the crumbs under His table, are invited to sup with Him, and one day, become His bride. Truly, a miracle!

We sang "Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming" this morning in church. This link has one version featuring soprano Kathleen Battle. All of the verses are not included, but the arrangement and singing are beautiful. This site has the most extensive information I have found concerning the hymn.

"Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming"

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

The shepherds heard the story proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped and in the manger found Him,
As angel heralds said.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.

O Savior, Child of Mary, Who felt our human woe,
O Savior, King of glory, Who dost our weakness know;
Bring us at length we pray, to the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day!