"Praise to the Lord"

What a blessing to sing a hymn again! Yesterday we had a very good family retreat at our church. The teaching, full of wisdom, was provided by Bishop Hultstrand. (He's not the Bishop of Colorado, but a personal friend of our rector.) But, for me, the low point of the day was singing praise songs preceeding every teaching session. I was reminded yet again how much I detest them.

This morning, we began our worship with this hymn. Its author, Joachim Neander (1650-1680), wrote it in 1680 shortly before he died of tuberculosis or the plague. It was translated from the original German into English in 1863 by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878), who is responsible for bringing many German hymns to the English speaking world.


"Praise to the Lord"

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

(stained glass window from Holy Trinity Church, Crosshaven, Ireland)

Jesus as Redeemer

Wouldn't you know, I read this right after I was thinking something not very nice about someone this morning. God always knows what we need to hear.


Excerpts from Oswald Chambers' devotional for today:

The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in motive because he has been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being.

Jesus says--If you are My disciple you must be right not only in your living, but in your motives, in your dreams, in the recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure.

Who can stand in the Eternal Light of God and have nothing for God to censure? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that by His Redemption He can put into any man His own disposition, and make him as unsullied and as simple as a child.

Dear Lord, reach into the depths of my soul. Clean out those feelings of ill-will that like to hide in there and multiply. Replace them with Christ-like thinking, behavior, and compassion.

Jesus as Teacher

Oswald Chambers' teaching was compiled by his wife in the devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. His lesson for today (excerpted below) is based upon Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Chambers talks about the fallacy of looking at Jesus only as Teacher. May my family members who believe Jesus was only a great teacher be drawn to the truth.

"Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first. If Jesus Christ is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize me by erecting a standard I cannot attain. What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near? I am happier without knowing it. What is the good of telling me to be what I never can be--to be pure in heart, to do more than my duty, to be perfectly devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition."

Ora et Labora

Pray and work.

St. Benedict coined this phrase as a motto of sorts when establishing his religious order. Ora et Labora was one of the first sayings the kids and I learned when we started Latin.

This photo shows a Benedictine Abbey in northern Colorado, near the Wyoming border. I went once with a group of women from my old church, and then two more times for a private retreat. I took my Bible, a hymnal, a journal, and some good walking shoes. I attended the services and spent time alone in prayer, singing, and reading. Going there is always such a boost to my mental and spiritual state.

A few Saturdays ago, I went again. This time I got to do more Labora than Ora. The sisters are trying to eradicate a noxious weed [Toadflax], and had a "Weed and Pray" day. A handful of us pulled weeds, attended the Sext service right before lunch and weeded some more.

While pulling the weeds I got to thinking. Toadflax was brought to this country as an ornamental plant. Unfortunately, it soon spread to the wild and began overtaking native plants. Isn't this just like sin? It creeps into our lives, sometimes even disguised as something pretty, but it quickly overtakes us and forces its way into all areas of our lives, pushing out necessary things.

The sisters and their helpers must pull each weed one by one in order to keep it from spreading to the hay field. After about a dozen years of diligent work they hope to have it gone from their land.

Are we as willing to diligently purge sin from our lives, weed by weed?

"O Day of Rest and Gladness"

It's been a bit busy around here. Birthdays. Family visiting. Gardening. Life.

This was our processional hymn today. Inspiring words. Cool alto part.

"O Day of Rest and Gladness"

O day of rest and gladness,
O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness,
most beautiful, most bright;
on thee the high and lowly,
before the eternal throne,
sing, "Holy, holy, holy,"
to the great Three in One.

On thee, at the creation,
the light first had its birth;
on thee for our salvation
Christ rose from depths of earth;
On thee our Lord victorious
the Spirit sent from heaven,
and thus on thee most glorious
a triple light was given.

Thou art a port protected
from storms that round us rise;
a garden intersected
with streams of paradise;
thou art a cooling fountain
in life's dry dreary sand;
from thee, like Pisgah's mountain,
we view our promised land.

Today on weary nations
the heavenly manna falls;
to holy convocations
the silver trumpet calls,
where Gospel light is glowing
with pure and radiant beams,
and living water flowing,
with soul refreshing streams.

May we, new graces gaining
from this our day of rest,
attain the rest remaining
to spirits of the blessed.
And their our voices raising,
to Father, Spirit, Son,
for evermore be praising
the blessèd Three in One.

Independence Day

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


Great days never exist alone. There are important events preceeding and following such great days. Consider our country's birthday. Britain's Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, angering the colonists. British troops shot and killed five civilians in Boston in 1770. The actual war began in April of 1775 when colonists took up arms against British troops trying to seize the supplies of the Massachusetts militia. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, forming the United States of America. The Americans defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia in 1781. Finally, the Americans and British signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, 18 years after the Stamp Act.

We would do well to learn from our Founding Fathers. Aside from the Bible, the Declaration of Independence is one of the most inspired texts ever put to paper. In wisdom, and using restraint, they tried to address their grievances without bloodshed and within the confines of the existing ties to Britain. But when provoked, attacked, and ignored, they fought back when necessary. Although up against a more powerful and much larger army, the American troops were victorious in the end.

When we are faced with unfair opposition in our individual lives, we should declare independence from those who would seek to oppress us. As the Declaration states, we should appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world. We can stand firm in our faith, rely on God, and resist the attacks of those who don't understand or agree with us. We can turn the other cheek while also aligning ourselves with those who will uphold us through trials.