Rebuilding the Wall

Notes from the home school conference, for my dear friend Carla, whom I have been woefully neglecting of late.

Doug Phillips, founder of Vision Forum, was the first keynote speaker at the conference. His text was from Nehemiah 4:14. To lay some background to the text, Nehemiah has gone to Jerusalem and organizes the rebuilding of the wall around the city. The Jews are mocked by their enemies and threatened with attack. Nehemiah positions the Jews, according to families, along the wall to defend it, and has them take up arms. Then he "rallies the troops" with this speech.

And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

The church and the family of today are fighting enemies who mock us and seek to attack us. We need to band together and symbolically rebuild the wall. Phillips spoke of the "new paganism" that worships the individual, youth, the body, and athletics. It also includes child sacrifice (abortion), bodily mutilation (tattoos & multiple piercing anyone?), and the feminization of men. One only needs to look around you or glance at the covers of magazines and tabloids at the grocery checkout to see the evidence of this. It's pretty hard to be unaware these realities.

To cloud the waters futher, many Christian churches harm families by having a harmful philosophy about many aspects of church life. This appears in areas such as church growth (numbers vs. spiritual growth), shepherding (reactive vs. proactive), ministry (clergy only vs. brethren), socialization (peers vs. family), and scripture (inadequate vs. sufficient). My family and I have seen evidences of all of these at the various churches we've visited in the past 11 months as we've looked for a new church home.

As you might suspect, the entire conference wasn't governed by a "The Sky is Falling!" mentality. This opening talk was, "Here are some of the problems," that preceeded the solutions. I'll try to write more soon.

This public domain clip art comes from The Bible Revival.

"Lord of All Hopefulness"

We sang this hymn in church during communion this morning. It is sung to the same tune that is used for "Be Thou My Vision."

"Lord of All Hopefulness" is not in the public domain, so I am not able to not reprint the words here. But, you can go to this site and find the words to all four verses.

This hymn is popular as a wedding hymn and I decided it was appropriate to post today because my husband and I will celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary this week!

(The photo came from Victoriana.com.)

Clash of Cultures

After the past weekend of an inspiring home school conference I chanced to thumb through an old magazine and was struck by the vast dichotomy between the two. The conference speakers I heard exhorted us to be in the Word and to teach it to our children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). We were reminded of the immense blessing our children are, and of the fact that it is our solemn duty to train them and educate them in the things of the Lord.

On Sunday, I happened to leaf through the August 2005 issue of Sunset magazine before putting it on the recycle pile. I think it was sent to us for joining the Art Museum. The issue's theme was, "Last Minute Vacations."

Ponder these opening words of the editor's column:

"When it comes to last-minute vacations, I'm something of a veteran. Sudden desire to flee to Hawaii over spring break? Been there, and planned it in about three weeks. Spontaneous trip to Disneyland? Did that one too.

It seems I'm prone to these quick getaways because I have a habit of thinking I can't possibly take days off. Then suddenly, it hits me: Time is passing fast, my daughters are growing up, my mind needs a break. I decide we need family time, and fast."

If you can get quickly past the bragging and name dropping of the first paragraph, take a close look at the second. She "can't possibly take days off." Can't possibly take days off from what? Aren't our children more important than our "careers?" It hits her "suddenly." What, she doesn't think of it often? These are her children! Her mind needs a break? Oh, I thought it was that her daughters were growing up. And, notice how one has to go to Hawaii to give the mind a break? "We need family time..." At Disneyland?? What kind of family time does one get there? Standing in line for 30 minutes in order to hear "It's a Small World" ten million times?

Now, I love Hawaii as much as the next guy. But, what can be more important than our children's eternal souls? Certainly, not our mastery of executing last-minute vacations to places with palm trees!

"Be Thou My Vision"

This is one of my favorite hymns, so it's no surprise that I've already posted this hymn already. I had to include it again because of the events of the past few days. My husband and I attended the Colorado home school conference this weekend, and what a blessing it was! (I'll try to write a little bit on it this week.) On Friday morning, the general session opened with everyone singing two hymns, including "Be Thou My Vision." All those people singing gave me a glimpse of heaven and touched my heart. I was moved to tears and couldn't even complete singing all of it.

Go here to hear the music. And go here to read my first post on "Be Thou My Vision." It includes some interesting information about the history of this great Irish hymn.

Happy Father's Day to my husband, who travels the blessed road of parenthood with me.

"Be Thou My Vision"

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

"Holy, Holy, Holy"

TRINITY SUNDAY

This was my very first "favorite hymn" as a child. I must have been about eight years old, and I greatly admired people who knew hymns well enough to look up from the hymnal while singing. I loved "Holy, Holy, Holy," because, I too, could look up from the hymnal for a few words! I now love it for other reasons, but it's still one of my favorites.

My favorite sources for hymn accompaniment have one note in the alto part that is different from what I've ever sung, and it sounds quite jarring to me. Try this site instead. Although it's too slow for my taste, I'll sacrifice tempo for the correct harmony.

(The above photo comes from the website for Food for the Poor. We had a guest priest from this ministry at church today preaching about our Christian duty to minister to the poorest of the poor.)

"Holy, Holy, Holy"

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

"Come Down, O Love Divine"

Pentecost Sunday

It is truly a miracle beyond belief that God extends His grace to us. Despite our blatant disobedience at the foot of a tree in the garden, He provided us with a perfect Redeemer Who endured the painful death on another "tree." Despite our continual sin, He reversed the disunity caused at the foot of the Tower of Babel, and adopted us as His children.

The music for this hymn was composed by British composer, Ralph Vaughn Williams. Go here to see another hymn composed by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

"Come Down, O Love Divine"

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn, til earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

Plain and Simple

My first glimpse of the Amish was nearly four decades ago, near Wooster, Ohio, while visiting my grandparents. Their clean, uncluttered farms, simple dress, unhurried buggies, and breathtaking antique quilts have captivated me ever since.

After reading a book excerpt on a laniersbooks recent post, I was compelled to reread Plain and Simple by Sue Bender. Mrs. Bender temporarily lived in the homes of two different Amish families (something I very much wanted to do as a teenager), and wrote a book about her impressions of this experience.

I am going to set aside debate on some of the theological beliefs and practices of the Amish. And although I find Mrs. Bender a bit self-absorbed and unappreciative of her gracious hosts, I found some of her observations to be interesting. There are some truths here from which we can benefit.

"Everything was a ritual...No distinction was made between the sacred and the everyday.
Five minutes in the early morning and five minutes in the evening were devoted to prayer. The rest of the day was spent living their beliefs. Their life was all one piece. It was all sacred--and all ordinary."

"Their work time isn't spent 'in order to do something else'--to have free time on weekends...[they find satisfaction] in the daily mastery of whatever they are doing."

"All [Emma's] duties were an expression of her love for her family and for God."

"They lived with a short cord and lived fully, while I had a long cord and was always tripping over it."