Psalm 23

We had another rehearsal this morning and had to miss church, which always makes for an unsettled feeling for the day and even the week ahead. Some churches read Psalm 23 today in their scripture readings. What better hymn to post today than this familiar psalm? And if you're feeling especially adventuresome, try chanting it!



Psalm 23 (King James Version)

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

"O Day of Rest and Gladness"

We sang a version of this as the processional hymn this morning, using the traditional German melody found at the Cyberhymnal website. The text is especially uplifting in verse three where God is pictured as a cooling fountain. It's been so hot here that our two children were awakened last night by the oppressive heat. I was able to soothe their discomfort by gently applying a cool, wet washcloth to their foreheads, necks, arms, and legs. They each transformed from an agitated state to one of complete joy, gratitude, and rest. Very much the model of how we should behave towards our heavenly Father when He offers us His rest!

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, through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy, to the great God Triune.

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.

Thou art a holy ladder, where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet refection, thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection from earth to things above.

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.

New graces ever gaining from this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises to Thee, blessed Three in One.

"To Thee, O Lord, I Lift Mine Eyes"

My husband and I had a rehearsal this morning, so we didn't make it to church. We always feel out of sorts when we can't worship on Sunday morning, so thankfully it doesn't happen too often. We miss the singing, the confession, the teaching, the communion, the quiet, the fellowship...

Some churches used Psalm 123 as one of their scripture readings this morning, so I thought I'd post a hymn that's new to me, based upon this Psalm.

The hymn was written by American preacher, Robert Lowry (1826-1899). There are two different melodies commonly used with these words. I am using the lesser known of the two.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (12 years old today) TO MY PRECIOUS SON!!!!! May you always lift up your eyes to the Lord.

"To Thee, O Lord, I Lift Mine Eyes"

To thee, O Lord, I lift mine eyes,
O thou enthroned above the skies;
As servants watch their master's hand,
Or maidens by their mistress stand,
So to the Lord our eyes we raise,
Until his mercy he displays.

O Lord, our God, thy mercy show,
For man's contempt and scorn we know;
Reproach and shame thy saints endure
From wicked men who dwell secure;
Man's proud contempt and scorn we know;
O Lord, our God, Thy mercy show.

Huh???

Rocky Mountain News, July 6, 2006
"State ed board member Polis announces he's gay"

"Jared Polis, the state board of education member whose wealth helped Democrats take control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in decades, told the Daily Camera this weekend that he is gay."

"I think sexual orientation, like religion or race, has nothing to do with one's values, and to most people it's not important one way or the other," [said Polis.]

Huh? Sexual orientation, religion, and race have nothing to do with one's values? They aren't important one way or another???? Those three things define all of us in very substantial ways!

Building Meaningful Family Worship

Home School Conference--Part 3

Kevin Swanson, executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado and pastor of an OPC church, spoke on the importance of family worship. His thoughts dovetailed quite nicely with those of Doug Phillips and R.C. Sproul, Jr.

Swanson began by sharing an interview he heard with a Catholic college provost on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. The provost said, "Western civilization is falling apart," citing the low birth rate in Europe and the fading importance of the Christian church. But, the guest added that there is some hope left in the US because of the home school movement. He called these homes the "monasteries of the New Dark Age." What an important task we face if we look at our responsibilities in that light!

Swanson then proceeded to make many compelling points urging us to spend time, DAILY, in family worship. He talked about the importance of integrating our faith into our daily lives. This integration is difficult if we don't have habitual practice. We need to have family worship EVERY day; it is too easy to get our priorities jumbled very quickly. If we don't do it every day, we send the message to our children that it's not important.

Swanson also praised his parents for the Godly upbringing he received. He listed the reasons he and his five siblings are strong in their faith:
1. they were home schooled and protected from negative outside influences
2. they had daily 40 minute family worship
3. their mother prayed diligently for them
4. God's grace
5. singing--it brings God word into the heart

Independence Day

My husband and I played a Fourth of July concert this evening. After being rained out 20 minutes into the concert, and packing up our instruments, we slogged through the pouring rain with our two children in tow. As I became soaked to the skin, I thought of the brave men (and women) who have protected and served our country in the military. They have walked, slept, and fought in weather so much worse than I experienced this evening. God bless each and every one of them!

In commemoration of this historic day, I share the last sentence of the Declaration of Independence, which I find quite powerful. It reads:

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.

Go to U.S.History.org to see more than you ever wanted to know about the Declaration of Independence.

(The above photo comes from this website with free computer wallpapers.)

Building Covenant Communities

Colorado Home School Conference--Part 2

R.C. Sproul, Jr. was the second person we heard speak at the home school conference. Now, I know he's said and done some controversial things recently. I was a bit skeptical myself after reading various internet blogs and sites. But, I listened to him with an open mind, and was pleasantly surprised with both his message and demeanor.

He based his talk upon I Peter 2, and I'm sorry to say that I didn't write down the specific verses to which he referred, but these two seem to relate to his message.

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps.
1 Peter 2: 17, 21

Sproul preached that a covenant community needs both the love of family and the law of authority. Problems occur when things become too lop-sided on either the covenant side or the community side.

A recurring theme that permeated all of his talks was introduced in this first one. He stressed that we need to love our neighbor and walk humbly with God. We have to guard against thinking we have all the answers, that our church is the only church that is true to the faith. (He was NOT advocating embracing churches that don't adhere to the fundamentals of the faith.) His stress on being humble seemed, to me, to be heartfelt and serious. I have never heard him speak in person before, but I get the sense that he has been humbled by the firestorm he's been through, and that he's learned valuable lessons as a result.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that R.C. has been diagnosed with cancer. He began chemotherapy just days after he returned to Virginia from Colorado, and thankfully the type he's got is highly treatable. He did not, in any of the talks I heard, mention anything about it. I just learned of it while reading the Highlands Study Center website.

(The above photo comes from this website of family photographs taken in the early 1900s in Texas.)

"The Church's One Foundation"

As we sang this in church today, I thought how appropriate the words were, given the current firestorm in the Episcopal church. (The rector and vestry of the church we are currently attending are in agreement with the Anglican Communion, NOT the recent decisions made at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.) I was intrigued to read this evening that the hymn was written at a time similar to this. Here is what the author of a book about hymns has written about this hymn:

"During an especially heated period of theological controversy in England in 1866 when liberalism threatened to destroy the great cardinal doctrines of the Anglican church, this hymn was written by Pastor Samuel Stone. He was a strong supporter of the conservative faith and refused to compromise in any way the critical attacks on doctrinal orthodoxy."

The photo above seems appropriate. Some people within the Episcopal church are trying to "improve/enlighten" the church (in their opinions) by making changes that are not supported by scripture. Their version of the church will not survive off the foundation of scripture. The True Foundation is unchangable.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Hebrews 13:8

If you want to sing along to these words, go to Cyberhymnal for the music.

"The Church's One Foundation"

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!

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."