Category: Other Musings

Approach, My Soul, the Mercy Seat by John Newton

Approach, my soul, the mercy seat,
Where Jesus answers prayer;
There humbly fall before His feet,
For none can perish there.

Thy promise is my only plea,
With this I venture nigh;
Thou callest burdened souls to Thee,
And such, O Lord, am I.

Bowed down beneath a load of sin,
By Satan sorely pressed,
By war without and fears within,
I come to Thee for rest.

Be Thou my Shield and hiding Place,
That, sheltered by Thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
And tell him Thou hast died!

O wondrous love! to bleed and die,
To bear the cross and shame,
That guilty sinners, such as I,
Might plead Thy gracious Name.

“Poor tempest-tossèd soul, be still;
My promised grace receive”;
’Tis Jesus speaks—I must, I will,
I can, I do believe.

Here is a most disturbing article on the meaning of the atonement by Tony Jones, a leading voice in the Emerging Chruch.  Let me know what you think.

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
By Walter Chalmers Smith

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all, life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.

Great Father of glory; pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all laud we would render; O help us to see
’tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!

Zondervan has several for free.  Their three year plan has become my most reccommended.

Discipleship Journal has some great plans to purchase although you can download and print a free one with a “do not copy” watermark.

The Discipleship Journal Plan in which you read from four different sections of Scripture is avaliable for free on Bethlehem Baptist Church’s website.  You can also download some bookmarks witht he plan on them.  This is the plan I will go through this year.

My attitude toward the weather is like my attitude toward gas prices.  Previously 40° was intolerable, now it would be a welcome reprieve.   Unfortunately my attitude toward sin often fluctuates in the same way.

Not content to use the imagery of tares among the wheat alone, Luther spoke of “mouse-droppings among the peppercorns.”

Gleaned from Alister McGrath’s Christianity’s Dangerous Idea and immediatly deemed necessary to share.

Sunday night I said that when Revelation is read in such a way that results in pride or despair you have read it wrong.  When I said this, the pride I had in mind was the sort that is seen in the guy who has the big wall size chart and can tell you what everthing means.  By despair I had in mind those who read it and are overwhelmed with judgement, rather than the One who judges.  But there is another type of despair that is perhaps more common and more deadly to our souls.

…because we have such a high reguard for this life we have a low expectation of paradise; thus we do not long for the promised paradise as we should. – Burk Parsons

It may bring despair instead of comfort becuase you are already comforted!

There is no greater discovery of the depravation of our natures by sin and degeneracy of our wills from their original rectitude, than that – whereas we are so prone to the love of other things, and therein do seek for satisfaction unto our souls where it is not to be obtained – it is so hard and difficult to raise our hearts unto the love of God. Were it not for that depravation, he would always appear as the only suitable and satisfactory object of our love. – John Owen

Also our depravity is greatly demonstrated in our hatred of things. I get angry over some of the most ridiculous of things while I am apathetic toward sins in my life. Here are some things I foolishly often hate more than sin, thus they often become sin. Therefore I am going to try to hate the sins begotten by such foolishness more than the thing itself.

10) Most country music
9) Bent binding and dog-eared pages on books
8) Having to double back at the grocery store
7) Going to the grocery store
6) Talking on the phone
5) Lifetime movies
4) My studies being interrupted
3) Being bothered while sick
2) Long lines
1) Small talk

How about you?