A rescue operation

The “apocalypse” of the cross and resurrection, therefore, was not an inevitable final stage in an orderly process, or an accumulation of progressive steps toward a goal; it was a dramatic rescue bid into which God has flung his entire self.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 355

Redeemed!

646 Redeemed

1 Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
   Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
   redeemed through His infinite mercy—
   His child, and forever, I am.

Refrain:
   Redeemed, redeemed,
   redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
   Redeemed, redeemed–
   His child and forever, I am.

2 Redeemed and so happy in Jesus,
   no language my rapture can tell!
   I know that the light of His presence
   with me doth continually dwell. [Refrain]

3 I think of my blessed Redeemer;
   I think of Him all the day long.
   I sing, for I cannot be silent;
   His love is the theme of my song. [Refrain]

4 I know I shall see in His beauty
   the King in whose law I delight,
   who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
   and giveth me songs in the night. [Refrain]
                         Fanny Crosby
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Now I Belong to Jesus

637 Now I Belong to Jesus

1 Jesus my Lord will love me forever,
   From him no pow'r of evil can sever;
   He gave his life to ransom my soul-
   Now I belong to him!

Refrain:
   Now I belong to Jesus,
   Jesus belongs to me-
   Not for the years of time alone,
   But for eternity.

2 Once I was lost in sin's degradation,
   Jesus came down to bring me salvation,
   Lifted me up from sorrow and shame-
   Now I belong to him! [Refrain]

3 Joy floods my soul, for Jesus has saved me,
   Freed me from sin that long had enslaved me;
   His precious blood he gave to redeem-
   Now I belong to him! [Refrain]
                         Norman J. Clayton
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
I mused about Clayton in this post. As for this hymn, there is a nice devotional on it here.
</idle musing>

The Light of the World Is Jesus

636 The Light of the World Is Jesus

1 The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin;
   The Light of the world is Jesus.
   Like sunshine at noonday His glory shone in;
   The Light of the world is Jesus.

Refrain:
   Come to the Light; ’tis shining for thee.
   Sweetly the Light has dawned upon me.
   Once I was blind, but now I can see.
   The Light of the world is Jesus.

2 No darkness have we who in Jesus abide;
   The Light of the world is Jesus.
   We walk in the light when we follow our Guide;
   The Light of the world is Jesus. [Refrain]

4 No need of the sunlight in heaven, we’re told;
   The Light of the world is Jesus.
   The Lamb is the Light in the city of gold;
   The Light of the world is Jesus. [Refrain]
                         Philip P. Bliss
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
I don't recall ever hearing or singing this Philip Bliss song. It isn't one of his better know ones, only occurring in about 180 hymnals. Hymnary.org inserts a verse:

3 Ye dwellers in darkness with sin-blinded eyes:
   The Light of the world is Jesus.
   Go, wash at His bidding, and light will arise;
   The Light of the world is Jesus. [Refrain]

</idle musing>

Why Do I Sing about Jesus?

635 Why Do I Sing about Jesus?

1 Deep in my heart there's a gladness,
   Jesus has saved me from sin!
   Praise to His name, what a Saviour!
   Cleansing without and within.

Refrain:
   Why do I sing about Jesus?
   Why is He precious to me?
   He is my Lord and my Saviour,
   Dying! He set me free!

2 Only a glimpse of His goodness,
   That was sufficient for me;
   Only one look at the Saviour,
   Then was my spirit set free. (Refrain)

3 He is the fairest of fair ones,
   He is the Lily, the Rose;
   Rivers of mercy surround Him,
   Grace, love, and pity He shows. (Refrain)
                         Albert A. Ketchum
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Reconciliation

“Evil forces are to be cast out, not reconciled. Reconciliation is the result of that struggle, and is brought about only through conflict and eventually through death itself.”—Kenneth Leech, We Preach Christ Crucified (Cambridge Mass.: Cowley, 1994), 50, in Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 344

God's work—from beginning to end

The bedrock of the gospel is that the whole matter of reconciliation (laid out in Eph. 1:7—2:7) is God’s work from beginning to end; we receive God’s justifying grace passively, as pure gift. We are <>acted upon<> by God. But this is only half of the picture. Even as we receive God’s gracious action passively, we are in the same motion <>activated<> for a life of service. Verse 10 is an extraordinarily illuminating verse, splendid for teaching the relation of human activity to the divine activity. This exceptional passage should lay to rest all complaints that the emphasis on God’s agency leaves us with nothing to do.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 342 (emphasis original)

O, How I Love Jesus

634 O, How I Love Jesus

1 There is a name I love to hear,
   I love to sing its worth;
   It sounds like music in my ear,
   The sweetest name on earth.

Refrain:
   O how I love Jesus,
   O how I love Jesus,
   O how I love Jesus,
   Because He first loved me!

2 It tells me of a Savior's love,
   Who died to set me free;
   It tells me of His precious blood,
   The sinner's perfect plea. [Refrain]

3 It tells of One whose loving heart
   Can feel my deepest woe,
   Who in each sorrow bears a part,
   That none can bear below. [Refrain]
                         Frederick Whitfield
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Hymnary.org inserts a verse:

3 It tells me what my Father has
   In store for ev'ry day,
   And though I tread a gloomy path,
   The sinner's all the way. [Refrain]

</idle musing>

Who gets the credit?

We may say therefore that Christ evokes faith, begets faith, gives birth to faith, elicits faith, with the understanding that it never becomes a possession of our own that we can take credit for, but is always a work of his own.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 330–31 (emphasis original)

In My Heart There Rings a Melody

633 In My Heart There Rings a Melody

1 I have a song that Jesus gave me,
   It was sent from heav'n above;
   There never was a sweeter melody,
   'Tis a melody of love.

Chorus:
   In my heart there rings a melody,
   There rings a melody with heaven's harmony;
   In my heart there rings a melody,
   There rings a melody of love.

2 I love the Christ who died on Calv'ry,
   For He washed my sins away;
   He put within my heart a melody,
   And I know it's there to stay. [Chorus]

3 'Twill be my endless theme in glory,
   With the angels I will sing;
   'Twill be a song with glorious harmony,
   When the courts of heaven ring. [Chorus]
                         Elton M. Roth
                         Hymns for the Family of God

It's a whole lot more than "acquit"

God’s righteousness involves not only a great reversal (“the first will be last”) but also an actual transformation and re-creation. When radicalized in terms of Vaclav Havel’s insight about the line that runs through each person, the dikaiosyne of God means that no human being whatsoever will be exempt from or immune to his justifying action. Taking this a step further, we begin to see that when we say God will “justify” rather than merely “acquit,” the action has a reconstituting force — hence the insufficiency of the courtroom metaphor “to acquit.” God’s righteousness is the same thing as his justice, and his justice is powerfully at work justifying, which does not mean excusing, passing over, or even “forgiving and forgetting,” but actively making right that which is wrong. 329 (emphasis original)

He's Everything to me

In the stars His handiwork I see,
On the wind He speaks with majesty,
Though He ruleth over land and sea,
What is that to me?
I will celebrate Nativity,
For it has a place in history,
Sure, He came to set His people free,
What is that to me?

Till by faith I met Him face to face,
and I felt the wonder of His grace,
Then I knew that He was more than just a
God who didn't care,
That lived a way out there and

Now He walks beside me day by day,
Ever watching o'er me lest I stray,
Helping me to find that narrow way,
He's Everything to me.
                         Ralph Carmichael
                         Hymns for the Family of God

So, what does it mean?

Thus, “righteousness” does not mean moral perfection. It is not a distant, forbidding characteristic of God that humans are supposed to try to emulate or imitate; there is no good news in that. Instead, the righteousness of God is God’s powerful activity of making right what is wrong in the world. When we read, in both Old and New Testaments, that God is righteous, we are to understand that God is at work in his creation doing right. He is overcoming evil, delivering the oppressed, raising the poor from the dust, vindicating the voiceless victims who have had no one to defend them.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 328 (all emphasis original)

Stop it! Just stop it!

God did not change his mind about us on account of the cross or on any other account. He did not need to have his mind changed. He was never opposed to us. It is not his opposition to us but our opposition to him that had to be overcome, and the only way it could be overcome was from God’s side, by God’s initiative, from inside human flesh — the human flesh of the Son. The divine hostility, or wrath of God, has always been an aspect of his love. It is not sep-arate from God’s love, it is not opposite to God’s love, it is not something in God that had to be overcome.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 323 (emphasis original)

Tozer for Tuesday

If your Christianity depends upon the pastor’s preaching, then you are a long way from being where you should be. If you do not have a private, secret conduit, a pipe leading into the fountain where you can go anytime all by yourself; Whether there is a pastor there or not, whether you have heard a sermon in a year, you have nevertheless an anchor; you have a root, you have a conduit, you can get the water from God.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 171

I Know Whom I Have Believed

631 I Know Whom I Have Believed

1. I know not why God’s wondrous grace
   To me He hath made known,
   Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
   Redeemed me for His own.

Refrain:
   But “I know Whom I have believed,
   And am persuaded that He is able
   To keep that which I’ve committed
   Unto Him against that day.”

2. I know not how this saving faith
   To me He did impart,
   Nor how believing in His Word
   Wrought peace within my heart.

3. I know not how the Spirit moves,
   Convincing men of sin,
   Revealing Jesus through the Word,
   Creating faith in Him.

4. I know not when my Lord may come,
   At night or noonday fair,
   Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
   Or meet Him in the air.
                         Daniel W. Whittle
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Hymnary.org inserts a verse after verse 3:

4 I know not what of good or ill
   May be reserved for me,
   Of weary ways or golden days,
   Before His face I see.

</idle musing>

As it happened: the KJV vs. the Geneva Bible in North America

As the American settlements widened and deepened, and their political processes matured, the need for a separatist gospel ebbed. The relationship of Puritan church and Puritan state in early America soon became, strangely enough, as close as any relationship between the Jacobean Crown and the Church of England. In early Massachusetts, heresy, witchcraft, profanity, blasphemy, idolatry and breaking the Sabbath were all civil offences, to be dealt with by civil courts. The new Americans may have dispensed with bishops, surplices and the Book of Common Prayer, but they had not replaced them with a Utopia Of religious freedom. Seventeenth-century America was a country of strictly enforced state religion and as such needed a Bible much more attuned to the necessities of nation-building than anything the Separatists’ Geneva Bible could offer. It is one of the strangest of historical paradoxes that the King James Bible, whose whole purpose had been nation-building in the service of a ceremonial and episcopal state church, should become the guiding text of Puritan America. But the translation’s lifeblood had been inclusiveness, it was drenched with the splendour of a divinely sanctioned authority, and by the end of the seventeenth century it had come to be treasured by Americans as much as by the British as one of their national texts.—God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, 229–30

Really, we are all guilty…

Allowing the law-court imagery to predominate places us in the realm of legal standards — right and wrong, guilt and innocence. This immediately causes almost everyone to start thinking that there are guilty people and innocent people, whereas we have been taking pains to show that “the line runs through each person.” If we are faithful to the gospel as “the justification of the ungodly” (cf. Rom. 4:5), we will not talk about being morally right according to a set of legal commandments, but about being delivered from hostile, enslaving Powers that are waging war against God’s purposes. If we begin by talking about being acquitted in the courtroom, we are working from a diminished perspective. If legal language is introduced from the outset, biblical interpreters will find themselves in trouble because they will be operating in the realm of morality, not cosmology — and that will render the church theologically impotent in our geopolitically interlocked world.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 320 (emphasis original)

There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today

630 There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today

1 There is sunshine in my soul today,
   More glorious and bright
   Than glows in any earthly sky,
   For Jesus is my light.

Refrain:
   O there’s sunshine, blessed sunshine,
   When the peaceful happy moments roll:
   When Jesus shows His smiling face,
   There is sunshine in the soul.

2 There is music in my soul today,
   A carol to my King,
   And Jesus, listening, can hear
   The songs I cannot sing. [Refrain]

3 There is springtime in my soul today,
   For when the Lord is near,
   The dove of peace sings in my heart,
   The flowers of grace appear. [Refrain]

4 There is gladness in my soul today,
   And hope and praise and love
   For blessings which He gives me now,
   For joys "laid up" above. [Refrain]
                         Eliza E. Hewitt
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Lest you think that this hymn is just a light, fluffy little piece, take a look at the bio of the author. Seems she developed a spinal malady that kept her a shut-in. And yet she wrote this hymn...
</idle musing>

He Touched Me

628 He Touched Me

1 Shackled by a heavy burden,
   'Neath a load of guilt and shame—
   Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
   And now I am no longer the same.

Refrain:
   He touched me, oh, He touched me,
   And oh, the joy that floods my soul;
   Something happened, and now I know,
   He touched me, and made me whole.

2 Since I've met this blessed Savior,
   Since He's cleansed and made me whole,
   Oh, I will never cease to praise Him—
   I'll shout it while eternity rolls. [Refrain]
                         William J. Gaither
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus

621 Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus

1. O soul, are you weary and troubled?
   No light in the darkness you see?
   There’s light for a look at the Savior,
   And life more abundant and free!

Refrain:
   Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
   Look full in His wonderful face,
   And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
   In the light of His glory and grace.

2. Thro' death into life everlasting,
   He passed, and we follow Him there;
   O’er us sin no more hath dominion--
   For more than conqu’rors we are!

3. His Word shall not fail you--He promised;
   Believe Him, and all will be well:
   Then go to a world that is dying,
   His perfect salvation to tell!
                         Helen H. Lemmel
                         Hymns for the Family of God

But I don't like it that way!

If every possible system of merit has been swept away by Christ and buried with him in his death (Rom. 6:4), then we have nothing of our own to rely on. If the “balance sheet” has been torn up and discarded forever, we are in the position of the laborers in the vineyard who are angry because someone who worked fewer hours was paid as well as they were. That’s what we don’t like about God being the Judge. If human nature were the judge in such a situation, we would pay according to hours and productivity. Not so God, who, like the landowner in the parable, says, “Do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matt. 20:15). So God being Judge is a two-edged sword; on the one hand it slices the way we like because God is for us; but on the other hand it slices in a way we don’t like because he is also for everyone else without the usual distinctions, and that means no more A list and B list, and therefore no more building up of our own egos at someone else’s expense.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 318

Whom do we want as judge?

So in the end it comes down to who we want our judge to be. We don’t want to be judged by other people, and we don’t want to be judged by God, so that leaves ourselves. Down where it really counts, we want to be our own judge. We want to be in charge of evaluating ourselves. We want to be able to sing with Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way.”—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 317

I Will Sing the Wondrous Story

618 I Will Sing the Wondrous Story

1 I will sing the wondrous story
   Of the Christ who died for me.
   How He left His home in glory
   For the cross of Calvary.

Refrain:
   Yes, I'll sing the wondrous Story
   Of the Christ who died for me,
   Sing it with the saint in glory
   Gathered by the crystal sea.

2 I was lost, but Jesus found me,
   Found the sheep that went astray,
   Threw His loving arms around me,
   Drew me back into His way.

3 I was bruised, but Jesus healed me;
   Faint was I from many a fall;
   Sight was gone, and fears possessed me,
   But He freed me from them all.

4 Days of darkness still come o'er me,
   Sorrow's paths I often tread,
   But the Savior still is with me;
   By His hand I'm safely led.
                         Francis H. Rowley
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Many hymnals combine the verses such that verse 1 and 2 are verse 1, etc. And many also don't include the refrain. Many also include another verse (the second half of which this version uses as a refrain):

3 He will keep me till the river
   Rolls its waters at my feet;
   Then He'll bear me safely over,
   Where the loved ones I shall meet.
   Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story
   Of the Christ who died for me,
   Sing it with the saints in glory,
   Gathered by the crystal sea.

</idle musing>

The antiquity of the word "judgmental"

Perhaps we need some perspective on the matter, for this is a very recent development. The 1971 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary does not contain the word “judgmental” at all; the closest thing to it is the rare “judgmatical,” with the largely positive meaning of “judicious, discerning.” The next edition of the OED indicates that its first significant appearance with the negative connotation of today was in <>1965<>!—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 313 n. 22 (emphasis original)

We are all complicit

When I was a young activist in Virginia in the ’60s, my comrades and I loved the fierce passages from the Hebrew prophets. We envisioned them as God’s judgment on all the Southern conservatives who were still laboring in outer darkness concerning civil rights and the Vietnam War. Like many young idealists, we thought of ourselves as bringers of light. Later I learned that we are all in this together. I also am implicated in “grinding the face of the poor.”—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 310 n. 17

A Prayer

610 Prayer

Give us
A pure heart
That we may see Thee,
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee,
A heart of love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee.
—Dag Hammarskjøld Hymns for the Family of God

Ransom

A passage in Isaiah [60:15–19] depicts God as the redeemer who brings precious gifts to reclaim Israel for his own. It certainly sounds like a “ransom,” and a “king’s ransom” at that — only it is not the king who is being ransomed; rather, in a true gospel reversal, it is the king who is doing the ransoming.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 300 (emphasis original)

Setting things right

If the ransom saying of Mark 10:45 is allowed full rein as a fluid, suggestive metaphor, rather than a rigidly schematic transaction, we are freed to see with the eyes of faith that somehow, on the cross, God himself is doing the paying. This is consistent with the point we are emphasizing throughout, that something is wrong and must be put right. The whole concept of redemption is another way of identifying God’s way of setting right what is wrong. This is the meaning of Paul’s word “rectification” — dikaiosyne in New Testament Greek.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 296 (emphasis original)

Jesus Will Walk with Me

609 Jesus Will Walk with Me

1. Jesus will walk with me down thru the valley,
   Jesus will walk with me over the plain;
   When in the shadow or when in the sunshine,
   If He goes with me I shall not complain.

Refrain
   Jesus will walk with me,
   He will talk with me;
   He will walk with me;
   In joy or in sorrow, today and tomorrow,
   I know He will walk with me.

2. Jesus will walk with me when I am tempted,
   Giving me strength as my need may demand;
   When in affliction His presence is near me,
   I am upheld by His almighty hand. [Refrain]

3. Jesus will walk with me, guarding me ever,
   Giving me victory thru storm and thru strife;
   He is my Comforter, Counselor, Leader,
   Over the uneven journey of life. [Refrain]

4. Jesus will walk with me in life’s fair morning,
   And when the shadows of evening must come;
   Living or dying, He will not forsake me.
   Jesus will walk with me all the way home. [Refrain]
                         Haldor Lillenas
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Deliverance by purchase

And so the New Testament proclamation of redemption in and by Jesus Christ carries forward two major Old Testament themes. Redemption continues to mean liberation by a mighty power, as in some of the postexilic portions of the Old Testament; and second, it continues to bear its original Old Testament meaning of a price paid. Hence, again, the meaning is deliverance by purchase at cost, allowing for considerable movement between the two.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 293 (emphasis original)

It came at a cost

What we dare not lose in the “ransom saying” is the sense conveyed to us that Jesus himself is the price of our redemption. The church needs to hear the apostolic truth that the death of Jesus was an offering of incomparable value. That is the basic idea in ransom and redemption: not just any deliverance, but deliverance at cost. We may retain the more general sense and the more literal one at the same time, as long as we keep them in balance. Redemption can mean “loosing” or “freeing” in a very broad sense; but if we are to account for the very particular horrors of crucifixion, we must retain the idea of cost.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 289 (emphasis original)

Tozer for Tuesday

A dear old brother with not too much education, but he was a dear saint, said the passage of Scripture he loved was, “It came to pass.” He testified, “When I get in trouble, I just look up to God and say, ‘Father, I remember this came to pass.’” It passes after a while, and all of your problems come to pass. They will pass if you’ll just outlive them and keep right on.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 169

Take Thou My Hand, O Father

600 Take Thou My Hand, O Father

1 Take thou my hand and lead me;
   stay by my side
   til in thy joy eternal
   I may abide.
   Alone I will not wander
   one single day.
   Be thou my true companion
   and with me stay.

2 O cover with thy mercy
   my poor, weak heart!
   Let ev’ry thought rebellious
   from me depart.
   Permit thy child to linger
   here at thy feet,
   and fully trust thy goodness
   with faith complete.

3 Though naught of thy great power
   may move my soul,
   with thee through night and darkness
   I reach the goal.
   Take, then, my hand and lead me,
   stay by my side,
   and in thy joy eternal
   I shall abide.
                         Julie Katherina Hausmann
                         Tr. by Herman Brückner
                         Hymns for the Family of God

The human predicament is dire!

The human predicament is so dire that it cannot be remedied in any ordinary way. If we fail to see this, then we “have not yet considered the great weight of sin.” [Anselm] Redemption (buying back), therefore, is not cheap. In the death of Jesus we see God himself suffering the consequences of Sin. That is the “price.” When Christian teaching falls short of this proclamation, the work of Christ on the cross is diminished to the vanishing point, becoming nothing more than an exemplary death to admire, to venerate, perhaps even to emulate, but certainly not an event to shake the foundations of this world order.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 287

The "mother" tree

Last week I finally read Finding the Mother Tree. Fascinating book and very readable. I highly recommend it. This quotation, from right at the beginning of the book, summarizes what she has discovered over the course of a lifetime of research.

The older trees are able to discern which seedlings are their own kin.

The old trees nurture the young ones and provide them food and water just as we do with our own children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep breath, and contemplate the social nature of the forest and how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old trees are mothering their children.—Finding the Mother Tree, 5

It rings true with what I noticed informally over my life. They are finding it is true even among garden plants and between species. Truly amazing! The handiwork of God is beyond comprehension.

God is not divided!

God is not divided against himself. When we see Jesus, we see the Father (John 14:7). The Father did not look at Jesus on the cross and suddenly have a change of heart. The purpose of the atonement was not to bring about a change in God’s attitude toward his rebellious creatures. God’s attitude toward us has always and ever been the same. Judgment against sin is preceded, accompanied, and followed by God’s mercy. "There was never a time when God was against us. Even in his wrath he is for us. Yet at the same time he is not for us without wrath, because his will is to destroy all that is hostile to perfecting his world. The paradox of the cross demonstrates the victorious love of God for us at the same time that it shows forth his judgment upon sin.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 282

Anywhere with Jesus

594 Anywhere with Jesus

1 Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go,
   Anywhere He leads me in this world below;
   Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade;
   Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid.

Chorus:
   Anywhere, anywhere! Fear I cannot know;
   Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go.

2 Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone;
   Other friends may fail me, He is still my own;
   Tho' His hand may lead me over drearest ways,
   Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise. [Chorus]

3 Anywhere with Jesus, over land and sea,
   Telling souls in darkness of salvation free;
   Ready as He summons me to go or stay,
   Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way. [Chorus]

4 Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep,
   When the dark'ning shadows round about me creep,
   Knowing I shall waken never more to roam;
   Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home. [Chorus]
                         Jessie B. Pounds
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

591 Just a Closer Walk with Thee

1 I am weak but Thou art strong;
   Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
   I'll be satisfied as long
   As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Refrain:
   Just a closer walk with Thee,
   Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
   Daily walking close to Thee,
   Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

2 Thro' this world of toil and snares,
   If I falter, Lord, who cares?
   Who with me my burden shares?
   None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee. [Refrain]

3 When my feeble life is o'er,
   Time for me will be no more;
   Guide me gently, safely o'er
   To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore. [Refrain]
                         Anonymous
                         Hymns for the Family of God

I Am His and He is Mine

590 I Am His and He is Mine

1 Loved with everlasting love,
   led by grace that love to know;
   gracious Spirit from above,
   Thou dost taught me it is so!
   O this full and precious peace!
   O this transport all divine!
   In a love which cannot cease,
   I am His and He is mine.
   In a love which cannot cease,
   I am His and He is mine.

2 Heav'n above is deeper blue;
   earth around is sweeter green;
   something lives in ev'ry hue
   Christless eyes have never seen.
   Birds with gladder songs o'erflow;
   flow'rs with deeper beauties shine;
   Since I know, as now I know,
   I am His and He is mine.
   Since I know, as now I know,
   I am His and He is mine.

3 Taste the goodness of the Lord:
   welcomed home to His embrace,
   all His love, as blood outpoured,
   seals the pardon of His grace.
   Can I doubt His love for me,
   when I trace that love's design?
   By the cross of Calvary
   I am His and He is mine.
   By the cross of Calvary
   I am His and He is mine.

4 His forever, only his!
   Who the Lord and me shall part?
   Ah, with what a rest of bliss
   Christ can fill the loving heart!
   Heav'n and earth may fade and flee,
   firstborn light in gloom decline;
   But while God and I shall be,
   I am His and He is mine.
   But while God and I shall be,
   I am His and He is mine.
                         George Robinson
                         Hymns for the Family of God

About that little Greek word hilasterion

[I]t should now be generally agreed that any concept of hilasterion in the sense of placating, appeasing, deflecting the anger of, or satisfying the wrath of, is inadmissible.

The more important, and truly radical, reason for firmly rejecting this understanding of propitiation is that it envisions God as the object, whereas in the Scriptures, God is the acting subject. This is especially noticeable in Romans 3, the context for Paul’s single use of hilasterion.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 280 (emphasis original)

Sure, there's a war, but…

God’s apocalyptic war is fought with weapons of self-giving love and total identification with those who suffer “outside the camp” (Heb. 13:13), whoever they are. The resistance of the demons to God’s coming kingdom is intense and determined and must be continually opposed. The armor of God, however, is the opposite of that used in this present age.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 275

In the Garden (hymn)

588 In the Garden

1 I come to the garden alone,
   While the dew is still on the roses;
   And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
   The Son of God discloses.

Refrain:
   And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
   And He tells me I am His own,
   And the joy we share as we tarry there,
   None other has ever known.

2 He speaks, and the sound of His voice
   Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
   And the melody that He gave to me
   Within my heart is ringing. [Refrain]

3 I'd stay in the garden with Him
   Tho' the night around me be falling;
   But He bids me go; thro' the voice of woe,
   His voice to me is calling. [Refrain]
                         C. Austin Miles
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Gimme! Gimme! Now!

One of the most far-reaching developments in the history of the advertising industry, perhaps even in global culture as a whole, was the move from simply pitching products to selling “lifestyles.” In one sense, there is nothing really new about this; human beings have always been enthralled by fashion and novelty. In another sense, however, the consumer society that exists today is like nothing the world has ever seen before. The power of visual images, the lure of celebrity, the instantaneous delivery of services, the immediacy of virtual worlds, the demand for more and more stimuli — among many other factors — hold out false possibilities to young people, undermining their ability to postpone gratification in the service of higher goals. The weakening of family ties, school clubs, community associations, not to mention churches and other strong countervailing influences, has made it very difficult to convey any other set of values to young people. All this is well known and often lamented. We mention it here to underline the absence of any sense of the value of sacrifice in ordinary life.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 271 (emphasis original)

The way is open

In a striking and original act of imagination, the author of Hebrews reinterprets the temple veil as the human flesh of Jesus. Christ has gone ahead of us in his incarnate body as our forerunner, bringing our human nature along with him. The curtain that was a constant reminder of the exclusion of sinful humanity from the presence of God is gone forever. The temple has been figuratively destroyed and “raised up again in three days” in the body of Christ (John 2:19–21). No longer is the sanctuary forbidden, no longer is an intermediary required, no longer is there any restriction on access to the mercy seat and the remission of sin. Now — broadening the tent image to include the temple — there is no longer any hierarchy. The way is open for Gentiles, for women, for laypeople, for sinners of all sorts and conditions.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 269–70

He Keeps Me Singing

587 He Keeps Me Singing

1 There's within my heart a melody,
   Jesus whispers sweet and low:
   "Fear not, I am with thee; peace, be still,"
   in all of life's ebb and flow.

Refrain:
   Jesus, Jesus, Jesus–
   sweetest name I know,
   fills my ev'ry longing,
   keeps me singing as I go.

2 All my life was wrecked by sin and strife;
   discord filled my heart with pain.
   Jesus swept across the broken strings,
   stirred the slumb'ring chords again. [Refrain]

3 Feasting on the riches of His grace,
   resting 'neath His shelt'ring wing,
   always looking on His smiling face—
   that is why I shout and sing. [Refrain]

4 Though sometimes He leads through waters deep,
   trials fall across the way,
   though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
   see His footprints all the way. [Refrain]

5 Soon He's coming back to welcome me
   far beyond the starry sky.
   I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown,
   I shall reign with Him on high. [Refrain]
                         Luther B. Bridgers
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Trust

The [binding of Isaac] narrative is extraordinarily economical, like all biblical narratives. We are told exactly what we need to know, and no more. Abraham has been following and trusting God for so long that it has become a habit. He doesn’t storm the gates of heaven with his prayers as Job does. He is ready to submit even before he hears what the command is, because of the God in whom he believed. He seems to believe that God is within his rights. On the next day, instead of lying prostrate in bed, Abraham cannot get up too early to do the will of God.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 263 (emphasis original)

A long slow walk…

We need to remember all that happened to Abraham and Sarah in the years between Genesis 12:1 and 22:2, the first time and the last time that “God spoke to Abraham.” For a great many years, this aging man with a barren wife lived on a promise. God appeared, withdrew, appeared again, withdrew again. Sarah could only laugh at the absurdity of it all, and no wonder. But as Paul says, in spite of these trials Abraham went on hoping against hope because of the God in whom he believed. So we have before us a man who has been living with radical trust for a very long time. His response to God’s appearance in chapter 22 speaks volumes: “After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’ He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and . . . offer him . . . as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning” (22:1-3).—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 263 (emphasis original)

Only Believe (hymn)

585 Only Believe

1. Fear not, little flock, from the cross to the throne,
   From death into life He went for His own;
   All power in earth, all power above,
   Is given to Him for the flock of His love.

Refrain:
   Only believe, only believe;
   All things are possible, only believe;
   Only believe, only believe;
   All things are possible, only believe.

2. Fear not, little flock, He goeth ahead,
   Your Shepherd selecteth the path you must tread;
   The waters of Marah He’ll sweeten for thee,
   He drank all the bitter in Gethsemane.

3. Fear not, little flock, whatever your lot,
   He enters all rooms, “the doors being shut,”
   He never forsakes; He never is gone,
   So count on His presence in darkness and dawn.
                         Paul Rader
                         Hymns for the Family of God

It is the very nature of God!

This is a crucial theological point namely, that the sacrifice of Christ was not God’s reaction to human sin, but an inherent, original movement within God’s very being. It is in the very nature of God to offer God’s self sacrificially.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 247

Set apart, but what does it mean?

Set-apartness is not meant to encourage a sense of superiority on the part of God’s people; it is God who is superior, not his servants. The members of the community are not to look down their collective noses at the Canaanites floundering in their idolatry. If we take the whole grand sweep of the Old Testament into consideration, the ultimate design is for Israel to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 243 (emphasis original)

We're walking, walking, walking… (Tozer for Tuesday)

We cannot go to heaven any other way but by the simple, pedestrian way: walking by faith. The Lord does not talk about a flight of faith, nor does He talk about a tour of faith; He talks about a walk of faith.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 167

There Shall Be Showers of Blessing

579 There Shall Be Showers of Blessing

1 There shall be showers of blessing:
   This is the promise of love;
   There shall be seasons refreshing,
   Sent from the Savior above.

Refrain:
   Showers of blessing,
   Showers of blessing we need:
   Mercy-drops round us are falling,
   But for the showers we plead.

2 There shall be showers of blessing,
   Precious reviving again;
   Over the hills and the valleys,
   Sound of abundance of rain. [Refrain]

3 There shall be showers of blessing:
   Send them upon us, O Lord;
   Grant to us now a refreshing,
   Come and now honor Thy Word. [Refrain]

4 There shall be showers of blessing:
   Oh, that today they might fall,
   Now as to God we're confessing,
   Now as on Jesus we call! [Refrain]
                         Daniel W. Whittle
                         Hymns for the Family of God

You need a literary mind, not a literal one

One reason for the reaction against the sacrificial motif is surely the literal-mindedness of a culture unaccustomed to reading poetry. It is one of the peculiarities of our time that we support a vast entertainment industry specializing in ever more explicitly gory movies and video games while at the same time covering ourselves with a “politically correct” cloak of fastidious high-mindedness. In an earlier and perhaps in some ways more sophisticated time, Christians actually sang the words of poet William Cowper, “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,” with no sense of disgust. They were accustomed to extravagant literary images. It would not have occurred to them to take such a trope literally, any more than evangelical congregations do today when they sing “Power in the Blood.”—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 234

You are still enslaved

Atfluent communities need to understand. that they are enslaved by the pursuit of wealth, comfort, and status, often achieved at the expense of the poor.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 226

O Breath of Life

579 O Breath of Life

1 O Breath of life, come sweeping through us,
   revive your church with life and pow'r;
   O Breath of Life, come, cleanse, renew us,
   and fit your church to meet this hour.

2 O Wind of God, come bend us, break us,
   till humbly we confess our need;
   then in your tenderness remake us,
   revive, restore, for this we plead.

3 O Breath of love, come breathe within us,
   renewing thought and will and heart;
   come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,
   revive your church in ev'ry part.

4 O Heart of Christ, once broken for us,
   'tis there we find our strength and rest;
   our broken, contrite hearts now solace,
   and let your waiting church be blest.

5 Revive us, Lord! Is zeal abating
   while harvest fields are vast and white?
   Revive us, Lord, the world is waiting,
   equip your church to spread the light.
                         Bessie Porter Head
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Comparison

577 Comparison

Jesus Christ is unique, and one cannot be in His presence and not reveal the man he really is. Jesus pulls each person from behind his mask. In the exposure of that bleeding love on the cross, men become what they really are.

You may think you are wonderful until you stand in the presence of the One who is purity itself. It is the pure light of God that pierces a man. You can keep up your pretense of being holy until you stand in that light. Then immediately there is nowhere to hide, all your masks are torn away, all your hollow smiles fade. Revival means to be exposed for what we are. The presence of the Lord is revealing.
—Festo Kivengere
Hymns for the Family of God

Revive us again!

574 Revive Us Again

1 We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love,
   For Jesus who died and is now gone above.

Refrain:
   Hallelujah, Thine the glory!
   Hallelujah, Amen!
   Hallelujah, Thine the glory!
   Revive us again.

2 We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of light,
   Who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. [Refrain]

3 All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
   Who has borne all our sins, and has cleansed ev'ry stain. [Refrain]

4 Revive us again– fill each heart with Thy love;
   May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. [Refrain]
                         William P. Mackay
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
I didn't grow up singing this hymn; it wasn't in any of the hymnbooks that our church used. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in college that I was exposed to it. And I immediately loved it and it's been one of my favorites ever since. Incidentally, it occurs in more than 1200 hymnals.
</idle musing>

Participants, not creators

The key apocalyptic idea, to be developed further in later chapters, is the sovereign intervention of God, with a corresponding displacement of the capacity of human beings to bring that intervention about. It must be said in the strongest possible terms: in no way does this emphasis on the divine agency mean that there is nothing for us to do, or that our activity is meaningless. What it means, rather, is that human activity points to the future reign of God and participates in it proleptically (prolepsis, “to anticipate”). It does not, however, make it come to fruition; only God can complete his purpose. At no time does the Bible suggest that we are, in the currently popular phrase, “co-creators with God”; rather, we are graciously called and moved to be participants in what God alone is able to create. The word “eschatology” does not necessarily make this distinction clear; it is possible to refer to the “last things” and thus speak eschatologically, without being careful to show that God alone will cause those last things to come to pass—the emphasis that is the hallmark of apocalyptic. The role of the people of God is <>participation in what God is already doing.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 222 (emphasis original)

A biblical memorial day

The Passover is to be observed as a “memorial day.” Biblically understood, this is a world removed from what we usually mean by “memorial.” Memory (remembrance) in biblical thought does not mean “calling to mind.” “Remembering” means present and active.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 217 (emphasis original)

Thank God for children

570 Thank God for Children

Children possess an uncanny ability to cut to the core of the issue, to expose life to the bone, and strip away the barnacles that cling to the hull of our too sophisticated pseudo-civilization. One reason for this, I believe, is that children have not mastered our fine art of deception, that we call “finesse.” Another is that they are so “lately come from God” that faith and trust are second nature to them. They have not acquired the obstructions to faith that come with education; they possess instead unrefined wisdom, a gift from God.
—Gloria Gaither
Hymns for the Family of God

More on the importance of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

Throughout the New Testament, a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly the Law and the Prophets, and a commitment to their authority as Word of God are simply presupposed.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 215

The importance of the First Testament (as Goldingay calls it)

The current state of neglect of the Old Testament in the churches is cause for great concern. In attempting to understand what the Bible is saying to us about the crucifixion of the Son of God, it is essential that we listen carefully, with understanding, to the many voices that come to us from the history of Israel.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 214

<idle musing>
This has been a concern of mine and many other Old Testament/Hebrew Bible scholars for years. The church has always had a Marcionite tendency, but it does seem to have increased in the last 15–20 years.

Whether or not it's worse than it was in the 1950–1970s, I can't say. I do remember when I was growing up in the 1960s/1970s that more than a few people downplayed the value of knowing the Old Testament. But without knowledge of the Old Testament, how can you understand the full scope of God's plan for humanity and the world?

That has always baffled me. Especially when I read Hebrews, I wonder how people who don't have more than a (very) passing acquaintance with the Old Testament can even begin to understand what's going on. But that is also true of most of the New Testament.
</idle musing>

One Solitary Life

566 One Solitary Life

Born in an obscure village, He was the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty years old, and then for three years He travelled around the country, stopping long enough to talk and to listen to people, and help where He could. He never wrote a book, He never had a hit record, He never went to college, He never ran for public office, He never had a family, or owned a house. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself But when He was only thirty-three years old, the tide of public opinion turned against Him, and His friends all rejected Him. When He was arrested, very few wanted anything to do with Him. After the trial, He was executed by the State along with admitted thieves. Only because a generous friend offered his own cemetery plot was there any place to bury Him. This all happened nineteen centuries ago, and yet today He is the leading figure of the human race, and the ultimate example of love. Now it is no exaggeration to say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever set sail, all the rulers that have ever ruled, all the kings that have ever reigned on this earth, all put together have not affected the life of man on earth like this One Solitary Life.
—Fred Bock (alt. )
Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
This was a pretty popular saying in the 1970s. If I recall correctly, the first time I heard it was on a the Gaither Alleluia! A Praise Gathering for Believers album (1973). But it rapidly spread.
<idle musing>

The Story

Overly rationalistic “theories” force the pictorial, poetic, and narrative structures of the Bible into restrictive categories. Even the writings of Paul, often construed as dry doctrine over against the more accessible stories of the Gospels, are for the most part urgently contextual. Paul is a man on a battlefield. He is a man seized by the gospel story, or, more accurately, by the Lord of the story. The fact that Paul has made the story into a sword of the Word to be wielded against the enemies of the gospel in specific situations, rather than retelling stories about Jesus’ life, does not make his preaching any less firmly grounded in The Story.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 211

As the world turns…

In some ways, however, it is becoming more difficult to close our eyes to reality. We are beginning to see more clearly now that children who rape and murder seem to be getting younger and younger, that no school or church seems to be safe from gunfire, that the Internet has greatly increased our capacity to share lethal information. Too many clergy have been arrested for child molestation, too many teachers have been caught sexually abusing students, too many supposedly upstanding citizens have downloaded too much child pornography. There is something sickening in human nature, and it corresponds precisely to the sickening aspects of crucifixion. The hideousness of crucifixion summons us to put away sentimentality and face up to the ugliness that lies just under the surface. The scandal, the outrage of the cross, is commensurate with the offense and the ubiquity of sin. Views of atonement wrought by Christ that do not acknowledge the gravity of Sin are untruthful in two respects: they are untruthful about the human condition, and they are untruthful about the witness of Holy Scripture, Old and New Testament alike. Sin is the colossal X-factor in human life. It is not something we do so much as it is something done to us by our mortal foe, the alien Power that has lured us into becoming its agents. There is no room for sentiment here; the stakes are too high. The cross rears up over all human life because it is the scene of God’s climactic battle against the power of a malignant and implacable Enemy.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 197

Blest Be the Tie That Binds

560 Blest Be the Tie That Binds

1 Blest be the tie that binds
   our hearts in Christian love;
   the fellowship of kindred minds
   is like to that above.

2 Before our Father's throne
   we pour our ardent prayers;
   our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
   our comforts and our cares.

3 We share our mutual woes,
   our mutual burdens bear,
   and often for each other flows
   the sympathizing tear.

4 From sorrow, toil, and pain,
   and sin, we shall be free;
   and perfect love and friendship reign
   through all eternity.
                         John Fawcett
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Wow. Most hymns I've been posting lately have only occurred in at most a couple hundred hymnals. This one clocks in at more than 2300!

Hymnary.org inserts couple of verses:

4 When we are called to part,
   it gives us inward pain;
   but we shall still be joined in heart,
   and hope to meet again.

5 This glorious hope revives
   our courage by the way;
   while each in expectation lives
   and waits to see the day.

By the way, I've mentioned it before, but you really should read the author's biography in the link above. I doubt very many pastors today would respond the way he did to a better offer elsewhere...
</idle musing>

The Bible as R-rated?

Beginning with the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, we are given a full picture of human noninnocence. We have seen so many Sunday school pictures of dutiful children in biblical garb that we forget how utterly unblinking the Scriptures are about human nature. Far from being a collection of inspirational stories, the Old Testament is replete with unedifying R-rated tales of every conceivable kind of crime and villainy, much of it committed by men and women of God’s own choosing.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 196

Grace drives the sequence from first to last

It is surely no accident that Paul the Pharisee eschews all talk of repentance in his letters. He distances himself from any concept of repentance preceding, or being necessary for, the setting-aside (or “weakening,” in some versions) of God’s “severe decree.” At the risk of oversimplifying, for Paul the sequence is not sin-repentance-grace-forgiveness, but grace-sin- deliverance-repentance-grace. Grace drives the sequence from first to last.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 192

Tozer for Tuesday

Weed: The Father and the Son Love Us in Different Degrees

Then there is the teaching that Christ won God over to our side by dying for us. Some people imagine that. I have heard evangelists tell about an angry God with His sword raised to destroy a sinning man, and Jesus rushes in and the sword falls on His head. He died and the sinner lived. It might be good drama, but its very poor theology, for there is not a word of truth in it. The Father “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). And it was the love of the Father that sent the Son to die for mankind.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 157

Come, Holy Spirit, Dove Divine

559 Come, Holy Spirit, Dove Divine

1 Come, Holy Spirit, Dove Divine,
   On these baptismal waters shine,
   And teach our hearts, in highest strain,
   To praise the Lamb, for sinners slain.

2 We love Thy name, we love Thy laws,
   And joyfully embrace Thy cause;
   We love Thy cross, the shame, the pain,
   O Lamb of God, for sinners slain.

3 We sink beneath Thy mystic flood;
   O bathe us in Thy cleansing blood;
   We die to sin, and seek a grave,
   With Thee, beneath the yielding wave.

4 And as we rise, with Thee to live,
   O let the Holy Spirit give
   The sealing unction from above,
   The breath of life, the fire of love.
                         Adoniram Judson
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Sin? Not what you think…

To be in sin, biblically speaking, means something very much more consequential than wrongdoing; it means being catastrophically separated from the eternal love of God. It means to be on the other side of an impassable barrier of exclusion from God’s heavenly banquet. It means to be helplessly trapped inside one’s own worst self, miserably aware of the chasm between the way we are and the way God intends us to be. It means the continuation of the reign of greed, cruelty, rapacity, and violence throughout the world. In view of God’s nature, it is impossible that this state of affairs would be allowed to continue forever. Once we come to know God in Jesus Christ, we can no longer imagine the Father’s joyful banquet continuing into all eternity with the elder brother still standing outside looking in, imprisoned forever in his envy and resentment (Luke 15:25-32). This whole line of thinking exemplifies what we have been saying for several pages now, namely, that we cannot talk about sin for very long without being drawn into doxology. Were it not for the mercy of God surrounding us, we would have no perspective from which to view sin, for we would be entirely subject to it.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 174

More on prevenient grace

God is moving upon a person’s heart before the person even realizes what is happening. In presenting the gospel, then, we do not begin by attempting to convict people of sin. The movement of God’s prevenient (“going-before”) mercy comes first, in the disclosure of the presence of God, which then awakens the sense of sin by exposing the chasm between us and the holiness of God. When this recognition dawns on us, we are already standing within God’s grace (“this grace in which we stand” - Rom. 5:2). This is another way of explaining why the confession of sin can come as such a blessed relief.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 174 (emphasis original)

A Prayer for Unity

549 Prayer for Unity

Our Father, we thank You for the privilege of being together at this time and in this place.

As Your people, we pray that Your love will unite us into a fellowship of discovery.

Cleanse us of everything that would sap our strength for togetherness.

Unravel the knots in our spirits,
Cleanse the error of our minds.
Free as from the bondage of our negative imaginations.
Break down the barriers that sometimes keep us apart and cause us to drift along without a dream.

As we go from here-
Explode in us new possibilities for service.
Kindle within us the fires of Your compassion so that we may not wait too long to learn to love.

May we be a people with loving purposes-
Reaching out. . .
Breaking walls. . .
Building bridges. . .
Let us be Your alleluia in a joyless, fragmented world.

In the name of our Lord, we pray.
Amen
—Champ Taylor
Hymns for the Family of God

The world needs men

. . . who cannot be bought;
. . . whose word is their bond;
. . . who put character above wealth;
. . . who are larger than their vocations;
. . . who do not hesitate to take chances;
. . . who will not lose their identity in a crowd;
. . . who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
. . . who will make no compromise with wrong;
. . . whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
. . . who will not say they do it “because everybody else does it;”
. . . who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity;
. . . who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning are the best qualities for winning success;
. . . who are not ashamed to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
. . . who can say “no” with emphasis, although the rest of the world says “yes.”

God, make me this kind of man.
                         —Leonard Wagner
                         Hymns for the Family of God, #531

<idle musing>
Sadly, those kind of men have always been in short supply. And it seems they are in even shorter supply today than ever...

Just an
</idle musing>

O Perfect Love

530 O Perfect Love

1 O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,
   Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne,
   That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,
   Whom Thou for evermore dost join in one.

2 O perfect Life, be Thou their full assurance
   Of tender charity and steadfast faith,
   Of patient hope, and quiet, brave endurance,
   With child-like trust that fears no pain nor death.

3 Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow,
   Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,
   And to life's day the glorious, unknown morrow
   That dawns upon eternal love and life.
                         Dorothy Gurney
                         Hymns for the Family of God

A prayer for the Fourth

527 Answered Prayer

I asked God for strength,
     that I might achieve,
I was made weak,
     that I might learn humbly to obey . . .

I asked for health,
     that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity,
     that I might do better things . . .

I asked for riches,
     that I might be happy,
I was given poverty,
     that I might be wise . . .

I asked for power,
     that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness,
     that I might feel the need of God . . .

I asked for all things,
     that I might enjoy life,
I was given life,
     that I might enjoy all things . . .

I got nothing that I asked for-
but everything I had hoped for;
     Almost despite myself,
      my unspoken prayers were answered.
         I am among all men most richly blessed.
—Unknown Confederate Soldier
Hymns for the Family of God

Lord of the Dance

The analogy to the cantatas of Bach, with their combination of grief-stricken laments and ecstatic dance forms, is this: participation in Christ means abandoning our pretenses, openly acknowledging our identities as sinners in bondage, and in the same moment realizing with a stab of piercing joy that the victory is already ours in Christ, won by him who died to save us. The action of God’s grace precedes our consciousness of sin, so that we perceive the depth of our own participation in sin’s bondage simultaneously with the recognition of the unconditional love of Christ, which is perfect freedom. We recognize that love, moreover, not from the depths of the hell we were bent on creating for ourselves, but from the perspective of the heaven that God is preparing for us. In the victorious presence of the crucified and risen One, the whole company of the redeemed will throw off every bond and join in a celebration of mutual love and joy where no one will be a wallflower and everyone will be able to dance like Fred Astaire and Michael Jackson combined. Thus “Lord of the Dance” is truly an apt title for the risen Christ and for the kingdom of God.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 171 (emphasis original)

A Benediction

524 Benediction

May the Lord take from you all resistance to His will.
May He give to you the fullness of His life and the sufficiency of His practical, daily help.
May the Lord send you during this week to come to those He can only serve through your unique experience of life and your very special
abilities.
May the Lord bring us together even when we are apart, as we learn to be supportive of one another in our prayers and our service. Amen.
—Bryan Jeffery Leech
Hymns for the Family of God

Prevenient (love that word!) love

There is no way of taking the Bible seriously unless we are willing to entertain its presuppositions about sin, especially Sin in the singular. This is a catch-22 of sorts, because it is not possible to have a grasp of one’s own involvement in sin without a prior or simultaneous awareness of God’s prevenient love (Latin pre-venere, “going-before”). We need to recover that word “prevenient” because no other word or phrase captures so well the essential fact about grace: it prevenes (goes before), or precedes, recognition of sin, precedes confession of sin, precedes repentance for sin, and precedes forsaking of sin. Readers of this book are already held by God’s gracious intention toward them, whether they know themselves as sinners or not.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 168 (emphasis original)

An ancient prayer

521 Ancient Prayer

God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing. Amen.
—Ancient Prayer
Hymns for the Family of God

And there isn't a split in the Trinity, either!

In our preaching, teaching, and learning we must emphatically reject any interpretation that divides the will of the Father from that of the Son, or suggests that anything is going on that does not proceed out of love. As we shall see again and again, God’s justice and God’s mercy both issue forth from his single will of eternal love.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 163

There isn't any split!

God is a God of judgment and a God of grace. Both judgment and grace are in the New Testament. And both judgment and grace are in the Old Testament. God is always the same, without change: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 156

Give Your Best to the Master

516 Give Your Best to the Master

1. Give of your best to the Master;
   Give of the strength of your youth;
   Throw your soul’s fresh, glowing ardor
   Into the battle for truth.
   Jesus has set the example,
   Dauntless was He, young and brave;
   Give Him your loyal devotion;
   Give Him the best that you have.

Refrain:
   Give of your best to the Master;
   Give of the strength of your youth;
   Clad in salvation’s full armor,
   Join in the battle for truth.

2. Give of your best to the Master;
   Give Him first place in your heart;
   Give Him first place in your service;
   Consecrate every part.
   Give, and to you will be given;
   God His beloved Son gave;
   Gratefully seeking to serve Him,
   Give Him the best that you have.

3. Give of your best to the Master;
   Naught else is worthy His love;
   He gave Himself for your ransom,
   Gave up His glory above.
   Laid down His life without murmur,
   You from sin’s ruin to save;
   Give Him your heart’s adoration,
   Give Him the best that you have.
                         Howard B. Grosse
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Anselm and honor

Anselm means something very different by “honor” than we are readily equipped to understand without effort. God is not a tin-pot dictator obsessed with his privileges. On the contrary, the Trinitarian movement that Anselm always has in mind is described in Philippians 2:5-7: “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied (Greek root kenosis) himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” God’s honor is God’s righteousness, his holiness, his perfection — but it is also his love and freedom, which show themselves in the kenotic self-emptying of the Son.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 156

True Charity

514 True Charity

C. S. Lewis didn’t talk about percent giving.
He said the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.
He said our charities should pinch and hamper us.

If we live at the same level of affluence
as other people who have our level of income,
we are probably giving away too little.

Obstacles to charity include
greed for luxurious living,
greed for money itself,
fear of financial insecurity,
and showy pride.

                        —Kathryn Ann Lindskoog
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Little Is Much, When God Is in It

512 Little Is Much, When God Is in It

1 In the harvest field now ripened
   There’s a work for all to do;
   Hark! the voice of God is calling
   To the harvest calling you.

Refrain:
   Little is much when God is in it,
   Labor not for wealth or fame;
   There’s a crown, and you can win it,
   If you go in Jesus’ name.

2 Does the place you’re called to labor
   Seem too small and little known?
   It is great if God is in it,
   And He’ll not forget His own. [Refrain]

3 When the conflict here is ended
   And our race on earth is run,
   He will say, if we are faithful,
   "Welcome home, My child, well done!" [Refrain]
                         Mrs. F. W. Suffield
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Make us worthy (prayer)

506 Make Us Worthy Make us worthy, Lord,
to serve our fellow men thoughout the world
who live and die in poverty and hunger.

Give them, through our hands, this day
their daily bread, and by our understanding love give Peace and Joy.

Lord, make a channel of Thy peace,
that where there is hatred I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord,
grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand than to be understood;
to love than to be loved;
for it is by forgetting self that one finds;
is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
Amen.                         Mother Teresa
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Justice serves mercy

A psychoanalyst once explained to me that “the negative moment [in therapy] is in the service of the positive moment.” This conviction underlies a great deal of what appears in these pages concerning the justice and mercy of God. God’s justice is always in the service of his mercy.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 154 n. 18

After a bit of fame? Read this

503 Glorifying God in the Everyday

The wonder of the Incarnation slips into the Life of ordinary childhood; the marvel of the Transfiguration descends to the valley and the demon-possessed boy, and the glory of the Resurrection merges into Our Lord providing breakfast for His disciples on the sea shore in the early dawn. The tendency in early Christian experience is to look for the marvellous. We are apt to mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but a different thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying the remotest attention to you. If we don’t want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say-What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious, devoted woman she is! If anyone says that of you, you have not been loyal to God.—Oswald Chambers
Hymns for the Family of God

Expand your understanding!

When we read of the righteousness of God, it also means the justice of God, and, most important, it means the action of God in making conditions and relationships right. “Righteousness” has the force of a verb rather than a noun; it is not a static quality but a continual going-out in power to effect what it requires. Nor is it an abstraction; it can only be understood in the context of the community called into being by God, which is itself the image, however flawed, of the new humanity. This understanding of the righteousness of God affords a greatly enlarged perspective on the cross and resurrection.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 144 (emphasis original)

Peace and abiding

499 Peace

I know not what I shall become: it seems to me that peace of soul and repose of spirit descend on me, even in sleep. To be without the sense of this peace, would be affliction indeed. . . .

I know not what God purposes with me, or keeps me for; I am in a calm so great that I fear naught. What can I fear, when I am with Him: and with Him, in His Presence, I hold myself the most I can. May all things praise Him. Amen.
                        —Brother Lawrence
                         Hymns for the Family of God

A just peace

Peace without justice is an illusory peace that sets the stage for vengeful behavior later on. The strength to persevere in the struggle is found in knowing that the wounds remaining in human society after great atrocities are the wounds of Christ himself, now risen and reigning but still the Lamb standing yet slain (Rev. 5:6).—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 143 (emphasis original)

Through the Love of God, Our Savior

498 Through the Love of God, Our Savior

1 Through the love of God, our Saviour,
   all will be well.
   Free and changeless is his favour;
   all, all is well.
   Precious is the blood that healed us,
   perfect is the grace that sealed us,
   strong the hand stretched forth to shield us;
   all must be well.

2 Though we pass through tribulation,
   all will be well.
   Ours is such a full salvation,
   all, all is well.
   Happy still in God confiding,
   fruitful, if in Christ abiding,
   holy, through the Spirit’s guiding;
   all must be well.

3 We expect a bright tomorrow;
   all will be well.
   Faith can sing through days of sorrow,
   'All, all is well.'
   On our Father’s love relying,
   Jesus every need supplying,
   in our living, in our dying,
   all must be well.
                         Mary Peters
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
This hymn seemed familiar to me, even though it only occurs in about 150 hymnals. Once I read the biography, I saw why. It was included in some Plymouth Brethren hymnals. I'm sure that's where I sang it, as I was involved in a PB-style church for a few years.
</idle musing

It's not just the victims!

We arrive at a point that is all too rarely acknowledged. In the final analysis, the crucifixion of Christ for the sin of the world reveals that it is not only the victims of oppression and injustice who are in need of God’s deliverance, but also the victimizers. Each of us is capable, under certain circumstances, of being a victimizer.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 141 (emphasis original)

Tozer for Tuesday

Weed: Christ Is for Us, God Is against Us

Some say that Christ the Son differs from the God the Father. That is one weed I want you to pull out of your mind, never allowing it to grow there. The misconception is that Christ is for us and God is against us. Never was there any truth in that at all. Christ, being God, is for us. And the Father, being God, is for us. And the Holy Ghost, being God, is for us. The Trinity is for us. It was because the Father was for us that the Son came to die for us. The reason that God is for us is why the Son is at the right hand of God now, pleading for us. The Holy Spirit is in our hearts. He is our advocate within. Christ is our advocate above. And all agree. There is no disagreement between the Father and the Son over man.—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 155–56