A sense of mission? Not so much…

Many Christians know little or nothing about personal guidance from God. They go from event to event and live a kind of hand-to-mouth spiritual existence—a spiritual and moral opportunism. They have no sense of working out a plan of life under God’s guidance. They have little or no sense of destiny, of mission.

This is true of the nation as well as the individual. When a nation loses its sense of mission, it is beginning to disintegrate. Someone asked President Eisenhower, before he was nominated for the Presidency, what was the greatest need of America, and he replied: “A sense of mission.” A very wise and penetrating reply. Personally I believe this sense of mission for America is to be true to the last line of the pledge of allegiance to the flag: “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” This is the thing we have been raised up to do: to give “liberty and justice for all,” at home and abroad. This rules out all imperialisms—economic, social, political, military. We have been the proving ground of an idea—an economy of liberty and justice for all, apart from race and birth and religion and color and sex. We have been brought up to make the word “all” operative in all relationships at home and abroad. This is the mission of America. We must work it out—or perish. And if we don't work it out, we ought to perish—we will be a useless, amorphic mass of selfish people struggling for personal advantage. If we as a nation go out to dominate anyone economically, socially, politically, militarily, then our “name is mud.” “Ichabod”—“God has departed”—will be written on our banners, and angels will weep. For we who began by breaking with imperialism would end in setting up one of our own—the saddest ending to the greatest beginning in human history. One of our greatest needs is a call for a national day of prayer in which we will humbly bow our knees to get back as a nation “a sense of mission”—a sense that we are working out a divine destiny in the world.—E. Stanley Jones, Growing Spiritually, 274

<idle musing>
He wrote this in 1953. His fears have definitely been realized, haven't they?
</idle musing>

Pay taxes?

691 The Social Obligations of a Christian

The Bible teaches that the Christian should be law-abiding. The Bible also teaches loyalty to country. A loyalty and love of country does not mean that we cannot criticize certain unjust laws that may discriminate against special groups. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. All should have equal opportunities. The government of God is to be our model.

The Bible also teaches that we are to co-operate with the government. Jesus was asked, “Is it lawful to give tribute?” Jesus set the example forever by paying taxes. It takes money to run a government and to maintain law and order. The tax dodger is a civic parasite and an actual thief. No true Christian will be a tax dodger. Jesus said, we are to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. ” We ought to be more than taxpayers. To be simply law-abiding is not enough. We ought to seek and work for the good of our country. Sometimes we may be called upon to die for it. We are to do it gladly—as unto God. We are to be conscientious in our work as good citizens.
Billy Graham
Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
OK, I'll agree with him up to the point about fighting on behalf of it (that's what he means by dying for it). Violence is never an option for the Christian.
</idle musing>

But not in the Church!!

684 Within the Church

There is no color barrier with God.
He is color-blind.
There are many practical problems
which still have to be wisely and understandingly worked out.
But one thing is certain,
that the color barrier
and the Christian Church
cannot go together.
It was the world which God so loved,
and within the Church
it is the world which is
the family of God.
                        —William Barclay
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Indifference

671 Indifference

When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to our town, they simply passed Him by,
They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do,”
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary.
—G. A. Studdert-Kennedy
Hymns for the Family of God

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

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

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

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>

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

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

Thought for the day

6 I’ve lived far too long
     with people who hate peace.
7 I’m for peace,
     but when I speak, they are for war.
Ps 120:6–7 (CEB)

Liberation from Materialism (prayer)

464 Liberation from Materialism

Forbid it, Lord, that our roots become too firmly attached to this earth, that we should fall in love with things.

Help us to understand that the pilgrimage of this life is but an introduction, a preface a training school for what is to come.

Then shall we see all of life in its true perspective. Then shall we not fall in love with the things of time, but come to love the things that endure. Then shall we be saved from the tyranny of possessions which we have no leisure to enjoy, of property whose care becomes a burden. Give us, we pray, the courage to simplify our lives.

So may we be mature in our faith, childlike but never childish, humble but never cringing, understanding but never conceited.

So help us, O God, to live and not merely to exist, that we may have joy in our work. In Thy name, who alone can give us moderation and balance and zest for living, we pray. Amen.
                         Peter Marshall
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Tolstoy's Confession of Faith

403 Confession of Faith

I believe in God, who is for me spirit, love, the principle of all things.
I believe that God is in me, as I am in Him.
I believe that the true welfare of man consists in fulfilling the will of God.
I believe that from the fulfillment of the will of God there can follow nothing but that which is good for me and for all men.
I believe that the will of God is that every man should love his fellow men, and should act toward others as he desires that they should act toward him.
I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.
I believe that this growth in love will contribute more than any other force to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.
                         —Leo Tolstoy
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Te Deum

324 Te Deum We praise Thee, O God;
We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting.
To Thee all angels cry aloud; the heavens and all the powers therein.
To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry;
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.
Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory.
The glorious company of the apostles praise Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise Thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise Thee.
The holy Church, throughout all the world, doth acknowledge Thee,
The Father of an infinite majesty;
Thine adorable, true, and only Son;
Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
Thou art the King of glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man,
Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a virgin.
When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,
Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants,
Whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thy heritage.
Govern them, and lift them up forever.
Day by day we magnify Thee;
And we worship Thy name ever, world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as our trust is in Thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I trusted;
Let me never be confounded.
Amen

If We Had Been There (A very relevant thought for today)

286 If We Had Been There

Minister: If we had been Jews, would we have spoken out for Him when the Sanhedrin accused Him of blasphemy?
      If we had been Gentiles, would we have defended Him when the Romans condemned Him to death?
      If we had been disciples, would we have stayed with Him when the crowd became a crucifying mob?
      Or would we have been like Peter-
      who followed Him and loved Him
      and denied Him three times before the dawn?

Choir: Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
      O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Minister: And the Christ who was crucified there, once said.
      “As you have done it to the least of these, My brothers, you have done it unto Me.”
      As nations rise in war
      As governments oppress the poor
      As passive people turn and look aside
      In silence
      We crucify.
      Again-
      We crucify.

People : As indifference forms the pattern of our lives,
      As hungry children cry for food,
      As widows mourn alone in empty rooms,
      In apathy-
      We crucify.
      Again-
      We crucify.

Choir: Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
      O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Minister: I think of the nails that crucified my Lord.
      They were made of iron,’ but more-
      They were made of hatred, prejudice and greed.
      And I wonder-
      What part of myself is found in the shadow of that mob that stretches down through history?
      What part of myself creates nails in other forms that wound my brother—and my Lord?

People: You know how many times I have betrayed You, Lord.
      You know the times lhave chosen evil over good.
      Guilt lies upon me like an iron cloak.
      My soul is heavy—my burden hard.

Choir: Were you there when He rose up from the grave?
      O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Minister: In the act of death He absorbs our sins.
      In love, He forgives our failures.
      In the act of resurrection He gives the promise of acceptance, the assurance of forgiveness, the affirmation of eternal life.
      “Your sins are forgiven you”, He said, “Go and sin no more. ”

People: Through Your love, I am made whole,
      Through Your death, I have found new life.
      You are my shield, my redeemer and my hope.
      My sins are forgiven—Hallelujah!
                         —MariIee Zdenek
                         Hymns for the Family of God

An Easter meditation

300 Easter

Some years ago a newspaper editor telephoned and asked me to tell in a few words what Easter means to me. My testimony was this: Easter means Christ to me. It means Christ in His kingly splendor, Christ in His serene glory, Christ in His gracious condescension. This is because Easter is the return of Christ from inflicted violence, from induced death, from imprisonment in a tomb. Easter is Christ triumphant over all that sin and death and man could do to Him. Easter means Christ.

And where Christ goes, drama goes. For it is impossible to look anywhere in the Gospels and fail to find something powerful happening. This is because Christ is Himself the Gospel and He is life, abundant life, and His life means action, pilgrimage, arrival. Easter means life. Christ defeated death in order that life in Him might always live. And it is life that we want, life in Christ. Whether we put it in words or not, our constant thought is “Life, more life, always more and more life.” We want life in ourselves, in our loved ones, in our friends, the kind of life that cannot be diminished, the kind of life that always expands. Easter is Christ’s victory over all that would restrict, deny and strangle life. “For to me to live is Christ.” That is Easter.
                        —Raymond Lindquist
                         Hymns for the Family of God

A Good Friday meditation

257 Good Friday

We acknowledge, O Lord, that there is so little in us that is lovable. So often we are not lovely in our thoughts, in our words, or in our deeds. And yet Thou dost love us still, with a love that neither ebbs nor flows, a love that does not grow weary, but is constant: year after year, age after age.

O God, may our hearts be opened to that love today. With bright skies above us, the fields and woods and gardens bursting with new life and beauty, how can we fail to respond? With the clear notes of bird songs challenging us to praise, with every lowly shrub and blooming tree catching new life and beauty, our hearts indeed would proclaim Thee Lord, and we would invite Thee to reign over us and make us truly Thine own. May Thy healing love invade our inmost hearts, healing sorrow, pain, frustration, defeat, and despair.

May this day create within us a love for Thee of stronger stuff than vague sentimentality—a love which seeks to know Thy will and do it. So grant that this day of hallowed remembrance may be the beginning of a new way of life for each of us, a new kind of living that shall be the best answer to the confusion and to the challenge of evil in our day. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
—Peter Marshall
Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
It wasn't planned by me that this would be the post from the hymnal I am blogging through! It just "happened" to be the next one. Call it divine appointment.
</idle musing>

Civilization...

“Civilization was fun while it lasted.”—David Brooks in the New York Times, April 10, 2025

Thought for the day

The twelfth revelation is that the Lord our God is supreme Being.

And after this our Lord showed himself in even greater glory, it seemed to me, than when I saw him before, and from this revelation I learned that our soul will never rest until it comes to him knowing that he is the fullness of joy, of everyday and princely blessedness and the only true life. Our Lord Jesus said repeatedly, ‘It is I, it is I; it is I who am highest; it is I you love; it is I who delight you; it is I you serve; it is I you long for; it is I you desire; it is I who am your purpose; it is I who am all; it is I that Holy Church preaches and teaches you; it is I who showed myself to you here.’ The number of these utterances went beyond my wit and all my understanding and all my powers, and it is supreme, it seems to me, for there is included within it—I cannot tell how much; but the joy that I perceived as they were revealed surpasses all that the heart may wish and the soul may desire; and therefore the utterances are not fully explained here, but, according to the powers of understanding and loving which are given by the grace of God, may everyone receive them as our Lord intended.—Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, 78

His love is reaching

200 His Love … Reaching

Right from the beginning God’s love has reached, and from the beginning man has refused to understand. But love went on reaching, offering itself. Love offered the eternal … we wanted the immediate. Love offered deep joy … we wanted thrills. Love offered freedom … we wanted license. Love offered communion with God Himself … we wanted wanted to worship at the shrine of our own minds. Love offered peace … we wanted approval for our wars. Even yet, love went on reaching. And still today, after two two thousand years, patiently, lovingly, Christ is reaching out to us today. Right through the chaos of our world, through the confusion of our minds. He is reaching … longing share with us … the very being of God.

His love still is longing. His love is still reaching, right past the shackles of my mind. And the Word of the Father became Mary’s little Son. And His love reached all the way to where I was.
—Gloria Gaither
Hymns for the Family of God