Category: religion

‘When God Tests Us’ (2022)

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It takes a lot of heat to make a good sword.

When I wrote this two years ago, I didn’t know there was more hard testing coming my way. And not just for me!

When God Tests Us

We can take a lot of hard knocks in just two years, can’t we? We can hardly help wondering, though, why God does not ease up on us.

St. Paul assures us that it will all be very well worth it, more than we can imagine. Can we believe a man who, for his faith, was beaten, stoned, abused, reviled–and even shipwrecked? I think we can.

It’s just hard to do, sometimes.

By Request, ‘When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder’

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Wahoo! I’m gonna have breakfast! But first this:

Requested by Erlene, When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder, sung by Alan Jackson. This hymn always moves me, brings me close to tears. Sanity! Make a joyful noise unto the LORD.

Keep On Praying

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Today I can sit down to a normal breakfast–no doctors’ appointments today. Hallelujah!

I know more than a few of you are, and have been, praying for me. I hardly know how to tell you how much I appreciate it.

But I want to take this opportunity to exhort more prayers, for more of our fellowship: prayers for Erlene, for Dave (Thewhiterabbit), and for Susan, my editor… just for starters. We need each other’s prayers.

We also need more young people joining up with us. Yo, 25-year-olds and younger! This old man is reaching out to you. Someone’s gonna be needed to take over here.

But in the meantime–pray! We can’t do without it.

‘Thy Word’ (Amy Grant)

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This was the first “modern” hymn I fell in love with, when I heard it on our dear old Christian radio station which is now no more.

Thy Word Is a Lamp Unto My Feet, sung by Amy Grant–it’s based on Psalm 119: 105.

‘Transgender Preacher… Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin’ (2016)

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They had only one. We have a whole herd of Golden Calfs.

I wonder if the hottest parts of Hell are reserved for churches that preach pop culture as a substitute for Scripture.

‘Transgender Preacher’–Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

This whole transgender business–which must be weeded out, uprooted, cast into the abyss–would never have been possible without go-along-to-get-along churches. The Church of What’s Happening Now, as Flip Wilson used to say.

It has to stop happening. See Psalm 2 for further instructions.

‘Behold the Mountain of the Lord’

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Yes, I know, I’ve posted this hymn any number of times–an ancient Scottish hymn, Behold the Mountain of the Lord (In Latter Days Shall Rise). 

Well, I want to see that mountain! I want to see My Lord Jesus Christ come into His glory.

And I want to see the looks on certain people’s faces when He does.

‘Christ for the World We Sing’

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This was the first hymn that came to mind this morning, so here it is–Christ for the World We Sing, sung by the choir at the First Methodist Church in Houston. I don’t know about you, but this one’s going to my heart.

‘We Are Not Alone’

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Something Unknowable said last night moved me to select this as today’s hymn–We Are Not Alone, sung by the Voice of Eden. (Oh, that soloist! What a gift God gave her.)

“I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”   –The 23rd Psalm

‘Amazing Grace’ (Alan Jackson)

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I could use some grace, about now.

So this was the first hymn to come to mind this morning: Amazing Grace, sung here by Alan Jackson. I like it with bagpipes, but we can get by without them.

‘We Have Heard the Joyful Sound’ (‘Jesus Saves’)

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Yes, I know, I’ve posted this hymn any number of times: Jesus Saves (We Have Heard the Joyful Sound), as sung at Synod 2012 of the United Reform Church–and that’s the Hudson River valley up there. I’m posting it because I need saving!