Hymn Devotions Day 18 – When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

October 9, 2012 / taethne

DAY 18 – WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS

Of all of Isaac Watts’ hymns, this one is probably my favorite. Great words of truth mixed with a fantastic melody, this hymn is well worth singing regularly.

I particularly love the second stanza. There is nothing any of us have to boast about except our Lord. Are we brilliant? God gave us our intellect. Are we strong? God fashioned our body. Are we successful? God has blessed us.

All we are we owe to our Creator, especially our salvation. In God’s plan, in God’s time, in God’s power, He redeemed us to Himself through His Son. Salvation, as Jonah stated, is from the Lord.

Everything this world has to charm us with is nothing compared to what awaits us in glory. Why should I take my eyes off eternal perfection for temporal things? Truly, no offering I can give is enough. If I had, as the fourth verse states, everything in the world, it still would not be too great an offering to give. But what I do have, my life, I give freely to the One who is worthy of worship, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, reading again of Your Son’s death on the cross to pay the price for my sins, brings me both great sorrow and gratitude. Sorrow that I, like all other humans, failed to live up to Your holy standards; gratitude that You took it upon Yourself to pay my penalty. I can never repay You. I can only say, “Thank You.” Take my life. You created me, You bought me, take what is rightfully Yours.

WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS – Isaac Watts

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died

My richest gain I count but loss

And pour contempt on all my pride

Forbid it Lord, that I should boast

Save in the death of Christ my God

All the vain things that charm me most

I sacrifice them to His blood

See, from His head, His hands, His feet

Sorrow and love flow mingled down

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were an offering far too small

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all

Hymn Devotions Day 17 – Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated

October 8, 2012 / taethne

DAY 17 – TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE

This hymn is a great daily prayer. What a way to start off each morning – asking God to help us consecrate our life to Him. Let us praise Him each day for He is worthy.

It is a great privilege, a noble request for us, to ask Him to use all of our being in His service. From my hands and feet, my speech, my financial resources, my mind, love and will; all that I am and have. Nothing less will do for my King of Glory than my all.

I need the Holy Spirit’s power to constantly, consistently yield myself to God. I need His power to submit my unruly will to His. I need His might to break my stubborn, selfish heart. With all that is within me, I desire to praise His holy name. I long for Him to fully transform me into His image.

One of the phrases I appreciate from this song is found in verse one. The prayer is for God to take both our moments and our days and have them become a seamless flow of praise. Another phrase really jumps out too, probably because I am a minister – Take my lips and let them be, filled with messages from Thee. Oh, yes, let us all bring to a lost and dying world a message from God. To use our mouth in this method is a great way of praising and honoring our God. Right now seems a good moment to start.

Lord, take all that I am and let me praise You. Take every part of my life because You alone are worthy to be praised. You gave me life and breath – let me use that breath and life to glorify Your name. Accept my offer of praise for Your greatness, majesty and power.

TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE – Francis Ridley Havergal

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated, Lord to Thee

Take my moments and my days

Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move

At the impulse of Thy love

Take my feet and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing

Always, only for my King

Take my lips and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee

Take my silver and my gold

Not a mite would I withhold

Take my intellect and use

Every power as Thou shalt choose

Take my love, my Lord, I pour

At Thy feet its treasure store

Take myself and I will be

Ever, only, all for Thee

Take my will and make it Thine

It shall be no longer mine

Take my heart, it is Thy own

It shall be Thy royal throne

Great Quotes From Ages Past #10

October 7, 2012 / taethne

In Christ, as a great storehouse, lie all the riches of spiritual wisdom, the massive ingots of solid gold which when coined into creeds and doctrines are the wealth of the Church. All which we can know concerning God and man, concerning sin and righteousness and duty, concerning another life, is in Him Who is the home and deep mine where truth is stored… The central fact of the universe and the perfect encyclopedia of all moral and spiritual truth is in Christ, the Incarnate Word, the Lamb slain, the ascended King.

Alexander MacLaren

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October 5, 2012 / taethne

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Great Quotes From Ages Past #9

October 4, 2012 / taethne

Here is a great quote from the “Prince of Preachers”

If you have been truly born again you have a new and holy nature, and you are no longer moved towards sinful objects as you were before. The things that you once loved you now hate, and therefore you will not run after them. You can hardly understand it but so it is that your thoughts and tastes are radically changed. You long for that very holiness which once it was irksome to hear of; and you loathe those vain pursuits which were once your delights. The man who puts his trust in the Lord sees the pleasures of sin in a new light. For he sees the evil which follows them by noting the agonies which they brought upon our Lord when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Without faith a man says to himself, “This sin is a very pleasant thing, why should I not enjoy it? Surely I may eat this fruit, which looks so charming and is so much to be desired.” The flesh sees honey in the drink, but faith at once perceives that there is poison in the cup. Faith spies the snake in the grass and gives warning of it. Faith remembers death, judgment, the great reward, the just punishment and that dread word, eternity.

C.H. Spurgeon

Great Quotes From Ages Past #8

October 3, 2012October 4, 2012 / taethne

A double helping of quotes this morning, these on the subject of anger:

A man who does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good. And a man that does not know how to be shaken to his heart’s core with indignation over things evil is either a fungus or a wicked man.

Henry Ward Beecher

If we would be angry and not sin (says one), we must be angry at nothing but sin; and we should be more jealous for the glory of God than for any interest or reputation of our own.

Matthew Henry

Great Quotes From Ages Past #7

October 2, 2012 / taethne

This is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite preachers – Jonathan Edwards

“Spiritual emotions result in Christian practice because their object is the loveliness of spiritual things, not our self-interest. People have a defective Christianity because they are seeking their own interests in it, not God’s. So they accept Christianity only to the extent that they think it serves their interests. By contrast, a person who accepts it for its own excellent and lovely nature, accepts everything which has that nature.”