Sunday's Hymn: I Lay My Sins on Jesus

I lay my sins on Jesus,
The spotless Lamb of God;
He bears them all, and frees us
From the accursed load:
I bring my guilt to Jesus,
To wash my crimson stains
White in his blood most precious,
Till not a spot remains.

I lay my wants on Jesus;
All fullness dwells in him;
He heals all my diseases,
He doth my soul redeem:
I lay my griefs on Jesus,
My burdens and my cares;
He from them all releases,
He all my sorrows shares.

I rest my soul on Jesus,
This weary soul of mine;
His right hand me embraces,
I on his breast recline.
I love the Name of Jesus,
Immanuel, Christ, the Lord;
Like fragrance on the breezes
His Name abroad is poured.

I long to be like Jesus,
Meek, loving, lowly, mild;
I long to be like Jesus,
The Father's holy Child;
I long to be with Jesus
Amid the heav'nly throng,
To sing with saints his praises,
To learn the angels' song.

Horatius Bonar, 1848
Tune: Miriam, Joseph P. Holbrook, 1865

Thankful Thursday

I'm thanking God for my dear husband, Andy, today. Its his birthday so it seems an appropriate time to thank God for the good gift He's given me in my loving husband. Here's a snap of him holding his personal record small mouth bass, caught on this year's vacation to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

I'm joining with Kim of The Upward Call and other friends in posting my thankful thoughts each Thursday of 2010. Won't you join us?

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
6 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup blueberries

In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and melted butter.

In another bowl, mix together white flour, buckwheat flour, sugar, salt and baking soda.

Pour the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and stir until the two mixtures are just incorporated.

Stir in blueberries. Or do as I do and just sprinkle some blueberries onto each pancake as you cook them.

Heat griddle to medium hot and melt some butter on it or pour a little oil on it. Spoon batter on griddle to make 4-6 inch pancakes. (Here's where I sprinkle on the blueberries.) Flip the pancakes once bubbles form on them and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Serve with butter and real maple syrup and some bacon on the side. Mmmm....yummy! This recipe serves about four people.

Sunday's Hymn: Come, Ye Souls by Sin Afflicted

Come, ye souls by sin afflicted,
Bowed with fruitless sorrow down;
By the broken law convicted,
Through the cross behold the crown;
Look to Jesus;
Mercy flows through him alone.

Take his easy yoke and wear it;
Love will make obedience sweet;
Christ will give you strength to bear it,
While his wisdom guides your feet
Safe to glory,
Where his ransomed captives meet.

Blessed are the eyes that see him,
Blest the ears that hear his voice;
Blessed are the souls that trust him,
And in him alone rejoice:
His commandments
Then become their happy choice.

Sweet as home to pilgrim's weary,
Light to newly opened eyes,
Or full springs in deserts dreary,
Is the rest the cross supplies:
All who taste it
Shall to rest immortal rise.

Joseph Swain, 1792
Tune: St. Austin, Arr. from a Gregorian chant for the Bristol Tune Book, 1876

Thankful Thursday

I've been working on my study of Hebrews this afternoon. The passage for examination next Monday is Hebrews 11:11-12:

¹¹By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹²And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

I've been dipping into the related Genesis passages (primarily Gen. 17:17-19 and Gen. 18:10-14 but several others as well) but I've also spent quite a bit of time in Romans 4. These are the verses in Romans 4 that are spurring my thankful thoughts this afternoon:

²³The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

I am so very thankful for that gift of belief, freely given to me by our gracious God through no merit of my own, that leads to my righteous justification before Him! In fact, I'm awestruck by it!

Kim of The Upward Call and several others (including me) are praising God with our thoughts of thanksgiving each Thursday of 2010. Won't you join us?

I Write Like...Who?

I saw this at Kim from Hiraeth's who saw it at Rebecca's.

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I'm not sure if I should consider this a compliment or not.

Sunday's Hymn: Jehovah's Perfect Law

Jehovah's perfect law
Restores the soul again;
His testimony sure
Gives wisdom unto men;
The precepts of the Lord are right,
And fill the heart with great delight.

The Lord's commands are pure,
They light and joy restore;
Jehovah's fear is clean,
Enduring evermore;
His statutes, let the world confess,
Are wholly truth and righteousness.

They are to be desired
Above the finest gold;
Than honey from the comb
More sweetness far they hold;
With warnings they thy servant guard,
In keeping them is great reward.

His errors who can know?
Cleanse me from hidden stain;
Keep me from wilful sins,
Nor let them o'er me reign;
And then I upright shall appear
And be from great transgressions clear.

When thou dost search my life,
May all my thoughts within
And all the words I speak
Thy full approval win.
O Lord, thou art a Rock to me,
And my Redeemer thou shalt be.

From Psalm 19:7-14
The Psalter, 1912
Tune: Haddam, Arr. by Lowell Mason, 1822

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful that I can take 40 minute walks every morning and not experience pain. Last week I would have said that the bursitis that plagued my left hip over the last year was gone, in fact. Then I mowed the lawn on Friday for about an hour. (Emily took it over for the second half of the lawn...I'm thankful for her help too!) But I paid for my part of the mowing over the weekend. Still, my hip is so much better and I can do so many things that I couldn't do just a few months ago. And its already recovering from the lawn episode! Thank you, God!

Each Thursday of 2010, I joining with Kim of The Upward Call and many others in praising God for the good gifts that He gives us. Won't you share yours?

A Fourth of July Visitor

We had an uninvited guest last evening. I was emptying the dishwasher about 8:30 PM and thinking about heading to bed pretty soon afterwards. As I straightened up to put some dishes in the cabinet, I caught a glimpse of something black out of the corner of my eye. It was about eye-level and at first I thought it was a bird and then quickly thought it looked more like a butterfly. But all black?

By now you may have guessed what it really was...a bat! It settled gently to the kitchen floor a few feet from me and I yelled to Andy who was in the basement. He came up and saw it before returning to the basement for a container to throw over it. I headed down the hall to Emily's room and closed the door. I wish I had just tossed a dish towel over the thing before that though, because when Andy came back up the bat was gone. Well, not really gone. Just not on the kitchen floor any more. So he went back downstairs to look up on his computer how to find a bat in your house. Emily did the same thing in her room. Then the two of them went bat-hunting while Charlie and I hunkered down in Emily's room and read a bit.

With flashlights in hand and a container to throw over it (as well as a fishing net in case it flew), they started searching. Emily found it under the valance over the doors to the screen porch chittering away. The two of them moved in and captured it, took it outdoors and set it on the ground. It flew away, hopefully to eat some more mosquitoes. Case closed and we all went to bed in peace...Crystal Lake's Fourth of July fireworks are scheduled for tonight.

Sunday's Hymn: Jesus, Master, Whose I Am

Jesus, Master, whose I am,
Purchased thine alone to be
By thy blood, O spotless Lamb,
Shed so willingly for me,
Let my heart be all thine own,
Let me live to thee alone.

Jesus, Master, I am thine:
Keep me faithful, keep me near;
Let thy presence in me shine
All my homeward way to cheer.
Jesus, at thy feet I fall,
O be thou my all in all.

Jesus, Master, whom I serve,
Though so feebly and so ill,
Strengthen hand and heart and nerve
All thy bidding to fulfil.
Open thou mine eyes to see
All the work thou hast for me.

Lord, thou needest not, I know,
Service such as I can bring;
Yet I long to prove and show
Full allegiance to my King.
Thou an honor art to me:
Let me be a praise to thee.

Frances R. Havergal, 1865
Tune: Wells, Adapted from Dimitri Bortnianski, 1752-1825

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for cooler temperatures and low humidity this week! We had a run of very hot and humid weather the previous couple of weeks so this is welcome relief and I'm praising God for it!

What are you praising Him for this week? Each Thursday of 2010, I'm joining Kim of The Upward Call and several others in sharing thanksgiving to our good God. Please join us.

P.S. Happy Canada Day, Kim and Rebecca!

A Biography of Louisa May Alcott

Little Women has been one of my all-time favorite books ever since I first read it at about age 12 but I'd never read a biography of Louisa May Alcott until now. I knew that Little Women was loosely based on Alcott's own family and that she had never married. Particularly because of the way Pilgrim's Progress is interwoven in the story, I'd always imagined Louisa May Alcott as a sweet Christian spinster.

Harriet Reisen is the author of Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. Her well researched, well-written biography reveals a very different image from the one I've held all these years. Louisa May was the second daughter of Bronson Alcott, a prominent member of the circle of Transcendentalists of New England in the nineteenth century that also included Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was very much affected by the thinking of these men which seems to be much the same as that which is now referred to as New Age. Louisa May in fact referred to herself as a Bhuddist and espoused a belief in reincarnation.

Bronson Alcott never successfully supported his family and this also affected Louisa greatly. She was a determined and spirited child and made up her mind early that she would support the family as soon as possible. She became wealthy through the writing of Little Women and her other children's fiction but she wrote in that genre for the money and not for the love of it. Indeed, she was quite cranky and impatient with the young girls who comprised the Little Women Clubs that sprang up after the publication of her most famous novel. Her true writing passion was in pulp fiction which she wrote under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard.

Never really healthy in her adult life, it is postulated that Louisa May Alcott suffered from Lupus as well as manic-depressive illness. Perhaps this accounts for her bad temper as well as her addiction to opiates which was apparently not uncommon among women of the time.

Despite the fact that Harriet Reissen effectively destroyed my fond and long-held image of the author of Little Women, I am glad that I read Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. But before you read it, do be warned that your mental picture of this classic author may never be the same.

The Beauty of God's Creation in Northern Wisconsin

Lupines

Ruffed Grouse



Loon

Sunset on Lake Bastine

Sunday's Hymn: How Vast the Benefits Divine

How vast the benefits divine
Which we in Christ possess!
We are redeemed from guilt and shame
And called to holiness.
But not for works which we have done,
Or shall hereafter do,
Hath God decreed on sinful men
Salvation to bestow.

The glory, Lord, from first to last,
Is due to thee alone;
Aught to ourselves we dare not take,
Or rob thee of thy crown.
Our glorious Surety undertook
To satisfy for man,
And grace was given us in him
Before the world began.

This is thy will, that in thy love
We ever should abide;
That earth and hell should not prevail
To turn thy Word aside.
Not one of all the chosen race
But shall to heav'n attain,
Partake on earth the purposed grace
And then with Jesus reign.

Augustus M. Toplady, 1774
Tune: St. Matthew, William Croft, 1678-1727

Thankful Thursday

I haven't posted much about our vacation (an omission I intend to correct) but one incident was something we would have preferred to avoid. Charlie got hurt. He jumped off the bed and hurt his rear right leg. Charlie sleeps with us at home too and sometimes he needs to go out in the middle of the night (he is an old guy, remember). At home, he wakes us up by scratching at us, waiting patiently on the bed until one of us responds. Perhaps he was confused in unfamiliar circumstances but he jumped rather than waiting. The result was he was unable to put any weight on the leg. So on our second day of vacation, we visited a local vet who X-rayed the leg and determined that nothing was broken or dislocated. Charlie had torn or strained the equivalent of a human ACL. If it was indeed torn, she told us, he would be unable to bear weight on the leg for a month and it would take two more for it to heal. No surgery for dogs under 30 pounds...or dogs of 14 and a half years.

Well, he began to bear some weight on it in a few days. Its now four weeks since the injury and Charlie is walking, albeit with a little limp, and this week he began bearing enough weight on the leg to lift the other one as boys do. Praise God for His healing of my little pet! I thank Him for His care for Charlie and His care for me in my love for Charlie!

Each Thursday of 2010, I am thanking God for His goodness to me together with Kim of The Upward Call and several others. Won't you join us?

Sunday's Hymn: Before Thee, God, Who Knowest All

Before thee, God, who knowest all,
With grief and shame I prostrate fall.
I see my sins against thee, Lord,
The sins of thought, of deed, and word.
They press me sore: I cry to thee:
O God, be merciful to me!

O Lord, my God, to thee I pray:
O cast me not in wrath away!
Let thy good Spirit ne'er depart,
But let him draw to thee my heart
That truly penitent I be:
O God, be merciful to me!

O Jesus, let thy precious blood
Be to my soul a cleansing flood.
Turn not, O Lord, thy guest away,
But grant that justified I may
Go to my house at peace with thee:
O God, be merciful to me!

Magnus B. Landstad, 1861
Tr. by Carl Doving, 1909
Tune: The Lord's Prayer (Vater Unser), Schumann's Gesangbuch, 1539

Thankful Thursday

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.~Phil. 4:8

I am thankful for a dear and faithful sister in Christ who points me in that direction and reminds me of the sovereignty of God when I am feeling discouraged and overwhelmed.

What are you thankful for today? Please join with Kim of the Upward Call and many others who are sharing in the thanksgiving to our good God each Thursday of 2010.

Sunday's Hymn: By Grace I'm Saved

By grace I'm saved, grace free and boundless;
My soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise?
Hath Scripture ever falsehood taught?
Nay; then this word must true remain:
By grace thou, too, shalt heav'n obtain.

By grace! None dare lay claim to merit;
Our works and conduct have no worth.
God in his love sent our Redeemer,
Christ Jesus, to this sinful earth;
His death did for our sins atone,
And we are saved by grace alone.

By grace! O, mark this word of promise
When thou art by thy sins oppressed,
When Satan plagues thy troubled conscience,
And when thy heart is seeking rest.
What reason cannot comprehend
God by his grace to thee doth send.

By grace! This ground of faith is certain;
So long as God is true, it stands.
What saints have penned by inspiration,
What in his Word our God commands,
What our whole faith must rest upon,
Is grace alone, grace in his Son.

Christian L. Scheidt, 1742
Tune: Aus Gnaden Soll Ich Selig Werden, Justin H. Knecht, 1796

Thankful Thursday

We returned this past Saturday evening from our two weeks in Northern Wisconsin. It was a wonderful time of rest and relaxation. Decisions consisted of shall we go fishing or just relax by the cabin? What game shall we play tonight? Should I read or crochet? You get the idea. It was just wonderful! And I am so thankful that God's provision for us included this special time together!

We came home to all kinds of catching up at the home front. Some things we expected, others we didn't and they are still not fully dealt with. But I am also thankful to God for His provision of this home to come to, this life that He has given us, and the strength to deal with the issues that awaited us, fully aware that that strength comes from Him.

Each Thursday of this year, I am joining with Kim of The Upward Call and others in praising God for the good gifts He gives us. What has He given you this week? Please share in the thanksgiving.

Sunday's Hymn: Thou Art the Way

Thou art the Way: to thee alone
From sin and death we flee;
And he who would the Father seek
Must seek him, Lord, by thee.

Thou art the Truth: thy Word alone
True wisdom can impart;
Thou only canst inform the mind,
And purify the heart.

Thou art the Life: the rending tomb
Proclaims thy conquering arm,
And those who put their trust in thee
Nor death nor hell shall harm.

Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life:
Grant us that Way to know,
That Truth to keep, that Life to win,
Whose joys eternal flow.

George W. Doane, 1824
Tune: Arlington, Arr. by Ralph Harrison, 1784
from Thomas A. Arne, 1762