Lord take me, deal with me, I would not come disgraceful To your table, Lord; Thy wedding-feast, The supper of the Risen Lamb, Thy kingdom festival. High towers surround Thy walls, Uncounted pinnacles of Truth, great Justice, Miracles of holy Grace; And shall I come unkempt As any prodigal, with festering, silted heart, Oh cleanse […]
Father, in the dawn of this Thy own new-opening year We thank you now for every coming tear And triumph, every precious seed half-sown, May they be gathered one by one And pressed into your hand And hidden in your heart of love To grow unmeasured, bountiful, Awaiting us close-kept within the garden Of Thy […]
Still, Lord, ill whispers holding me, Take captive all my fears, That I, content to lean on Thee, Thus spend each age of years. Give to me now your heart of trust, Your willing Spirit’s ways, To be no more the host, the guest; A child has come to stay. For once I dreamed of […]
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Now show me your glory
Our hearts are deep ingrown with sin, Entwined with innermost desires Like tares in wheat, with woven roots Close-bound, but fuel for the fire. Lord, tear away each hidden cord That draws us to depart from Thee, That we may have the sacred scar Of Thine own cross, That we may seek With unchained limbs, […]
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Thoughts Transformed
Unending thoughts of cindered, coiling smoke, And knot by knot entwined, earth’s incense flung, Soon spent, and served but to provoke More fire-heaped ashes, flames without a song. With shafts of bitterest cross-wood, Lord, Enkindle holy flames within this writhing dust. With lightening-strokes from Sinai’s anvil clouds Consume earth and hell’s rootworms as Thou must. […]
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Cloud and Rain
In cloud and rain Thy blessing, Lord, The clouds that vanish, clouds that stay, In cloud and rain Thy blessing, Lord, We cannot trace Thy promised word, Our hands hold but faith’s silver cord, Thy mists be incense as we pray, In cloud and rain, Thy blessing, Lord.
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Can all be saved?
I believe that the end will be unexpected! We will all be right, and we will all be wrong. There will be destruction that ends, eternal punishment, and God all in all. And I would not make the usual qualifications of “eternal” that the universalists tend to do, or the qualifications of “all” that those […]
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Repentance after death?
Is it possible for people who die in unbelief to repent? We may ask “What about those who have never heard the gospel?” Even J.I. Packer has indicated that they may have a chance to hear and believe, after dying. And then we may consider verses such as we read here: MT 11:21 “Woe to […]
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Capital punishment
As far as the death penalty is concerned, we are all under the death penalty, as a result of sin: GE 2:17 “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Rom. 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world […]
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Forgiveness
Luke 6:37 “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” If we do not forgive, our thoughts will inevitably be drawn to the person towards whom we harbor resentment, our focus will be kept off of Christ, and therefore our hearts will turn from God, and this is sinning. So how can he forgive us, if by […]