Sunday's Hymn: Let Earth and Heaven Combine

Let earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made man.

He laid His glory by,
He wrapped Him in our clay;
Unmarked by human eye,
The latent Godhead lay;
Infant of days He here became,
And bore the mild Immanuel’s name.

See in that infant’s face
The depths of deity,
And labor while ye gaze
To sound the mystery
In vain; ye angels gaze no more,
But fall, and silently adore.

Unsearchable the love
That hath the Savior brought;
The grace is far above
Of men or angels’ thought:
Suffice for us that God, we know,
Our God, is manifest below.

He deigns in flesh t’appear,
Widest extremes to join;
To bring our vileness near,
And make us all divine:
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.

Made perfect first in love,
And sanctified by grace,
We shall from earth remove,
And see His glorious face:
His love shall then be fully showed,
And man shall all be lost in God.

—Charles Wesley

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Update: Veni Veni Emmanuel at threegirldad
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent and one more at Jam and Books
• God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen at Hiraeth
• Join All the Glorious Names at Daily On My Way to Heaven
• Hark, the Glad Sound at Rosemary at Home
• To Us a Child of Hope is Born at Whatever Things
• Lift Up Your Heads, Rejoice! at The Happy Wonderer
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel at Fieldstone Cottage
• Let Earth and Heaven Combine at Tried With Fire 
• Lord’s Day 50, 2011 at The Thirsty Theologian

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list. 

Two I Started But Might Not Finish

I don’t always finish the books I start. There are various reasons for that, and usually it isn’t because the book is bad. Here are two that I recently started reading that I’ve decided to set aside for now and maybe forever.

How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One
As the title suggests, this little book by Stanley Fish is about appreciating and crafting sentences. After the first chapter, I was sure I would love it, but things fizzled in the middle. I set it aside and never picked it up again until this morning, when I cleaned off my desk. 

I thumbed through to refresh my memory, read some of the last chapter on last sentences and was once again intrigued. I’ve decided to read that chapter and the one before it on first sentences and leave it at that. And that’s more than I planned to read before I began this post on books I might not finish.

Would you like it? I don’t know. It won’t teach you how to write better sentences any more than a book about fine wine will help you with wine-making. But if you love language, you might enjoy the whole thing as much as this reviewer did.

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
This is another of Nancy Guthrie’s books of collected essays by classic and contemporary Christians. The purpose is to help believers learn to think rightly about death so that they can “die well.” I read several excellent essays, but grew tired of thinking about dying. It didn’t help that I recently read and reviewed another book about death. 

I feel bad for not finishing, because I know there aren’t enough books on this subject. I also know that this book in particular is a valuable resource and one I recommend. I especially enjoyed the essay by Richard Baxter with Directions for a Peaceful Departure.

Maybe I’ll finish later, but right now, I’m death saturated, and ready to move on to something else.

Thankful Thursday

I missed Thankful Thursday last week because I had no internet, so I’m going to start out today thanking God that I have internet access again. I’m also thankful that the stretched cable wound through the trees with it’s creepy creaking noise is gone, gone, gone.

I’m thankful for my home and my furnace and the quilts on my bed. I’m also thankful for my programmable thermostat that warms things up before I get out of bed in the morning. 

I’m thankful that little Natalie continues to grow and develop and bring joy to us all. She is truly a miracle baby, coming very close to not making it into this world alive, and that makes me all the more thankful for her. 

I’m thankful that God sent his Son into this world as a little baby, the best gift of all.

Throughout this year I’m planning to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving each Thursday along with Kim at the Upward Call and others.