Sunday's Hymn: Another Year Is Dawning

Another Year Is Dawning

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

—Frances Havergal

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

• Now Let Us Come Before Him at Rosemary at Home
• Be Thou My Vision at Jam and Books
• O Come, All Ye Faithful at Fieldstone Cottage
• Lord’s Day 1 at Tried With Fire 
• Lord’s Day 1, 2012 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Faith Alone - January 1, 2012 at The Upward Call
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: Happy New Year
• God’s Minute at Hiraeth
• Living By Prayer at Daily On My Way to Heaven
• Sunday Prayer: New Year at Lisa Writes
• The Lord’s Day: I Am Resolved at Theology for Girls
• Update: A Quest for Godliness - January 1. 2012 at Alabamenagerie

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. 

Round the Sphere Again: More on the Incarnation

Two Ways
“Is the Incarnation the start of a battle whose outcome is uncertain until victory is achieved? Or is it an act of unparalleled condescension, the successful outcome of which is certain from the beginning?” Read Paul Helm’s answer at Credo Magazine.

Every Way
Are there any exceptions to the statement that Jesus was made “like his brothers in every way”? Well yes, he didn’t have a sin nature; but are there any more? (Mark Snoeberger at Theologically Driven.)

Walking on a Knife Edge

J. I. Packer on two ways we can fall into error when we think about the devil: 

[W]hen we study demonology we walk on a knife-edge; at our feet all the time are two yawning chasms of error, into which we can all too easily topple. On the one hand, we can take Satan too seriously, as some in the early church and the Middle Ages did. This will cause us to fall out of the peace of God into morbid fears and fancies: the devil will become the main theme of our theology, and we shall take up a negative view of the Christian life as primarily a course of devil-dodging exercises and anti-Satanic manoeuvres. This was the mistake that led men to become monks and hermits in the early church: they withdrew from ordinary life in order to fight the devil full-time and without distraction, believing that they could not otherwise keep clear of his clutches. The root of their mistake was unbelief; they would not trust God to keep them safe if they stayed in the world (see John 17:15). They were vividly aware that the devil is an adversary of terrible malice and great power, but they failed to realize that by virtue of Christ’s cross he is now a defeated foe. The biblical answer to their fears was given by the Reformers and Puritans, who without minimizing in the least the devil’s ferocity against the people of God, offered a worthy exposition of the triumph of Calvary, the scope of Christ’s promises and the reality of his keeping power.

On the other hand, we can also err by not taking the devil seriously enough. This … is the characteristic mistake of modern times. The denial that Satan is a personal agent is an extreme form of it. Unwillingness to take the devil seriously has two bad effects: it fools men, by keeping from them the knowledge of their danger as objects of the devil’s attacks, and it dishonours Christ by robbing the cross of its significance as a conquest of Satan and his hosts (cf. Col 2:15).

From the chapter on The Devil in 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know.