Sunday Hymn: Abide With Me

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

—Henry F. Lyte

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

• Update: Psalm 90 at Still Reforming
• Update: My Jesus, I Love Thee at Field Stone Cottage
• O What Matchless Condescension at Whatever Things
• My Hope Is Built at The Happy Wonderer
• May the Mind of Christ, My Savior at Rosemary at Home
• Lord’s Day 6 at Tried With Fire 
• Lord’s Day 6, 2012 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Praying the Psalms - Psalm 119:25-32 at Daily On My Way to Heaven
• A Sunday Psalm: The Treasury of David - Psalm 2:2-3 at Theology for Girls
• Update: A Quest for Godliness - February 5, 2012 at Alabamenagerie
• Update: Faith Alone - February 5, 2012 at The Upward Call
• Update: Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: If You Marry the Spirit of the Age, You’ll Soon Be a Widower

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. 

Regeneration in the Old Testament? Oh Yes!

In the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus, recorded in John’s Gospel, the Saviour showed that there are no spiritual activities without regeneration; in his first epistle, John labours the converse truth that there is no regeneration without spiritual activities. The fruits of regeneration are repentance, faith and good works. The regenerate believe rightly in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:1). They do righteousness (2:29). They do not live a life of sin (3:9; 5:18; the verbs ‘commits sin’, ‘cannot sin’, ‘does not sin’, express habitual actions, as the present tense regularly does in Greek, and not absolute sinlessness, as 1:8-10 makes clear). They experience faith’s victory over the world (5:4). They love their fellow-Christians (4:7). These are the marks by which the regenerate are known; for no man could do any of these things were he not born again. But we have no warrant for regarding anyone as regenerate without these marks. Any who lack them, whatever they may claim, are to be adjudged unregenerate children of the devil (3:6-10). Regeneration is known by its fruits.

Here, incidentally, is a sufficient answer to the question whether spiritual regeneration was a reality in Old Testament times. Fallen human nature was no less incompetent in spiritual things then than it is now. Had there been no regeneration in Old Testament times, there would have been no faith, and Hebrews 11 could never have been written.

From the chapter on regeneration in  18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know by J. I. Packer.

Thankful Thursday

When I write up these Thankful Thursday posts, I feel like I’m thankful for the same things over and over and that’s got to be boring to read. But the truth is, God provides for our daily needs, the things we need day in and day out, and that’s a wonderful—and, when you think about it, rather exciting—thing. 

I remember when I first grasped the concept of God’s active sustenance of the universe—you know: the world turns because every moment God commands it to turn and it responds, and all else does what it does in the very same way—and how that changed my view of everything. Think about it: if God quit commanding, we’d be in deep trouble. Truth be told, if the “word of his power” ceased to exist, I’d cease to exist.

So I’m thankful that the earth rotates. I’m thankful for the days and the seasons. (And while we’re on the subject, can I say, like I said last week, that I’m thankful for warmer winter weather.) I’m thankful, too, that I exist—that I putter along, yesterday, today, and maybe tomorrow, God willing. 

I’m thankful for food in the fridge and oil for the furnace. For trees out my window and white snow everywhere.

I’m thankful that the God by whose word my world exists is benevolent and unchanging. I’m thankful that the God who sustains by his word also speaks to us so that we can know the One to whom we owe everything.

What about you? What are you thankful for?