Sunday's Hymn

Here’s the plan: It’ll be Olney Hymns for the Sunday’s Hymn until I decide to do something else. (You’ll find the Olney Hymns online at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.)

“I Am, saith CHRIST our glorious head,
(May we attention give)
The resurrection of the dead,
The life of all that live.

By faith in me, the soul receives
New life, though dead before;
And he that in my name believes,
Shall live, to die no more.

The sinner, sleeping in his grave,
Shall at my voice awake;
And when I once begin to save,
My work I ne’er forsake.”

Fulfill thy promise, gracious LORD,
On us assembled here,
Put forth thy Spirit with the word,
And cause the dead to hear.

Preserve the pow’r of faith alive,
In those who love thy name;
For sin and Satan daily strive
To quench the sacred flame.

Thy pow’r and mercy first prevailed
From death to set us free;
And often since our life had failed,
If not renewed by thee.

To thee we look, to thee we bow;
To thee, for help, we call;
Our life and resurrection thou,
Our hope, our joy, our all.

—John Newton

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

• Lord’s Day 31, 2009, at The Thirsty Theologian
• The King of Love My Shepherd Is at The Happy Wonderer
• God of Pity, God of Grace at Fieldstone Cottage
• Caring Love from The Valley of Vision at The Upward Call
• A Prayer Following Prayer from The Valley of Vision at Challies.com
• Not What My Hands Have Done at Hiraeth
• He Leadeth Me at Tapestry of Graces
• How Firm a Foundation at Whatever Things…
• Update: Crown Him with Many Crowns at Lux Venit

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 emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Book Review: Adopted for Life

Click on this photo to buy Adopted for Life at Monergism Books.The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Russell Moore.

I had a reason from real life for wanting to read this book. My sister adopted three children recently, so adoption is a subject we’ve all been talking and thinking about lately. I had a copy of Adopted for Life sent to her first and then decided that I should request a copy for me to review.

Russell Moore wants Christians to be known “once again, as the people who take in orphans and make of them beloved sons and daughters,” because, for one, we are called to be like our Father, doing what he does, and our Father “is fighting for orphans, making them sons and daughters. And second, adoption is evangelistic:

What better way is there to bring the good news of Christ than to see his unwanted little brothers and sisters placed in families where they’ll be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

It’s this last point that my sister mentioned when she gave me her assessment of this book. She has, as you might imagine, read lots of books on adoption, some by Christian authors, but this book was unique in setting adoption in the context of the gospel. My sister struggled when deciding whether or not to adopt. She is not young and doesn’t have a big income, but, she says, she kept coming back to the fact that these children “might not otherwise know Jesus.” She found Moore’s book to be encouraging, like “a big pat on the back.”

Click to read more ...

My Desktop Photo 68: In Kluane National Park

Photo by Andrew Stark
(click on photo for larger view)