Sunday's Hymn

We sang this hymn this morning. This is one of my favorites, even more so since I’ve written two pieces on the words in it: Nothing Less Than Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness and But Wholly Lean on Jesus Name. I was thinking as I sang this morning that I should probably write something on the rest of the verses, too, because they’re just as rich as the first one.

My Hope is Built (or The Solid Rock)

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

Refrain

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

—Edward Mote

Listen to the Cadet Sisters sing it:

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

• Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee at Hiraeth
• Now Thank We All Our God at Field Stone Cottage
• Lord’s Day 47, 2008 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Fear Not, Thou Faithful Christian Flock at joythruChrist
• Jesus Shall Reign at Conjubilant with Song
• My God, I Thank Thee at The Happy Wonderer
• Amazing Grace at Nova Scotia Scott
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon: The Intolerance of True Religion at Pyromaniacs
• Christ Shall Have Dominion over Land and Sea at Practicing Theology
• When All Thy Mercies, O My God at Whatever Things

Have you posted a hymn 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.

Being Thankful on November 22

I’ve been an avid reader since I was very young. Reading is one of my favorite activities and it is also the way I learn best. I’m thankful today for the ability to read.

• Becky is thankful for her daughter and for music.
• Willow is thankful that she is on vacation and more.
• Ann is thankful for her daughter’s help in baking.
• Kim of The Upward Call is thankful for “parents who bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
• Connie is thankful for enjoyable relationships with her daughters.
• Dorothy is thankful that a cold bug is on the way out of her house.
• Julana is thankful for hot chocolate and more.
• Kim of Hiraeth is thankful for her basement refrigerator.
• Liz is thankful for her very nice JOY sign.
• Carla is thankful for her imperfect family.

What are you thankful for?

I’m celebrating good gifts from God during the month of November and hoping you’ll be thankful for your good gifts, too. Here’s how you can join in the thanksgiving and even, perhaps, get something material from it. If you’ve posted something you’ve posted something you’ve expected me to include and you don’t see it on the list, please let me know. It’s a lot to keep track of and I do miss things sometimes.

Being Thankful on November 21

Have you noticed that so many of the items listed on our thankful lists this month are what we might call “small mercies?” We call them small mercies, I think, because they are so commonplace that they don’t seem like a big deal. We go through our lives not taking much notice of them because we are surrounded by gifts like these day in and day out, every single minute.

But there is no substantial difference, you know, between the small mercies and the big miracles. They all come from the same place and by the same means—from the plan of God and by the power of God.

God’s powerful word “calls into existence the things that do not exist (Romans 4).” These are the sort of things we think of as the big miracles—the impossible things that are possible for God, like giving a biological son to Abraham and Sarah in their their old age.

But it is also God’s powerful word that “upholds the universe (Hebrews 1).” Everything that exists continues to exist only by God’s power. Day by day, minute by minute, he holds our everyday world together for us. We receive our small mercies by what we think of as ordinary means, but those ordinary means are the result of God’s decision and God’s energy just like the big miracles are. Our small mercies are a big deal.

What do we have that we did not receive? The right answer is nothing. Every single thing we have, whether it comes to us by way of big miracle or small mercy, comes to us from the mind and hand of our good God. And we are obligated to thank God for all of it.

So today I’m thankful for small mercies—all the works of God that are right now flying under my radar.

• Kim of Hiraeth is thankful for a big mercy.
• Julana, who runs a blog of many colours, is thankful for many things, including coffee shops.
• Dawn is thankful for her children.
• Liz is thankful for fuzzy slipper and more.
• Dorothy is thankful for the boiler.
• Connie it thankful for the company of friends.
• Becky is thankful for Awana.
• Kim of The Upward Call is thankful for Titus 2 ladies, both in real life and online.

What are you thankful for?

• Tulipgirl is thankful for God’s amazing mercy and more.
  

I’m celebrating good gifts from God during the month of November and hoping you’ll be thankful for your good gifts, too. Here’s how you can join in the thanksgiving and even, perhaps, get something material from it. If you’ve posted something you’ve posted something you’ve expected me to include and you don’t see it on the list, please let me know. I do miss things sometimes.