God of glory, Lord of love;
Make us bloom like flow'rs before You,
Opening to our Sun* above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive despair and gloom away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!
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| African Daisies & Snapdragons |
All Your works with joy surround You,
Earth and heaven reflect Your rays,
Stars and angels sing around You,
Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow'ring meadow, cooling dew,
Singing bird and flowing fountain
Call us to rejoice in You.
You are giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean depth of happy rest!
God our Father, Christ our Brother,
With the Holy Spirit One;
Teach us how to love each other,
Selflessly as You have done.
Mortals, join the happy chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us,
Christian love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us onward
In the triumph song of life.
---Henry van Dyke, 1907, 1911; adapted cmb 1990, 2007
*Often a metaphor for Jesus "the 'Sun' of Righteousness; the 'Son' of God (Malachi)
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7 comments:
thank you, marie. i'm assuming you're referring to my sidebar. it was kinda weird for a second there... i was JUST getting ready to post a music video of lifehouse with clips of the 2006 P&P. i was thinking, how the heck did she know that!? now i get it, but it took me a second. a little slow on the uptake!
yes, i'm a big jane austen fan. just finished the blackstone audio version of P&P. love it love it love it! such rich, deep characters. darcy's my fav. such WONDERFUL, flying, true colors. oh, if there were "ever such a man" for me! but i trust God and His wonderful plan.
back to the new age thing, i'm not really familiar with new age teachings. well, vaguely, but i haven't studied it or anything. but i don't even believe in studying other religions. why waste our time with it when we have the truth of scripture right at our fingertips?
may God richly bless you!
wildflower*
Well, "Mr. Right" generally turns up when you're not really looking, it seems. Maybe that's so we don't make relationships our new "idol." My husband had studied forestry, which was my first interest in him, as a friend. But he actually asked me out the first time while I helped him work on his car. (Just out of the Army as a mechanic.) What was supposed to be our first date was spent putting an alternator in my truck!! But his whole family has taken me in, and I'm less "tomboyish" now. My next occupation, God willing, will be Social Work--hope to start school in 2008.
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The New Age movement is a blend of many things: a little Henry David Thoreau, a little Ralph Waldo Emerson, a little "picking & choosing" from Hindu and Buddhist thinking, some "wishful thinking" about angels---people hoping for special angels' power & protection without having beliefs in the Trinity nor in Jesus as the final & true sacrifice for our sins. I keep up with other world views, New Age included, as part of what Paul to Timothy to "be ready in season & out-of-season" to share the Gospel. Knowing about other people's world view kind of opens the door--like Paul preaching at Athens & referring to the Altar to the Unknown God.
Hang in there on your journey!
Marie
how long have you been in the army? what made you want to (besides being a tomboy=)?
so what's the point of keeping up with other world views when you know the truth? i remember talking about this in my awana varsity class. our teacher for the night told us of his tour of the mint. the docent explained how they train their employees to spot counterfeit money in an instant, fanning through thousands of bills per minute. she went on to explain that since there were always new variations of counterfeit coming out, it was impossible to keep up. so the thing to do was train them to know the real thing SO WELL that anything but the true bill could be immediately identified.
our teacher then compared this example to "keeping up with other worldviews." if we train ourselves to know the real thing so well, we won't have any problem identifying the false.
marie, thanks for your encouragement about mr. right. i know God is using me where i am, so i don't stress too much in general. but as you know, there are times when i lay in bed at night all by myself and wonder...
w*
This verse has a lot to do with why it's a good idea to keep up with other world views: "And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ. . . for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.. .Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:4-6
The Bible itself uses so many types of literature and so many types of imagery so that it can communicate to all different kinds of people: straight-forward prose, legal language, poetry, nature, song (Psalms), symbols (Revelation),family, feeling, thinkingm and many more Western Christianity's formal expressions of the faith are often far narrower than the many rich, broad ways the Bible expresses things. Same truth, different ways of communicating.
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The Army: got great governemtn grants for undergraduate work in religious studies at a private college & thought I owed something back. Also needed money for the eventuality of grad school. And was looking for some adventure.
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Might not be able to get back to you for awhile. Made the blog a higher priority for a little while but must now drop back and do other things for awhile. . .if I don't reply right off, I will later on.
God bless!!
Hello Marie,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment! I enjoyed browsing through your blog and learning about some of your varied interests.
The euphonium is great fun isn't it? I started playing on a whim and I love it; it has added so much to my life.
The euphonium truly deserves its name, from Greek, "good (pleasant) sound"!
by all means, priorities are...well...priorities!
i'll be leaving for vacation myself, and after that the schoolyear starts up for me. don't feel bad, we're both in the same boat.
thanks for putting a pic on your profile... now i can picture you in my mind's eye!
w*
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