Rebecca Writes

This hymn was chosen by Rosemary, who gave me a list of her favorite hymns. Several of her favorites have already been featured, but this one hasn’t, and it’s a good one that has a couple of affirmations of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness for our justification. Can you find them?

My Hope Is Built (The Solid Rock)

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame¹,
But wholly trust in 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.)

¹You’ll find a discussion of the term “sweetest frame” at the old blog. 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Give Me the Bible at Above the Clouds
  
• O Young and Fearless Prophet at joythruChrist
• The Collect for the Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity at Magic Statistics
• Heavenly Sunlight at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 39, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• The Head that Once Was Crowned at Hiraeth
• O Worship the King at Seasoning of the Heart
• Depth of Mercy! Can There Be at Lux Venit
  

Columbine reminds us that tomorrow (Sunday) is election day in Ukraine.

This is a very serious election. Tensions are high around the country. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out tomorrow and the next few days afterward.

…So, if you think of it, pray for Ukraine tomorrow.

She points us to this story, as an example.

If you are interested in missions (and you should be), I recommend Columbine’s blog as a place to get a glimpse into the challenges of daily life for a missionary couple. Lately, she’s been fixing up their flat a little, mostly with paint and elbow grease. It’s a lot more complicated for her than it is for me when I paint a room. I can choose my paint color, drive down to the hardware store, color sample in hand, and come back 2o minutes later with exactly what I need to complete the job. Not so for Columbine.

The Pyros made a polished production of the pomo posters.

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright!
The bridal of the earth and sky—
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like season’d timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.

 —-George Herbert

In George Herbert there is poetry enough and to spare: it is the household bread of his being. With a conscience tender as a child’s, almost diseased in its tenderness, and a heart loving as a woman’s, his intellect is none the less powerful. Its movements are as the sword-play of an alert, poised. well-knit, strong-wristed fencer with the rapier, in which the skill impresses one more than the force, while without the force the skill would be valueless, even hurtful, to its possessor. There is a graceful humour with it occasionally, even in his most serious poems adding much to their charm.  —George MacDonald

but the landscape is not.  

Death being threatened as the wages of sin,[1] it is appointed unto all men once to die;[2] for that all have sinned.[3]

Click to read more ...

This is  a new feature I’m introducing. Once a week I hope to give a very brief explanation of a theological term, include a few quotes on it, and link to some resources that may explain the term and the issues around it more fully.

This is the older term for what is now most often called the clarity of scripture.¹ It is the teaching that the ordinary reader can understand from scripture what God requires as long as they are willing to seek God’s help to understand and obey it. It does not mean that the scripture contains no passages that may be difficult to understand or that all passages are equally clear.

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith,  chapter 1, section 7

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

• From Martin Luther, Bondage of the Will
  

But, if many things still remain abstruse to many, this does not arise from obscurity in the Scriptures, but from [our] own blindness or want [i.e. lack] of understanding, who do not go the way to see the all-perfect clearness of the truth… Let, therefore, wretched men cease to impute, with blasphemous perverseness, the darkness and obscurity of their own heart to the all-clear scriptures of God… If you speak of the internal clearness, no man sees one iota in the Scriptures, but he that hath the Spirit of God… If you speak of the external clearness, nothing whatever is left obscure or ambiguous; but all things that are in the Scriptures, are by the Word brought forth into the clearest light, and proclaimed to the whole world.

• Psalm 119:130

The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.

Learn more

1. From Theopedia: The Clarity of Scripture  (This is the source of the Martin Luther quote above.)
   
2. From Blue Letter Bible: What Is The Clarity of Scripture? (Perpescuity)
3. From Wayne Grudem: The Clarity of Scripture (mp3)

Neil chose this hymn from the Believers Hymn Book. He kindly left all the words for us, assuming it was not well-known. I think he might be right, since I’m not familiar with it. Are you?

My Redeemer

My Redeemer, oh, what beauties
In that lovely name appear;
None but Jesus in His glories
Shall the honored title wear.
My Redeemer, my Redeemer,
Thou hast my salvation wrought.

Sunk in ruin, sin, and mis’ry,
Bound by Satan’s captive chain,
Guided by his artful treach’ry,
Hurrying on to endless pain,
My Redeemer, my Redeemer,
Plucked me as a brand from hell.

Mine by cov’nant, mine forever,
Mine by oath, and mine by blood;
Mine— nor time the bond shall sever,
Mine as an unchanging God.
My Redeemer, my Redeemer,
Oh, how sweet to call Thee mine!

When in heav’n I see Thy glory,
When before Thy throne I bow,
Perfected I shall be like Thee,
Fully Thy redemption know.
My Redeemer, my Redeemer,
Then shall hear me shout His praise.

—-Author unknown. Tune: Regent Square (Listen.) 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• With Grateful Heart, My Thanks I Bring at Above the Clouds
  
• Stand Up, My Soul  at joythruChrist
• The Collect for the Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity at Magic Statistics
• Heirs of the Kingdom at The Happy Wonderer
• Glorious Is Thy Name at Thoughts from the Teahouse
  
• Lord’s Day 38, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• Approach, My Soul, The Mercy Seat at Hiraeth
  

Here are a few more of Wayne Grudem’s Sunday school lessons based on his Systematic Theology that you might find helpful to you in your own Bible study:

One of Wayne Grudem’s gifts, you’ll find, is communicating in a way that almost anyone can understand, so even if you are a beginner on these issues, you won’t find these lectures too difficult for you.

(I recommended a few more of the mp3’s from this series here.)