Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

From Charles Wesley, 1747

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav’n to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation,
Enter every trembling heart.  

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return, and never,
Nevermore Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Praying on this Beautiful Friday...

...for

the LVCCM Men's #82 coming up next weekend, that the hearts of the candidates would be open to the message of the love of Christ;

the Church worldwide, especially where there is violent persecution, that Christ would be glorified somehow through this;

all our priests and bishops and leaders, that they would continually be fed and nourished by God, His Word, and His people;

our families and friends, for protection and peace in their lives, and that they would know in a very real way the love of Christ;

my beautiful bride Monica, that You would protect her and heal her and give her peace in her heart;

the men of Livingston County, that we would turn our hearts wholly toward You, that we would be agents of change in our environments;

the team of GNVDC #55, which is currently being formed, that we would enter into our service without any sense of self-ish-ness, that our hearts would be open to our specific are of service, and that we would reflect Christ in all we do;

my boss and his family, especially during this trial that they are engaged in;

our little business here in Brighton, that You would provide clients and then allow us to meet their needs in a timely manner, may You be glorified by our work here;

LORD, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.


 

Pearl of Great Price

Thank you to the nice folks at Grooveshark for making all types of music available to the masses.

The one linked here is from an Acapella Scripture Songs album from the 90s.



http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=Acappella+Music+Group+Matthew+13%3A45-46+--+Pearl+Of+Great+Price

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. ..."

           ~~ Matthew 13:44-46

It IS Well With My Soul

This is not your grandma's sitting in the front pew version.

Rocked by Jars of Clay.

Pax Christi ad vos

The Te Deum Laudamus

From Scripture, and sung every week for 13 years whilest attending Lutheran chapel, from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941): the Order of Matins, found on page 32 in the front of your hymnal. 

 

We praise Thee O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father Everlasting.
To Thee all the angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein;
To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry;
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise Thee;
The noble army of martyrs praise Thee;
The holy Church though all the world doth acknowledge Thee;
The Father of an infinite majesty; Thine adorable true and only Son,
Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.
Thou are the everlasting Son of the Father.
When Thou tookest upon Thee to deleiver man;
Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a virgin.
When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,
Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God
In the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come
To be our judge.
We therefore pray Thee to help Thy servants,
Whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with Thy saints
In glory everlasting.
O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we magnify Thee,
And we worship Thy name ever, world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin,
O Lord have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us,
O Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as our trust is in Thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded. midi

Prayer Palanca

Please, as you are led, commit to praying for the Candidates and Team, Spiritual Directors and Cooks for the upcoming LVCCM Summer Weekends.

LVCCM Men's #82 is July 31 - August 3 and Women's #82 is August 14 - 17, and you can sign up to pray in half hour blocks of time at http://www.3dayol.org/Vigil/GetComm.phtml. Scroll through the list and you may even see other Weekends you could pray for - ours are listed alphabetically as Lutheran Via de Cristo of Central Michigan...






My goal by Weekends #84 is to have every slot filled with Pray-ers, and to print out a huge banner that we can put in the Rollo room to show the Candidates as another example of community palanca.

If you're new to the whole Cursillo thing, Wikipedia has a brief description here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursillo. 

For more information on LVCCM, lvccm.org.

Thank you for your interest, and thank you for your prayers!

Father, prepare the hearts of the Candidates for these upcoming weekends, that they may soak up Your message to them. 
Bless each team member with strength and endurance, and be with the families of those gone for the weekend. Thank You for Your love, thank You for Your amazing grace. 
Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Prais the Name of the LORD!!!

I was singing this hymn on the say to work this morning ...

"Beautiful Savior"
by Author Unknown, 1677
Translated by Joseph A. Seiss, 1823-1904


1. Beautiful Savior,
King of Creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I'd love Thee,
Truly I'd serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.

2. Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flowers of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.

3. Fair is the sunshine,
Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels in the sky.

4. Beautiful Savior,
Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!

Hymn #657
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ps. 45: 2
Author: unknown, 1677
Translated by: Joseph A. Seiss, 1873
Titled: "Schoenster Herr Jesu"
Tune: "Schoenster Herr Jesu"
1st Published in: "Schlesische Volkslieder"
Town: Leipzig, 1842

... and then to-day's responsorial Psalm 145 is another song of praise:

R. (8a) The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
They discourse of the power of your terrible deeds
and declare your greatness.
They publish the fame of your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your justice.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Storms and such

Yestreday Tuesday early morning we had some powerful storms move through. Thunder shook the house and banged almost at the same time of the lightning. I could hear the rain hitting the windows loudly; I prayed during this time loudly also.
The power went out for about a minute two times and flickered several times but we thought we were ok as we both left for work later. But Moni called me in the early afternoon with rumours of outages in our neighbourhood. I confirmed with the very convenient DTE Outage Map (updated every 15 minutes) that we were powerless.
So I bought a couple of bags of ice on the way home from work and the silence only broken by the generators as I entered our sub confirmed again our predicament. My main concern was the recently acquired ice cream Sammies from Kroger (and of course Sierra the Wise Malamute stuck in that hot tin can all day with no ventilation). I let the dog out and attended to the food. Leftover pizza demolished along with a quick turkey/cheese/mustard sandwich and I had fed my brain enough to handle the situation. All the beverages could stay in the fridge but the meat and cheese and dressings got top priority in the cooler.
Moni said the Little Caesar's parking lot was packed when she stopped for a fast-food five dollar box of carbohydrate and fat goodness; we ate and enjoyed the Tiger broadcast on our black beach radio that predates our marriage. I was just in the bedroom pulling up the blinds so the breeze could enter when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the bedroom fan turning on, spinning fastly not slowly due to the breeze. I praised God and thanked Him for his goodness and shed a tear of joy.
It's the little things you know.