Daily Gospel: 5/11/11

Lord, how secure my conscious was
And felt no inward dread
I was alive without the Law
And thought my sins were dead.

My hopes of heaven were firm and bright
But then Your standard came
With a convincing power and light
To show how vile I am

Chorus
Let Your blood plead for me
Let Your blood wash me clean
I believe, Lord I believe
Your blood has covered me.

My guilt appeared so small before,
Till terribly I saw
How perfect, holy, just and pure
Was Your eternal Law

My soul was in the bonds of sin,
The cold and jagged chain.
I had provoked a dreadful God
All my hopes were slain
 
Let Your blood plead for me
Let Your blood wash me clean
I believe, Lord I believe
Your blood has covered me.

 - Sojourn, "Let Your Blood Plead For Me", Text by Isaac Watts Arranged by Jeremy Quillo & Bobby Gilles

I love hymns that tell the spiritual story of progression from death and hopelessness to hope in Christ, even if only the last word of the last line points to Christ.

Daily Gospel: 5/10/11

It’s where we see Your holiness- at the cross
We see that You’re controlling this- at the cross
We see how You feel about sin- at the cross
Your unfathomable love for men- at the cross
It’s where we see Your sovereignty- at the cross
We see our idolatry- at the cross
We know that there’s a judgment day- from the cross
May we never take our eyes away- from the cross

 - Shai Linne, "The Cross (3 Hours)", from the album The Atonement

Daily Gospel: 5/9/11

My grand objection to the religious system still held by many who declare themselves orthodox Churchmen…is, that it tends to render Christianity so much a system of prohibitions rather than of privilege and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice, so strongly enforced in the NT, is practically neglected, and Religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy.

 - William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity

Via What's Best Next

Daily Gospel: 5/8/11

It is astonishing that he gave the Beloved for those who hated him...If even we hated him and were enemies he gave the Beloved, what will he not do for us now?

 - John Crysostom commenting on Ephesians 1:7, via TableTalk Magazine, May 2011, p.34

Daily Gospel: 5/7/11

We often want to change to prove ourselves to God or to other people or to ourselves. But this puts our glory at the centre of change and that is pretty much a definition of sin. Plus Jesus has proved us right or justified us through his death. Instead, we change to enjoy the freedom from sin and delight in God that God gives to us through Jesus.

 - Tim Chester, Commenting on his book, "You Can Change" at the Desiring God blog

Daily Gospel: 5/6/11

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

 - Ephesians 1:11-14

Do some cross-referencing on "inheritance" in verse four and you will find some glorious promises and amazing connections between Paul's letters (Hint: And Peter!).

Daily Gospel: 5/5/11

I am ashamed conceived in sin I’ve always been
Born in a world where Adam’s fall corrupts us
Rooted is the seed of death in life’s first breath
The law demands a perfect heart but I’m defiled in every part

For only your blood is enough to cover my sin
For only your blood is enough to cover me

All this guilt disturbs my peace I find no release
Who will save me from my crime I’m helpless
Behold I fall before your face in need of grace
So speak to me in a gentle voice for in your mercies I rejoice

Lord create my heart anew ( Father come and make us wise )
Only you are pure and true ( Lead us away from our demise )
Lord you are the remedy ( For only your blood can set us free )

For only your blood can set us free
For only your blood can set us free
No bleeding bird, no bleeding beast
No hyssop branch no priest
No running brook no flood no sea
Can wash away this stain from me

 - "Only Your Blood", Sojourn, Adapted from Isaac Watts' "Psalm 51 Part II"

Daily Gospel: 5/4/11

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

 - "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing", Charles Wesley

Via CyberHymnal

Did you know that according to CyberHymnal this hymn had nineteen stanzas?

Daily Gospel: 5/3/11

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

 - Ephesians 1:3-10

Daily Gospel: 5/2/11

If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.

 - John Piper, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 20

Via OFI

Apologies for the blog laziness recently. I moved into a new apartment this weekend, so that is taking up a lot of time. Last week of MBA classes though! Woot!