The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above,
Ancient of everlasting days and God of love.
Jehovah! Great I AM! by earth and heav'n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred name, forever blest.
The God of Abraham praise, at whose supreme command
from earth I rise, and seek the joys at his right hand.
I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and pow'r,
and him my only portion make, my shield and tow'r.
He by himself hath sworn, I on his oath depend;
I shall, on eagles' wings upborne, to heav'n ascend,
I shall behold his face, I shall his pow'r adore,
and sing the wonders of his grace forevermore.
There dwells the Lord our King, the Lord our Righteousness,
triumphant o'er the world and sin, the Prince of Peace.
On Zion's sacred height his kingdom he maintains,
and glorious with his saints in light forever reigns.
The whole triumphant host gives thanks to God on high;
"Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!" they ever cry.
Hail Abraham's God and mine! I join the heav'nly lays;
all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.
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I've taught for decades the necessity and efficacy of praying for those in authority. I've lived long enough to have spent many years praying for those with whom I have deep disagreements. God never asked me to agree with them; he commands me to pray for them. Moreover...
God promises to take these often weak prayers and answer them in powerfully unexpected ways, most supremely in the open doors for the Gospel he provides for his Church. THIS - and this alone!- is our chief priority. You may think the highest priority is the protection of
... your personal rights or justice in an unjust land (and these matter for you and your neighbor are an image-bearer of God), or perhaps economic systems or military security. Vital as such are in a well-ordered nation, these are not our in priorities in prayer. We pray...
1 Let us love and sing and wonder,
let us praise the Savior's name!
He has hushed the law's loud thunder,
he has quenched Mount Sinai's flame;
he has washed us with his blood,
he has brought us nigh to God.
2 Let us love the Lord who bought us,
pitied us when enemies,
called us by his grace, and taught us,
gave us ears and gave us eyes:
he has washed us with his blood,
he presents our souls to God.
3 Let us sing, though fierce temptation
threaten hard to bear us down!
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
holds in view the conqu'ror's crown;
he who washed us with his blood,
soon will bring us home to God.
1 How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
2 "Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed;
for I am your God, and will still give you aid;
I'll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
3 "When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.
Noted @JohnPiper yesterday published an article about the folly of Christians being single-sin-issue voters in this election, & as issuing a necessary warning to Pastors about aiming at the wrong target in their preaching. All good, but there is a missing stanza in this hymn...
There is a need to consider the common good, the love of my neighbor, rather than the sins of the candidates & voters in any election. A sin-centered view of policies & candidates can't adequately address the issue of the good that can be accomplished in a fallen world.
What some consider a choice between 'a lesser of two evils' - a notion I reject - I take as an opportunity to promote the greater good of my neighbor, and a Christian view of ethics that refuses to sacrifice faith to an idol of power offering false protections.
The great Protestant teacher Reinhold Niebuhr devoted his life to warning against the dangerous sentimentality of a “Christian politics.” Love compels Christians to seek justice also through politics, Niebuhr insisted, but...
we must never equate our penultimate judgments about what might serve justice with the ultimate truth that impels us to seek and serve justice in the first place. In sum, we must never declare our politics to be “Christian politics,” thereby implicitly excommunicating...
those Christians who disagree with us.
Of course the more publicly potent religionizing of politics is today on the right of the ideological spectrum. Conservative leaders regularly say that they are only doing what the religious left did for decades...
The LV Church clip was simply the charismatic version of the Christian Nationalism on display at Jeffress' Baptist church in Dallas. It is a deeply flawed religious impulse, making of the Church a political pawn & further contributing to the devolution of evangelical witness.
Christian Nationalism is a dangerous heresy to be avoided. Thriving on fundamentalist certainties and exclusiveness, it worships power, nation, ethnicity, and tribe. In every possible way, it makes otherwise faithful churches deny the very Gospel they claim to uphold & offer.
Christian Nationalism, especially in its White Supremacist mode, is often violent, always anti-christ, and cannot be regarded as authentically Christian in any way. It understandably provides fertile ground for those who seek to discredit the Faith. It must be resisted.