Silence Is Golden

As you can see, I've been away. There is a strong temptation in me to (in polite terms) over-share about my life. In not so polite terms, it's called regurgitating all over people. And we all know how polite and helpful and welcome it is when it happens . . . So, I'm grateful God gave me enough wisdom to be silent as I have submitted myself to His higher ways (Isaiah 55.8-9).

Thank God for His ongoing sanctifying work in us--in me. My hope and desire for this blog is to bring attention to Him. So rather than writing about all the nitty-gritty details of my sinful life, I am after something far more edifying, which is telling the only Story that matters: how God redeems all my sin that--if left to my own devices--I would wallow in and even glorify.

No. No wallowing and no glorifying anything or anyone other than Jesus, "Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12.2).

And on each Sunday I will do so by reflecting on one of the hymns that formed and informed my theology, growing up in a little American Baptist Church in Iowa. I love those hymns. Not to the exclusion of today's worship music, but as a vital foundation for it. I love those hymns as the treasures they are, handed down these last hundreds of years. It isn't either-or, for me, but definitely both-and. And praise God that we can have it all to praise Him even more deeply!

Because a morning in which I can sing I Will Glory In My Redeemer and Blessed Assurance in the same service . . . well, I am always grateful for more ways to give glory to God!

You, too?

Blessed Assurance
Scripture: Hebrews 10.22

Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Refrain

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Refrain

Words: Fanny Crosby (1873)



photo by Kïrsten M. Christianson