Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner,
It must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory
His army shall He lead,
Till every foe is vanquished,
And Christ is Lord indeed.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
The solemn watchword hear;
If while ye sleep He suffers,
Away with shame and fear;
Where’er ye meet with evil,
Within you or without,
Charge for the God of battles,
And put the foe to rout.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
The trumpet call obey;
Forth to the mighty conflict,
In this His glorious day.
Ye that are brave now serve Him
Against unnumbered foes;
Let courage rise with danger,
And strength to strength oppose.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you,
Ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the Gospel armor,
Each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger,
Be never wanting there.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Each soldier to his post,
Close up the broken column,
And shout through all the host:
Make good the loss so heavy,
In those that still remain,
And prove to all around you
That death itself is gain.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
The strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle,
The next the victor’s song.
To him who overcometh
A crown of life shall be;
They with the King of Glory
Shall reign eternally.
Our little Eastside family went to Phase Three for gathering and hugging on May 2nd, 2020. We had Dan, Jamie, Addy and Jaymison over for dinner on that Saturday. First things first…we got a good hug from Addy after she was out of her car seat and up the two steps to Gramps and Baba’s house.
Jaymison came in with his mommy and I wondered if he’d be willing to come to me after the many times we had seen him without responding to his little arms lifted up for me to pick him up. I was overjoyed (to tears) when he came right to me and then laid his sweet head against my shoulder and stayed there until it was time to sit down for dinner.
We had a nice dinner and then it was time to get re-acquainted with fun in the playroom. Jaymison is getting the “lay of the land” at our country bungalow.
Addy is a pro about all things here already.
Such a relief and joy to be together.
Thinking about this separation time and distancing time we are all having this morning and wondering about how special, amazing, glorious it will be when we finally see Jesus face to face? To behold His glory in person. Will we hug? Will we hold back and be in awe or will we run up and give Him a bear hug. Maybe both? The longer I live the more I’m looking forward to His appearing.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
We are on the letter J and Jesus Christ is the best choice for me to create a post on this Easter Weekend.
The Old Rugged Cross
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
Refrain
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
Refrain
To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.
Thinking of all our friends and family who will be celebrating alone on this Easter 2020. May God draw you to a closer relationship with Him. Praying that God will wipe out this virus soon so we can meet together again.
We are on the letter I and I’m choosing Important for my theme. This is an important weekend in the history of Christianity. Today we remember Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified on a cross and when he breathed His last was laid in a tomb.
Were the angels looking down from heaven to see all that would transpire?
Growing up there were Good Fridays when we would fast on that day until our church service in the evening with Communion breaking our fast and then having a meal together.
We will miss being able to attend Good Friday services this year but that will not stop us from our reading and contemplating the importance of this event in history and it’s importance today and in our future.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “MyGod, myGod, why have you forsaken me?”
From Matthew 27:
The Death of Jesus
45 Now from the sixth hour[f] there was darkness over all the land[g] until the ninth hour.[h]46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son[i] of God!”
55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him,56 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Jesus Is Buried
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus.58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard[j] of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.”66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Tomorrow for the letter J my post will be about Jesus and His resurrection including photos from Easters past.
We are on the letter E for the A to Z Challenge and my choice for the letter E is Easter Week.
This Easter Week will go down in history as the Corona Virus Holy Week of 2020!
Our church will be celebrating Easter together in the flesh once the Stay at Home orders are lifted, sometime in the summer. We will have an online celebration this coming Sunday, on Easter.
Part of Easter Week (Holy Week) is Maundy Thursday, The Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples Feet.
The Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples Feet are both remarkable events.
While in Milan in March of 2013 I was able to see Leonardo da Vinci’s mural of the Last Supper. The original mural is on a wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. No photos allowed.
Dear and I were in England in 2014 and we saw two amazing paintings of the last supper, one in the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Windsor and one in the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford.
From the Lectern, look down the centre aisle and observe in the West Gallery a painting of The Last Supper. This is a national treasure. The picture was originally presented to the Royal Chapel c. 1660 by Brian Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, Prelate of the Order of the Garter. It was “bought by him beyond the sea”. Another tradition ascribes it to Franz de Cleyn (1588-1658), Rostock, Mecklenburg, Court painter to James I. It was rolled up and buried “in the plumery” (plumbers workshop?) in the Great Rebellion. It hung over the altar at St George’s, Windsor in 1702, and can be seen there in Sandby’s drawing dated 1786.
Above the stalls in the chapel hangs Giampetrino’s remarkable 15th copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, on permanent loan from the Royal Academy. In view of the bad condition of the original fresco in Milan, Magdalen’s copy on canvas is a piece of increasing historic and artistic significance.
This next sculpture of Jesus washing Peter’s feet is at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California.
Excerpts from John chapter 13…
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Thinking of all my friends and family during this time of “Social Distancing”. Hoping you all are holding up under this time of unrest. It’s a good time to heed Jesus’ words and love one another and care for one another and wash one another’s feet.
This song is one that our Russian Community sings at funerals but it is a song with words that are relevant in this time of being apart. I am looking forward to that time “till we meet again”.
Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without Him I would fall.
When I am sad, to Him I go,
No other one can cheer me so;
When I am sad, He makes me glad,
He’s my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me,
My friend in trials sore;
I go to Him for blessings, and
He gives them over and o’er.
He sends the sunshine and the rain,
He sends the harvest’s golden grain;
Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain,
He’s my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me,
And true to Him I’ll be;
O how could I this friend deny,
When He’s so true to me?
Following Him I know I’m right,
He watches o’er me day and night;
Following Him by day and night,
He’s my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me,
I want no better friend;
I trust Him now, I’ll trust Him when
Life’s fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life with such a friend,
Beautiful life that has no end;
Eternal life, eternal joy,
He’s my friend.
Words: Will L. Thompson, 1904.
This is Palm Sunday and it’s hard to not be in services with other believers. So thankful for being able to meet online and enjoy time together in another way…
When I learned last August that one of my neighbors was given 3 short months to live I felt the urgency to share and knew this wasn’t a time for sugar coating. I feel the same about this time we are all finding ourselves in globally over the danger of COVID-19. Here’s what I wrote to her:
Dear ****,
Greg and I (Ellen) were so sorry to hear that you were given such a short time to live on this earth. We have prayed for you, especially that you can die in peace knowing you will spend eternity in heaven.
We believe in the one true God who made heaven and earth and all of us. We believe the Bible is the true Word of God. The Bible tells us about what Jesus did for us-
“Jesus Christ came into this world and did the greatest thing that will ever be done. As the perfect Son of God, He died in our place, absorbed the wrath of God, paid the penalty for sin, provided the righteousness of the law, and rose invincible from the dead–all in a vapor’s life of thirty three years.”
Jesus Christ wants a personal relationship with you. He wants to be your Savior. In order for Him to be your Savior you need to admit you are a sinner (need a Savior). Our sins separate us from God. God provided the way for us to be forgiven through Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross, paying for our sins. We cannot save ourselves. We need to come to Jesus personally and cry to Him to have mercy on us. When we ask He will forgive our sins.
God is in charge. “This then, is the gospel our Lord sends us forth to proclaim: That Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, humbled himself to die on our behalf. Thus He became the the sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty of our guilt. He rose from the dead to declare with power that He is Lord over all, and He offers eternal life freely to sinners who will surrender to Him in humble, repentant faith. This gospel promises nothing to the haughty rebel, but for broken, penitent sinners, it graciously offers everything that pertains to life and godliness.”
We pray that God will have mercy on you and draw you to Himself through forgiveness so that you can be born again. It’s too late to sugar coat this message. Ask God to show you right now the truth of His Gospel and the way to eternal life.
With concern and hope for your eternity,
Ellen and Greg
Our neighbor left this earth in October of 2019.
We will all spend eternity somewhere. I’m grateful to be able to say I will spend it with my Savior. Do you know where you will spend eternity?
John 14: 1-4, 6 ~ “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going…Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
It’s time for me to forewarn that ellen b. will be away from the computer and all reading material for a time. On Monday I am scheduled for Vitrectomy Surgery in Spokane. My right eye has enough floaters to form my own galaxy. They affect my vision in my right eye. The surgery will involve removing the vitreous (the clear jelly like substance that fills the middle of the eye). They will replace it with saline (a saltwater solution). I’ll be under Dear’s care who will have to instill 3 different eye drop medications in my eye at different intervals for days. I don’t really know how long it will be before I feel like typing or reading so when you don’t see anything on my blog you will know why. I hope some of you will pray for me when God reminds you by His Spirit. Thank you in advance!
This is the latest devotional book that I am reading along with my daily Bible passages.
It’s proving to be a book I copy quotes from into my journal. Piper shares this quote from C.S. Lewis and then I’ll share a subsequent paragraph from Piper.
In the middle of the last century the British writer C.S. Lewis got it shockingly right:
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His fee and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (Mere Christianity)
Then Piper goes on to say:
In other words, Jesus will not be domesticated. But people still try. There seems to be something about this man for everybody. So we pick and choose in a way that shows he is on our side. All over the world, having Jesus on your side is a good thing. But not the original, undomesticated, unadjusted Jesus. Just the revised Jesus who fits our religion or political platform or lifestyle.
These quotes are just from the preface. I’ll be jotting down many more thoughts to ponder as I continue to slowly read through this one.
Happy Monday to you all. Hope to have Dear add an update on this post on Wednesday to let you know how things are going.
17 The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Can you imagine God singing over you?
Are you a child of God? Have you responded to His call to repent and be born again? Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be saved and be born again. Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Are you following and growing in relationship with Him?
If you answer yes then you are His child. You are one of His lambs. Stop and consider the fact that the God of the universe sings over you…
My daily readings right now include the Bible, Daily Readings by C.H. Spurgeon, The Pleasures of God by John Piper and Pray Big by Alistair Begg. In Piper’s book I’m in the chapter called “The Pleasure of God in doing good to all who Hope in Him”. The beginning sentence reads; “Can you imagine what it would be like to hear God singing?”
This chapter brought my thoughts to who I have sung over in my life. There is a simple song I sang over each of our children when they were babies. I made up the simple words to a simple tune and sang it when I held them or rocked them.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.
I sang the same song over our second born son, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.
Then we had our daughter, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.
Now 40 years later I’m singing this same simple song over our granddaughter and grandson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.
and
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.
Today I’m dumbfounded in thoughts about God singing over me. God singing over His lambs. I’m waiting on God for the day when He returns to gather his lambs. How about you? “Open our heart-eyes to see much further and see much better, to the riches of your eternity.” ~Begg
John 17:24-26English Standard Version (ESV)
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
On Tuesday we met with the pastor and deacons of First Baptist Colville to give our testimonies for consideration for church membership. I rewrote my testimony to share with the deacons.
Nestled close to Kings Canyon National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada is the Youth Camp that I was able to attend in 1963, 1965 and 1967. I was 12, 14, and 16 during these wilderness adventures.
I was raised in a family who attended church regularly and often, very religious. The church I was raised in gave me the impression that because I was Russian and a member of their church that I had an exclusive connection with God. What I learned at Bible Camp was that the only exclusive connection I could have to God was through Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross. Being Russian and being a part of my father’s religion did not give me a direct link to God. In 1963 at Hume Lake while listening to a speaker talk about Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to save sinners I was moved to step out and become a follower of Jesus. God’s plan of salvation was exclusively through his perfect son Jesus, who is fully God and came to earth to live a perfect life among us and be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. I knew I was one of those sinners and I needed a Savior. This decision began a journey of ups and downs, highs and lows, but a journey forward with my God and Savior. When I began my new life following Jesus I was clothed with His righteousness and reconciled to God. I continue on this walk, never perfectly but with God’s grace I carry on. He will be teaching me by His Holy Spirit all the days of my life. My God and Savior is and will be faithful to see me through all of my life on this earth and I look forward with the Hope of seeing Him face to face in heaven. During this same year, 1963, my father began his journey of following Jesus after hearing Billy Graham at the Los Angeles Coliseum share the truth of Jesus Christ and why He came to earth over 2000 years ago. 1963 was an epic year for me and my family. For my father and me we became part of God’s movement of love and grace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My mother was a follower of Jesus when she married my father. My two older sisters had started following Jesus before my father and me.
I’ll share this verse that Billy Graham proclaims in every interview I’ve ever heard him give. John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
HUME LAKE CHRISTIAN CAMP 1967
Fresh quotes from my reading this week and a quote from Dorothy Sayers that I read on Thistle Cove Farm blog:
“It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.” ~ Dorothy Sayers
Form Piper, Taste and See:
“We should continually look to the cross and the work of God in Christ because this is where God makes the light of the gospel shine. If we become excessively introspective and analyze our emotions too much, we will sink into hopeless doubts because the self-authenticating light shines not from within us, but from Christ in the gospel. We must look outside ourselves to Christ and his work if we hope to have assurance sustained inside ourselves.”
Second, we should continually pray for God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts.
Third, we should express our trust in Christ by loving each other.”
1 John 3:14 ~ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.”
Hope you have time to pause and consider what God has done for you on this Thoughtful Thursday.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 