O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing ~ Hymn

 

Wesley wrote this hymn to com­mem­o­rate the first an­ni­ver­sa­ry of his con­ver­sion to Christ. This or­i­gin is re­flect­ed in the lyr­ics, “On this glad day the glor­i­ous Sun of Right­eous­ness arose.” The stanza that be­gins “O for a thou­sand tongues to sing” is verse seven of Wes­ley’s orig­in­al po­em. This work first ap­peared in Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems in 1740.

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

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.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

ht: Cyberhymnal

Visitors…

Mama Duck and her 9 little ducklings came to visit. I’m always surprised when I see them for the first time in Spring.

We had a short stretch of dryness yesterday and I mowed part of the lawn and did some weeding before the rains rolled in again. Hopefully we’ll get another dry patch so I can finish the rest of the lawn. This part where the ducks are nibbling seed that has fallen from the bird feeder above has not been mowed yet. I’m happy they can glean the fallen seeds.

Today my kids are picking me up for another Sounders Soccer game. We hope they win for a change. I think the team and fans are ready for a lift!

What does your Saturday hold for you?

Happy Birthday Andrew!

If you and Katie were here I’d bake you a cake!

We’d have Josh and Laura over, too, and sing Happy Birthday to You!

We’d take you someplace fun to have a meal.

It would be another good reason to get the whole family here to celebrate you!

Hope the birthday card we sent arrives today. If not we only have the U*S*P*S to blame. Glad the “kids” are coming over tonight to celebrate with you and that Alex is making his famous burgers for y’all!

We love you and thank God for you and pray that God continues to bless you richly.  We ask that He will continue to protect you and keep you safe at home and when you are away serving in even more dangerous environments! Semper fi! May you always be faithful in your service to your country and God and in your marriage to Katie! Looking forward to being with you at one of your birthdays in the future!

A thank you to Jeremy Leffel for this last photo.

Both Old But Very Different…

The finale to my Monumentale Cemetery photos are all from a indoor portion called the Hall of Fame. I’m also sharing a link to a post Lovella shared on her blog yesterday about her visit to my old house.

You can see Lovella’s behind the scenes shots of my old house by clicking here.

Yes…the ceiling was that blue!

This was one of the very few images we saw of the risen Christ.

Another week is flying by at this old house.  A free calendar has been a blessing. It has been interesting making plans for a 90th birthday party for my folks from 1200 miles away. Our 70 or so guests will just have to be flexible along with the party planner! Since most of those 70 are related to the guests of honor the pressure is minimal. How’s your week going?

More Monumentale…

The entrance to Monumentale Cemetery in Milan is as grand as the rest of the grounds. This cemetery is filled with both contemporary and classical sculptures. We were struck with how massive many of the sculptures are.

This monument reminded me so much of a story from the Old Testament. Anyone out there want to guess which one?

This cemetery would need several hours to fully take in. I will soon share the last part of the cemetery we visited including the Hall of Fame.

Hope your week is going well. So far so good here. I was happy that the constant rain from the weekend has seemed to cease. The exciting news this week is that our new cookbook, Celebrations, is in the hands of some at Menno Press. The 10 of us are excitedly and anxiously waiting for our copy to arrive!

Blessings…

Over the Top…

Monumentale Cemetery in Milan, Italy is hands down the most over the top cemetery I’ve been to yet. I’m breaking down the photos I show into categories. I’ve already shown you a few like the last supper sculpture. This post will be all about angels…

In general I feel angels are depicted too mellow and sweet. I like this one for it’s more rugged style and many more of the sculptures we saw at this cemetery.

Looking at all these statues reminds me of the Amy Grant Song from a few years ago, Angels Watching Over Me.

Got his angels watching over me, every move I make,

Angels watching over me!

Angels watching over me, every step I take,

Angels watching over me!

Now from the past to the present…

Lovella from Mennonite Girls Can Cook and What Matters Most along with her dear husband were camping for one night in our neck of the woods on their way home from Cannon Beach so we were able to get together for breakfast at this old house on Sunday morning. What a fun treat to have them in our home for the first time. I did not take one photo. Can you believe that!? I guess I was just too excited. We had blintzes with fruit topping, bacon, sausages, coffee, and fresh orange juice with maybe some champagne in it. I’m not telling.  Here’s a photo of what the table looked like after the fact…

I have a couple of weeks of quiet on my calendar. The end of April really heats up into May. Hope your week ahead is a good one. Blessings.

Oh and while I’m thinking of it head over to our MGCC blog on Monday to get the recipe for Aebleskivers!

Sweet Feast of Love Divine ~ Hymn

Sweet Feast of Love Divine

Sweet feast of love divine!
’Tis grace that makes us free
To feed upon this bread and wine,
In memory, Lord, of Thee.

Here every welcome guest
Waits, Lord, from Thee to learn
The secrets of Thy Father’s breast,
And all Thy grace discern.

Here conscience ends its strife,
And faith delights to prove
The sweetness of the bread of life,
The fullness of Thy love.

Thy blood that flowed for sin,
In symbol here we see,
And feel the blessèd pledge within,
That we are loved of Thee.

But if this glimpse of love
Is so divinely sweet,
What will it be, O Lord, above,
Thy gladdening smile to meet—

To see Thee face to face,
Thy perfect likeness wear,
And all Thy ways of wondrous grace
Through endless years declare!

Words: Edward Denny, 1839.

Celebrating Sixty Two!

This year we celebrated my birthday on two different continents and 2 states! We arrived in Milan on my birthday but after being airborne for many hours and arriving in Amsterdam and then Milan, Italy I had to be reminded it was my day. After we arrived back to Seattle our oldest and our lovely DIL decided we should head out to celebrate after the fact.

Josh and Laura picked a restaurant for brunch in Seattle close to Queen Anne Hill. They offered several great dishes to choose from.

The name of the restaurant was Toulouse Petit Kitchen and Lounge. There was a long line up but it was worth the wait.

This is the front door to the restaurant. I’m not sure what the story of the cross in the door is. I like it!

We headed to Kerry Park after brunch to get a view of Seattle from above.

Someone was blowing bubbles at the park and I was happy to catch this one on the bottom of the photo!

Before my birthday we celebrated a wee bit early with my family in Southern California along with celebrating Katie and Andrew’s 2nd Anniversary at Julienne in San Marino.

This is my brother Steve with Katie and me.

My nephew Joe, nieces Michelle and Melissa, and grand nephew Jack.

Katie, niece Debbee, and Laura.

My sister Kathy. My sister in law Kelly and grand niece Avery were at breakfast, too, but I failed to capture them in a photo.

Here’s what my kids ordered for my birthday gift …

They delivered it to me on Easter. I thought that was so appropriate bringing our celebrations full circle from the birth of Christ to His death and resurrection. Now my nativity scene with Wee Forest Folk is complete except for one wise man.

We are looking forward to a weekend of celebrating with friends at a wedding on Saturday evening and a breakfast on Sunday. What do you have planned?

The Other Side…

I wanted to finish sharing my photos from the Duomo (Milan Cathedral). These shots are taken of the back and some from the sides.

This shot captures the lift that is used by construction crew to get to the top of the Duomo where restoration work is being done.

There are 2245 statues on the exterior of the Duomo, 96 gargoyles, and 135 Spires.

This is the one figure that I recognized on the outside of the Duomo. Have you read the account of David and Goliath from the Bible? Here are excerpts from 1 Samuel 17…

4 The Philistine army had a hero named Goliath who was from the town of Gath and was over nine feet tall. 5-6 He wore a bronze helmet and had bronze armor to protect his chest and legs. The chest armor alone weighed about one hundred twenty-five pounds. He carried a bronze sword strapped on his back, 7 and his spear was so big that the iron spearhead alone weighed more than fifteen pounds. A soldier always walked in front of Goliath to carry his shield.

8 Goliath went out and shouted to the army of Israel:

Why are you lining up for battle? I’m the best soldier in our army, and all of you are in Saul’s army. Choose your best soldier to come out and fight me! 9 If he can kill me, our people will be your slaves. But if I kill him, your people will be our slaves. 10 Here and now I challenge Israel’s whole army! Choose someone to fight me!…

…11 Saul and his men heard what Goliath said, but they were so frightened of Goliath that they couldn’t do a thing…

…16 Goliath came out and gave his challenge every morning and every evening for forty days…

…26 David asked some soldiers standing nearby, “What will a man get for killing this Philistine and stopping him from insulting our people? Who does that worthless Philistine think he is? He’s making fun of the army of the living God!”…

…31 Some soldiers overheard David talking, so they told Saul what David had said. Saul sent for David, and David came. 32 “Your Majesty,” he said, “this Philistine shouldn’t turn us into cowards. I’ll go out and fight him myself!”

33 “You don’t have a chance against him,” Saul replied. “You’re only a boy, and he’s been a soldier all his life.”

34 But David told him:

Your Majesty, I take care of my father’s sheep. And when one of them is dragged off by a lion or a bear, 35 I go after it and beat the wild animal until it lets the sheep go. If the wild animal turns and attacks me, I grab it by the throat and kill it.

36 Sir, I have killed lions and bears that way, and I can kill this worthless Philistine. He shouldn’t have made fun of the army of the living God! 37 The Lord has rescued me from the claws of lions and bears, and he will keep me safe from the hands of this Philistine.

“All right,” Saul answered, “go ahead and fight him. And I hope the Lord will help you.”…

…David took off the armor 40 and picked up his shepherd’s stick. He went out to a stream and picked up five smooth rocks and put them in his leather bag. Then with his sling in his hand, he went straight toward Goliath.

41 Goliath came toward David, walking behind the soldier who was carrying his shield. 42 When Goliath saw that David was just a healthy, good-looking boy, he made fun of him. 43 “Do you think I’m a dog?” Goliath asked. “Is that why you’ve come after me with a stick?” He cursed David in the name of the Philistine gods 44 and shouted, “Come on! When I’m finished with you, I’ll feed you to the birds and wild animals!”

45 David answered:

You’ve come out to fight me with a sword and a spear and a dagger. But I’ve come out to fight you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful. He is the God of Israel’s army, and you have insulted him too!

46 Today the Lord will help me defeat you. I’ll knock you down and cut off your head, and I’ll feed the bodies of the other Philistine soldiers to the birds and wild animals. Then the whole world will know that Israel has a real God. 47 Everybody here will see that the Lord doesn’t need swords or spears to save his people. The Lord always wins his battles, and he will help us defeat you.

48 When Goliath started forward, David ran toward him. 49 He put a rock in his sling and swung the sling around by its straps. When he let go of one strap, the rock flew out and hit Goliath on the forehead. It cracked his skull, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50 David defeated Goliath with a sling and a rock. He killed him without even using a sword.

51 David ran over and pulled out Goliath’s sword. Then he used it to cut off Goliath’s head.

Hope you made it through my longer than usual post. There’s more and you can read the whole account in the Old Testament in the book of First Samuel. Reading this again makes me want to sing “Only a Boy Named David”. Did you ever sing that song?

Tuesday got away from me. Now I’m doing some scrambling today to get reconnected to my brain. Our glorious sunshine from the weekend is hiding away for now and hopefully will return soon. What are you enjoying this week?

Celebrations Giveaway!

We are celebrating today because it is only one month until our book is published. We are offering you a chance to win a copy of our Celebrations book.
If you haven’t had a chance yet to take a peek inside the book…
Amazon is offering you a chance to see inside here.
Contest rules: Share this post on at least one of the following … Facebook, Twitter, or on your own blog. If you are not able to share on any of those options, share it with your family and friends!
Leave a comment on the post at the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog (not here on my blog) and in your comment, tell us how you shared.
Contest closes April 4 at 6 pm PST.
We’ll draw one random winner and announce that winner on April 5 at 4 am PST!