Come Thou Fount

This hymn is one of my favorites. The rich word pictures capture many of the longings of my heart. Singing it reminds me of the goodness of Christ and His sacrifice and reminds me of the deep joy and satisfaction found in His service.

Here are a few of the lines that I love most:
"Tune my heart to sing thy grace." I love this idea, of the Lord tuning our heart like an instrument; He is the perfect pitch and He tunes us until we resonate as He does, until His songs become ours and we can say truthfully that He is our all satisfying joy and that following Him fully is our greatest treasure in life, until we, like the One on the cavalry road, create that sweet, God magnifying, soul-satisfying melody of praise and humble obedience with our lives.

"He to rescue me from danger/Interposed His precious blood." I have been journaling through I Peter of late and have been given much to think about concerning the cost of Jesus' precious blood. In the first chapter he says "If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." (1:17-19) Our salvation comes to us at a great price, the price of Christ's precious blood shed in order to rescue us from danger. God has been teaching me a great deal on fear recently, both re-evaluating my own life and the fears that I foster and understanding what it means to fear God. I have many thoughts on this, and it merits its own post, but for now this verse has convinced me that fearing God is not reverencing Him only. We are surely not to spend our whole lives quaking and fearing Him (for perfect love casts out fear), but to have a fear of Him that keeps in mind the high cost of his sacrifice. I must conduct myself in fear - Peter can hardly be more direct here - because:
He judges us according to our works and has redeemed us from a futile way of life.
Because to not do so would be to mock His sacrifice and abuse grace.
Because if we don't we will place ourselves under the wrath of Him who can not only destroy the body, but can destroy both the body and the soul in hell.
Because failing in this we will not treasure His mercy and may grievously waste our time on earth.

"Here I raise mine Ebenezer/Hither by thy help I'm come" "Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they routed before Israel. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down... Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, (lit. the stone of help) saying, "thus far the Lord has helped us." (I Samuel 7:10-12) An Ebenezer is stone of help, as here, dedicated to God. It is a tribute thanking Him and testifying that He is our strength and help. Equally as important is its service as a reminder of all that God has done for us. As Ebenezer was raised, it served to remind those who would pass by in the future of God's faithfulness to His people. When we raise our Ebenezer we are lifting up our thanks offering to Him for His abundant mercies while girding up our souls in Him to rejoice in His strength. We raise an Ebenezer to glorify God and to remind ourselves of his never failing faithfulness. "Here I raise mine Ebenezer/Hither by thy help I'm come."

Take note of each line and let the truths tune your heart to sing His grace.

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.

An Ode to Skydiving

In honor of my adventures on the 5th of August I composed this tribute:

Plummeting through the azure sky,
Is today the day I die?
Lickety-sploosh, kablamo-splat.
Will I soon be pancake flat?

Looming larger, mother-earth.
I return to her who gave me birth.
From dust I came, I now return
Still many lessons left to learn.

But all is not dreary and dour!
I may yet survive this hour!
Gracefully soar, with confident purpose
Or in a spell be 'neath the surface'
Oh jubilant poem, oh sweet reprise
Doth this bard sing his own demise?

Tumbling freely and gayly falling,
But to thusly live is not man's calling;
The avian dynasty to defame.
No simply this: live for the Name.
So that He is lauded in life or death
Must be the tune in every breath.
All earth bears the Maker's mark,
Our joy in thrill is His own spark.
Live in His will and know no fear,
So jump and scream for joy so clear.

-NW