He is holy, I am wholly His

I love to praise the Lord for all the blessing in my life, even the little ones. But I'm not one of those people that sees bell peppers on sale and says, "PRAISE THE LORD! HE DID THAT FOR ME! HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU, JESUS!" (Though I do love to see bell pepper on sale, I don't want to "over-spiritualize" life). Maybe He does have His hand in my grocery shopping endeavors, I really don't know.

I do know that He moves me unexpectedly.

I have loved the song "Wholly Yours" mainly because of it's clever use of the words "holy" and "wholly", (and the use of the word, 'antonym' in the lyrics).  But today I loved the song for different reasons: the sweet message of grace and redemption; the victorious "Hallelujah's!"; the choice of words to describe us and the Lord.

This makes my little heart jump for joy!

Wholly Yours

"I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From the broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt

You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are

You are everything that is bright and clean
And You’re covering me with Your majesty
And the truest sign of grace was this
From wounded hands redemption fell down
Liberating man
But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean

Glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah
So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly
Yours

I am full of earth and dirt and You"

To praise, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLxC_tYhFxs

Beth Moore Wednesday's

Since 2005, I've been watching "Wednesday's with Beth Moore" on Life Today.

I DVR Beth every Wednesday along with what Andrew refers to as "tacky, trashy shows" that I watch weekly. I call them my guilty pleasures but whatever. You may watch them too: The Bachelor, Millionaire Matchmaker, The Real Housewives of New York City, The Real Housewives of Orange County, and the most shameful, The Real Housewives of New Jersey. (Well the most shameful could be a toss up between that and Keeping up with the Kardashians.) There's more, but I'll stop there to salvage any dignity I may have left.

With all these "guilty pleasures" that I have, a mid-week refresher of Beth is just what I need. Now if you're not familiar with Beth Moore, she's going to P-R-E-A-C-H it to ya, sister. She's fired up about God, and she loves the Lord so beautifully. What an inspiration she is!

I was at Life Way yesterday, and I got some books for $0.99! One of them was this:

This morning, I read day one of the study. It was incredible! She has such a way of explaining God's Word with Greek language references which is so unbelievably fascinating! 

I hope we can find time amidst our trashy TV watchin' to get a strong dose of the Holy Spirit during the week. If you're looking for something like that, Beth's your girl.

Happy {Beth Moore}Wednesday!

Come Thou Fount

I wanted to squeeze in one more Easter post before we head to good ole Louisiana.

(Just in case you were wondering, I have some goodies to share with you on Cherche; that will come next week.)


One of my favorite hymns has become "Come Thou Fount." I didn't grow up listening to this hymn or ever hear it in church until my 20s (of which I am still embarking.)  I think this is one of Andrew's favorites too, except he did grow up hearing it often in church. That's neither here nor there. 

Come Thou Fount

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 unchanging love

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Hither by Thy help I come

And I hope by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wondering 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 Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above

I'm a lover of words, so the depth of this song, written by Robert Robinson, intrigues and inspires me. 


One of the first words in the hymn is simple but stood out to me: "fount". Doing some research, "fount" is the source or origin. One website broke it down and said, "Wow, "Come You Source and Origin of Every Blessing”……Robert understood when writing this song that Jesus was the source of every blessing and that he was so unworthy of that blessing….but he knew it was not on his shoulders to be the source and for that reason….He could keep limping forward. Keep moving…."


And of course, "Ebenezer" wasn't something I was familiar with. I learned that it was from 1 Samuel 7:12. It was a stone that represented a fresh beginning and a reminder that God's mercies are everlasting. One writer uses prayer journals as a type of Ebenezer stone to go back and reflect on God's faithfulness. I thought that was clever. 


I remember Andrew once commented on "flaming tongues above." How can you not comment on it, really? I think he simply said, "Wow, can you imagine?" But I'm so glad he likes this song right along with me. 


The website, Our Rising Sound, broke down the song into what I see as mini-studies. He prefaces the exposition with, "Come Thou Fount is one of the greatest songs of God’s grace I’ve come across. It’s lyrics are challenging, thought provoking, honest, desperate, vulnerable, humbling and encouraging." 


Below is the beginning of the study. The posts are spread out but consists of a total of 9. I thought I would share in case you wanted to read more of this beloved hymn. 


http://www.ourrisingsound.com/2008/03/26/exposition-of-come-thou-fount-in-view-of-gods-mercy-part-1/


Happy Easter to you. He is worthy to be praised!