Jesus, I Come

In the early days of my being a Christian, this hymn meant so much to me, expressing all that Jesus has done for sinners. How wretched anyone is without Him. I seldom hear it any more, but wish I did. Isn't it precious? Don't we who know Jesus have so much to be thankful for? And don't you know if you're reading this and don't have Jesus, that you CAN have Him? All He says is "Come." The last two lines of the first stanza say it all: Out of your sin and into Him you must "Come."

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to thee;
Out of my sickness into thy health,
Out of my want and into thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of thy cross,
Jesus, I come to thee;
Out of earth's sorrows into thy balm,
Out of life's storms and into thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to thee;
Out of myself to dwell in thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of thy home,
Jesus, I come to thee;
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of thy sheltering fold,
Ever thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to thee.

~W. T. Sleeper

I love the tune

Have a Title?

It's been so long again! And I have so little to say these days! I'm a busy bee around my home here as I would suppose you are too. But I'm always ready to share photos of God's wonderful creatures, so here's another one for my "animal crackers" page. I do have a title in mind which I'll tell you in a few days, but I thought it would be fun to hear some other ideas in case I find one I like better. Let me hear yours if you have one.

Immortal, Invisible

I love this hymn! This ought to get us ready for worship tomorrow. Don't these words give the proper honor and glory to our great God?

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

Great Father of Glory, pure Father of Light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render; O help us to see
'Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!

~~Walter Chalmers Smith

A Day in the Life

Oh my goodness. It's April 15th. I forgot to do the income taxes. Just kidding. Actually, I'm showing off because we mailed them exactly one week ago. I think that's a record. You could view this as an ad for H & R Block TaxCut Online because since we've started filing our taxes through them, I have been doing so much better with the whole thing. This year it was completely stress free, and if anyone remembers my post from last year, you'll be able to tell that each year it's been a little better. I am SO thankful.

Today is also our dog Frodo's fifth birthday. Happy Birthday, Fro! Mama's going to check in a bit to see if I can dig out a bone from somewhere in the freezer. I think in people years Fro is about thirty-five. Somehow that just doesn't fit. Those who know him will know what I mean. I don't imagine him ever being an adult--I think he's forever locked into puppyhood.

The best part of today is that I'm wrapping up the third quarter papers to be sent to ABeka Academy. Do you believe that? It seems just a few weeks ago that I made that post on the first day of school. After tying up a couple of loose ends today, we will actually be mailing in the third quarter work. That translates into Neesie's freshman year being three-fourths complete! Unbelievable. Please give us a pat on the back, folks. But actually, we can only give credit to our kind and compassionate God. We could not have gotten this far without His mercies and will not get through this final quarter without Him.

And that brings me to one final thought for the day. See those flowers up above? A sweet and caring sister in the Lord (and sister homeschooling mom) sent those to Neesie and me last week as an encouragement on our homeschool journey. She also sent us CDs with messages to cheer us on our way. One of these CDs was a truly inspiring one entitled "Mothers, This is War", which had been taped at a homeschool convention and it helped set me even more firmly on the course. I wasn't familiar with the speaker, Shelley Hendry, but I'd recommend her to any of you out there who could use a little motivation as moms. Anyway, these flowers and the various messages that ministered to my heart are all to be included in the mercies given by the Lord to me lately. Thanks to my dear sister, whom I've only known a short while, and thanks to my Heavenly Father for sending her encouragements.

And a good day to all of you!

Of Grandchildren and Musicals

I've finally added another item to my "TV Library Recommendations" list at Amazon. My dear granddaughter's favorite movie as of right now is "Mary Poppins." She can sing most of the songs, and you should hear her sing "Let's Go Fly a Kite." I know I'm a bit prejudiced, but it has to be the cutest thing ever. I can't put Selena's favorite on my list, though, because we don't own it at our house.

But we do own and I can add "The Sound of Music" to my Listmania. Now, THAT'S my all time favorite musical. I really do believe every home should have it and often bring it out for an evening of family watching. Selena is being introduced to it now and I can guarantee that she'll love it. Like the rest of us, she'll love the music itself, but I know she'll love the children too. There's little that I don't like about this movie, so I would recommend it highly for any family that doesn't have it yet, and now it's quite affordable. But it's my guess that most of you do have it already. Am I right?

I hope there will be a time when I can enjoy a "Sound of Music" watching day with popcorn and Lena. Maybe it won't be too long from now--you see she's getting to be a big girl now--and by the way, that's a good thing because she's needing to get ready to help with a little brother or sister in October or so. Yup, praise be to God, we have another grandchild on the way. So, we'd appreciate your prayers for mom and baby and the big little girl.

Just As I Am

I mentioned on my other blog about a really nice book that many of us received as a gift from our church at Christmas. It is called The One Year Book of Christian History, and it is a daily glimpse into the lives of many Christians and many events in the history of God's people. We're all enjoying it so much. You can get it several places, but since I'm a blog partner with the Westminster Bookstore, I thought I would mention that you may get the book there. Just follow the link at the book's title above. I really do think you would like having it for your family or individual devotional time--it's such an encouragement. Sometimes it's convicting when I read what so many of the saints have been through and how we are today.

I'm a little behind in my reading right now--the entry for each day is very short, BTW--and I just recently read the devotional for March 17th. It was about Charlotte Elliott, who wrote the hymn I'm posting this evening. So many of the hymn writers had difficult lives, as you know, and Miss Elliott was one of the ones who did. She was in poor health and struggled with depression. She eventually came to Christ as a result of the words of a minister who was an acquaintance. She had said to him that she wanted to come to Jesus and be saved, but she didn't know how. His reply to her was "Come to him just as you are." Some time later, these words were an inspiration to her to write this beloved hymn that so many of us love. Many years after, about a century later, a young man went forward to receive Christ at an evangelist service and this hymn was the first song of invitation. Guess who the young man was? His name was Billy Graham.

I'm posting this hymn for anyone who is lost and hopeless in this world of sin. Any person who reads this and is unsaved tonight would fit into that category. I would also direct the Christian who might be weak and weary from this pilgrimage to read and meditate on these words. I know this hymn is often associated with walking an aisle to profess faith, but my prayer is that your heart will be gripped by Miss Elliott's testimony and you'll come to Jesus where you are and just as you are.

Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am! thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am! thy love unknown
Has broken ev'ry barrier down;
Now, to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Listen here.

Withhold Not Correction

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Proverbs 23:13-14

Should I be afraid to write those verses here in public? My goodness, it's talking about things which we scarcely can talk about these days. The rod? Beating a child? What on earth is being talked about here? What kinds of "horrible" things are being said? And who said these things? Well, folks, these are words about spanking and the One who is saying them is Almighty God.

We're living in a day when parents who still consider it biblical to spank their children have to be careful when and where they do it. If their children act up in the grocery store, heaven forbid that they should give that little tyrant a smack on the bottom for his unruly behavior. If they are determined to do what God tells them to do, they feel the necessity to go home and do it. In fact, this is such a sensitive issue that I would ask anyone who comments here not to divulge whether or not they do or would spank their kids. But you could make a comment on whether you feel the current thinking in social and legal ranks has made it easier or more difficult to parent children in general. I know younger folks often weary of hearing us older ones talk about how it was in our day. But I did grow up in a day when most people openly did not "spare the rod" and most of us who were subjected to this line of thinking (on our bottoms) somehow managed to grow to adulthood with a minimum of psychological, social, and spiritual "damage." In fact, many of us turned out to be people who respected authority, worked hard, and were even HAPPY. Many of us had marriages which lasted and also cared about fellow human beings. I'm not saying you can't still find these things today, but my point here is that we saw this in a society which not only allowed, but endorsed spanking. At least it was that way in my particular time and culture.


I said all that to recommend a book. It's a practical book and a biblical one. Withhold Not Correction was written by Bruce A. Ray in 1978, when things were beginning to fall apart in this realm. This book is still needed as much now as it was then, if not even more so. It made a great impact on the life of our family as we sought to follow God in obedience in EVERY area of life. It's well worth your reading, I promise. I say this especially to you who have very young children.

My heart is burdened for the parent of today. It's a tough call and you have the prayers of this grandmother. And I'm sure your parents want to see a generation of godly young people in this century. Who knows? Maybe this book would help.