For God Alone

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26) Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; Visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart. Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast; Let us all in thee inherit; let us find thy promised rest. Take away the love of sinning; Alpha and Omega be; End of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty. Come, Almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive; Suddenly return, and never, nevermore thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing, serve thee with thy hosts above, Pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love. Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be; Let us see thy gr...

The past forty days of Lent, much of which were spent sheltered in-home, have granted us time to rest and reflect on God, His word, our loved ones, and many others dear to us. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we have considered our own frailty. You and I have considered and reflected on scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments through A New Day and For God Alone posts. God’s word has guided us on our journey toward this day - Resurrection Day - God's Final Word. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,  and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31) Every Easter for the past many years, Christians have begun Easter Sunday worship singing Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today to the glorious tune, LYRA DAVIDICA (1708). Gratefully, this Resurrection Day 2020, quarantined as we are, will be no different. Congregations across the globe, including our own, First Baptist Richardson, have prerecorded their...

This past Sunday, I joined our Bridge Builders Sunday School class for fellowship and Bible study. How encouraging to see the faces of some of our members (some 30 or so) via ZOOM, and hear their teacher, Dennis Parrott teach from God’s word. During his lesson, Dennis mentioned a verse that is dear to most of us, and certainly to this pilgrim, who learned it singing Jimmy Owens’ setting in the 1970’s, If My People.* If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14, KJV) Dennis mentioned that this verse is a favorite of one of the class’s members, whose name is Mack. Upon hearing Dennis make this statement, a light came on in my head and heart. For the past year-plus, each first Tuesday of the month, I have joined a group of twenty or so faithful men for a prayer breakfast at Southern Recipes Gri...