The Lord Is Not in Need
A hymn on the self-sufficiency of God from the series of hymns titled "The Lord Is"
Posts by David L. Ward (About David)
Hymn for the Thanksgiving Table
I'd like to call your attention to a hymn text that's buried in our site and encourage you to give it a try this Thanksgiving with your family. One of our family traditions is to sing this one-stanza hymn together before meals in addition to praying. If you aren't familiar with the hymn tune it may seem strange at first, but I promise that it can be learned by even very small children. At dinner tonight I had the pleasure of watching my just-turned-3 year old sing all of the words. May we, amidst the joy and pleasure of our Thanksgiving meals, be looking to our "living" bread, Jesus, for true and lasting joy and pleasure.
Heav'nly Father, Grant Your Blessing
Heav’nly Father, grant Your blessing
On the food before us spread.
All our tongues are now confessing:
By Your hand alone we’re fed.
Never let us be forgetting:
Jesus is our Living Bread.
Worship: The Christian’s Purpose, Privilege and Pleasure
I had the privilege of preaching this sermon to my local church family on Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Worship: The Christian's Purpose, Privilege and Pleasure
Colossians 3:1-17
Have you ever kept a journal of how you spend your time? It can be a very eye-opening experience. I did a little bit of research this week into how Americans spend their time and the results were pretty surprising. According to the 2009 American Time Use Survey, the average person age 15 and over spent 8.7 hours sleeping, 1.2 hours eating, 1.8 hours doing housework, 3.5 hours at their job or other work, and 5.3 hours enjoying leisure activities. TV viewing garnered the lion's share of those 5.3 hours of leisure with the average American watching almost 3 hours a day. Nestled into the leisure category was the amount of time people spent doing religious activities or volunteering: a whopping 9 minutes each.
I was also curious about how Americans spend their money. According to the 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average household spent 34% on shelter, 13% on food, 16% on transportation, 6% on healthcare, 5% on leisure, and a whopping 1.4% of gross income giving to churches of...
What the Bible Has to Say About Singing, Part 7
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. - Colossians 3:16 (NASB)
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The Lord Is Constant
A hymn on the eternality and immutability of God from the series of hymns titled "The Lord Is"
My Hiding Place
This song presents the story of a Christian's conversion and directs our attention and praise to Jesus, who becomes the believer's true hiding place. The Bible teaches that all men are sinners, enemies with God who despise His grace and are seeking glory for themselves by believing and acting as if they can escape the judgment due for their rebellion by their own efforts. When the arrows of disgrace pierce the conscience, the first place of refuge is often the law. That is, when we begin to see the obstacle of our sin and believe that we deserve punishment, we try to reform our lives in the hopes that we can even the scales of divine justice. But anyone who has tried to earn peace with God through obedience and piety learns of the crushing weight that moralism becomes. Secretly we know that before a holy God our supposedly righteous acts are riddled with self-interest and corrupted motives. But God, in His mercy, leads us to Jesus, the one who absorbed His wrath, satisfying His justice for all who place their trust in Him. Once found, Jesus becomes a sure and steadfast hiding place both from the wrath of God and from any persecutions and trials we experience in our earthly life.
The Lord Is Holy
A hymn on the holiness of God from the series of hymns titled "The Lord Is"
Indelible Grace Documentary
Our friends and fellow hymn tune updaters, Indelible Grace Music, are making a documentary about their movement and music, and Reformed Praise is proud to support their project. You can pre-order the DVD, which includes video footage or their recent hymn-sing at the Ryman theater and interviews with songwriters, by supporting the project. It will make a wonderful Christmas gift. Here's their informational video:
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What the Bible Has to Say About Singing, Part 6
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. - Colossians 3:16 (NASB)
Continue reading...
Guitar Chords for Though I Was Born an Orphan
This Sunday is being celebrated as "Orphan Sunday" by many churches, following the lead of the Christian Alliance for Orphans who started calling on churches to recognize such a day in 2009. We wrote a modern hymn called Though I Was Born an Orphan to address the theme of adoption and the mandate to care for orphans and to give the church a congregational song about this important topic. To help musicians learn and perform this song with their local churches, we have added a guitar chord chart (for use with a capo) to make playing along with (or instead of) a piano easier. Just head on over to the song's official post and look for the chord chart on the right-hand side of the page.
May God strengthen our love and propel us to greater care for orphans this Sunday, and year-round.
Reformed Praise presents Martin Luther's setting of Psalm 130 in a fresh, reflective, piano-driven setting suitable for a wide range of worship music styles.
