The RAsburry Patch: Refute Evolution - Rather Quickly

The RAsburry Patch: Refute Evolution - Rather Quickly: Short, sweet, and right to the point ... as well as right on target: From Check This Out! (a DVD or download featuring six warp-speed v...

A Prayer Amidst the Undulation of Joy and Sadness

Ever is a peril near me,

Ever have I grace to cheer me,

Ever in my woes I sigh,

Ever see I Jesus nigh.

Ever do my sins upbraid me,

Ever Jesus comes to aid me,

Ever woes around me throng,

Ever am I full of song.

Now I seated am in gladness,

Now I fall and lie in sadness,’ ..

Often weary and distrest,

Ever find in Jesus rest.

Thus is grief linked-to my gladness,

Sweet and bitter, joy and sadness

Fill the cup that I must drain

In this life of joy and pain.

But, 0 Jesus, ‘mid life’s sadness,

Grant that faith’s true joy and gladness,

Over sin and grief that quail,

Ever, ever may prevail. Amen.

Kingo: Aldrig er jeg unden Vaade

L 272 HCH 207 tr. C. Doving.

337.  Trinity 11 - Saturday

Book of Family Prayer - Laache. 

Why whining over our crosses tends to ring hallow!

Does anyone really know or comprehend the magnitude of Christ’s Cross and the suffering and sacrifice it brought to Him?  Consider:

• Countless images and pictures can be created depicting the outward appearance of Christ’s sufferings, but not one of the inward pain and bitterness or the invisible causes of them.
• How many people have replicas in all shapes and sizes of the accursed tree, but no replica of the Law that made it so?
• How many have painted, and more will yet paint the blessed Savior bearing His cross to Calvary, yet no one has painted the Christ bearing the sins of the whole world.
• The nails piercing our Lord's sacred flesh has been described with the utmost clarity, but who with equal clarity is able to describe the divine justice that pierced both His flesh and spirit.
• We may give the most accurate account of the spear piercing the Savior’s side, but who is able to give any such an account of the sorrow that pierced His soul.
• How well we may know and taste, yet today, the cup of sour vinegar wine our Savior tasted, but cannot have such knowing or tasting of the cup of God’s wrath which our Lord drank completely to its most bitter end.
• We may with great display and depiction, express the derision of the Jewish leader, but with what might we display and depict the desertion and abandonment of Almighty God forsaking His Son, so that He might never forsake us.

This does not diminish the suffering our crosses bring, but it does make some things quite clear:
Whatever the level of our suffering, it never exceeds our Lord’s suffering.
Whatever we may be suffering through, we are never without our Lord and His resurrection victory assuring us of where the cross always leads.

 

 - pmwl