The Gospel in a Hymn

"Not What My Hands Have Done"

by Horatius Bonar

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;

Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;

Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;

Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.

No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;

No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;

Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.

Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,

Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;

And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.

His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb

Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;

He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.

’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;

I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

Blair's Stand: "No Quid Pro Quo"

While Britain is no Israel, at least they are willing to stand their ground for their captured soldiers in Iran.

(Israel would have already rescued their soldiers, bombed the heck out of Tehran just to teach them a lesson, and hopefully killed Ahmadinejad in the process!)

15 Royal Navy personnel were captured by the Iranian government last week based upon faulty charges by the Iranians that the sailors were illegally inside Iranian waterways. Britain's Ministry of Defense can prove otherwise.

Now Iran wants to charge the sailors with espionage, an offense punishable by execution.

Now it is time for the prisoners to be released. Iran is an extremist regime led by a wacked-out Muslim terrorist and they have no right to hold the British sailors. I'm hoping that if the prisoners are not released promptly, Blair sends in the SAS to get them. I would like to think that we would do similar for our soldiers.

Blair seems resolved on this issue:

"The important thing for us is to get them back safe and sound, but we can't enter into some basis of bargaining," Blair said. "What you have to do when you are engaged with people like the Iranian regime, you have to keep explaining to them, very patiently, what it is necessary to do and at the same time make them fully aware there are further measures that will be taken if they're not prepared to be reasonable.

"What you can't do is end up negotiating over hostages; end up saying there's some quid pro quo or tit for tat; that's not acceptable," he said.

Read more.

Let us remember these British soldiers in prayer, as we should all service men and women who defend the freedom of America and democracy worldwide.

Gettysburg Without Chamberlain

Imagine the Battle of Gettysburg without the leadership and courage of men such as Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamerlain of the 20th Maine Infantry, a.k.a., the Lion of the Round Top. Thanks to Chamberlain's quick-thinking strategic maneuver and bold stand in the face of defeat, the Union Army held their important position atop Little Round Top on July 2, 1865, and in part turned the tide of the battle which turned the tide of the Civil War. Without Chamberlain's efforts on that fateful day, it is unknown whether or not the North would have won the war.

As Hugh Hewitt points out in a recent article, the Republican party is currently in need of a Joshua Chamberlain in Congress to stand the high ground on Iraq and defend the purpose.

Here is Hewitt's insightful yet discouraging read about the current state of the GOP.

Blogs

Hugh Hewitt was right about blogs!...More and more they are becoming an incredible wealth of information and opinion. As Hewitt called it, it's the "'Information Reformation' that's changing your world." Here are just two links to Blogs in the national headlines:

Bush Cites Baghdad Bloggers...Even the President recognizes the importance of bloggers.

A Blogger's Code of Conduct...good idea or bad idea??

What do YOU think?!

It Isn't the Church, It's You!

If you want to have the kind of a church
Like the kind of a church you like,
You needn't slip your clothes in a grip
And start on a long, long hike.
You'll only find what you left behind,
For there's nothing really new.
It's a knock at yourself when you knock your church;
It isn't the church--it's you.

When everything seems to be going wrong,
And trouble seems everywhere brewing;
Just take a look at yourself and say,
"What's the use of being blue?"
Are you doing your "bit" to make things "hit"?
It isn't the church--it's you.

It's really strange sometimes, don't you know,
That things go as well as they do,
When we think of the little--the very small mite--
We add to the work of the few.
We sit, and stand round, and complain of what's done,
And do very little but fuss.
Are we bearing our share of the burdens to bear?
It isn't the church--it's us.

So, if you want to have the kind of church
Like the kind of a church you like,
Put off your guile, and put on your best smile,
And hike, my brother, just hike,
To the work in hand that has to be done--
The work of saving a few.
It isn't the church that is wrong, my boy;
It isn't the church--it's you.

--Anonymous