Billowing Beauty On The Bay
BILLOWING BEAUTY ON THE BAY
NOT A SPIRIT OF FEAR
Come, Spirit of the Living God!
Come into my dark and trembling fear.
Let Your fierce and tender love restore my soul to its rightful place of rest in You.
Psalm 73:21-23 and Heb. 2:14-15 [More Light Unto the Path, p. 26]
Happy Father’s Day
Lift Every Voice and Sing – A Bit of History
Lift ev’ry voice and sing
‘Til earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on ’til victory is won
‘Til earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on ’til victory is won
Stony the road we trod
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand
True to our God
True to our native land
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand
True to our God
True to our native land
Artists: James Weldon Johnson, J. Rosamond Johnson
A Prayer from a Christian in America
A Prayer from a Christian in America
By POP Lay Chaplain Greg Shaw
Heavenly Father,
I cry out to you with a heavy heart and wounded spirit.
I am living in grim days that just seem to get worse with each sunrise.
Evil is loose in the City of God and it seems as though The Enemy will finally be triumphant.
I need you to give me strength and guidance.
Strength to have faith that all things, no matter how dire, work together for the good of Your will.
Guidance to be part of the working out of Your will among us, in my society.
Give me the strength to be a conduit of healing and reconciliation in my corner of this fallen world.
Guide me with your Word to light my path and take me to where I can best labor in these vineyards for you.
Let your spirit come and give me the strength to be the hands that hold those whom need to be held.
When I cast judgment upon those that I believe have drifted from your flock, please give me the guidance to remember the sorrow and love that flowed down onto my Lord and Savior’s hands, forever pierced for my redemption.
Hands that the Lamb shows The Accuser, when I so often fail to live by that which I espouse.
Hear my prayer that this nation will be worthy of the grace that you have shed on it.
That we may act upon mercy, search for justice and find peace.
In the name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
MORNING GLORY!
MORNING GLORY!
Eastertide is full of Wonder which was preempted by Jesus’ trial, suffering and crucifixion – His glory is seen in all of His words throughout His journey to His Glorious Resurrection and after. Search for Jesus’ words in His entire journey. Listen for how His Holy Spirit resonates specific words of Jesus within your soul – use them!
Following is an offering written by Reverend Dr. Dave Peterson that beautifully explains why we want to “Use our Easter Words!” Get ready to be inspired!
Use Your Easter Words
By Dave Peterson
The average person’s vocabulary consists of 60,000 words, but we hardly use most of them. David Brooks claims that just 4,000 of those words make up 98% of our speech. Slice it a little more thinly and you discover that 60% of our speech comes from just 100 words.
Maybe the reason we use so few words is that we think so few new thoughts. The National Science Foundation reports that we think somewhere between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts a day. And get this, 98% are the same thoughts we thought yesterday. And believe-it-or-not, 80% of those thoughts are negative.
We worry, jump to conclusions, read people’s minds, predict outcomes, over-generalize,
minimize, maximize, blame, judge, shame, regret, and on-and-on and over-and-over.
These past few weeks have been so emotionally exhausting. Dire warnings. Grim statistics. Dark forecasts. Isolation. And these past 6 days of Holy Week have carried on the dark theme. Disappointment. Betrayal. Torture. Death.
But wait, today is Easter!! It’s time to go into your mental library, get down on your knees with a flashlight, and search out the bottom-shelf-Easter-words that suffer from so much neglect. Dust them off and declare them as life’s greatest reality. Even sing them, at the very least in your imagination.
Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!
Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!
But the pain which He endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation hath procured, Alleluia!
Now above the sky He’s king, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing, Alleluia!
Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
Praise eternal as His love, Alleluia!
Praise Him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!
Teaching a child to speak is hard. A child will often retreat to grunts and tears rather than find the right words. In those moments, the wise parent knows that it’s best to say, “Use your words.”
You’ve got 60,000 words at your disposal. You create a world with the words you choose. Train yourself in every thought and every conversation, to use Easter Words!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal … And now faith, hope, love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13)
O Lord most high, author of all alleluias, teach us to use the language of Easter and to speak the resurrection words of faith, hope and love. Amen
Go into God’s world in peace
Expect always the unexpected
Anticipate Miracles
Knowing that with God, all things are possible
May the Lord bless you and keep you
May the Lord make His face to shine upon you
May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you
and give you His peace
Happy Easter,
Dave