On My Cross — FFH

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

With Easter upon us, I thought it would be good to post the lyrics of a song about the Cross. This particular song is very moving and thoughtful, as it focuses on Jesus’ suffering for each of us personally “” He died on our cross.

The song is by the group that also gave us another great song about the cross: “Still the Cross”. If you click on that link, you will see my post about that equally good song.

May you be blessed by the message of this song.

 

On My Cross

By Jeromy Diebler

Verse 1

How wide is Your love
That You would stretch Your arms
And go around the world
And why for me would a Savior’s cry be heard

I don’t know
Why You went where I was meant to go
I don’t know
Why You love me so

Chorus

Those were my nails
That was my crown
That pierced Your hands and Your brow
Those were my thorns
Those were my scorns
Those were my tears that fell down
And just as You said it would be
You did it all for me
After You counted the cost
You took my shame, my blame
On my cross

Verse 2

How deep is Your grace
That you could see my need
And chose to take my place
And then for me, these words I’d hear You say

Father no
Forgive them for they know not what they do
I will go
Because I love them so

Words and Music by Jeromy Diebler.  © 2001 New Spring Music (admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing Inc.). Recorded by FFH on the CD “Have I Ever Told You”. All rights reserved. CCLI song # 3438028.


To listen to this song, click on the link at the bottom of this post. There is also a challenging video to watch (with crucifixion scenes and Bible verses, etc.) that also plays this song in full in the background.

For a preview of the sheet music, click here (to purchase the sheet music click here). To purchase the CD, click here. For a link to a brief background to the song, on FFH’s website, click here.
On My Cross by FFH

Don’t Waste Your Life

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

One of John Piper’s best books has got to be Don’t Waste Your Life. In fact, it is the book I recommend for people unfamiliar with Piper’s misistry and message.

The book is great and the message is greater. We need to make our lives count for Jesus. Recently, I stumbled upon dontwasteyourlife.com, a new online venture of DesiringGod.org. The site is fantastic, and it is devoted to spreading the message of the book. I encourage you fellow bloggers to promote this site. They have a podcast with short videos, like the one below. And they have a blog. They also sell copies of the book, and the new group study kit (with special DVD).

With that being said, I encourage you to watch the short clip below, and to be encouraged anew to make your life count for Christ. But remember, lean on God’s grace. We can’t live this kind of a life without God’s amazing grace.

Serious Satire

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

I recently came across a seriously funny site. The TomintheBox News Network is a blog by Thomas Slawson which offers parodies of evangelicalism, in the vein of Purgatorio and The League of Tyndale. Many of them are quite silly and harmless, while quite a few drive home a serious point. All of them are so well written, that you’ll be tempted to think they are true.

I read thru Tom’s whole blog the other night (its new as of January). And I must confess I was looking for entertainment. Being the Calvinist I am, certain posts made me crack up, like this one, and this one, and also this one (you have to go to those links by the way). He takes jabs at everyone from Robert Schuller to Peter Ruckman.

A few of his posts took aim at extreme fundamentalism. And I found this post absolutely hillarious. He leads you into thinking one thing, and then unloads his point. Now I say it is funny, (and I really want you to read it, so I’m not going to quote from it or anything) and it is. But it really isn’t. He makes an important point thru satire.

So I want you to read that post, and give me your thoughts, if you would. (I have personal connections which lead me to believe the post is not too much of a stretch.) And if you’re interested, there are two similar posts here, and here.

Before I go, I need to credit Rhett Kelley for directing me to that blog. I think I saw links from other places too, but Rhett gets the credit. I’m sure a lot of you will get a kick out of this blog, so go ahead and check it out.

And one more thing, click here to read something which should be satire, yet it isn’t. It’s the sad story of extremism gone wild, told by James White. (Note: The people in this last link are not what I think of when I talk about IFBx. They are far worse, and I don’t want to smear strict fundamentalists by suggesting they approve of or condone this kind of fanatacism.)

A Wise Perspective on Limited Atonement

~ fundyreformed ~ 14 Comments

I can’t quite remember how I stumbled across this article last night, but I thought I would share it anyway.  

The Nature of the Atonement: Why and for Whom Did Christ Die? By Phil Johnson

I’m not excited about the article because he agrees with my position on particular redemption, even though he does. I’m excited because he brings a wise perspective on the debate. Calvinism in the past and in the present allows room for varying positions on this debate. Not all Calvinists agree on each text. Most however would agree that Jesus died for the elect in a special sense for which he did not die for the non-elect.

This article is similar to some comments by Wayne Grudem that I highlighted in the context of a recent debate on the topic. In all our (speaking to fellow Calvinists here) defense of particular redemption, let us be careful not to deny that Christ’s atonement applies to all men in some sense. And let us not be quick to judge others on the basis of our strong stand on the issue, all the while we remain ignorant of many wiser Calvinists of old who would caution us against such a tactic.

Google Magic & My Blog Finds

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

My Blog Finds

In my continuing effort to improve my blog and make it a source of valuable and helpful resources, I am excited to announce another new feature. If you already looked left, you noticed my new “Blogging Around” section which contains site news and other interesting stuff. Now if you look below that section, you will see yet another new section: “My Blog Finds”.

I’m sure you might think, “What’s the big deal? You already did the same thing with your “Blogging Around” section, didn’t you?” Let me explain. The “Blogging Around” section has to be manually edited by my editor and personal assistant (yours truly). This other section is automatically updated by my new editing team (Google Reader with the help of WordPress.Com).

A Little Google Magic

Before I continue my post here, let me stop and talk about Google Reader. For a while now I have been meaning to try using a feed reader. I enjoy hopping around to other blogs, and reading the great stuff that’s out there. But it can take a lot of time. And there are always blogs you don’t get too.

Feed readers, like Google Reader and Bloglines, promise to help. You simply add feeds from the blogs you want to track, and these sites will bring everything into one place. I have experimented with Bloglines, but just wasn’t happy with it. So I didn’t have great hopes for Google Reader, either.

Try Google ReaderI was pleasantly surprised, though, when I finally tried out Google Reader. “Magic” is the word that comes to mind. It is simple to add feeds (it will recognize them automatically, just copy the web address or URL from the blogs you want to add), and it is great to read them in the program. Almost all the pictures show up and the reading experience is great.

The features it offers make blogging easy. You can add a “yellow star” to any post to remember to go back and read it or blog about it later. Also, by clicking one time you can have the blog post you’re reading open up in a new window, in case you want to comment or something. You can also click “share” (at the bottom of the post) to add that post to your shared items page. And this feature is what makes it so easy to make your own “blog finds” feature.

Add Your Own “Blog Finds” Feature

I like the feature so much, I want to help you other bloggers add it as well. First, sign up for a free Google account and join Google Reader (its also free). Then, simply add subscriptions to your Google Reader, and click “share” on the posts you want to share. Then in the top left of your Google Reader home page, you will see a link to “Shared Items”. Click on that link and you will see all the posts you’ve shared, recently. But that’s not all. You will also see a fixed URL which will link to that page, as well as a link which says “feed”. The feed is for your shared list. As your shared list updates (by you selecting new posts to share), those posts are sent to your feed.

Then for those using Blogger, there is a button you can press which makes it easy to add a “Blog Finds” box to your blog, which contains your latest shared posts. And for you WordPress guys (the smart ones!!), just copy the link to your feed (located on your shared items page), and use an RSS Feed widget (in your presentation / side-bar widgets section from your dashboard). It’s that simple.

Thanks, Google Reader for sharing some blog magic. I hope you all appreciate my blog finds and start sharing yours. And I know you will find that Google Reader will make your blogging and blog-reading much easier, faster, and better!

For more help with this, check out Google Reader’s excellent help section.