The Lord is King
By: Josiah ConderThe Lord is King! lift up thy voice,
O earth; and all ye heav’ns, rejoice!
From world to world the joy shall ring,
“The Lord omnipotent is King.”The Lord is King! who then shall dare
Resist His will, distrust His care,
Or murmur at His wise decrees,
Or doubt His royal promises?The Lord is King! Child of the dust,
The Judge of all the earth is just;
Holy and true are all His ways;
Let every creature speak His praise.O when His wisdom can mistake,
His might decay, His love forsake,
Then may His children cease to sing,
“The Lord omnipotent is King!”Alike pervaded by His eye,
All parts of His dominion lie;
This world of ours, and worlds unseen,
And thin the boundary between.He reigns! ye saints, exalt your strains;
Your God is King, your Father reigns;
And He is at the Father’s side,
The Man of love, the Crucified.Come, make your wants, your burdens known;
He will present them at the throne;
And angel bands are waiting there
His messages of love to bear.One Lord, one empire, all secures;
He reigns, and life and death are yours:
Through earth and Heav’n shall ring,
“The Lord omnipotent is King!”
Thursday, August 21, 2008
"The Lord is King," a hymn by Josiah Conder
It's been a long time since I've posted anything, and it would not be fair to call this a "hymn of the week," but it is a gorgeous hymn proclaiming the sovereignty and power of the Lord of Glory, and I thought it was worth sharing.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
No Distinctions
We were all equally dead and we are now all equally alive. Sometimes what we see is that the outplaying of our being dead is greater than others and the outplaying of our being alive is greater than others.
Example:
A child is born into a Christian family and hears the gospel while growing up. He is reborn at an early age and grows up in the Spirit of the Lord for his whole life; he leads Bible studies, prays and studies everyday, witnesses to everyone he knows and meets, and later plants and pastors a church.
Down the road is a man who has served time in jail for murder, raped women, done drugs, sold drugs, curses everyday, and can’t get through the day without getting drunk first. This man is reborn through Christ Jesus, stops living the life he is living; he begins going to church, reading and studying Scripture, prays everyday, witnesses to everyone he knows and meets, and later plants and pastors a church.
Was the second man more dead than the first? Did the second man become more alive than the first? No. I cannot think of any instance where someone in a grave is more dead than the guy a plot over. We were all equally spiritually dead and we are all equally spiritually alive.
Now, from our perspective we see a greater change in actions from the second man than the first, but, the change in a person’s heart from dead to alive is the same. There is no in-between dead and alive… there is either dead or alive. You are either dead in sin or alive in Christ.
There is no such thing as a boring testimony. If you have bee reborn in the Spirit, then your spiritual self has gone from death to life: just as Christ died physically and rose from the dead to life physically, so have you been raised from the dead.
God takes dead people and makes them alive. Nothing we do or say can in any way affect our deadness or aliveness, only God can do this. This is why all the glory is God's and none of it is ours.
Example:
A child is born into a Christian family and hears the gospel while growing up. He is reborn at an early age and grows up in the Spirit of the Lord for his whole life; he leads Bible studies, prays and studies everyday, witnesses to everyone he knows and meets, and later plants and pastors a church.
Down the road is a man who has served time in jail for murder, raped women, done drugs, sold drugs, curses everyday, and can’t get through the day without getting drunk first. This man is reborn through Christ Jesus, stops living the life he is living; he begins going to church, reading and studying Scripture, prays everyday, witnesses to everyone he knows and meets, and later plants and pastors a church.
Was the second man more dead than the first? Did the second man become more alive than the first? No. I cannot think of any instance where someone in a grave is more dead than the guy a plot over. We were all equally spiritually dead and we are all equally spiritually alive.
Now, from our perspective we see a greater change in actions from the second man than the first, but, the change in a person’s heart from dead to alive is the same. There is no in-between dead and alive… there is either dead or alive. You are either dead in sin or alive in Christ.
There is no such thing as a boring testimony. If you have bee reborn in the Spirit, then your spiritual self has gone from death to life: just as Christ died physically and rose from the dead to life physically, so have you been raised from the dead.
God takes dead people and makes them alive. Nothing we do or say can in any way affect our deadness or aliveness, only God can do this. This is why all the glory is God's and none of it is ours.
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