Merry Christmas

Romantic Language in Hymns (Pt. 2)

Just One Touch of You, Dear Lord

1.

Just one touch of You, dear Lord,

Just one look into Your eyes,

Just one kiss from You,

You're all I need, my Love.

Let me hear again Your voice.

You are now my final choice.

Speak in love to me.

I'll waste myself on Thee.

Chorus 1:

Nothing and no one can satisfy me

But You anymore.

Jesus, I love You, my only desire!

O Lord, I just love You.

2. Let me touch You as before,

Craving for You more and more,

You're the very best!

I'll drop the rest for You.

Oh, the kisses of Your mouth

Make my lips to praise and shout.

Lord, You're full of grace,

Oh, what a taste, my Love!

Chorus 2:

Nothing and no one can satisfy me

But You anymore.

Jesus, my first Love, oh, set me on fire

For You, my only desire.

3. Just infuse me with Your eyes.

Oh! This union satisfies!

As I gaze on You,

I'm filled with You, my Love.

Only You alone will do.

I can't make it without You.

Keep me close to You,

Just joined to You as one.

Chorus 3:

Nothing and no one can satisfy me

But You anymore.

Jesus, I love You, my only desire.

Oh, set my heart on fire.

4. I repent and now return,

Grant my heart for You to burn.

Flame in me this zeal.

Lord, be in me so real!

I repent and now return.

Grant my heart for You to burn.

Flame in me this zeal.

Lord, be in me so real!

Chorus 4:

Jesus, my first Love! O Jesus, my best Love!

I now return to You.

Jesus, my first Love! O Jesus, my best Love!

I love You. I just love You!

Romantic Language in Hymns (Pt. 1)

With the Kisses of Your Mouth

1. With the kisses of Your mouth,

Have You kissed me, Lord.

From Your kisses flows a fountain,

From a depth unknown.

Gently tempered by Your touching

Of my deepest chords,

My heart’s renewed with gladness,

And my love o’erflows.

2. Let me kiss You, drink You deeper,

Fully satisfy

All the longings deep within me,

For Your presence nigh,

And a deeper, sweeter union,

Of Your life with mine

That our natures fully mingled,

Would our hearts entwine.

3. Ever increase,Lord, within me,

My desire for You.

Let Your kisses ever kiss me,

And that I’d kiss You.

Dear Lord Jesus, may I ever be,

So betrothed to You.

May I love You, always love You,

And respond to You.

Video of Church Raid

From "Voice of the Martyrs":

Just as we put the finishing touches on our November newsletter about Vietnam, we received this video footage of a small house church being raided by Vietnamese police. This church had been raided before. Local officials told the house church they did not have official permission to meet, so they could not have religious meetings.

Church members reported:
On Sunday, August 23, 2009, we were still gathering together for service meeting since this is necessary spiritual need. At 3 p.m., many district security officers came into my house. At that time, we were having service meeting, they came and stopped and dismissed us. We stopped and explained to them we had made the application of permission already, but they still blustered. Several of them towed Brother --- out to the house and had him sit on their motorbike. They did the same way to ---. They oppressed him ruthlessly and towed him; they did not allow for him to speak a word. And other women were towed away also. They did take away one guitar but they did not make a report to taking away guitar. After arriving at the district police station, they made the report with the accusation: “They are gathering together illegally.” They used the abuse words and threatened Brother ---: “If you came back this place again; you will be beaten.” … and at 6:30 p.m. they released us.

See video footage of the raid here. Continue to pray that our Vietnamese family will not succumb to the pressure against them. Pray they will continue to meet together and encourage each other, so they can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Excerpts from a Book (pt. 3)

"The greatest thing any person can do for another is to confirm the depest thing in him, in her--to take the time and have the discernment to see what's most deeply there, most fully that person, and then confirm iut by recognizing it and encouraging it.

Each of us has contact with hundreds of people who never look beyond our surface appearance. We have dealings with hundreds of people who the moment they set eyes on us begin calculating what use we can be to them, what they can get out of us. We meet hundreds of people who take one look at us, make a snap judgment, and then slot us into a category so that they won't have to deal with us as persons. The treat us as something less than we are; and if we're in constant association with them, we become less.

And then someone enters our life who isn't looking for someone to use, is leisurely enough to find out what's really going on in us, is secure enough not to exploit our weaknesses or attact our strengths, recognizes our inner life and understands the difficulty of living out our inner convictions, confirms what's deepest within us. A friend."

Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians - Eugene Peterson

Excerpts from a Book (pt. 2)

"Parents encourage these explorations and discoveries by presenting their children with toys. Toys provide a safe, or at least safer, means of carrying out experiments on the world than wandering out into the streets and forests. Instead of sending our two-year-old down to the fire stations to climb all over the fire trucks and pester the firefighters with questions, we buy a small fire truck and let him rescue people from under the dining room table. Instead of sending our three-year-old to the woods to look for bears and badgers, we buy her a few stuffed anmials that will give her a feel for these creatures without the danger of her becoming a meal for them.

In the process of this exploration we learn that there's more to the world than size and shape, color and texture; there's meaning and purpose, good and bad. There's someting just beneath the surface of everything, something invisible and inaudible but just as real, maybe even more real, than what we're seeing and hearing and touching. Stories are our primary means for exploring these beneath-the-surface, behind-the-scenes relalities that are as present and immediate to us as anything we have access to through our five senses. Stories are as important as toys."

Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians - Eugene Peterson

A Word to Bible College Students and Graduates

I'm posting this here, if for no other reason than to have access to it in upcoming years when I need a good slap in the face. The last 13 minutes or so are some of the most convicting words I've heard preached in a while.

Matt Chandler speaking in chapel at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary