Tag: hymns

Hawkeyes

James HoganLeave a comment

Currently in Starbucks, even though it’s a bit late in the afternoon. My feet are itching to leave and enjoy the sunlight!

But I did want to write a few words – you’re not complaining, right? I got a couple new CDs that I ordered today, listening to one of them now – such gorgeous and heart-enlivening music!! I’m so excited that I can’t help but share them with you. Once you see the track list, you’ll understand why I love them so. Listening right now to And Can it Be sung by thousands of voices…oh for that glorious day where we all shall sing together to our Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever and ever. And ever. Amazing love, how can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me????


1. Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
2. Praise the Lord, Ye Heavens Adore Him
3. A Debtor to Mercy Alone
4. Hallelujah, What a Saviour
5. Mercies Anew
6. Before the Throne of God Above
7. Come Thou Almighty King
8. Immortal, Invisible
9. Like a River Glorious
10. The Look
11. I will Glory in My Redeemer
12. Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me

And if that isn’t enough…the live album from Together for the Gospel 2008.


1. A Mighty Fortress is our God
2. It is Well with my Soul
3. How Firm a Foundation
4. Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
5. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
6. How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
7. How Sweet and Aweful is the Place
8. My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
9. I will Glory in my Redeemer
10. Arise, my soul, Arise
11. The Power of the Cross
12. My Song is Love Unknown
13. And Can It Be
14. There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
15. Before the Throne of God Above
16. In Christ Alone

So yeah. Couldn’t help but share.

And listening to these songs now, how my heart is encouraged and my soul is lifted up! I have had a long and weary week, full of trials. My heart has been burdened and my soul downcast. Yet now as I praise my God in song and thought…there is such a peace in my heart. A peace that surpasses all comprehension. Oh how blessed are we. I seriously am so overwhelmed by the goodness of my Lord in granting me such peace and encouragement this afternoon. If I could weep…

So last night as I came home from work tired and discouraged, I decided to go for a run in the crisp autumn air as the sun gloriously set. That was definitely much enjoyed! Afterwards had a sweet talk with Dad and then showered before my dinner of frozen pizza and spinach salad(ok, maybe not the most elaborate dinner, but it sure tasted good!!).

Now this morning was sadly filled up with being at work and trying to keep the reins steady on my wildly careening project. Thankfully was only there about four hours and now I’m here at Starbucks(could not give up my Saturday Starbucks!). Been here for a couple hours now and really should be leaving soon…but no, a few more words. These songs(now listening to Before the Throne of God Above) are seriously amazingly powerful. I’m…a bit emotional listening to them. Just finishing reading a letter from Mom, too – received very timely today! Oh what a joy to read the six pages from her. Oh joy, oh bliss. Love you, Mom!! 🙂

Now my peppermint mocha is a bit cold, so it must be about time to go. And my CD is on the last song(In Christ Alone). It must be a sign.

Farewell, all. Grace and love and peace. Hope in the Lord. Sing and dance and wonder at what amazing love we are blessed with so. Peace.

A cloud floats free from filmy sea to frozen sky,
Rainbow croons of crimson peace and truest glory,
An apple tree blossoms white in silent beauty,
And upon the land a song of love is lifted.

Blood so perfect, blood so true,
How oh how could Christ love us so?
Story written, love anew –
Glories and wonders and beauty!
Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords
King Almighty and He Who Will Reign Forever,
Song of my heart and Poem of my soul,
Jesus my God.

Peppermint sprig

James HoganLeave a comment

It’s a lovely Aberdeen morning! I so much love being able to sit inside by the window with my coffee, staying toasty warm…and looking outside to see the clouds gently float by in the cornflower blue sky…

And I suppose you all wouldn’t mind a minor update, right? Right?? Honestly, not too much to report, except that all is well and I’m learning that a scarf and gloves are very nice to have. Oh yeah, and it sort of snowed this past weekend. In October!! When we were getting ready to leave for work this past Wednesday, Uche looked out the window and said, “It’s snowing.” I didn’t really believe him at first…until I looked outside. And yes, it was definitely snowing. Warm enough that it was a pretty wet snow, but snow nonetheless. The snow only stayed on the ground until noon, when the sun melted it all away…but now we’ll see if this early snow is a sign of a crazy winter to come.

Oh and had a couple sweet nights this past week at church – Wednesday night was Bible study/prayer time, which was of course sweet(talking about Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 1), but the best part was the praying at the end and then talking with some new friends until we figured out we were the last people left(standing outside in the not-quite-bitter cold). Good times!! And Thursday night was game night at the church, which involved much crazy quiz games and running around and human Pictionary…and generally all-around smashing times.

Now it’s the weekend and I’m so far having a relaxing Saturday morning(soon to be noon!) and getting ready to walk down Union Street in a few minutes. Probably going to check the used book shops and see if they have any good books in! And I am displeased – the sky’s starting to cloud up a bit…looking like it may become overcast. Oh well, I won’t complain…because it’s not raining. Yet.

And because it’s been a little while since I’ve posted a top songs list…here we go! Except this time, you get two for the price of one!! I’ve decided that, since I’ve always talked about which hymns/worship songs are in my top five, but never actually defined that list, I probably have seven top five hymns. And that’s just bad math. So…hymns top five – count ’em down! (And before you start castigating me for the order I have these in, the order is very fluid and subject to change…so no whingeing allowed):

5. Amazing Grace – This is an all time classic and deservedly so. Every time I sing it, I feel overwhelmed with joy. How can I not?? Sidenote: the inclusion of this music in Star Trek II made the movie all the better. True story. And I feel I have another hymn that may actually be number five in place of this one…but I can’t think of it, so Amazing Grace gets this spot.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me…
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

4. Be Thou My Vision – A beautiful prayer to the King of Kings, rightly focusing on our Lord. Oh how I love singing this…I sadly realized I did not have a copy of this on my iTunes, so I just found a Jars of Clay version recently, a cause for great rejoicing!

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

3. And Can it Be(Amazing Love) – Whenever I see we’re going to sing this song at church, my heart skips a beat. One of the most lovely songs depicting salvation. EVER. When I sing it, my mind joyfully remembers and rejoices in what Jesus our Lord has done for me!!

And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior’s blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2. Holy Holy Holy – This has long been one of my favorites, probably longer than any other song on this list. And for good reason. It oh so majestically reminds me of the Lord God Almighty to whom all glory and majesty and dominion and power belongs. I can’t describe it…except that I love it. If you want to hear it, youtube the Keith Green version of it. I love hearing the passion in his voice(another recent iTunes addition). Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!!

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

1. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing – And here we come to number one. This song became my number one favorite song of all time one Sunday morning at Creekside Community Church, freshman year at UF. Singing it and being reminded of Jesus who saved me by his glorious grace, and his grace alone!! And that despite my sins and slips and failures…He holds me still. I love it so.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Honorable mention: Hallelujah Chorus – really, I LOVE singing this, especially in a MASSIVE group of people…alas, it is not often done, so I’m not including it. But one of my favorite experiences of all time was singing this purely God-praising/glorifying/worshiping song in a group of ~300 people. Amazing. A very picture and faint image of heaven.

And there we go. To summarize:
5. Amazing Grace
4. Be Thou My vision
3. And Can it Be?
2. Holy, Holy, Holy
1. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

YES.

And don’t worry, since I decided that an epic two-cookie post has been far too long in coming, that’s not all the music we have for today. But before I finish the musical program for today, just wanted to muse a bit over…life, the universe and everything? No, not quite. Well, at least not today. But wanted to talk a bit(really, I will try to be brief!) on the subject of marriage. And yes, I know, I am most definitely not married, so take all my words with several grains of salt. But I’ve been for some reason bombarded lately by discussions and messages on marriage(whether it be the recent sermon series at church or the blog topic at several blogs I read or talking to my good friends), and so that’s been on my mind more often than not lately. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I leave to you. Well actually, it’s not bad as long as I don’t overly focus on it to the detriment of my walk with the Lord and seeking after His face. And I talk about it little enough on here, I felt I’d share these thoughts. And now that my long-winded(really, did you expect anything else?) introduction is coming to a middle, just consider these words and feel very free to correct or rebuke me! And encouraging words are always nice too!

Anyways, I was talking to my flatmate Uche this morning, and were(for some reason!) talking about the extravagances of weddings. Apparently, some things never change, from America to Scotland to Nigeria. But as we were discussing this, it struck both of us that the strong emphasis on the wedding is sometimes to the detriment of the actual marriage! Some people will go deeply in debt to put on an impressive wedding and then a year later, the divorce papers are filed. Truly, truly tragic. But why are the weddings so important? We do want to celebrate the two becoming one flesh, yes. And there’s nothing wrong with joyful celebrations! But I feel that sometimes a wedding is seen as an event, something that is an epic event in and of itself. Oftentimes(I will not admit to this!), we dream of “the wedding” and all the pageantry that is so involved. Why do we do this, when the wedding day is gone in the blink of an eye.

Rather, as a man and a woman come together, their focus and goal should be a marriage and life together. That is forever(well, sort of). Instead of spending all our pre-marriage time pondering and looking towards a celebration, let us look towards a life of oneness and unity! A life of serving each other! I wrote down a good quote from a sermon at my church a few weeks past…I’m sure it won’t be foreign to any of you: “Love is a willful decision of giving one self to another”. I love that. I won’t be spending a multitude of words talking about the nature of love(I think I’ve done that before anyways), but is that not beautiful?? We shouldn’t be looking towards marriage as something that will satisfy our needs or make us happier or fill an emptiness in our souls. Should I be thinking that a woman will answer my heart’s deepest longings? Absolutely not! (And neither should a woman think that of a man. Um, yeah, we men are definitely not all that) We should be looking to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ first and foremost. As we pursue Christ, we will see that we can serve as He served. And that marriage is one of the best opportunities to serve that will ever come along. Or so I’m told. In marriage, love is serving and loving and encouraging and correcting and feeding and sacrificing. And the foundation of that is our love in and of Christ. True that? Yes.

Now I’m trying to remember what my point is(that’s the problem when I semi-stream-of-consciousness-write…*scrolls back to top of page* Ah yes) But if I really wanted to talk about marriage and all the intricacies and beauties therein, it would take more words than I have. I might possibly discover the word limit on livejournal. But marriage is a man and woman coming together as one. A man will love his wife above himself. Whoa. And marriage is a picture of Christ and His church and the amazing love that is the very cornerstone of that relationship! Marriage is a man and a woman truly loving each other, every second of every day, and seeking to use their oneness as a vehicle to serve and love others, whether they be in the Church or not. That. Is. Beautiful. And yes, yes, I know it very often doesn’t look like that. But that’s what we(who are married, or may one day) should be striving after. Let’s strive, yo? Sweet.

And now that I’ve either thoroughly bored you(please don’t tell me though) or underwhelmed you(don’t tell me that either) or encouraged and uplifted you(you can tell me that!!)…time for our musical postlude.

Just made a new mix-CD…well actually, a mix-iTunes playlist. Once I get some CDs, I’ll burn it. BUT, this will give you an idea of my current favs. Also, I sort of cheated…I have a rule I made for myself: one song per group. Yeah, couldn’t do that this time. Nightwish and Muse both ended up with two. Oops. Also, if this list doesn’t convince you of my weird crazy eclectic music taste…yeah, nothing will.

Now presenting…Granite Realism

1. Wildfire – Sonata Arctica
2. Slaying the Dreamer – Nightwish
3. Holy Thunderforce – Rhapsody
4. Showbiz – Muse
5. Fireflies – Owl City
6. Far Away – Ingrid Michaelson
7. Ballad of Bilbo Baggins – Leonard Nimoy
8. Please don’t Leave Me – Pink
9. Alejandro – Lady GaGa
10. Fix You – Coldplay
11. Just – Radiohead
12. Unnatural Selection – Muse
13. May It Be – Enya
14. Girl Named Tennessee – Needtobreathe
15. Sleeping Sun – Nightwish
16. Be Thou My Vision – Jars of Clay
17. Savannah – Relient K
18. Holy, Holy, Holy – Keith Green

It’s been real, y’all. It’s been fun. But, it’s time for this party to come to an end. I did say this was a two-cookie post. I lied. Three-cookie post. I made peanut butter cookies recently…if you read this all, you can claim ’em. Rock on, y’all!!