Mealtime Grace

1. Father, we thank you for our food,

For life and health and every good;

Let manna to our souls be giv’n,

The Bread of Life sent down from Heav’n.

2. Be present at our table, Lord;

Be here and everywhere adored;

By your own hand may we be fed;

Give us this day our daily bread.

3. Spirit of Life we wait for you.

Cleanse us of sin, our souls renew.

Baptize the peoples far and nigh;

The Name of Jesus glorify.

Tune: 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him, all creatures here below;

Praise him above, ye heav'nly host:

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

The USA Still Has the Death Penalty for Murder --"the harshest penalty that a just society can impose"

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a per curiam [unanimous] decision on Wednesday upholding the death sentence for Roof, saying that no legal record "can capture the full horror of what Roof did".

The panel rejected various claims by Roof in his appeal that errors had been made when the court concluded that he was competent to stand trial for the nine murders.

“Roof murdered African Americans at their church, during their Bible-study and worship. They had welcomed him. He slaughtered them. He did so with the express intent of terrorizing not just his immediate victims at the historically important Mother Emanuel Church, but as many similar people as would hear of the mass murder,” concluded the panel.

“No cold record or careful parsing of statutes and precedents can capture the full horror of what Roof did. His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose.”

Full Article

"Sir Francis Drake's" Prayer

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. Because we have dreamed too little when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Amen.

Attributed to Sir Francis Drake 1540 - 1596

Very likely not his.

See discussion

 

The Martyrs under the Altar - Matthew Henry

"The sight this apostle saw at the opening of the fifth seal; it was a very affecting sight (Rev.6.9): I saw under the altar the souls of those that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. He saw the souls of the martyrs. Here observe,

(1.) Where he saw them-under the altar; at the foot of the altar of incense, in the most holy place; he saw them in heaven, at the foot of Christ. Hence note,

[1.] Persecutors can only kill the body, and after that there is no more that they can do; their souls live.

[2.] God has provided a good place in the better world for those who are faithful to death and are not allowed a place any longer on earth.

[3.] Holy martyrs are very near to Christ in heaven, they have the highest place there.

[4.] It is not their own death, but the sacrifice of Christ, that gives them a reception into heaven and a reward there; they do not wash their robes in their own blood, but in the blood of the Lamb.

(2.) What was the cause in which they suffered-the word of God and the testimony which they held, for believing the word of God, and attesting or confessing the truth of it; this profession of their faith they held fast without wavering, even though they died for it. A noble cause, the best that any man can lay down his life for-faith in God's word and a confession of that faith."

Matthew Henry

An Early attempt to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem

" Julian’s plan to restore the Temple contradicted a central Christian tenet that the Temple’s destruction proved the Christian claim that they, not the Jews, were the Chosen People of God."

More

Our Cities Cry -- by Margaret Clarkson

Our cities cry to you, O God,

From out their pain and strife;

You made us for Yourself alone,

But we choose alien life.

( The rest of the hymn )

Legalism - Grappling with the Term

"As Sinclair Ferguson observes, legalism abstracts the law of God from God’s gracious character. The commands of Scripture divorced from God’s gracious character become not the good and gracious gift of a loving God who has given us everything in Christ and knows what is best for us, but a burdensome duty assigned by a God whose love has to be earned—a God whose commands keep us from real joy."

from:

https://www.9marks.org/article/church-membership-among-former-mormons-a-9marks-mailbag/#_ftnref1