…among these restless throngs abide…

Where cross the crowded ways of life
where sound the cries of race and clan
above the noise of selfish strife
we hear Your voice, O Son of Man

In haunts of wretchedness and need
on shadowed thresholds fraught with fears
from paths where hide the lures of greed
we catch the vision of Your tears

From tender childhood’s helplessness
from human grief and burdened toil
from famished souls, from sorrow’s stress
Your heart has never known recoil

The cup of water given for You
still holds the freshness of Your grace
yet long these multitudes to view
the sweet compassion of Your face

O Master, from the mountainside
make haste to heal these hearts of pain
among these restless throngs abide
O tread the city’s streets again

Till all the world shall learn Your love
and follow where your feet have trod
till glorious from Your heaven above
shall come the city of our God

— Frank Mason North (~1905)

The sanctified all

A lovely verse filled with the precious care of God…

“And now I commit you to God and to the word of the grace of Him which is able to build up and to give you an inheritance almond the sanctified all.”

— Acts 20.32

May God give you eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a tender heart to accept, what is taking place all around you in heavenly places.

Lord of my death

Lord of my death
Lord of my weeping
Lord of my loss
Lord of my wounds
Lord of my illness
Lord of my unbearable pain
Lord of my heavy, light suffering
Lord of my unending, momentary affliction
Lord of my weakness
Lord of my fear
Lord of my despair
Lord of my uncertainty
Lord of all
Scoop me up into arms that hold to the ages
Out of time and out of dying life
Take me into wonder that I have slightly tasted
Into Your death and unending Life
Spread out Your Lordship over all of my being
Precious Lord Jesus
Lord first and last
God’s final Word forever
Have the last say!

“He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.”
–2 Corinthians 12:9,10

“Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
–2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Psalm 42 – Thirsting for God

As the deer pants after the channels of water, so my soul pants after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and see the face of God? My tears have been my food by day and by night, while they say to me all the day, Where is your God? When I remember these things and I pour out my soul on me (for I passed over with the throng; I led them to the house of God with the voice of rejoicing and praise, a host keeping the feast). O my soul, why are you cast down and moan within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet thank Him for the salvation of His presence. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; on account of this I remember You from the land of Jordan, and from the Hermonites, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep through the voice of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and Your billows have passed over me. Yahweh will command His loving-kindness by day, and His song shall be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my Rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning when the enemy oppresses me? Ones vexing me reproach me with crushing in my bones, when they say to me every day, Where is your God? O my soul, why are you cast down? And why do you moan within me? Hope in God, for I yet thank Him for the salvation of my face and my God.

— Psalm 42 (LITV)