Tag Archives: hymns

Thought-Collage Thursday

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

Ok….so more technical problems…today is actually Saturday (March 1), obvi..but I wrote this Thursday.  *sigh  // ANYHOO-such profound thinking to follow…ha!

Throwback Thursday

I noticed recently that #throwbackthursday  (as in hashtag-throw-back-Thursday) is picking up steam.  It’s the chance for everybody to post those hilarious old photographs of themselves way back in the day.  I can TOTALLY do Throwback-Thursday today because I have been scanning old family photos and oh, man – did I find some doozies (of OTHER people, of course).

The Moslanders, my family-of-origin, #tbt

moslander 1976

Ross the Boss, Mrs. Moss and all the little Landers, 1975 @ Robert, Louisiana (I’m the oldest.  I was 16 here)

moslander 1988 nov

The Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1988 in Hobart, IN (Southlake Church of God).  Two words: shoulder pads!

Thirteen years later, we were all married, I had 5 kids (ages 2-9) and Tami had not grown an inch in height since she was 10 years old.

Meanwhile, I’ll call this Thought-Collage Thursday because that is what this blog is, anyway a collage!  :) 

I think I’m being followed.

fbi wi-fi

Seriously, everywhere I go, when the Wi-Fi options come up on my phone, there is always an FBI Mobile or FBI Van #7 or some sort of FBI vehicle around.  I am pretty sure I am being watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Why?  I do not know.  If anyone questions you about me, send me a coded text to warn me, will you?  Thanks!

Willie.

I have this {I own it!}, the Willie Nelson – His Hits and Finest Performances album distributed in a Reader’s Digest collection in 1987.  A former co-worker gave it to me just because I have a turntable (or “record player,” as they were known while I growing up!).

willie nelson album set

And while it is packed with all the great songs you already know by Willie Nelson, there are so many great treasures I had never heard anywhere until I got this.  53 great songs on 5 LPs.  Seriously, his rendition of “Let it Be Me” is the best I have ever heard of that gorgeous tune – and it has been sung by every. body!

Any song Willie Nelson sings, with that unmistakable gravel and sophistication actually just sounds more authentic and true than anyone else who ever attempts that song again.   A little raw and wholly soulful, he owns any melody that comes out of that talented heart.

Other songs he covers that I would totally encourage you to try out on iTunes or Spotify:  “Without a Song,” “Stardust,” and “September Song.”

February is (almost) over.

I am surprised every single year at how quickly it is gone.  Every year.  You’d think I’d know by now that it is going to happen.

hello march

Speaking of things I should know

When I take a drink and sort of miss my mouth…and dribble down the side – I am always appalled.  Occasionally when I am eating, I bite my tongue.  How is it 50-some years down the road I haven’t totally mastered these things, having practiced SO much?!

My Jesus, I Love Thee, verse 3

I love old hymns and find restoration, when I am frazzled and shredded by life, in just singing them.  Modern worship is wonderful, but I am drawn to lyrics deep and timeless, to melodies that have been sung by voices before me and which will still be drifting heavenward long after I am gone.

William R. Featherston wrote the well-known, “My Jesus, I Love Thee,” as a poem when he was somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.  How does such a young man know how to communicate such depth of love?

I was playing the keyboard and singing this song the other morning and the 3rd verse caught in my throat for a minute as I wondered: Will I love Jesus as much in my death as I do in my life?  Because I love life, too, really.  And what if I am not happy with the whole death process?  Will it make me love Him less?

But as suddenly as I questioned myself, I realized, we’re already dying anyway.  Part of our living is dying.  And if I am loving Jesus wholly each day in my living, then when I step through the door  of death from this realm, and actually see Him face to face, Oh, yes.  I will be loving Him more fully, more truly than I have ever been able.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

Adoniram Gordon added a melody to the words in 1876.  And William R. Featherston died at age 27 never knowing his words would become a hymn of the deepest devotion, sung around the world and included in almost every hymnal for years to come.

 Live Stream Ransomed Heart Event!

live stream simulcast

1) Get the book and read it!  2) Sign up for Live Stream HERE  3) Saturday March 15, 9am-3 pm…4) While you wait, enjoy archived events from Ransomed Heart Ministries.

 That is all for today.  Enough.

 

 

The Saturday morning before Easter

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, , , ,

There is a coconut cake* in the oven and the doors and windows are open wide to let the spring air flow freely.  I hear something (?) in the neighborhood – is some one mowing already? 

The washer and dryer are at their rumbly-sounds work and my dining room table is lined with colorful Easter bags, each designated for one amazing grandbebe or another, as I busily prepare for THE day, the day more important than all the rest of the days ever – the one celebrating what Jesus did.  Easter.  Resurrection – the complete and finished work.  New life, the new birth, the fulfillment of all longing.  I can’t help humming, singing, contemplating

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow

And we are rejoicing for we have a Savior and we are also waiting, longing for the new little bebe who will join us soon.  Jovan and Rocky were “due” on Friday and so, as every woman who has ever gone past her due date will attest, the longing increases to almost unbearable heights for birth, for what has been carried, to see the baby who has been hidden, being knitted by the very hands of God, right here, right now in our arms, in our sights, please, Lord!  From womb to waiting arms.  From darkness to light.  From will-this-ever-happen to the miraculous she is here!  From waning, worn-out hope to bright-light joy!

jovan pregnant

Mommy and daddy are ready!  Mommy is really really ready, doing the hardest of the work.  :)

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.  Romans 8.22-25

We are enlarged in the waiting!  Oh, my goodness, our expectancy is JOYFUL!

jovan pregnant

So we are remembering Jesus, all He did, what His suffering and death on the cross gave us – while we were still actually sinners {don’t give up on this evil world, my friends and family – what Jesus did was enough and is enough for even these troubled days, for all men, for all times}.  Jesus is all.

And we are looking ahead with joyful expectancy for this new little girl, Baby-Girl Rhoades and we are blessed, so blessed.

So pray for Jovan if you think about it.  Pray for that promised strength to deliver (Isaiah 66) and Have a blessed Easter.

Jesus died.  But He conquered death and rose. And His blood washes white and His wounds brought us healing and what He has done means everything.  So be blessed on Easter!

I hear the Savior say, “Thy strength indeed is small; Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow”

Soon!

*About the coconut cake…Pure decadence.  I have been delivered of the very luscious, yet too-many-steps-from-scratch recipe I used to make to Heather’s delightful use-a-mix-and-you’ll-never-go-back-deliciousness.  It is a wonderful cake.  Maybe I will share the recipe with you!  Soon.

as promised {CLICK HERE} for cake recipe

Lover of My Soul

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.”  Ps 19.7

“He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters.  He restores my soul…”  Ps 23.2-3a

“I will be glad and rejoice in Your love, for You saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.”  Ps 31.7

“When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ Your love, O LORD, supported me.  When anxiety was great within me,  Your consolation brought joy to my soul.”  Ps 94.18, 19

“Be at rest once more, o my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.  For You, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.”  Ps 116.7-8

Charles Wesley’s famous hymn called Jesus the “Lover of my soul,” and painting a picture of raging waters and a “storm of life” asks, even pleads with Jesus to be his refuge, his hiding place.

But this morning I am singing an older hymn – my current favorite “oldie” written sometime in the 1700’s:  Be Still, My Soul.  Amy Grant has an a m a z i n g rendition of it!

The soul, they say say, is the mind, the will and the emotions part of us.  It is the center of the human personality and at times we think if we could just get past that part of ourselves, we could really serve God, be faithful, be holy.  But I really think Jesus is the Lover of our souls.  I think that is the part of us He created that brings Him a lot of joy.  For even though that is where the anguish and battle of self-rule try to rage, the soul is also the part of us that makes the decision to repent. 

Does He love me?  All of me?  Does He love the mind He created in me?  Does He love my emotions?  Does He love my very personality?  Does some of it need a workover?  Oh, yes, at times.  But we are spirit, soul and body – and He made all of that – on purpose.  He is the lover of my soul.

Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side
Bear patienty the cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change He faithful will remain
Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still my soul the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt here below…