Have a blessed 2010!

In the final hours of the year 2009, we all were just reflecting on God's provision, sovereignty, grace and growth from this past year. As bleak as some seasons may be, in hindsight, it is truly awesome to see God's hand through the high's and lows.

This is a certain hymn that I've recently discovered in a music book that most poignantly expresses all we have to be thankful for this past year...and what we can expect to look back upon a year from now.

For Thy mercy and Thy grace,

Constant through another year,

Hear our song of thankfulness;

Jesus, our Redeemer, hear.
Lo! our sins on Thee we cast, Thee, our perfect Sacrifice;

And, forgetting all the past,

Press towards our glorious prize.
Dark the future: let Thy light

Guide us, bright and morning Star:

Fierce our foes, and hard the fight;

Arm us, Savior, for the war.
In our weakness and distress, Rock of strength, be Thou our Stay;

In the pathless wilderness

Be our true and living Way.
Who of us death’s awful road

In the coming year shall tread?

With Thy rod and staff, O God,Comfort Thou his dying bed.
Keep us faithful, keep us pure, Keep us evermore Thine own;

Help, O help us to endure;

Fit us for the promised crown.
So within Thy palace gate

We shall praise, on golden strings,

Thee the only Potentate,Lord of lords, and King of kings.

I just wanted to post some lyrics to a favorite hymn of mine called "For the Beauty of the Earth" by Folliott S. Pierpont: (Some of you might recognize the lyrics from the 1994 version of Little Women where they sing this song at Meg's wedding)

For the beauty of the earth
For the Glory of the skies
For the love which from our births
Over and around us lies

(Refrain:) Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night
Hill and vale and tree and flow'r
Sun and moon and stars of light

For the joy of human love
Brother, sister, parent, child
Friends on earth and friends above
For all gentle thoughts and mild

Have a blessed new year, may the Lord bless you abundantly and may we all keep our eyes 'ever upwards' no matter what lies ahead in the Lord's path for us.