Only at the head of the path...

"He that is down need fear no fall;

He that is low no pride;

He that is humble ever shall

Have God to be his guide.

-

I am content with what I have,

Little be it or much;

And Lord! contentment still I crave,

Because Thou savest such.

-

Fullness to them a burden is,

That go on Pilgrimage;

Here little, and hereafter bliss,

Is best from age to age!"

Pondering...

I was reading through the Hymn Book last night, and song after song, even just the titles of them were a comfort to me.

Try it sometime when you're down or even when you're up, read through and see that you aren't the only one, the song writers have been through hard times and good times as well, and through those times, we have many wonderful, well known songs, that we know but do we really know the words and what a comfort and joy they could be to us if we really looked at them and what they are saying to us or about us?

Somehow I always start with Trust and Obey, I love this song, the words to it have helped me through so many times. From there I came to Be Still, My Soul. Oh wow.

'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus,

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love; Moment by moment I've life from above; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine; Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

A Child of the King,

A Shelter in the Time of Storm,

What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the ever lasting arms; What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the ever lasting arms...,

Simply trusting every day, Trusting through a stormy way; Even when my faith is small, Trusting Jesus that is all,

Under His wings I am safely abiding, Tho the night deepens and tempests are wild; Still I can trust Him, I know He will keep me, He has redeemed me and I am His Child. Under His wings, under His wings, Who from His love can sever? Under His wings, under His wings, Safely abide forever.

I am so glad that our Father in heav'n Tells of His love in the Book He has giv'n; Wonderful things in the Bible I see This in the dearest, that Jesus Loves me!,

I Am Thine, O Lord.,

Jesus Is Lord of All.,

More Love to Thee, O Christ.,

My Jesus I Love Thee.,

Though my everlasting portion, More then friend or life to me; All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee.,

All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.,

Wherever He Leads I'll Go,

All for Jesus, all for Jesus! All my being's ransomed pow'rs: All my tho'ts and words and doings, All my days and all my hours!,

My life, my love I give to Thee, Thou Lamb of God who died for me; O may I ever faithful be, My Savior and my God! I'll live for Him who died for me, How happy then my life shall be! I'll live for Him who died for me, My Savior and my God!,

Have Thine own way Lord, Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still.,

Living for Jesus a life that is true, Striving to please Him in all that I do; Yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free, This is the pathway of blessing for me. O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee; For Thou, in Thy atonement, Didst give Thyself for me. I own no other Master, My heart shall be Thy throne. My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.,

Where He Leads Me I Will Follow.,

I have decided to follow Jesus, The world behind me, the cross before me; Tho' none go with me, I still will follow, Will you decide now to follow Jesus? No turning back, no turning back.,

Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my moments and my days Let them flow in ceaseless praise, Let them flow in ceaseless praise.,

1. I am weak but Thou art strong; Jesus, keep me from all wrong; I'll be satisfied as long As I walk, let me walk close to Thee. 2.Thro' this world of toil and snares, If I falter, Lord who cares? Who with me my burdened shares? None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee. 3.When my feeble life is o're, Time for me will be no more; Guide me gently, safely o'er To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore. Just a closer walk with Thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea, Daily, walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.,

Open My Eyes, That I May See.,

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

Open Our Eyes, Lord.,

To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus! My desire to be like Him! All thru life's journey from earth to glory, My desire to be like Him.,

Jesus, keep me near the cross There a precious fountain, Free to all, a healing stream, Flows from Calv'ry's mountain.,

O to Be Like Thee!,

I Would Be Like Jesus.,

More About Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show, More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me.,

Nearer, still nearer, close to Thy heart, Draw me, my Savior, so precious Thou art., Nearer, My God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee! E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me; Still all my song shall be, Nearer my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee.,

Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord.,

Fill My Cup, Lord.,

My heart has no desire to stay Where doubts arise and fears dismay; Tho some may dwell where these abound, My pray'r, my aim, is higher ground.,

I Want to Be Like Jesus.,

My Hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name.,

My Faith Has Found a Resting Place Not in device or creed: I trust the Everliving One His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.,

My Hope Is in the Lord.,

Have Faith in God when your pathway is lonely, He sees and knows all the way you have trod; Never alone are the least of His children; Have faith in God, have faith in God.,

I Know Whom I Have Believed.,

My Faith Looks Up to Thee.,

The Joy of the Lord.,

Sun of My Soul.,

I heard the voice of Jesus say, "Come unto Me and rest;".,

He Giveth More Grace.,

No One Understands Like Jesus.,

All Your Anxiety.,

Abide with Me!,

Only Believe.,

No, Not One!,

Tell Me the Old, Old Story.,

In the Garden.,

I Need Thee Every Hour.,

Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying.,

I Must Tell Jesus all of my trials, I cannot bear these burdens alone; In my distress He kindly will help me, He ever loves and cares for His own. I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus! I cannot bear my burdens alone; I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus! Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.,

Sweet Hour of Prayer.,

1. What a Friend We Have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer! 2. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, Take it to the Lord in prayer. 3. Are we weak and heavy laden, Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our Refuge Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friend despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer; In His arms He'll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.

This last song I went to bed with on my mind. What a blessing the Hymns are. It has been far to long since I have just played through and read them to myself. Just 8 or 9 every Sunday just doesn't cut it! :) I hope you enjoy them as I do!

???

WILL GOD GET THE GLORY OUT OF IT?
IS IT JUST SOMETHING I WANT?
WOULD I BE GIVING UP THE RIGHT THINGS FOR IT?
HAVE I GONE TOO FAR TO TURN BACK NOW?
WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING FOR NOW?
AM I WILLING TO BECOME MORE LIKE CHRIST?
AM I WILLING TO LET GO OF THE THINGS I NEED TO LET GO OF AND HOLD ON TO THE THINGS I NEED TO HOLD ON TO?
AM I GROWING IN MY WALK WITH GOD?
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO TO BECOME MORE LIKE CHRIST?
WHAT IS MY RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS WORLD?
WHAT IS KEEPING ME FROM SERVING THE LORD AS I SHOULD BE?
I NEED TO LET MY LIGHT SHINE!
I'LL DO WHAT YOU BID ME!
I NEED A KNIFE UNDER MY CHIN TO KEEP MY EYES ON HIM.

These were just some notes I had written in the back of my notebook for Church a while ago, and I thought I'd share.

Lights to a troubled world...

Thus thought I, as by night I read
Of the great army of the dead,
The trenches cold and damp
The starved and frozen camp,-

The wounded from the battle plain
In dreary hospitals of pain,
The cheerless corridors,
The cold and stony floors.

A Lady with a lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Not many think of her as a lady with a lamp, that haven't read about her I would guess.
But the ones she helped the most sure seemed to think of her that way.

The night was dark now, every star obscured, rain was falling and the wind tugged at her skirts. She picked up the lamp and holding it before her, shielding the glow with her hand, she went through the door into the corridor, walking very softly and cautiously, making her way between the rows of huddled forms lying on the floor, seeing her shadow, tall and distorted, moving along the wall.
At the far end of the corridor, a young corporal, scarcely more then a boy, startled up from fitful napping and the incessant pain which had made him delirious. His eyes widened, and he lifted his battered body,
propped himself on an elbow, staring incredulous.
"What-what's that?" he muttered hoarsely. "Why, it's the lady! A lady with a lamp!"
Then, strangely solaced, he slumped down again and slept.

When she first took charge-
"Isn't clothing ever laundered? she demanded.
"Well," someone had said, "it is-at the rate of six shirts a month."
"You mean six shirts a month for each man?"
"Oh, no, six shirts for all the men."
Hundreds, thousands of sick and dying men, and a monthly laundry of six shirts!

Advancing age made it necessary that she have a nurse to care for her, and she did not object. But at night after the nurse had tucked her into bed, she would clamber out, patter into the next room and tuck in the nurse. (I thought that was rather funny wen I read it, and it was one of those times you laugh out loud when reading a book, and then wonder if anyone heard you!)

She did many things in her life, and though she talked and thought of God, I couldn't in just this one book pick up on whether or not she was a christain.
She seemed to hide from God. But at the same time, she wanted to do good.
I could not tell what to think of her. She did so much, found joy in work, was restless if she was not doing something of any worth, was very heady, strong willed, and was going to get her way even if she had to sit out in a snow storm to get the men to open the door to her.
There were many things we could look up to her for I guess. But we can't really take on all her ways.

But, in the way that she was a light of hope to her men, we should be a light of hope to the world around us.
We have all heard the songs and such about being lights, but how hard do we really work for it?

I should have gotten this post up as soon as I was done with the book, but with putting it off I lost many thoughts I was going to share on it, while at the same tie coming up with new ones. So this is the post you get. I may add more if I think something. Maybe a comment or another post. But there was something else I was wanting to post about too, and now I can't think of that. I guess that's what you get for posting after such a long day and having smoke clogging up your mind.
(Yeah, at 6 this afternoon as I was getting ready to head down to the Church, Mom asked me to go check on the fire because it was rather smokey smelling. So down I went and at first sight of the door of the furnace I could tell something was up, for out of the bottom of the door pored out smoke. So with that, I opened the door to see if I could help the fire breath by moving some wood around. I thought that might do it, but just in case I went around to the pipe in the back (with my scarf around my face for all the smoke) to make sure it wasn't coming out there as well. Sure enough, it was.
Running up stairs, I grabbed the phone to call Dad, whom is already down at the Church. He came right home and we hurriedly cleaned out the pipe what we could, and turned on some fans to blow what we could of the smoke out the garage. (Can you tell we've done this before?)
Anyways, just thought I'd come up with another excuse as to why I wasn't thinking clearly on another post. :)
In all, I wasn't too late for the time I meant to get to the Church, and I even got to talk to an old friend of which I haven't for a very long time.
Wow, what a day!
What does tomorrow hold Lord? :)
We shall see I guess!
Oh the joy of a new day that the Lord gives!
"Joy cometh in the morning!"
Alright, I'm rambling! Time to stop!

But remember-
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven."

extreme outlook

Where are you focused?

"If the out look is bad, try the up look."

Happy New Year! 2010! WOW!

(To the tune of Auld Lang Syne)

O Lord have I been faithful through this year now spent and gone?

Or is there more You'da had me do, for my dear Dad and Mom?

For friends and family here and there, I love them every one.

I pray dear Lord, that this next year, I'll be more like Your son.

~

The friends You've gi'en to me O Lord, are all so dearly loved.

When I go wrong they do not mind to point me to above.

Thy throne they point me to oh Lord, where You sit up on high.

With mercy so far great, for a sinner such as I.

-BSBT