Hit 'em With the Rock of Ages

“Rock of Ages” is a great hymn, one of the best.

Here is the bad news: It was written out of spite, by a bitter and narrow-minded young man who couldn’t keep his personal hatred from over-flowing into his prayers and songs.

Here is the good news: God rescued the hymn from the defects of its author and his worst intentions, and Rock of Ages is every bit as good as you think it is. If you skip the rest of this blog post, remember that.

Read more here.

HT: Bob Kauflin

O How the Grace of God Amazes Me!

O how the grace of God

Amazes me!

It loosed me from my bonds

And set me free!

What made it happen so?

’Twas His will, this much I know,

Set me, as now I show,

At liberty.

2 My God has chosen me,

Though one of nought,

To sit beside my King

In heaven’s court.

Hear what my Lord has done

O, the love that made Him run

To meet His erring son!

This has God wrought.

3 Not for my righteousness,

For I have none,

But for His mercy’s sake,

Jesus, God’s Son,

Suffered on Calvary’s tree -

Crucified with thieves was He -

Great was His grace to me,

His wayward one.

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

From 1 Cor. 6:11, 20; Rev. 1:5

1. Let us love and sing and wonder

Let us praise the Savior’s name

He has hushed the law’s loud thunder

He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame

He has washed us with His blood

He has washed us with His blood

He has washed us with His blood

He has brought us nigh to God

2. Let us love the Lord Who bought us

Pitied us when enemies

Called us by His grace and taught us

Gave us ears and gave us eyes

He has washed us with His blood

He has washed us with His blood

He has washed us with His blood

He presents our souls to God

3. Let us sing though fierce temptation

Threatens hard to bear us down

For the Lord, our strong salvation,

Holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown

He, Who washed us with His blood,

He, Who washed us with His blood,

He, Who washed us with His blood,

Soon will bring us home to God

4. Let us wonder grace and justice

Join and point to mercy’s store

When through grace in Christ our trust is

Justice smiles and asks no more

He Who washed us with His blood

He Who washed us with His blood

He Who washed us with His blood

Has secured our way to God

5. Let us praise and join the chorus

Of the saints enthroned on high

Here they trusted Him before us

Now their praises fill the sky

Thou hast washed us with Thy blood

Thou hast washed us with Thy blood

Thou hast washed us with Thy blood

Thou art worthy Lamb of God

©2001 Laura Taylor Music.

HT: iGraceMusic

My Precious Savior Gave His All

My precious Savior gave His all-

His body, heart, and soul,
To rescue me from Adam’s fall
And recreate me whole.
He left His majesty behind-
The King became a slave!
No earthly comforts did He find
But sought instead the grave.

His hands, though pierced by enemies
Stretched out in selfless love,
His body, fixed to Calv’ry’s tree,
Now pleads for me above.
Though Jesus’ heart was crushed with grief,
Weighed down with all my sin,
He clung to this, His sure relief-
That joy He soon would win.

His soul was left abandoned there
When on the cross He died
But rose again, His life to share,
My sin and guilt to hide.
What Jesus gave for sinners’ sake
I cannot comprehend;
But this I know- it served to make
This enemy His friend.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.



He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

Thank you to all who have served to help keep our country safe and to protect the freedom that we too often take for granted.