Mountain Musings

Sunday Wisdom

~ Deb

Wordless Wednesday

~Sarah

Wings as Eagles

Picture of bald eagle taken from a canoe on Sandy Run during Photography Boot Camp II

Music: Wait on the Lord by the Wilds Choir and Orchestra

~Hannah

He Is Risen!

"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly,  and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead..." ~ Matthew 28:6-7

We pray that your Easter Sunday has been a blessed day with your family. He is risen indeed!

Quilted Love

"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."  ~ Jeremiah 31:3

Special thanks to my friend, Chris, for the lovely quilted love mat. Since I'm not a coffee drinker, I'm enjoying using it with my mug of morning milk!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you who stop by to read the blog. We appreciate you!

~ Deb

Rejoicing to Yield

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

Romans 3:31

When the believer is adopted into the Lord’s family, his relationship to old Adam and the law ceases at once; but then he is under a new rule, and a new covenant. Believer, you are God’s child; it is your first duty to obey your heavenly Father. A servile spirit you have nothing to do with: you are not a slave, but a child; and now, inasmuch as you are a beloved child, you are bound to obey your Father’s faintest wish, the least intimation of his will.

Does he bid you fulfil a sacred ordinance? It is at your peril that you neglect it, for you will be disobeying your Father. Does he command you to seek the image of Jesus? Is it not your joy to do so? Does Jesus tell you, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”? Then not because the law commands, but because your Saviour enjoins, you will labour to be perfect in holiness. Does he bid his saints love one another? Do it, not because the law says, “Love thy neighbour,” but because Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments;” and this is the commandment that he has given unto you, “that ye love one another.” Are you told to distribute to the poor? Do it, not because charity is a burden which you dare not shirk, but because Jesus teaches, “Give to him that asketh of thee.”

Does the Word say, “Love God with all your heart”? Look at the commandment and reply, “Ah! commandment, Christ hath fulfilled thee already—I have no need, therefore, to fulfil thee for my salvation, but I rejoice to yield obedience to thee because God is my Father now and he has a claim upon me, which I would not dispute.” May the Holy Ghost make your heart obedient to the constraining power of Christ’s love, that your prayer may be, “Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.

C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Sunday Scripture

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."    ~ Psalm 1:3

~Deb

Continuing On

"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And all that believed were together, and had all things common."  ~ Acts 2: 42,44

* photo taken at Sherbrooke Village, Nova Scotia

~ Deb

He put a new song in my mouth

In 2008, Hannah received a New Harmonia Sacra hymnbook for her birthday.There are many new songs included that are unfamiliar to us and which will be enjoyable to learn!

From a previous post:

What is Harmonia Sacra? "It is based on a shape-note tune book first published as Genuine Church Music by Joseph Funk in Winchester, Virginia in 1832. This book, later renamed the Harmonia Sacra, and since revised in 25 editions down to the present, is the oldest shape-note book in continuous use. Approximately 16 annual singings are held from it in Mennonite communities in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and some in Indiana." See this web page for some more information on the background of the Harmonia Sacra tradition.  The Serven Clan wrote an interesting post earlier this year about Sacred Harp, which is a related style of harmony.

Some more interesting information about Joseph Funk and Harmonia Sacra singing can be found here.

One Saturday night a couple of months ago, Dad and Mom were off running errands, and the three of us pulled out Hannah's hymnbook and attempted a new song together. With Jonathan on guitar, we quickly learned it and were able to sing it for Dad and Mom when they got home. Then the next morning at church we learned it together as a congregation.

The words are a wonderful testimony of God's grace! We can't find any information on who the author was, only that this is a folk hymn. Also, this past week the three of us recorded this together, with Hannah and me singing and Jonathan providing instrumental accompaniment.  So if you wish to hear the tune with the words, you can click here.

Redeeming Grace

Come all who love my Lord and Master,

And like old David I will tell,

Though chief of sinners, I've found favor,

By grace redeemed from death and hell;

Far as the east from west is parted,

So far my sins by dying love,

From me by faith are separated,

Blest antepast of joys above.

I late estranged from Jesus wandered,

And tho't each dang'rous poison good;

But He in mercy long pursued me

With cries of His redeeming blood;

Though like Bartimeus I was blinded,

In nature's darkest night concealed,

But Jesus' love removed my blindness,

And He His pard'ning grace revealed.

Now I will serve Him while He spares me,

And with His people sing aloud,

Though hell oppose and sinners mock me

In rapt'rous strains I'll praise my God.

By faith I view the heav'nly concert,

They sing high strains of Jesus' love,

Oh! with desire my soul is longing,

And fain would be with Christ above.

~Sarah

Sunday Devotional

"And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest." ~ Genesis 28:15

Do we need journeying mercies? Here are choice ones--God's presence and preservation. In all places we need both of these, and in all places we shall have them if we go at the call of duty, and not merely according to our own fancy.... in every region the Lord is [our] dwelling place, even as he has been to his saints in all generations.

We may miss the protection of an earthly monarch, but when God says, "I will keep thee," we are in no real danger. This is a blessed passport for a traveler, and a heavenly escort for an emigrant.

Jacob had never left his father's room before: he had been a mother's boy, and not an adventurer like his brother. Yet he went abroad, and God went with him. He had little luggage, and no attendants; yet no prince ever journeyed with a nobler bodyguard. Even while he slept in the open field, angels watched over him, and the Lord God spoke to him. If the Lord bids us go, let us say with our Lord Jesus, "Arise, let us go hence."

~Taken from devotional: The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one who lived the life of faith (1834 - 1892).

~Deb