A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
Here's the view this afternoon from our front porch after we received 15 inches of snow yesterday. The temperatures are up to the mid-40s today...so some has melted already...a good thing for the guys who need to traverse our steep hills to get to work tomorrow!
The gang spent quite a bit of time snow-blowing and shoveling towards the end of the day yesterday even though snow was still falling heavily. It made today's shovel-up-the-rest-of-the-snow easier.
Our church services were cancelled again this Sunday, and the above hymn was one of our selections picked for our family time of singing and listening to a sermon together this morning.
Do you like customized ring-tones on your phone? I'm a fan of them...and have selected certain songs to play when a certain person is calling. Every time I hear the above song, A Mighty Fortress is our God, I know my friend Jan is calling because that's what's programmed into my phone for her ring.
So this morning when we were singing this song, I felt like my phone was ringing off the hook! Ha!
And in case you're interested, Tom's ring tone is Be Thou My Vision (I love when I hear that song if he calls on the way home from work!); Jonathan's is There is a Fountain; Hannah's is Amazing Grace (The Water is Wide tune instead of the normal one); Sarah's is Oh, Shenandoah, because she loves this area of Virginia so much; Granny rings in as At Calvary--because it reminds me of her church back home; my sister's ring is The Cleansing Wave; and anyone else who calls without a customized ring plays as Come Thou Fount.
Well, enjoy your week, even if you're digging out like we are! We should have an enjoyable week as Tom's sister is arriving tomorrow from Connecticut for a few day's visit...and she thought she was getting away from all their snow! Haha!
~Deb
Hi Deb! I like the idea of hymn ringtones. Come Thou Fount is one of my favorite hymns. Wow, you sure got a lot of snow. Our ice is finally melting. I'm over winter and ready for spring. Hope you all have a good visit with your sister-in-law this week!
Posted by: Toni | Monday, February 23, 2015 at 09:44 AM
Hope you have a fun visit and can get out and roam around without having to combat more snow! The picture of it is so pretty.
Victoria
Posted by: victoria | Monday, February 23, 2015 at 04:06 PM
What a wonderful idea, Deb! I like it. That will be a future project :-) I am catching up on your blog today .. been too long.
Won't comment on every post, but I've looked at lots. Your family is an encouragement to me :-) I love the view from your front porch, although I'm sure you could have done with less snow (you had more than we did). I am looking to move this year, hoping/praying for a mountain view after many years without one.
God bless you, Deb and family, as you serve Him. Thank you for being faithful here. Psalm 40:10 ~Joyce
Posted by: Joyce | Wednesday, April 08, 2015 at 11:47 AM