Great Christian Hymns

Here's a profitable project for you, especially my younger Christian friends. Tim Challies, on his blog the other day, posted what in his opinion are the 10 greatest hymns of all time. Obviously that is going to leave out a lot of really good hymns and so many, many people responded with their suggestions as to what should have been included. I was surprised at the number of different hymns represented and I know that almost all of them are tremendous hymns with scriptural lyrics.

So here's my assignment for you. Go to the link below where the hymn suggestions are located. Go through as many of the hymn titles as you can just reading the titles. Don't forget to look through as many of the comments as you can. Take 15 or 20 minutes to do this and see if you recognize most of them or not. Whether you know them or not, either make a list or keep track of where this link is found so that you can go back to it and as frequently as you can over the next several weeks, read the lyrics of one hymn at a time as part of your daily devotion time, either personally or with your family. If you can do this once a day, that would be great. If you can work through 3 or 4 in a week that would be good too. Maybe you can only read one a week. Then do that. If you don't have a hymnbook with the lyrics in it, use the Internet to find the lyrics. Read the lyrics slowly and carefully and think about what they are saying. If you are a husband and father do this with your wife and kids.

These hymns should be in the repertoire of every Christian in my opinion. To the degree we are not familiar with the great hymns of the faith, we are missing a whole segment of the Christian life. So make it a long term goal to become familiar with as many of these hymns as you can.

I'd like to hear how it goes. I think you will be a better man for it.

Here's the link: http://www.challies.com/articles/the-10-greatest-hymns-of-all-time

Thoughts on Contentment

I mentioned in a previous blog post that Tim Challies is encouraging us to read through the book “The Rare Jewel of Christian contentment” by Jeremiah Burroughs. This book was first published in 1648 and so the perspective and vocabulary are a bit different than we are used to, but it gives some great thoughts on learning to be content. I’ll share some of them here from time to time in between my posts on reading and other things that I’m thinking about.

Burrough’s key verse for chapter 1 is Philippians 4:11: I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. This of course was written by the Apostle Paul. Burroughs points out that in verse 12 where Paul says, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed…” the word “instructed” means to learn the secret of something. Burroughs calls it a mystery. Contentment is something that can be learned and there is a secret to it, just as someone who is a cook might say, “I’ll show you the secret of making a great pie crust.” It isn’t really a mystery as in mysterious. There are just certain skills and attitudes that need to be developed to learn contentment.

Burroughs gives the following definition of contentment: “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

A couple of points that really spoke to me were first of all that it is inward. Contentment can’t be forced from without. In fact the outward circumstances don’t matter much when it comes to contentment. Another point is that it is gracious. That is, it comes from the grace of God and it forms the entire frame of the spirit. It is not just something that is partially content. Everyone can be content at times or in various ways. This is contentment that forms the very frame of our spiritual being. Finally, the most difficult aspect for me is that of freely delighting in God’s handling of every situation. The key words there are freely, delighting and every.

I’m looking forward to working my way through the entire book and learning a great deal from it. If you’re interested in joining in, you can find Challie’s posts here.

Learning to be Content

Do you have difficulty being content? I would say that it is one of my most besetting sins. There doesn't seem to be any reason for it since God has fulfilled every promise He has made and yet there is a struggle.

Tim Challies, a hyper-blogger... (I don't think he's missed a day in many years), often calls for others to join him in reading a Christian classic together. The book he's proposing this time is "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment" by Jeremiah Burroughs. I'm going to take this opportunity as a challenge for myself to learn more about this important topic and perhaps gain some much needed victory.

My encouragement to you would be to join me and other Challies' readers in this effort. You can find the information here. I think it would be great if my readers at Faithful Men could have our own mini-discussion as we work our way through this book.

Challies Book Giveaway

Tim Challies, whose blog can be found here, is having one of his book giveaways. If you want to register for the drawing you can do so by clicking on the link below:



If you enter by clicking on this link, you will be entered into the drawing and I will also be given another chance to win.

Three prizes will be awarded as follows:

First prize: Reformation Heritage Books Selections: God with Us, Reformation Heroes, Meet the Puritans, plus all books in the 2nd and 3rd prize package.
Second prize: Soli Deo Gloria Selections: Freedom of the Will, Excellency of a Gracious Spirit, Keeping the Heart, Parable of the Ten Virgins, plus all books in the 3rd prize package.
Third Prize: Profiles in Reformed Spirituality: A Consuming Fire, A Sweet Flame, Dedicated to the Service of the Temple, Christ Is All.