Reflections from the Zambezi

Today, God, I ask that You would teach me to mourn. Don’t let me rush to Easter Sunday too quickly. Give me grace to linger here, in the place where sorrow meets redemption. Make Your death as real to me as Your resurrection. Keep me always near the cross. As I wait at the foot of the cross, God, reveal to me again the costliness of my sin. Don’t let me live in an imaginary world where Easter’s happy ending makes my selfishness irrelevant. Remind me that  Your all-consuming grace came at a highest price. Forgive me for the times I’ve lived as if sin is no big deal, as if Good Friday never really happened. Fill me with the joy and sorrow and reverence and gratitude that befit a Good Friday funeral: joy for Your victory, sorrow for Your death, reverence for Your holiness, gratitude for Your grace. Don’t let me settle for just one of those emotions at the expense of the others. Give me a heart big enough to hold them all in tension. Make me bold enough to search after a truth th

In September 2017 while attending the Sola 5/Rezolution Conference with Shingisai my daughter in Johannesburg hosted by Fontainebleau Community Church, I fell in love with the hymn "We will trust God's Word alone". This new hymn from Bob Kauflin and Chris Anderson celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Based on the 5 Solas of the Reformation ( Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus,  and  Soli Deo Gloria ), Reformation Hymn gives a nod to the great hymn writer Martin Luther and points worshipers to Christ. The words and music by Chris Anderson and Bob Kauflin are as follows: We will trust God’s Word alone,                                                                          Where his perfect will is known; Our traditions shift like sand While his Truth forever stands. We will live by faith alone, Clothed in merit not our own; All we claim is Jesus Christ And his finished sacrifice. Refrain : Glory be, glory be