I've Moved

A couple of weeks ago I decided to grab a web address with my blog name, which is what I really wish I had done in the beginning. When I started this blog, joythruChrist was my user name, and Toby's Thoughts was the name of my blog. Over time things changed around, and I thought that joythruChrist was a much better name for the blog. So I'm taking the plunge and hoping I don't lose any readers (friends) with this move. The new location is http://joythruchrist.blogspot.com so if you would please update your bookmarks, links, and feeds, I would really appreciate it. This will likely be my last post here.

I'm kicking off my second year of blogging (a week or two early) with a series on the book I'm studying by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called The Life of Joy and Peace. I do hope you'll join me at my new online home!

There's a thief afoot...

...or maybe it's just a borrower.

Confession time. I have a serious pet peeve. The work that I do requires me to use various tools. Seamripper, yardstick, square, flathead screwdriver, short ruler, sharp scissors... Anyway, I like these where I can get to them easily, so I keep them in certain places. Unfortunately, the men in my house like to take my implements and make off with them for various work/hobby related projects. But they rarely remember to return them. Then when I want to work, I have to spend an inordinate amount of time hunting down my tools! ARGH!

So the other day, I was getting geared up to work, and I couldn't find my short ruler. It's about 7 inches long, and I use it to measure the hems of the slings I'm sewing. So the search was on. Everyone in the house was working. Denny and Nik in the garage, and Zack and I upstairs. So I'm wandering and muttering, and Zack has no idea what happened to the ruler. Then he informs me that Nik (my almost 18 year old) was using it to draw. We go to Nik's room, and --walah!-- there it is.

I grabbed it and ran out to the garage to berate him with Zack at my heels anxious to see the show. I said, "If I have to go looking for this one more time and find it on your dresser... (at this point he's looking a little apprehensive) ... I'm gonna spank you with it!" At this point he explodes with laughter.

Denny says, "That's telling him!"

Well, what can you do when they're almost 18? :)

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

This stirring hymn was written by Robert Robinson in 1758.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.