singing

silhouette of a boat in the ocean during sunset

Our Prince of Peace in this time of tribulation

Lord Jesus, our Prince of Peace, When sorrows and sea billows roll… and we feel like we’re drowning, calm me, and any Christian reading these words.  Settle us.  Peace by the cross of Jesus, past tense! It’s only possible in the forever peace we have with our Father, the peace Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
close up shot of two people holding hands

How to sing, “Blessings all mine and ten thousand beside,” when we’re suffering

Well-meaning and kind friends suggested they would pray for God’s “favor and blessing” so that my severe, chronic pain would disappear. So that the tribulation would end. So earthly suffering and affliction would stop. I silently cried an anguished response, “But I already HAVE His favor and blessing…because I’m in Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
close up of a blooming white lily flower

Fellowship of Christ’s suffering in the power of His resurrection

On this holiest of weeks, I’m sharing my husband’s favorite “Easter hymn.” First thing on Resurrection Sunday, he cranks up the volume and plays it!  He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose! (“Christ Arose,” Lowry, R., 1874) Somehow, the truth that our beloved Savior is resurrected, risen, and reigning brings me Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
brown wooden cross pendant on closeup photography

Songs our suffering Savior sang, His solace and strength

Our suffering Savior has been giving me solace and strength in my own suffering by studying the Psalms as He might have sung them.  Because…He did sing them in His earthly life.  I wonder if He was comforted and strengthened in knowing that He was fulfilling prophecy as He hung Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
close up photo of bare hands

My suffering Savior’s songs of lament and hope

As my unmanaged chronic pain escalated on top of needed caregiving tasks, with long travel to help loved ones, and grief in losing a loved one…all at the same time…our Lord had already been inviting me to study the Psalms through my daily Bible reading plan. This time, He’d prompted Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
woman hospital gown lying on bed crying

How to endure tribulation and suffering, singing the gospel to Job!

I’ll never forget it. As we interviewed to join a church after moving to a new state, one of the elders asked me, “What is your favorite book of the Bible?” I immediately responded, “Job.” He was shocked! Job’s words of lament became mine through years of undiagnosed and progressively Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
text on a white paper

The most powerful song lyrics, composed in Christ

Lord Jesus Christ, Grief. Tears. Shocking sad. More new losses. Unchanging circumstances. But… Your songs, the Psalms, are the most powerful song lyrics. You composed them. You sang them in Your earthly life. They’re all…about You. You’re singing to me into this fresh grief, as You weep with me. The Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
cluster of small white flowers between pages of an open book

Watching the verbs in God’s precious and very great promises

Most High and Almighty God, as I pray the words of Psalm 91, I’m abiding in Your protecting shelter today, a cooling shadow in this intense heat. You are my refuge in this storm, a fortress in this battle, and I trust You today. Why? Because You are in supreme Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
lit candle on the paper with notation

“Joy to the world,” in our painful Christmas

To Him “who loves us and has freed us from our sins” (Rev. 1:5 ESV), You’ve come, Lord and King Jesus! Joy to the world! The Lord is come: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Lk. 2:11 ESV). For the Son of Man Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
ethnic sister and brother in angel costumes touching decorative clouds

Can we hear the angels sing into our suffering Christmas?

This week’s Christmas carol resonates. It sings of tragedy, tribulation, suffering upon suffering. It sings of the evil wreckage that we all experience in this fallen and broken world that’s groaning under the weight of sin and its effects on everyone. Including believers in Christ. But it also sings of Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago

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