Where I'll Stand

If you follow this blog on a regular basis, you know that for the month of December, I wrote three times a week about various Christmas traditions. I usually write about some such theme throughout December and I have tried, in the past, to come up with a theme for Lent - the six weeks prior to Easter - as well. Not quite such an easy task. The secular world hasn’t embraced Lent like it has Christmas, but I believe that is a good thing. It is said that Christmas Eve is the holiest night of the year, but isn’t all of this season, from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday to Easter morning, if not the holiest, certainly the most sacred.

When I did a Google search of Easter or Lenten traditions, I came up with next to nothing. Nothing anyway that I could write about for six weeks. I decided to narrow my search to hymns, since I’ve always loved singing all the hymns we sang in church when I was a kid (I was always totally off key, the way). I checked the hymnal at church. All of the Lenten songs are rather depressing. Yes, we should be somber and solemn when we think about this six weeks culminating in Jesus’ death on the cross. But I just can’t do that.

My Google search of Easter hymns finally showed some results I could live with. I found a variety of songs, from old to new, and will share one each Sunday through Easter morning.

This first song was just written in 2001 by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. It has been done by a variety of performers. I hope you look for some of those videos on YouTube.   

“In Christ alone, my hope is found;

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This cornerstone, this solid ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My comforter, my all in all—

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

“In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save.

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied;

For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—

Here in the death of Christ I live.

“There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day,

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory,

Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;

For I am His and He is mine—

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

“No guilt in life, no fear in death—

This is the pow’r of Christ in me;

From life’s first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home—

Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.”

— Stuart Townend & Keith Getty

Copyright © 2001 Thankyou Music (Adm. by CapitolCMGPublishing.com excl. UK & Europe, adm. by Integrity Music, part of the David C Cook family, songs@integritymusic.com)

I'm also going through my pictures to share a different cross each Sunday.
This one is on the children's ship on the grounds of the Green Lake Conference Center, taken in 2011.