Christianity on Justin Vollmer

2025 Christmas Hymn: From Heaven Above to Earth I Come

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 15:00:00 -0500

Following my pattern from yesterday, for Christmas this year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post the lyrics of one of my favorite Christmas hymns:

From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (LSB 358)

1 “From heav’n above to earth I come
to bear good news to ev’ry home:
Glad tidings of great joy I bring,
Whereof I now will say and sing:

2 “To you this night is born a child
Of Mary chosen virgin mild;
This little child of lowly birth
Shall be the joy of all the earth.

3 “This is the Christ, our God Most High,
Who hears your sad and bitter cry;
He will Himself your Savior be
From all your sins to set you free.

4 “He will on you the gifts bestow
Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair,
You may with us His glory share.

5 “These are the signs that you shall mark:
The swaddling clothes and manger dark.
There you will find the infant laid
By whom the heav’ns and earth were made.”

6 How glad we’ll be to find it so!
Then with the shepherds let us go
To see what God for us has done
In sending us His own dear Son.

7 Come here, my friends, lift up your eyes,
And see what in the manger lies.
Who is this child, so young and fair?
It is the Christ Child lying there.

8 Welcome to earth, O noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
You came to share my misery
That You might share Your joy with me.

9 Ah, Lord, thou You created all,
How weak You are, so poor and small,
That You should choose to lay Your head
Where lowly cattle lately fed!

10 Were earth a thousand times as fair
And set with gold and jewels rare,
It would be far too poor and small
A cradle for the Lord of all.

11 Instead of soft and silken stuff
You have but hay and straw so rough
On which as King, so rich and great,
To be enthroned in royal state.

12 And so it pleases You to see
this simple truth revealed to me:
That worldly honor, wealth, and might
Are weak and worthless in Your sight.

13 Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,
A quiet chamber set apart
For You to dwell within my heart.

14 My heart for very joy must leap;
My lips no more can silence keep.
I, too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradlesong:

15 Glory to God in highest heav’n,
Who unto us His Son has giv’n!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth.

2025 Christmas Eve Hymn: What Hope! An Eden Prophesied

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:00:00 -0500

For Christmas Eve this year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post the lyrics of one of my favorite Advent hymns:

What Hope! An Eden Prophesied (LSB 342)

1 What hope! An Eden prophesied
Where tame live with the wild;
The lamb and lion side by side,
Led by a little child!

2 A shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stem,
A branch from David’s line,
A Prince of Peace in Bethlehem:
The fruit of God’s design.

3 As banner of God’s love unfurled,
Christ came to suffer loss,
That by His death a dying world
Would rally to the cross.

4 Come, Jesus, come, Messiah Lord,
Lost Paradise restore;
Lead past the angel’s flaming sword —
Come, open heaven’s door.

2025 Easter Sunday Hymn: I Know That My Redeemer Lives (LSB 461)

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:30:00 -0500

This post is the fourth and final of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Easter Sunday:

I Know That My Redeemer Lives (LSB 461)

1 I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.

2 He lives triumphant from the grave;
He lives eternally to save;
He lives all-glorious in the sky;
He lives exalted there on high.

3 He lives to bless me with His love;
He lives to plead for me above;
He lives my hungry soul to feed;
He lives to help in time of need.

4 He lives to grant me rich supply;
He lives to guide me with His eye;
He lives to comfort me when faint;
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

5 He lives to silence all my fears;
He lives to wipe away my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives all blessings to impart.

6 He lives, my kind, wise, heav’nly Friend;
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I’ll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

7 He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.

8 He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same;
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives;
I know that my Redeemer lives!

2025 Good Friday Hymn: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451)

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0500

This post is the third of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Good Friday:

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451)

1 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected; Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.

2 Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting His distress;
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

3 Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.

4 Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ, the Rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast:
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

2025 Maundy Thursday Hymn: Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord (LSB 637)

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0500

This post is the second of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Maundy Thursday:

Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord (LSB 637)

1 Draw near and take the body of the Lord,
And drink the holy blood for you outpoured;
Offered was He for greatest and for least,
Himself the victim and Himself the priest.

2 He who His saints in this world rules and shields,
To all believers life eternal yields;
With heav’nly bread He makes the hungry whole,
Gives living waters to the thirsting soul.

3 Come forward then with faithful hearts sincere,
And take the pledges of salvation here.
O Lord, our hearts with grateful thanks endow
As in this feast of love You bless us now.

2025 Palm Sunday Hymn: No Tramp of Soldiers‘ Marching Feet (LSB 444)

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0500

For Holy Week this year, I had the idea of posting some of my favorite Lenten/Holy Week/Easter hymns. My plan is to post for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, though we’ll see how that goes. And so, without further ado…

No Tramp of Soldiers’ Marching Feet (LSB 444)

1 No tramp of soldiers’ marching feet
With banners and with drums,
No sound of music’s martial beat:
“The King of glory comes!”
To greet what pomp of kingly pride
No bells in triumph ring,
No city gates swing open wide:
“Behold, behold your King!”

2 And yet He comes. The children cheer;
With palms His path is strown.
With ev’ry step the cross draws near:
The King of glory’s throne.
Astride a colt He passes by
As loud hosannas ring,
Or else the very stones would cry
“Behold, behold your King!”

3 What fading flow’rs His road adorn;
The palms, how soon laid down!
No bloom or leaf but only thorn
The King of glory’s crown.
The soldiers mock, the rabble cries,
The streets with tumult ring,
As Pilate to the mob replies,
“Behold, behold your King!”

4 Now he who bore for mortals’ sake
The cross and all its pains
And chose a servant’s form to take,
The King of glory reigns.
Hosanna to the Savior’s name
Till heaven’s rafters ring,
And all the ransomed host proclaim
“Behold, behold your King!”

Brief Thoughts on the First Article of the Apostles' Creed

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 05:20:33 -0500

Author’s note: This post is a deviation from my standard posts which have historically been mostly technology-related. I have been a Christian for effectively my entire life, though I rarely talk about it in depth on my website. However, I like to use my website as a way to link others to my thoughts on various topics, and this post felt like one I both needed to write, and that I may want to share.

Over the past few days I’ve been reading, and digesting, the book A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther, as translated by Matthew C. Harrison. It’s a short and fairly simple book to read, at only 32 pages in length, but has caused me to pause and think a number of times. This morning I read through a portion on praying through the Apostles’ Creed, and the following thoughts on the First Article caught my attention.

First off, here is the First Article:

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

And now, Martin Luther’s commentary:

You are God’s creation, workmanship, creature, and work. In and by yourself, you are nothing. You know nothing and you cannot do anything. What were you 1000 years ago? Where were you 1000 years ago? … What you are, what you know, and what you are capable of, that is God’s creation. … And so before God you have absolutely nothing to boast about. For you were nothing at all. He is your Creator and in the blink of an eye can render you nothing again.

Wow. I mean, as a confessing Christian I would say that I fully agree with Luther’s commentary, and have known that probably my entire life. But is that how I act when I come before my Lord? Do I give thanks to Him as His creation? Or do I view Him as just a being who is perhaps greater than I, but ultimately on the same playing field? Do I come before Him in reverence, as creation to Creator? Do I worship Him as Lord of all?

Far too often I fear that I forget both my place in creation, and my position in regards to God. It is true that I am an adopted child of God, but I am also His creation, and not only pale in comparison to Him, but am nothing. It is only by His grace and mercy that I exist.

Micro-Update: Happy Easter!

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 12:34:32 -0600