Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (Marshall) - Direction 1 (Sanctification Saturday) On Sanctification Saturdays, I read on the subject of growing in grace, and today I'm beginning Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall.  The following are notes that I took from today's reading:

[it should be noted that Marshall's language is unusually rich, which means both that I will be covering ground more slowly and that merely reading my notes will provide even less than usual of the benefit of reading the text itself]

Direction 1

• holiness is internal and spiritual "It consists not only in external works of piety and charity, but in the holy thoughts, imaginations, and affections of the soul, and chiefly in love; from whence all other good works must flow, or else they are not acceptable to God" (p7)
• holiness is entire "you must aim to hit [the law] in every duty of it, with a performance of equal breadth, or else you cannot hit it at all (Jas. 2:10)" (p7)
• a most excellent definition of what it means to love God from p7: "The Lord is not at all loved with that love that is due to Him as Lord of all, if He is not loved with all our heart, spirit, and might. We are to love everything in Him, His justice, holiness, sovereign authority, all-seeing eye, and all His decrees, commands, judgments, and all His doings.  We are to love Him, not only better than other things, but singly, as only good, the fountain of all goodness; and to reject all fleshly and worldly enjoyments, even our own lives, as if we hated them, when they stand in competition with our enjoyment of Him, or our duty towards Him.  We must love Him as to yield ourselves wholly up to His constant service in all things, and to His disposal of us as our absolute Lord, whether it is for prosperity or adversity, life or death.  And, for His sake, we are to love our neighbor, even all men, whether they are friends or foes to us; and so do to them in all things, that concern their honor, life, chastity, worldly wealth, credit, and content, whatever we would that men should do to us in the like condition (Matt. 7:12)."
• such love of God is the most excellent of the works of man (p8) as to be...
• the work for which we were created (p8)
• the work that will lead to our entire holiness in glory and without which there is no holiness at all (p8)
• that by which saints are known at all and by which they are measured (p8)
  
• therefore, HOW we are to do them is a critical question! Without the answer to this question, knowing WHAT we are to do and be is useless (p8)
• the HOW question is made more serious to us by the facts that
• we are by nature dead! (p9) Therefore, we must first be made alive
• general revelation can tell us what we must do, but not how to become able to do it (p9)
• why should we give so much attention to the means of justification, but we then seem to give so little to the means of sanctification? (p10)
• the means of sanctification is the stated purpose of all Scripture in 2Tim 3:16-17 (p10)
• we must both unlearn our wisdom of how to attain holiness, and learn in its place God's wisdom (p10)
• as Scripture everywhere teaches us to measure fruit, whatever does not lead to holiness has not been learned truly from God (p10)
• we cannot even begin unless our hope, in using the means, is in God Himself and not in ourselves or in the means (p11); if this is not the case with us...
  
• we will be content with externals (p11)
  
• we will count the commandments burdensome and obedience to them a pain rather than a pleasure (p11)
• we will fall into despair at our constant failure (p11)
• if we happen to give enough effort, we will but succeed in destroying both our bodies and our souls, while thinking that we have been improving them! (p11)

[note that most believers will know many Scriptures to back up each of these points, many of which are referenced in Marshall's text]

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (Marshall), Sanctification Saturday

  ¶ 5:52 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Family Religion by Matthew Henry - Introduction (Family Friday) On Family Fridays, I read on the subject of the family, and today I'm beginning Family Religion by Matthew Henry.  The following are notes that I took from today's reading:

Introduction

• MH's father was a Puritan pastor who practiced in his home what we read about in this book; MH was born in 1662, the year in which his pastor father was ejected from the Church of England with 2000 other Puritans (p13)
  
• MH grew up in a home where the Lord's Day was a day of holy joy and family worship punctuated the rest of the days of the week (p14)
• MH's devotion to Christ sustained him through the death of his first wife after just 18 months, and the infant deaths of two of his daughters; the faith taught in his family worship was lived before his family and his congregation (p15-19)
• MH took family worship seriously enough to write a book of "family hymns"--metrical translations of Scripture, including a few close paraphrases (p19-21)
• he catechized the children of the congregation on Saturday afternoons, and when his own were born added their catechizing to family worship (p21-2)
• all of MH's writing is marked by
• literal, grammatical exegesis of Scripture (p23)
  
• orderliness--he follows the Bible in appealing to the affections and the will by first going through the mind (p23-4)
• knowledge of the Bible in the original languages
• this particular volume contains
• Three sermons on: religious life in the home, instruction in the home as a complement to the means of grace in worship, & Christ's interest in children and command to parents to bring them to Him
• a treatise opening up what the Scriptures have to say about baptism and how to apply that teaching in our lives, and particularly to our children
  

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Family Friday, Family Religion (Henry), Family Worship

  ¶ 2:16 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  A Short, Biblically Excellent, Balanced Article on Depression If it's not touching someone that you know (or even yourself) right now, depression almost certainly will do so at some point in your life (Job 14:1).

So even if it's not immediately useful to you, I suggest that you take the three minutes to [read and bookmark this two page article].

If someone is depressed, he probably isn't in a condition where he can read much more.  But if you love such a person, and you want to help them, I suggest that you invest twenty hours or so of your life reading Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure by Lloyd-Jones.  If you assimilate it, you can become a living resource for your loved one. Also recommended -- Depression: A Stubborn Darkness by Ed Welch.

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews, Pastoral Counsel

  ¶ 10:26 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  The Directory for Family Worship (Family Friday) On Family Fridays I intend to read on subjects to serve the ministries of each head of household in his home. Today's notes are from The Directory for Family Worship, adopted by the General Assembly in Edinburgh in August, 1647. The copy that I am reading begins on p417 of the Free Presbyterian Publications edition of the Westminster Standards

From the statement of the Assembly adopting the Directory:

• if any family neglects family worship, "the head of the family is to be first admonished privately to amend his fault; and, in case of his continuing therein, he is to be gravely and sadly reproved by the session; after which reproof, if he be found still to neglect Family-worship, let him be, for his obstinacy in such an offence, suspended and debarred from the Lord's supper, as being justly esteemed unworthy to communicate therein, till he amend" (p418). [how far from this we have come, that families that engage in the worship below described are quite peculiar in our time!]
  

From the Directory itself:

• in addition to pure public worship, "it is expedient and necessary that secret worship of each person alone, and private worship of families, be pressed and set up" (p419)
• the head of every family should see that every member, apart and by themselves, be given to prayer and meditation (p419)
• Family worship should consist in (pp419-20)
  
• Prayer and praises for:
• the church
• the nation
• the family
• every family member
• Reading of the Bible with teaching those who are simpler by asking them questions, the goal of which is that they "may be the better enabled to profit under the publick ordinances"
• Explanation of the Scriptures by
• warning them to be watchful of any sin reproved in the text
• warning them to fear lest the same or worse of any judgments in the text be rendered them
• stirring them up to employ Christ for strength for any duty commanded in the text
• stirring them up to employ Christ for strength for application of any comfort commanded in the text
• (I especially appreciated that what we do with duties and comforts is not simply command and apply them, but seek and rest upon Christ for them)
• "The minister is to stir up such [heads of households] as are lazy, and train up such as are weak" to fitness for and the exercise of the duty of leading family worship (p420)
• Families should generally worship apart from each other, not involving members from other families unless they are providentially there for some other reason, because such mixing of families in worship outside the public assembly tends "to the hinderance of the religious exercise of each family by itself, to the prejudice of the publick ministry [i.e. disagreement with or less valuing of the ordinary means of grace in the Lord's Day assemblies], to the rending of the families of particular congregations" (p420). [my comment: This is an argument against small groups, centuries before they were popular, and the cautions have been proved wise, as all of these sad results have come out of small groups. God invented small groups; He called them families, setting up the structures for authority and accountability in them]
• Part of spiritual leadership in the family includes seeing that on the Lord's Day the family members (p420)
  
• Each prepare privately for public worship
• Join the congregation for public worship
• Afterward pray together and take an account of what they have heard
• Catechize each other and study the Bible together
• Private prayer should include (p421)
  
• Confession of our unworthiness and unfitness
• Asking God for the spirit of prayer [pray for help to pray rightly!]
• Confession of specific sins "accusing, judging, and condemning themselves for them, till they bring their souls to some measure of true humiliation." And then pouring out their souls for
  
• forgiveness of sin
• grace to repent
• grace to believe
• grace to live soberly, righteously, and godly
• grace to serve God with joy and delight
• Giving thanks for God's mercy, especially His love in Christ, and His light in the gospel
• Requests for whatever spiritual and earthly benefits are needed for
• the church in general
• the Reformed churches in particular
• their own denomination
• leaders in the state
• leaders in their own congregation
• members of their own congregation
• Expressing "an earnest desire that God may be glorified in the coming of the kingdom of His Son (p421)
• We should be quick to lay aside any worldly business in order to be diligent in these duties (p421)
• We should stir one another up to, and pray with and for each other for: sober, righteous, and godly living (p421-422)
  
• If attendance upon the public and private means of grace still leaves one with a weary of distressed conscience, he or she should seek pastoral help, with a friend if necessary (p422)
  
• All other meetings or practices under the name and pretext of religious exercises "are apt to breed error, scandal, schism, contempt, or misregard of the publick ordinances and ministers, or neglect of the duties of particular callings, or such other evils as are the works, not of the Spirit, but of the flesh, and are contrary to truth and peace." (p422)
  

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Family Friday, Family Worship, The Directory for Family Worship

  ¶ 4:54 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Hodge Vol1, Intro, Ch1: On Method (Theology Thursday) notes from Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge, which we are currently tackling on Theology Thursdays

Section 1: Theology a Science

• "The Bible is no more a system of theology, than nature is a system of chemistry or of mechanics" (p1)
• "This constitutes the difference between biblical and systematic theology.  The office of the former is to ascertain and state the facts of Scripture.  The office of the latter is to take those facts, determine their relation to each other and to other cognate truths, as well as to vindicate them and show their harmony and consistency." (p1-2)
• "We cannot know what God has revealed in his Word unless we understand, at least in some good measure, the relation in which the separate truths therein contained stand to each other." (p2)
• Just as God doesn't give us the sciences but the facts out of which to construct them, "He gives us in the Bible the truths which, properly understood and arranged, constitute the science of theology." (p3)

Section 2: Theological Method

• There are three types of theological method: speculative, mystical, and inductive. (p3-4)
  
• The speculative trusts completely in reason and cannot go beyond it.  (p4-6)
• The mystical trusts completely in feeling and claims to go beyond Scripture (p6-7), effectually refusing any authoritative truth from outside a man (p8)
• The inductive assumes the existence of truth, the reliability of reason, and the validity of self-evident first principles, and then works from the facts to the relations that connect them (p9-11)
• "all the facts which God has revealed concerning Himself and our relation to Him [are] in the Bible" (p11)
• "everything that can be legitimately learned from [any] source will be found recognized and authenticated in the Scriptures" (p11)
• In order to properly understand the relations, the facts must be collected with diligence and care, comprehensively and if possible exhaustively; a partial collection can lead to serious errors (p11-12)
• We must not change definitions from the Bible to fit our system; this would be to invent facts about God.  "We must take the facts of the Bible as they are, and construct our system so as to embrace them all in their integrity" (p13)
• "[Our] only proper course is to derive [our theories] from the facts of the Bible [...] not to set forth [our] system of truth but to ascertain and exhibit what is God's system" (p13)
• If a theologian doesn't believe what the Bible teaches, let him admit it, rather than claiming that the Bible teaches what he believes (p14)
  
• The inward teaching of the Spirit is a real help, but does not add to the revelation of Scripture, but rather helps us with those words already freely given to us in the Bible (p15-16)
• Our minds do not produce truth but rather recognize and submit to it (p16-17)

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Systematic Theology (Hodge), Theology Thursday

  ¶ 12:41 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Directory for Public Worship - Preface, Assembling, Reading (Worship Wednesday) Welcome to worship Wednesdays. Yesterday, Timeless Tuesdays recommenced. With God's help, I hope to be reading on the subject of worship every Wednesday, and blogging my notes for easier future reference and for the edification of whoever wishes to read them. Perhaps I can even stimulate some blog readers to "take up and read" the original sources.

The Directory for the Publick Worship of God is one of the simplest and clearest guides for Reformed worship ever written.

As we have had our calls to worship through the book of Hebrews, we have found the convincing argument that since Christ is all and does all in our worship, it actually detracts from Him to add anything that He has not commanded in His Word.

The Directory describes precisely such simple and Scriptural worship, seeking to establish it orderly and edifying in obedience to the commands in 1 Corinthians. Although in these dark times worship such as described in The Directory is rare, it has pleased God in the past to make it widespread, and it may please Him to do so again. In February, 1645, both the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland unanimously adopted The Directory as the law to govern worship in that country.

You may wish to purchase a copy of The Directory, [here] with notes by Sinclair Ferguson and Mark Dever, or [here] with all of the original Westminster Standards adopted by the Church of Scotland. My notes are taken from the copy in the latter volume, beginning on p369.

--

Notes:

Preface

• Although the Book of Common Prayer had done much in redressing errors of Roman Catholic worship, it left intact many superstitious ("standing above," i.e. going beyond God's own revealed religion, once delivered) ceremonies, and its many set forms for reading led to a lazy and unedifying ministry (pp373-4)
• The Directory is a guide of those things divinely instituted for all worship, and the filling up of the actual thoughts and words on specific occasions is left to the minister (p374)

Of the Assembling of the Congregation, and their Behaviour in the Publick Worship of God (p375)

• the people should prepare their hearts before coming
• the people should not absent themselves
• the people should take their seats in a serious manner
• the people should not read anything except what the minister is reading or citing
• the people should abstain "from all private whisperings" "as also from all gazing, sleeping, and other indecent behavior"
• the point is NOT private devotion but a joining with the assembly
• the minister's call to worship should be followed by a prayer:
• acknowledging God's majesty and our vileness
• asking God for pardon, assistance, and acceptance

Of Publick Reading of the Holy Scriptures (p375-6)

• we depend upon God and are subject to God in reading the Word
• ALL of the Word is to be read in the common tongue out of the best translation
• though the amount to be read is left to the wisdom of the minister, the directory recommends "that ordinarily one chapter of each Testament be read at every meeting; and sometimes more, where the chapters be short, or the coherence of matter requireth it"" (p375). [Yes, that's 2+ chapters of reading in addition to the sermon; makes our readings look small, and shows you how word-poor is the common worship in our land today by comparison]
• these readings should rapidly cover the entire Bible, and proceed in order from one week to the next, "that the people may be better acquainted with the whole body of the Scriptures" (p375)
• parts of the Bible that the minister thinks are more apt for edification should be read even more frequently
• in addition to these public readings, the congregation is urged to read privately--including urging them to learn to read for this purpose and to have a Bible

I'm sorry that this is all I had time to read today. Hopefully, we can finish the document next week on Worship Wednesday.

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Directory for Public Worship, Worship Wednesday

  ¶ 10:52 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Whitefield (Dallimore) - Vol 1, Pt 1, Chs 1-2 notes (continued from 10-Nov-09) from George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore (or save a couple dollars by purchasing both volumes together from RHB)

1 - Whitefield's Ancestry

• There were at least 9 Oxford trained ministers in Whitefield's ancestry, in addition to businessmen and politicians (pp37-40)
• GW's parents, Thomas and Elizabeth, were entrepreneurial owners of an Inn (The Bell) and stable (p40)

2 - George, the Boy of the Bell

• The Bell was one of Gloucester's finest inns, and his parents were fairly wealthy (p44)
• GW was the last of seven children, and his father died when GW was 2 (pp44-5)
• GW remembered his own youth as quite sinful and wasted (p46-7)
• His mother remarried when he was eight (p47, cf. p52)
• At the age of 24, "a tremendous conviction of the holiness of God and of the sinfulness of sin [...] made him consider faults that most Christians would entirely overlook, as grievous iniquities.  He made much of abasing himself and magnifying the Lord." (p48--Dallimore's explanation for how GW remembered his childhood)
• "By the time he was sixteen he was reading the Greek New Testament for his spiritual edification and had laid the foundation for the proficiency in Latin that we shall notice later." (p50)
• Of the seven children, GW's education received the most attention
• From his youth, he had a vivid imagination, which he employed in acting in plays (for which he was later greatly ashamed and grieved)
• Elizabeth's second husband took over the inn and ruined it (until brother Richard recovered it later), destroying their marriage, and forcing her out. (p54)
• Financial difficulty interrupted his schooling, focing him to work at business and manual labor; and, in the ministry this helped him understand all sorts of people and apply to them in preaching (p56)
  
• When at the age of 17 he discovered that he could work his way through Oxford as a servant, he returned to prep school, also undergoing some spiritual renewal at the time (p57)
• "Though as yet he knew nothing of the redemption by grace that God was to teach him at Oxford, he was given strength to leave his evil companions entirely and to pursue his programme of study and religious duty with unremitting diligence." (p58)

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Timeless Tuesday (History), Whitefield (Dallimore)

  ¶ 4:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  CBD Fab Friday Special on Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible in 6 Volumes Christianbook.com has sales every Friday, and usually there is little there of significant lasting value.  Today, however, they have included Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible.  This is complete and unabridged, helps you thoroughly understand the biblical text, with rich application to thought, heart, word, and deed.

You should know that the entire text is available many places online for free (e.g. here or here).  However, if you prefer to have an actual book in your hand, you can't do better than today's CBD price, even used (every once in a while you will find one listed as $9 or something like that, but when it arrives, it turns out to have been just one of the six volumes).

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, 6 Volumes By Hendrickson Publishers For 300 years, Matthew Henry's Commentary has been a favorite of teachers, preachers, and laypeople. His rich exposition and useful applications are perfect for devotional reading and sermon help. This new edition features modern print and J.B. Williams's extensive 1828 account of Henry's life and writings. Approx. 5500 pages total, six hardcovers from Hendrickson.

For those with eyes of eagles and tighter budgets (don't forget the free ones online, links above!), you may wish instead to purchase the entire commentary, unabridged in one volume

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews

  ¶ 10:50 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  A Wise Pastor's Counsel on How to Argue When You Are Right This time of year finds many of us in conversation with extended family, or at work parties, etc., in which we are reasoning with others about real and important differences.  Many of us who are Scripturally convinced of our positions yet come away from these conversations quite dissatisfied with how our position has been received, and even with the aftertaste left in our own spirits.

If you fall into this category, you may find helpful John Newton's letter, commonly called On Controversy.  It is wise counsel for thinking biblically about those with whom we disagree, about those who may overhear, and about what is going on in our own hearts.  It has helped me not infrequently in the past, and I continue to need to reread it on a regular basis.

[Here is a link] to the letter.  The three minutes it will take you to read will be repaid by a lifetime of conversations that are more faithful and honoring to Christ.

The Westminster Seminary Bookstore currently has the entire book on a clearance sale (compare here) with limited availability.

This volume is not to be confused with the previous edition of which Banner of Truth writes the following:

THIS volume is not to be confused with the Letters of John Newton fi rst published by the Trust in 1960 and reprinted several times since. That paperback edition contains a small selection of thirty-nine letters, seventeen of which were taken from letters signed Omicron (1774) and Vigil (1785), and the remaining twenty-two drawn from Newton’s best-known work Cardiphonia (1781). While a few from that small volume may be found here, this much larger selection contains many more letters, including several that had not been previously published, as well as valuable biographical sketches and illustrative notes supplied by the editor and Newton’s biographer, Josiah Bull.

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews

  ¶ 12:23 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Vincent's New Testament Word Studies at a Great Price The words of the Bible actually mean something all by themselves.  They don't just "mean to me" whatever I find in them.  What a treasure that God has given us absolute truth in His Word!  For us who follow Jesus, we know that there is nothing more valuable in this world than the words of eternal life.

That's why I was so glad to see that Christianbook.com has on a very good sale today an excellent resource for dividing rightly (not just sincerely--elder Van Essendelft pointed out this difference recently) the Word of truth.

One helpful thing about the set that is on sale is that you don't need any Greek knowledge whatsoever to use it.

Note that if you look at used prices, you might find some for less, but if you read the descriptions those prices are only for one of the four volumes.  At the time of this post, there is actually one four-volume set for less at Alibris.  The CBD sale price is half of what you will pay for a new set even in private sales, and less than a third of the cheapest new set price from any other major retailer (Buy.com is cheapest but sold out, Amazon.com is next).

Vincent's New Testament Word Studies, 4 Volumes By Marvin Vincent / Hendrickson Publishers Marvin Vincent's Word Studies has been treasured by generations of pastors and laypeople. Commenting on the meaning, derivation, and uses of significant Greek words and idioms, Vincent helps you incorporate the riches of the New Testament in your sermons or personal study without spending hours on tedious language work! 2720 pages total, four hardcovers from Hendrickson.

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews

  ¶ 12:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Whitefield (Dallimore) - Introductory Material Since it had been a year since I last read in this excellent biography, and I couldn't find where I had blogged through what I have already read, I decided to start over.

Introductory Material

On Knowing Whitefield

• "There are few men whose characters have suffered so much from misrepresentation and ignorance as George Whitefield!" (p6)
• One problem is that he only journaled for three years of his ministry and then refused--just as he refused to start a church with his name on it saying "Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified!" (p7)
• Some measure him by those three journaled years, even though "the man of later years [was] humbly apologetic for his earlier errors" (p7)
• Whitefield used of God to bring worldwide revival--the revivals on both sides of the Atlantic not disconnected but one (therefore Dallimore prefers the term The Eighteenth-Century Revival to any localizing terms
• Dallimore uses "source materials not heretofore used" (p15) and makes known "not only his accomplishments and abilities, but also his foibles and mistakes" (p15) of which he actually laments that there are so few that he might appear biased in his writing (!)
• The aim of the book is that God would use it to shape a generation of young preachers through whom He would bring another like revival... Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace.  They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be 'fools for Christ's sake', who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth's accolades, but to win the Master's approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat.  They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit (p16)

 Spiritual and Moral Conditions in England before the Revival

• The rejection of Puritanism had plunged the nation into godless immorality (p19)
• Deists had conducted "a vigorous warfare against supernatural religion--Biblical Christianity," attacking especially the idea of the Bible as God's Word (p20) with (my observation) many of the same arguments as 19th century theological liberalism and 20th century secular humanism
• "Professional" clergy who desired the praise of the world and the pleasure of sin had given in to Deism quite readily (p22)
• "Every sixth house in London had become a gin shop and the nation was in an uncontrollable orgy of gin drinking" (p25)
• "It was among a people broken by gin that Whitefield and the Wesleys went about" (p25)
• This immorality had destroyed the vast majority of society into a diseased, wretched mass (pp26-27)
• Though there had been small awakenings and attempts to minister, including hospitals, prison condition improvement, charity schools, societies against immorality, and societies for promoting Christian knowledge (pp28-30); yet, "there was no noticeable improvement in the moral and religious state of the nation" (pp30-31)
• It was into this context that Whitefield first preached

Next week, God-willing, we'll pick up with Part 1, Chapter 1

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Timeless Tuesday (History), Whitefield (Dallimore)

  ¶ 8:34 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Plumer on the Psalms Online (ht: D Dykstra) Those who have been blessed by Plumer's comments as we've studied, sung, and prayed through the Psalms in the midweek meetings may be glad to find that the entire text of the commentary is in the public domain and [online here].  Thanks to David Dykstra who found this and passed along the link!

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews, Prayer Meetings

  ¶ 2:09 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  A Prayer for Lord's Day Eve

Another week has gone and I have been preserved
in my going out,
in my coming in.

Thine has been the vigilance that has turned threatened evils aside;
Thine the supplies that have nourished me;
Thine the comforts that have indulged me;
Thine the relations and friends that have delighted me;
Thine the means of grace which have edified me;
Thine the Book, which, amidst all my enjoyments, has told me that this is not my rest,
that in all successes one thing alone is needful, to love my Saviour.
Nothing can equal the number of they mercies but my imperfections and sins.
These, O God, I will neither conceal nor palliate, but confess with a broken heart.

In what condition would secret reviews of my life leave me
were it not for the assurance that with thee there is plenteous redemption,
that thou art a forgiving God,
that thou mayest be feared

While I hope for pardon through the blood of the cross,
I pray to be clothed with humility,
to be quickened in thy way,
to be more devoted to thee,
to keep the end of my life in view,
to be cured of the folly of delay and indecision,
to know how frail I am,
to number my days and apply my heart unto wisdom.

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews, Prayer Requests

  ¶ 4:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Another Easy (and free) Calvin Read

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews

  ¶ 4:40 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Excellent Offer from Ligonier This weekend, go to http://rymoffer.com and donate any amount, and Ligonier will send you a copy of John Calvin: a Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology.  It's Calvin's 500th birthday today, by the way.  I recently recommended this book to a friend who is an ordinary housewife in the Chicago area, and she found it easily readable and deeply spiritually helpful.  It's a collaborative work of several authors, so some chapters may be much more helpful than others.

Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews

  ¶ 4:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Monergism Books Memorial Day Sale -- 10% off already steeply discounted prices, $35+

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews, Website

  ¶ 1:20 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  New in the Church Library

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews

  ¶ 10:53 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  New Book Recommendation--John Calvin: a Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology Believe it or not, even in Northwest Iowa, I've had people recoil at the mention of Calvin or Calvinism. Calvinism is simply the Bible-saturated view of God as all-sovereign, all-worthy, all-valuable, all-desirable--that glorifying Him is all our purpose and enjoying Him is all our pleasure.

But people like to be big, and they like God to be small. It would be rather uncouth to frown when someone says "Biblical teaching," so they just lampoon it using the name of someone who taught it faithfully, and scowl as they say with a tone between dismay and disgust, "Calvinism." That, of course, makes "Calvinist" a useful term for those of us who want to distinguish Biblical teaching from the so-called Biblical teaching that occupies the majority of the shelves of today's Christian bookstores.

If you would like to give your children (and yourself) a more objective introduction to Calvin, and more importantly, an enticing taste of what can happen to heart, mind, and lips when they are captivated with and by the glory of God, John Calvin: a Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology, is a good place to start.

Publisher's Description: John Calvin is often reviled as a humorless doctrinarian who preached an austere theology that twisted Scripture. In John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology, Burk Parsons and a cadre of godly pastors and scholars seek to set the record straight in honor of the 500th observance of John Calvin's birth in 1509. The book's nineteen succinct chapters explore aspects of Calvin's life, ministry, and teachings, and establish his importance even for the twenty-first-century church. Contributors, in addition to Parsons, include some of the most gifted and godly Reformed leaders alive today: Derek W. H. Thomas, Sinclair B. Ferguson, D. G. Hart, Harry L. Reeder, Steven J. Lawson, W. Robert Godfrey, Phillip R. Johnson, Eric J. Alexander, Thabiti Anyabwile, John MacArthur, Richard D. Phillips, Thomas K. Ascol, Keith A. Mathison, Jay E. Adams, Philip Graham Ryken, Michael Horton, Jerry Bridges, and Joel R. Beeke. The foreword is by Iain H. Murray. Indexes of Scripture passages, subjects and names, and theological terms make the book helpful for those who want to delve into specific topics. John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology is a winsome portrait that dashes stereotypes about Calvin and the theological system that bears his name.

Labels: Book Recommendations and Reviews

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