07 Sunday Feb 2010
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I believe my first childhood experience of singing material from the psalms was probably the old praise chorus, “Let God Arise.”
Let God arise and His enemies be scattered
Let God arise and His enemies be scattered
Let God arise and His enemies be scattered
Let God, let God arise
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05 Friday Feb 2010
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One might wonder why in the heading of my blog there are a collection of hymnals. I am a worship leader and collect hymnals of high caliber on which to draw Christ-centered, cross-focused texts which exhort God’s people to worship on the basis of Christ and Him crucified for their sins. I compose original melodies as well as arrange old ones so that the Church may be edified in singing these timeless truths. William Gadsby (1773-1844) was a pastor and hymnwriter who compiled the first edition of his hymnal on in 1832. I have a copy of the final text-only edition in my possession (recent reprint by Old Paths Gospel Press). #662 gives us the sum and substance of Christian worship.
25 Monday Jan 2010
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Thomas Watson defines repentance as “a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.” There are six components of this true repentance Watson identifies:
17 Sunday Jan 2010
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An excellent song I heard while visiting a friend’s church. Looking forward to introducing it at my own church.
17 Sunday Jan 2010
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Check out the new page I posted in the right-hand column, “So Why the Blog Title.”
08 Friday Jan 2010
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Thomas Watson writes, “there must be first some seeds of faith in the heart of a penitent, otherwise it is a dead repentance and so of no value” (emphasis mine). It is not simply an essential command of the Christian to repent; it is, Watson reasons, the essential command, being the foundation-grace given by God (Hebrews 6:1). “…religion which is not built upon this foundation must needs fall to the ground.”
07 Thursday Jan 2010
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Watson begins at this point to direct his readers toward a definition of repentance, which he first defines in the negative. Realizing this is no way to define something, I shall skip ahead to his positive thesis (which actually occurs in a subsequent chapter) and then circle back to deal with the material in Chapter Two.
“Repentance,” writes Watson, “is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.” Seems an excellent definition. This deals specifically with the inner presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life as well as sanctification which is brought about by the inner machinations of the Third Person of the Trinity.
06 Wednesday Jan 2010
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Paul defends himself before King Agrippa in Acts 26, pointing out three things: the way his life was before his conversion, the way he was converted and the how he lived after his conversion. Says Watson, “When Paul, this ‘vessel of election’, was savingly wrought upon, he laboured to do as much good as previously he had done hurt. He had persecuted saints to death before, now he preached sinners to life.”
Watson speaks also of which comes first, the chicken or the egg repentance or faith. “Doubtless repentance shows itself first in a Christian’s life. Yet I am apt to think that the seeds of faith are first wrought in the heart.” He then compares the light of a candle, when entering a room from a hallway…you see the light from the flame before the candle gets there, but the light emanates from the candle’s burning wick.
06 Wednesday Jan 2010
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Last summer, my church participated in Call2Fall, a well-intentioned call to pray for our nation’s leaders. There were two problems I had with the whole thing as a worship leader at the church. First, we should be praying for our leaders every time we gather. Second, the primary impetus for praying was the infamous 2 Chronicles passage, ripped from context. I drew up the following document and submitted it to my pastor for his review, detailing my concerns for using the 2 Chronicles passage out of context. I was subsequently allowed to rewrite the text for the flyer, which was to Pastor Dave’s (and the elder board’s) credit.
05 Tuesday Jan 2010
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An excellent friend has sent me an excellent little book on The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson. In a similar vein to my mini-review of key points of John Owen’s On Temptation and Sin in Believers, &c, I will be offering reviews on this blog of this work which will no doubt have effect on me that I will only be able to dream of at present.
Gay and Evangelical 