Monday, August 23, 2010 at 9:42AM 
Yes, I am taking another vacation from blogging. I expect to be back to a normal blogging schedule in a couple of weeks.
But wait! First I have another color test for you: Can you match the color to its Crayola name? (mental_floss Blog)
I scored 7/9. After the fold, I’ll tell you which ones I got wrong. Anyone who clicks through before taking the test for themselves …
Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 4:55PM I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art
I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
My only trust and Savior of my heart,
Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray Thee from our hearts all cares to take.
Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
Reigning omnipotent in every place;
So come, O King, and our whole being sway;
Shine on us with the light of Thy pure day.
Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
And all our substance and our strength receive;
Oh comfort us in death’s approaching hour,
Strong-hearted then to face it by Thy power.
Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
No harshness hast Thou and no bitterness;
Make us to taste the sweet grace found in Thee
And ever stay in Thy sweet unity.
Our hope is in no other save in Thee;
Our faith is built upon Thy promise free;
Oh grant to us such stronger help and sure,
That we can boldly conquer and endure.
—Strasbourg Psalter, 1545
Listen to an mp3 from Center for Church Music.
Listen to an iTunes podcast on this hymn from First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS.
Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:
Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.
Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 11:17AM 
From 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible by Robert L. Plummer, a point that’s been made here before, but bears repeating:
For Protestant Christians, the canon is not an authorized collection of writings (in that the church conferred its authority or approval upon a list of books). Rather, the canon is a collection of authoritative writings. The biblical writing have an inherent authority as works uniquely inspired by God. Canonization is the process of recognizing that inherent authority, not bestowing it from an outside source.
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 11:53AM 
I’m reading Arnold Dallimore’s Spurgeon along with Tim Challies and others. This week’s reading included chapters 15-17 of this biography of Charles Spurgeon, with the first chapter dealing with the daily life of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the second with the 10 peak years of Spurgeon’s minstry, and the last with some of the features of Spurgeon’s personality. I’ve got a busy day, so I’m just going to mention a couple of things that interested me
Chapter 15 dispels any notion that the Metropolitan Tabernacle was just a place for Sunday services. It was a very busy place with things happening there all day and evening every day of the week. It was very much a working church, with an awe-inspiring number of fruitful tasks accomplished in it.
I did have one question: What is a Bible nurse? Mrs. Spurgeon, we’re told, “maintained a Bible nurse at her own expense, and other such nurses also functioned from the Tabernacle.” Can you enlighten me?
Nearly half of the seventeenth chapter titled Personal Characteristics is an explanation of Spurgeon’s drinking and smoking habits. Yes, as you probably already know, Spurgeon smoked cigars and drank beer and ale. That he writes so much on this explains more about Dallimore, I think, than it does about Spurgeon. He concludes his bit on these “bad habits” by saying:
I reported these matters regarding Spurgeon with much reluctance. They seem sadly regrettable in the life of so righteous a man, yet in the name of either Christian honesty or scholarly accuracy they could not be omitted.
Dallimore explains that “these two practices” show us that Spurgeon was “a man of his times.” I’m thinking that these comments may show us that Dallimore was also a man of his times.
rebecca
Re: Bible nurses, I found this: The History of Nursing – Major Sources in the Metropolitan London Archives (pdf).
Mrs Ellen Ranyard established the London Bible and Domestic Female Mission in 1857 based at her home in Bloomsbury. Working class “Biblewomen” were employed to visit the poor, advise on domestic matters, and to sell Bibles by instalments. They were supervised by middle class female superintendents who read their reports once a week, paid their salaries and ran the mothers’ meetings held in each district.
In 1868 Mrs Ranyard added a nursing branch to the Mission. The Bible nurses, drawn from the respectable working class, were the first trained district nurses in London. Initially a Bible nurse’s training included only three months at a hospital, but by 1893 it had been extended to one year at a general hospital, attendance at a special hospital, then probationary training in the districts. By 1894 the Mission employed 82 nurses who made 215,000 visits to almost 10,000 patients. After 1907 it ceased to train its own nurses. In 1917 the name of the organisation was changed to the Ranyard Mission and its nurses became Ranyard Nurses.
Putting it together, I’m guessing Bible nurses were like an order of nurses that came out of “Biblewomen.”
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 8:23PM 
Well! I just finished canning peaches—22 jars of them. I’m thankful for the rainy day that made working with lots of pots of boiling water more pleasant. I’m thankful that everything went smoothly and that I had the energy to get the job done. I’m thankful that God created peaches.
I’m thankful for rainbow ice cream.
I’m thankful that youngest son’s scraped up toes are healing.
I’m thankful that God has revealed himself to us so that we can know him.
On Thursdays throughout this year, I plan to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving along with Kim at the Upward Call and others. Why don’t you participate by posting your thanksgiving each week, too? It’ll be an encouragement to you and to others, I promise.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 9:47PM 
Right now, first on the list of top content at Rebecca Writes is this post. Yes, it’s the time of the year when the instructions for canning peaches, along with the recipe for Beer-Batter Deep Fried Halibut, bring in a bit of traffic.
Guess what I’m doing tomorrow? Here’s a clue: I’m haven’t been fishing.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 3:15PM 
Spelling Dilemma
‘Tis a mystery why there’s so much confusion, but perhaps Isaac Watts bears some of the blame. (World Wide Words)
There’s an Outcry
Remember the hue test? It got me wondering what the hue in “hue and cry” means. Turns out it doesn’t refer to color at all. (World Wide Words, again. If you like this sort of thing, you’ll want to put this website in your feed reader.)
Old English
A few retronyms. (Schott’s Vocab Blog)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 8:58PM 
inclusivism
The view that while Jesus Christ is the only Saviour and everyone who is saved is saved by the work of Christ, explicit knowledge of Christ and faith in him is not necessary to be saved, because it is possible for someone to be saved by responding rightly to the light of general revelation or by sincerely believing and practicing in accordance with the bits of truth found in a non-Christian religion.
Scripture used by some to defend inclusivism:
… to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life…. (Romans 2:7 ESV)
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:9-14 ESV)
Question 60: Can they who have never heard the gospel, and so know not Jesus Christ, nor believe in him, be saved by their living according to the light of nature?
Answer: They who, having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Savior only of his body the church.
Scripture makes clear that humanity is universally sinful, and that God’s wrath remains on every individual who has not placed his or her trust in Jesus Christ on the basis of his substitutionary death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection. While there may be philosophical or larger theological objections to such a notion (such as the difficulty experienced by some of reconciling this notion with the love of God), while there may be commonsense concerns on the basis of human conceptions or “fairness” or other similar considerations, there can be little doubt that Scripture nowhere teaches, or easily allows the implication, that there is a way to salvation other than through explicit faith in Jesus Christ during a person’s lifetime (e.g., Heb 9:27-28). In fact, this is not an obscure topic; it is the central contention of the biblical message concerning the gospel, that “[s]alvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Learn more:
Related terms:
Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.
I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.
Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 10:39PM 
Two recently updated Theological Term of the Week posts:
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 10:04PM 
What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is inerrant? The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy tells us what leading inerrantist mean by inerrancy. I’ll be posting a section of this statement each week until I’ve posted the whole thing.
After a preface and a short statement, the Chicago Statement contains the Articles of Affirmation and Denial. (You can read previously posted sections of this statement in by clicking here.) The last section is the Exposition, which “gives an account of the outline of doctrine from which our summary statement and articles are drawn.” I think the expostion section, which continues here, is the most interesting—and maybe the best—section of this historic church document.
Skepticism and Criticism
Since the Renaissance, and more particularly since the Enlightenment, world-views have been developed which involve skepticism about basic Christian tenets. Such are the agnosticism which denies that God is knowable, the rationalism which denies that He is incomprehensible, the idealism which denies that He is transcendent, and the existentialism which denies rationality in His relationships with us. When these un- and anti-biblical principles seep into men’s theologies at [a] presuppositional level, as today they frequently do, faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture becomes impossible.
