Sunday's Hymn: Reader's Choice

Today’s hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, is a favorite of Mummymac from Northern Ireland. She likes it

…just because He is really! And also because “All I have needed His hand has provided” etc etc.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Refrain

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

© 1923 Hope Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny
380 South Main Place, Car­ol Stream, IL 60188

—-Thomas Chisholm (Listen.)

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Joyful, Joyful at Above the Clouds
• I Would Be Like Jesus at Seasonings of the Heart
  
• Lord’s Day 26, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• The Heav’ns Declare Thy Glory at joythruChrist
• The Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity at Magic Statistics
• Beautiful at The Happy Wonderer
• I Need Thee Every Hour at Thoughts from the Teahouse
  
• Only a Sinner at Fish and Cans
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list. If you’d like to see your favorite hymn featured as a Reader’s Choice hymn, go here and leave a comment. Just tell me your favorite hymn and a little bit about why you like it and I’ll feature your hymn when your turn comes.

I've Been Negligent

This week I  received a Blogger Reflection Award twice, from Kim of Hiraeth and Carla of Reflections of the Times. This is an award given to bloggers who

…who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, and have been a Godly example to you…who when you reflect on them you get a sense of pride and joy…of knowing them and being blessed by them.

I haven’t said thank you yet, and I want to do that. It’s a great honor to receive something like this from bloggers of Kim and Carla’s calibre.

Now I’m supposed to give five awards, but most of the bloggers I’d give it to have been on the receiving end of it already, so I think I’m just going to be thankful I receive it and leave it at that. Thanks, Kim and Carla. You guys made my week!

Richard Hooker on Justification

 …and imputed (or alien) righteousness.

From A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and how the Foundation of Faith is Overthrown:

There is a glorifying righteousness of men in the world to come; and there is a justifying and a sanctifying righteousness here. The righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the world to come is both perfect and inherent. That whereby we are justified is perfect, but not inherent. That whereby we are sanctified, inherent, but not perfect.

The Prodigal Kitty

 

This is Gypsy, the cat who ran away for two days and came back only 10 minutes before her owner left for the airport to move to the Yukon.

 

She’s not as photogenic as Leroy, but she’s very sweet. She’s adjusted quite nicely to our home—the larger, more active household seems to suit her.  She’s a mewer, not a meower or a yowler. Sweet little soft mews, but she’s persistent with them, so they work for her.

 

She’s half the size of Leroy, but she gives him a run for his money. They like to chase each other and wrestle, and when Leroy grows tired of it all and tries to ignore her, she keeps pouncing on him to get him to play.

 

The dog? Truth be told, she’d rather that big doggy thing didn’t live here, so she ignores it in hopes it’ll go away. So far, that strategy hasn’t worked for her.

 

I’m the only other person besides her owner for whom she purrs, so she’s alright in my book.

 

Kim of The Upward Call is collecting links to cat photos today. If you’ve a cat, post a photo and give her the link.

How is justification an act of God's free grace?

Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in the behalf of them that are justified;[1] yet inasmuch as God accepteth the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son,[2] imputing his righteousness to them,[3] and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith,[4] which also is his gift,[5] their justification is to them of free grace.[6]

Click to read more ...

Under the Lilac Bush

I think this blog has been cat free for too long. This is Leroy, resting in the shade, watching the world go by.

July's Recipe Round Up

Violet of promptings has posted the scoop on next month’s recipe round up.

For the customarily hot month of July (in North America at least) the category is Summer Salads. And the July Recipe Roundup will be hosted right here at promptings on Thursday, July 12.

Cooks of every age and experience are invited to join in!

Book Review: Evangelical Feminism

A New Path to Liberalism? by Wayne Grudem

The focus of this book by Wayne Grudem is his concern that evangelical feminism will prove, over time, to draw people into theological liberalism. By liberalism, Grudem is referring to a system of belief that does not accept the Bible as the supreme authority in the lives of believers, or accept the absolute truthfulness of what is written in it.

Grudem bases this concern of his in many of the arguments made in support of egalitarianism. They are, he says, often exactly the same arguments used first in liberal Protestant denomination—arguments that deny (although sometimes in subtle ways) that the text of scripture is completely error free, and that what we find written there is the final arbitrator of things in a believer’s life and in the life of the church.

Grudem’s first argument is from history. He makes the case that, generally speaking, denominations that ordain women are also denominations that at least tolerate liberalism. The lists are interesting, and it does seem that the ordination of women and a denial of the inerrancy of scripture (or at least a tolerance of those who deny the inerrancy of scripture) tend to go hand in hand within denominations. I’m not sure exactly what this proves, but the correlation is worth noting.

The second section of the book is a collection of short chapters (fifteen in all), with each one examining a single argument put forward by evangelical feminists. Each arguments examined is one that Grudem believes undermines the authority of scripture. I won’t run through the various arguments, but I will give you one example, and a summary of Grudem’s reasoning for his charge that this particular argument undermines scripture.

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Driven Snow

HT: Siris

Sunday's Hymn: Reader's Choice

Today’s hymn is a favorite of Kim from Hireath and Rosemary from Seasonings of the Heart.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

(Listen.) 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Still, Still With Me at Above the Clouds
• He Leadeth Me at Seasonings of the Heart
  
• Lord’s Day 25, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• Ye Sons of Men, With Joy Record at joythruChrist
• The Collect for the Third Sunday after Trinity at Magic Statistics
• There is a Redeemer at The Happy Wonderer
• Conflicting Feelings at New Lumps
• How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds at Thoughts from the Teahouse
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list. If you’d like to see your favorite hymn featured as a Reader’s Choice hymn, go here and leave a comment. Just tell me your favorite hymn and a little bit about why you like it and I’ll feature your hymn when your turn comes.