One important principle articulated in several places in the New Testament was an emphasis upon the importance of biblical authority for worship practices. Usually these kinds of discussions came in the context of confronting the legalism of the Jewish religion. During his ministry, Jesus had already condemned the adding of religious practices not prescribed in… Continue Reading
Week 34: Babylonian Captivity Weekly memory verse: Ezekiel 37:27–28 – “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” Weekly hymn: “Jerusalem, My Happy… Continue Reading
The first post in this series introduced Scripture-Regulated Worship. The second post considered some important arguments for Scripture-Regulated Worship. The third post showed the ways the New Testament explains the authority of Christ in churches. To summarize my argument in that third installment, Jesus Christ sent delegates (apostles) to teach his churches his will for them as churches. This… Continue Reading
Week 14: Samson Weekly memory verse: Psalm 17:8 – “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” Weekly hymn: Jesus, Lover of My Soul (free download) Weekly catechism: How can you come to know God and what he has made? The fear of the Lord is the… Continue Reading
Week 13: Judges Weekly memory verse: Judges 3:9 – “But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them.” Weekly hymn: He Who Would Valiant Be (free download) Weekly catechism: What is the greatest commandment? The greatest commandment is to… Continue Reading
Week 8: God Saves His People Weekly memory verse: Exodus 15:1 – “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” Weekly hymn: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (free download) Weekly catechism: In how many persons does this one God exist?… Continue Reading
Week 6: God’s Good Plan Weekly memory verse: Genesis 50:20 – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Weekly hymn: What God Ordains is Always Good (free download) Weekly catechism: What is God like? God is the first and best of beings. He is holy, powerful, and good.… Continue Reading
Last year I created a 5 Day Bible Narratives Reading Plan that each member of our family used (except the one year old!) through 2017. You can read more about the structure of the plan here. We really enjoyed using it, and we plan to use it again in 2018. For those who would like… Continue Reading
Download a free 5 day Bible Narratives Reading Plan for 2018 here. This week our family is finishing successfully reading through the whole Bible. Each of us has independently read through the Bible using the same Bible reading plan. We used this 5 day chronological reading plan. We liked it because it was only five… Continue Reading
I’d like to take a few posts over the next several weeks to respond to one criticism of something I wrote, but did not develop, in a very brief section in By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture, published last year by Kregel. In that book, I suggest that instead of our worship… Continue Reading
In the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul rebukes the church for its chaotic worship. It seems that the problems included women teachers (14:33b-35), the incoherence of foreign langues (14:13, 19, 27-28), and even people speaking over each other in the services (14:27-32). Paul rebukes them strongly for this. As he wraps up his discourse,… Continue Reading
I am teaching right now in my philosophy class on meaning in music. When beginning any discussion like this, I always find that it is important to address how the authority of Scripture factors in. I begin with 1 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for… Continue Reading
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, A person who can read well is seldom met with now-a-days. The public reading of the Bible is oftentimes not worthy of it being called reading. There once lived a boy in the Highlands of Scotland who presumed to read a newspaper with a twang similar to that which characterised his… Continue Reading
Martin Luther did not want to revolutionize completely the traditional worship of the Western church. He did, however, believe that preaching of the Word had been sorely neglected. In 1523, he published some instructions on the “Order of Public Worship,” and therein he identified three errors that were common in papal worship services: (1) the… Continue Reading
For those who have not (yet) read it, Edwards’s Religious Affections argues what are the proper marks of a genuine work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the regenerate. Edwards believes that the affections a saint has for God and divine things are of a particular kind, and that such affections are a necessary part of… Continue Reading
Last week at the Annual Evangelical Theological Society meeting, the theme of the meeting was “Creation Care.” This is not a subject that I find particularly interesting, but in the final plenary session, Doug Moo made a point that was quite helpful and that applies to areas that I am certainly interested in. In the… Continue Reading
To this point, the passages studied in our series on discernment have been pretty straight-forward. Whether Philippians 1:9-11, Romans 12:1-2, or Colossians 1:9-10, each passage has clearly taught the importance of discerning the will of God. In each context, knowing the will of God (which I define to be discerning God’s will as to how… Continue Reading