Read less (if necessary) in order to meditate more1…spend at least 25% of your time in the Word of God meditating and not just reading2.You can read more here. Monergism also has an entire MP3 on meditation.
I've been thinking for awhile about writing a series of articles about the Bible. Specifically, Bible translation. It's been a longtime passion of mine, and I've written snippets about it previously, but several things have coalesced that have made me want to revisit it more systematically. (Series are much easier to do now that blogs have tags available.)
With that said, since this is the kingdom, not competition, I'm thrilled to find out when someone is already working on this, especially when it is someone I know. I stumbled across my friend Kim Shay's blog entry about Bible translations, and it is just the sort of thing I'm thinking about writing. I commend it to you.
I am also working on revising my listing of bible copyrights into a full-blown discussion of them. Until it is finished, my original listing is available on my blog's copyright page, or as a downloadable PDF on scribd.
More to come...
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
Bless the LORD, you angels of his,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
and hearken to the voice of his word.
Bless the LORD, all you his hosts,
you ministers of his who do his will.
Bless the LORD, all you works of his,
in all places of his dominion;
bless the LORD, O my soul.
(vs. 1,2,20,21,22)
One of the other things I decided to in learning about Lent was to get the Anglican Church’s Lent app, which has daily reflections. The following quote, which I think is a very nice summing up of the Christian life, is excerpted from the 02/28 entry.
The Christian life is not a set of principles that can be quickly learnt and swotted up on, and the exam then passed. It is a life of growth, pruning, development, commitment, wisdom, maturity, chastening and encouragement. It is, in short, learning and growing through a living relationship.
There seems to be lots more activity than normal surrounding Lent this year. I could be wrong, or it may simply be that I'm paying more attention since I've decided to participate.
My wife and I have decided to celebrate Lent for the first time this year by making it a priority to pray with each other every day. We are both excited about it, and hopeful that God will use this time to grow us closer together, and help us make a habit of this important practice.
One of the most interesting things I found in my readings was written by Michael Horton of White Horse Inn. This link brings together an article he wrote entitled Lent—Why Bother? To Lead us to Christ, which defends the idea of Lent without condoning the superstitious practices surrounding it, and a brief discussion of why he doesn't think the practice violates the regulative principal.
I'm not a fan of the regulative principal anyway—I think it is misused and arbitrary at times—but its use in this case seems to bring it into conflict with Scripture. I think Horton nails it when he talks about Paul allowing feasts.
That's not to say that Horton couldn't be wrong; he could. I could, too. But I hope that, far from celebrating something superstitiously, we are actively working to redeem the time, doing something to strengthen our marriage and devotion to the Lord.
"There can be nothing... in the demands of the law, and the severity of the law, and the condemnation of the law, and the death of the law, and the curse of the law, which is not a reflection (in part) of the perfections of God. Whatever is due to the law is due to the law because it is the law of God, and is due therefore to God himself."
Nathaniel Dimock, Doctrine of the Death of Christ, p. 32, quoted in The Cross of Christ, by John Stott, p. 118 (IVP, 2006).
We sang Crown Him With Many Crowns a couple of weeks ago at church. I remember it well, because it was just after my grandmother's funeral, and the following stanza struck a particular chord and stuck with me.
Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o'er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save.
His glories now we sing,
who died, and rose on high,
who died, eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.
At Grandma's memorial service, we were given the opportunity to say something. I decided to try to find something from or about a Scripture passage on death, and after doing some research, I found what I wanted in a sermon from Charles Spurgeon, quoted in the book We Shall See God: Charles Spurgeon's Classic Devotional Thoughts on Heaven, by Randy Alcorn. (If that book sounds familiar, you may have previously read this review.)
Preaching on 1 Cor. 15:3-6, Spurgeon said this:
In the heathen part of the catacombs of Rome, the inscriptions over the place where their dead were buried are full of grief and despair. Indeed, the writers of those inscriptions do not appear to have been able to find words in which they could express their great distress, their agony of heart, at the loss of child or husband or friend. They pile the mournful words together, trying to describe their grief. Sometimes they declare that the light has gone from their sky now that their dear ones are taken from them.
"Alas! Alas!" says the record. "Dear Caius has gone, and with him all joy is quenched forever, for I shall see him no more." But when you come into that part of the catacombs which was devoted to Christian burial vaults, everything is different. There you may constantly read these consoling words: "He sleeps in peace." There is nothing dreadful or despairing in the inscriptions there; they are submissive, they are cheerful, they are even thankful. Frequently they are victorious, and the most common emblem is not the quenched torch, as it is on the heathen side, where the light is supposed to have gone out forever, but the palm branch, to signify that the victory remains eternally with the departed one. It is the glory of the Christian religion to have let light into the grave, to have taken away the sting from death, and in fact, to have made it no more death to die.
Our dearly departed loved ones who have died in Christ now have no more death to die, and it is all thanks to the Lord of life.
Text: Matthew Bridges, 1800-1894, and Godfrey Thring, 1823-1903
Music: George J. Elvey, 1816-1893
Tune: DIADEMATA, Meter: SMD
Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne,
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless King
through all eternity.
Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o'er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save.
His glories now we sing,
who died, and rose on high,
who died, eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.
Crown him the Lord of peace,
whose power a scepter sways
from pole to pole, that wars may cease,
and all be prayer and praise.
His reign shall know no end,
and round his pierced feet
fair flowers of paradise extend
their fragrance ever sweet.
Crown him the Lord of love;
behold his hands and side,
those wounds, yet visible above,
in beauty glorified.
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
For thou hast died for me;
thy praise and glory shall not fail
throughout eternity.
Lyrics obtained from Hymnsite.com
One thing that I have been challenged on recently is my overall lack of Trinitarianism.
It's Carl Trueman's fault. The guy is an absolute menace to a comfortable pew-sitter like me. I was listening to his lectures on medieval church theology (which are worth listening to, despite the audio problems, which I think are due to a less-than-successful transfer from cassette), and he mentioned on several occasions that a pet peeve of his is the functional unitarianism of the evangelical church.
And doggonit if he isn't right. I mean, when was the last time you included all three members of the Trinity in your prayers?
I think prayer is where the whole thing intersected for me, because I was already feeling the weight of not praying as I should, and then to have this added to it, was really the tipping point for me.
There's more that could be said--more that I could go into--but now isn't the time. Instead, I'll just say that I'm working on all of those things, and a part of my inspiration is by looking at published historical prayers.
The Book Of Common Prayer is one of the most obvious, but not the only one by any means. But there are other things as well, like this book on Presbyterian Liturgy (I'm currently reading through Calvin's prayers), and this book of prayers and meditations by Anselm (that last was recommended by Trueman in his lectures, BTW).
The point is this: I'm trying to make progress in thinking Trinitarian, so that I will pray more Trinitarian.
What about you?
God of all comfort! We commend to you those whom you are pleased to visit and chasten with any cross or tribulation; the nations whom you do afflict with pestilence, war, or famine; all persons oppressed with poverty, imprisonment, sickness, banishment, or any other distress of body or sorrow of mind: That it may please you to show them your fatherly chastening them for their profit; to the end that in their hearts they may turn to you, and being converted, may receive perfect consolation, and deliverance from all their woes.
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Your Spirit, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.
Amen
Adapted from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, which is in the public domain.
