Year's End

O love beyond compare,
Thou art good when thou givest,
when thou takest away,
when the sun shines upon men,
when night gathers over me.
Thou has loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love didst redeem my soul;
Thou dost love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Thy goodness has been with me during another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.
Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
with thee as the blessed pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless these that thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If thou has appointed storms of tribulation,
thou wilt be with me in them;
If I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
I shall see thy face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith fail not;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.


The Valley of Vision. The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 2005, p. 111.

Reflections

“He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (KJV).

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:9-14 (ESV).

Another year is dawning, dear Father let it be,
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee;
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.
- Frances Ridley Havergal

Christ's Nature

The deity of Christ in His atoning work is of paramount importance in understanding the gospel. In order for Jesus Christ to qualify as the atonement for the sins of the redeemed, He must be personally perfect – that is, holy, having lived a sinless life. In order to be perfect, Christ must be more than a mere man – He must be divine. God’s chosen mediator, Jesus Christ, is Himself fully God (John 1:1,18) and thus uniquely qualified to complete the work of redemption.

However, because man sinned, man must bear the penalty of sin, so in addition to being fully God, the mediator must also be fully man in order to bear the sin of man as their representative. Also, the mediator must be a man since the mediating act of atoning for sin requires a sacrificial death (Lev. 17:11; Heb. 9:22), and it is impossible for God to die. The apostles affirm that the eternal Son of God, who exists outside of the realm of time and who created the universe (Heb. 1:2b; John 1:1-3), allowed, accepted, and welcomed an infinite reduction in stature in order to become the incarnate Son of Man.

His incarnation, sinless life, and substitutionary death on the cross were inseparable steps towards accomplishing His unified purpose: conquering death and giving eternal life to those who are united to Him by faith.

Source: Jerry Bridges, Bob Bevington. The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2007, pp. 35-36.

Merry Christmas!

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Hark! the herald angels sing, -
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th' angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem."
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!

Christ, by highest heav'n adored:
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the favored one.
Veil'd in flesh, the Godhead see;
Hail, th'incarnate Deity:
Pleased, as man, with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel!
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!

Hail! the heav'n-born Prince of peace!
Hail! the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die:
Born to raise the sone of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!

The Decline Continues

The Globe and Mail published an article today about the decline of church attendance in Canada.

That church attendance in Canada has plummeted is indisputable. The author, Michael Valpy, though makes an interesting argument. He posits that church attendance has collapsed because women fled religious services in the 1960s – and never returned.

“It is impossible to refute or underemphasize the fact that religion was suddenly confronted in the 1960s by changes in the social construct of gender and a resulting severing of the centuries-old linkage between Christian piety and femininity,” he wrote. “As they progressed into university graduate and professional schools and entered the work force, their horizons broadened and they discovered ways of serving that were more valuable than doing dishes and running church picnics.”

He has a point.

Many of the reader comments take a direct aim at religion in general, and the usual distain and standard swipes (churches are hateful, hypocritical, selfish, prone to dupe the uneducated and greedy) are plentiful.

As militant atheism, now more respectable than ever because of a recent rash of ‘religion-is-evil’ books, grows, such hostility is expected.

One of the experts believes that the collapse is bottoming-out, and the rapid decline in attendance is lessening.

I don’t agree.

In fact, I believe that the collapse in church attendance will only intensify.

For one thing, experts have been trotting out the argument that the decline is ending since the early 1990s.

Secondly, many congregations are holding on, only because of a cohort of faithful members in the ‘builder generation’. They will (and are) dying. The pastor at my church has buried nearly 30 people in the last four years. The baby boom generation is not replacing them – nor is my generation.

As an undergraduate student, the residence complex was barren when I left for church. Indeed, I saw no one else most Sunday mornings. That hardly bodes well for the thesis that church attendance is stabilizing.

I would love for the church to be revived. But I fear things are only going to get much worse.

Source: Michael Valpy, “Churches come tumbling down” The Globe and Mail. 22 Dec. 2007. Accessed 22 Dec. 2007. Available: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071222.wcoessay1222/BNStory/specialComment/home/?pageRequested=3

Windows Live Local Update

Windows live local recently updated its coverage and now includes Brussels and Grand Rapids!!! Calgary (not bird’s eye view, but still super aerial coverage) has 18 lds chapels..including two immediately beside the University of Calgary. Interesting!

Van Til on Work

Work is not merely a necessity in order than man may eat and live, a kind of necessary evil to which all are subjected by an impersonal fate, but it is the joyful calling of man, the cultural creature, whereby he expresses his understanding of reality as prophet, whereby he gives himself in living service to fulfill the end of his creation as priest, and whereby he exercises power and dominion in the name of the great Taskmaster, whose he is and whom he serves. Work, then, is not a result of sin and a hindrance to man’s joy, but it is the substance of his service to God, which is man’s chief joy. And the modern phenomenon of the mass-man turning away from work except as cruel necessity and wearisome drudgery is the result of the secularizing spirit, which denies God’s claim to man’s love and service and sets up man as the end-all and be-all of the universe.

Henry Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001 (1959), p. 221.