Sunday's Hymn

Comfort, Comfort, Ye My People

Comfort, comfort ye My people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ’neath their sorrow’s load;
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.

For the herald’s voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance,
Since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way!
Let the valleys rise to meet Him,
And the hills bow down to greet Him.

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He will no more see nor heed.
She has suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away,
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever springing gladness.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain:
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign,
For the glory of the Lord
Now o’er the earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the token
That His Word is never broken.

—Jo­han­nes G. Olear­i­us

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Update: Let Us All With Grateful Praise at Tried With Fire
• Update: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent at threegirldad
• Update: O Love That Casts Out Fear at Conjubilant With Song
• Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne at Rosemary at Home
• Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face at Wordwise Hymns
• Comfort, Comfort, Ye My People at Field Stone Cottage
• See Amid the Winter’s Snow at Hiraeth
• Joy to the World at Theology for Girls
• Lord’s Day 51, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Heart Aflame - December 19, 2010 at The Upward Call
• Update: A Poem to Ponder at Daily On My Way to Heaven

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.

My Place 17

This photo was taken at 10:09 AM—just a couple of minutes after our official sunrise time—and at -33C.1 As you can see, we already have quite a bit of snow, too.

I’ve been whining for the last week that I’m ready for spring. I’m becoming a weather wimp, I guess. It’s December in the Yukon. What do I expect?

At least the sky is clear, so the 5½ hours of daylight will amount to something.

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1That’s -27F, for those of you who are metric impaired.

Round the Sphere Again: Controversial

Assurance
The first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism was, when it was written, a polemical statement (Carl Trueman), for 

At the pastoral heart of the Protestant Reformation lay the doctrine of assurance, the idea that every individual believer could know—indeed, should know—that God was gracious to them. This was critical because, as the Reformers rightly saw, it lay at the heart of the Christian life, a life which was to be marked not by works done in a servile manner in the hope of thereby earning God’s favour, but rather by works done out of gratitude to God for his grace, and in a spirit of confident freedom. Medieval Catholicism was built upon a different strategy, where doubt of God’s individual mercy was a means by which to keep believers on the straight and narrow, so to speak. When the Heidelberg Catechism kicks off with a statement about assurance, it was also kicking Catholicism in the theological shins.

Trueman says assurance is no longer the issue it once was “because the whole notion of assurance, and the lack thereof, has become nonsense for most Christians.” Read the whole piece to see why this is so.

Atonement
Martin Downes reposts a piece on the repugnancy of the atonement to the unregenerate mind (Against Heresies). Not everyone considers Christ dying in our place to be a beautiful thing!

Addressing
Rick Warren’s message at the Desiring God National Conference. (Phil Johnson with Christ Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron.)