Heidlberg Catechism

Question 26. What do you believe when you say, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”?

Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them, (a) and who likewise upholds and governs the m by his eternal counsel and providence,(b) is, for the sake of Christ his Son, my God and my Father. (c) I rely so entirely on him that I have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body (d) and further, that he will make whatever adversity he sends me in this valley of tears turn out for my good, (e) for he is able to do it as Almighty God, (f) and willing to do it as a faithful Father. (g)

(Click through to see scriptural proofs.)

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Sunday's Hymn: Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

Saviour, like a Shepherd lead us,
Much we need thy tend’rest care;
In thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use thy folds prepare:
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, thine we are.

We are thine; do thou befriend us,
Be the Guardian of our way;
Keep thy flock, from sin defend us,
Seek us when we go astray:
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Hear the children when they pray.

Thou hast promised to receive us,
Poor and sinful though we be;
Thou hast mercy to relieve us,
Grace to cleanse, and pow’r to free:
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Let us early turn to thee.

Early let us seek thy favor;
Early let us do thy will;
Blessed Lord and only Saviour,
With thy love our bosoms fill
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still.

— Dorothy A. Thrupp

Fernando Ortega

Bethany University Choir

Piano by Rick Betts

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

• Be Thou My Vision at Graces Daily
• ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus at The Happy Wonderer
• Be Still, My Soul at Luma Simms
• Beyond Sects at Tried With Fire
• Lord’s Day 9, 2014 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Lifting Up Our Hearts - 18 at The Upward Call
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: It’s alive!
• The Treasury of David: Psalm 16:5 at Theology for Girls

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.

Linked Together: God's Attributes

An Introduction
This afternoon I listened to the first lecture in Steve Lawson’s teaching series on the attributes of God. I recommend it. (Ligonier Ministries is offering the first lecture free, but the others must be purchased.)

Impassibility
If God has love, compassion, and wrath, how can we say he is “without passions”? It’s because

[p]assion as passion is an undergoing, a “happening to,” so to speak. Emotional experience brings to its subject a new state of actuality that was not previously present. For example, the one who falls in love is said to experience love as a passion because a new affective state of love comes to exist in the subject where previously it did not. Some movement and alteration has taken place in the human lover. 

“Passion” then, tells us about “the manner in which affections come upon creatures.” God, however, 

does not undergo intrinsic change, yet he is truly loving, compassionate, angry at sin, and so forth. The perfection indicated by each of these terms is real in God. But this reality did not come into his possession by way of passion, that is, by way of unfolding emotive experiences to which he submits himself. 

Read the whole piece, which is a sample of an article by Dr. James E. Dolezal in Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies. It’s one of the clearest explanations of impassibility that I’ve read.

Transcendence and Immanence
Justin Taylor uses a chart to illustrate the biblical definitions of these attributes.