Sunday, October 9, 2011 at 11:27AM 
Meet little Natalie Grace, born October 1, my first grandchild. She gave us all a scare at first and had to be medevacked to Edmonton with breathing problems. But she’s home now and doing fine.
Are you wondering why I haven’t written about her before this? Here’s the deal: I had a nasty reaction to amoxicillin. I’ve been sick in bed since last Monday. I’m improving, but I see a few more sick days ahead of me.
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 4:11PM Sing praise to God who reigns above, the God of all creation,
The God of power, the God of love, the God of our salvation.
With healing balm my soul is filled and every faithless murmur stilled:
To God all praise and glory.What God’s almighty power hath made His gracious mercy keepeth,
By morning glow or evening shade His watchful eye ne’er sleepeth;
Within the kingdom of His might, Lo! all is just and all is right:
To God all praise and glory.The Lord is never far away, but through all grief distressing,
An ever present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing.
As with a mother’s tender hand, God gently leads the chosen band:
To God all praise and glory.Thus, all my toilsome way along, I sing aloud Thy praises,
That earth may hear the grateful song my voice unwearied raises.
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, both soul and body bear your part:
To God all praise and glory.Let all who name Christ’s holy name give God all praise and glory;
Let all who own His power proclaim aloud the wondrous story!
Cast each false idol from its throne, for Christ is Lord, and Christ alone:
To God all praise and glory.
Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:
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.
Friday, September 30, 2011 at 9:52AM 
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted on a reading from John Stott’s The Cross of Christ as part of Reading Classics Together at Challies.com. This week’s reading was Chapter 7, The Salvation of Sinners.
In this chapter, Stott examines four images of atonement: propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation. I’d heard the word metaphor used in regards to the different ways of viewing the atonement, but I’d not heard anyone use the term images. I like it, because these are all different ways of seeing one multi-faceted act, and describing them as images is a perfect way to express this.
I was also pleased to see that Stott relies on (and recommends) Leon Morris’s work when explaining what the four images of atonement tell us. Morris’s work is still one the best resources we have on the atonement and I’d like to see it read more.
Instead of giving a summary of the whole chapter, I’m going to focus on a few things this chapter teaches us about justification. Stott chooses four of the phrases Paul used in regards to justification and tells us what we can learn from them.
Self-justification is a sheer impossibility (Rom 3:20). Therefore, “it is God who justifies” (Rom 8:33); only he can. And he does it “freely (Rom 3:24, dōrean, “as a free gift, gratis”), not because of any works of ours, but because of his own grace.
When God justifies sinners he is not declaring bad people to be good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken law, because he himself in his Son has borne the penalty of their law-breaking.
For unless all human works, merits, cooperation and contributions are ruthlessly excluded, and Christ’s sin-bearing death is seen in it’s solitary glory as the only ground of our justification boasting cannot be excluded.
There you are, just a short summary of a section of what Stott teaches us about justification in this long and meaty chapter. Next up is chapter 8, The Revelation of God.