Selected Reading

I didn’t have a lot of time for online reading this week, so I have only a couple of links to recommend, which is just as well, I guess, because you probably don’t have a lot of time for reading either. 

Christmas Christology 

Do We Need to Believe in Christ’s Virgin Birth? 
Yes, at least if we want to call what we believe “Christianity.” This article from Jared Wilson explains why.

The Incarnation: The Athanasian Creed
“The historic Christian doctrine of the incarnation can be expressed in a few simple phrases that the Western church codified in the Athanasian Creed.”

Sunday's Hymn: All Praise to Thee, Eternal Lord

All praise to thee, Eternal Lord,
Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;
Choosing a manger for thy throne,
While worlds on worlds are thine alone.

Once did the skies before thee bow;
A Virgin’s arms contain thee now:
Angels who did in thee rejoice
Now listen for thine infant voice.

A little Child, thou art our Guest,
That weary ones in thee may rest;
Forlorn and lowly is thy birth,
That we may rise to heav’n from earth.

Thou comest in the darksome night
To make us children of the light,
To make us, in the realms divine,
Like thine own angels round thee shine.

All this for us thy love hath done;
By this to thee our love is won:
For this we tune our cheerful lays,
And shout our thanks in ceaseless praise.

—Martin Luther

 Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord at The Happy Wonderer
• Fear not at Tried With Fire
• Life Gets Uncomfortable and Joyless at The Outspoken Tulip 
• Lord’s Day 50 at The Thirsty Theologian

Selected Reading

A bit of recommended reading.

The Trinity

Is the Trinity Biblical?
It depends on what you mean when you say “biblical.”

The Ninth

The Ten Commandments: The Ninth
Persis Lorenti: “At face value, the 9th commandment could be read as merely a prohibition against committing perjury or lying under oath. However, this commandment encompasses so much more.”

The Ninth Commandment
Yes, two excellent but quite different pieces on this one commandment. “When we orient ourselves around the finished work of Christ, we are compelled to bear true witness about God: ‘Look how wonderful and satisfying He is.’ And when we find Christ supremely valuable and fulfilling, the desire to cut our neighbor down disappears” —Jared Wilson.

The North

What are the northern lights?
It seems there’s still a lot we don’t know about the aurora. 

From Anti-Church Planting to Church Planters
The story of a church plant in my town that a few of my friends and family are part of. 

A Comma

How Strunk Lost His Comma
There’s nothing more exciting than a good punctuation story.