Thankful Thursday

It’s been another busy week, with many visits from children, grandchildren and granddogs. I am thankful for everyone of them, even the noisy breathing bull dog. They help make my life full and happy. I’m thankful for play and laughter and conversations.

I’m thankful for an enthusiastic new helper in the library at church. This is a direct answer to prayer, not mine so much as  that of a faithful friend, who often reminded me that she was praying for someone to volunteer to help catalog the books, a job that often overwhelms me. 

I’m thankful for my family’s help, too. God has blessed me with talented children and children-in-law who are willing to take on some of the jobs I need done. 

I’m thankful that God can be trusted and he is in control, and that a couple of worrisome situations are in his hands.

I am thankful for my health. Every healthy day of my life is a good gift from God. 

I’m thankful that God spoke so we can know him.

What are you thankful for?

Linked Together: People You Should Know

I’ve loved biographies since about 3rd grade when I discovered they were the perfect stories for a “just the facts” girl. But there are better reasons than this to read Christian biographies.

Eight Reasons
“Whether it is the lives of the Puritans, leaders of the Reformation, or faithful believers who lived nearer to our own day, the story of another Christian’s life often lifts our eyes from our own ministries and circumstances to see something bigger” — Paul Tautges.

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Here are a few recently posted Christian biographical sketches. You know, biographies for short attention spans.

Andrew Fuller
“Though largely unknown to contemporary evangelicals, Fuller was a Particular Baptist pastor and one of the leading theologians during the final decades of the so-called Long Eighteenth Century (1689–1815). He was a tireless promoter of missions at home and abroad, and widely published polemical theologian, defending the biblical gospel against two key errors in his day: High Calvinism and Sandemanianism.” — Nathan Finn.

Charles Hodge
“[Charles Hodge] grew up in a home where the [Westminster] Catechism was loved and enjoyed. He was pastored by one who schooled him in the catechism. And he had the kind of piety that modeled what we would think of as the First Great Awakening.” — Andrew Hoffecker.

A Martyr in India
I suppose this isn’t really a biographical sketch, but it is a Christian from the past that you should know: “In the 1880’s a Welsh missionary who had endured severe persecution finally saw his first converts in a particularly brutal village in the Indian province of Assam. A husband and wife, with their two children, professed faith in Christ and were baptized.” — Jesse Johnson.

Theological Term of the Week

internal testimony of the Holy Spirit
A work of the Spirit that overcomes the noetic effects of sin and produces the belief that the Scriptures are the word of God;1 also called testimonium spiritus sancti internum (Latin).

• From scripture:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27 ESV)

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

The Testimony of the Holy Spirit is simply the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner, by which he removes the blindness of sin, so that the erstwhile blind man, who had no eyes for the sublime character of the Word of God, now clearly sees and appreciates the marks of its divine nature, and receives immediate certainty respecting the divine origins of Scripture. Just as one who has an eye for the beauties of architecture, in gazing up into the dome of the St. Peter’s Church at Rome, at once recognizes it as the production of a great artist, so the believer in the study of Scripture discovers in it at once the earmarks of the divine. The redeemed soul beholds God as the author of Scripture and rests on its testimony with childlike faith, with a fides divina. It is exactly the characteristic mark of such faith that it rests on the testimony of God, while a fides humana merely rests on a human testimony of on rational arguments. Of course, rational arguments may be adduced for the divine origin of Scripture, but these are powerless to convince the unrenewed man. The Christian believes the Bible to be the very Word of God in the last analysis on the testimony which God Himself gives respecting this matter in His Word, and recognizes that Word as divine by means of the testimony of God in his heart. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is therefore, strictly speaking, not so much the final ground of faith, but rather the means of faith. The final ground of faith is Scripture only, or better still, the authority of God which is impressed upon the believer in the testimony of Scripture. The ground of faith is identical with its contents, and cannot be separated from it. But the testimony of the Holy Spirit is the moving cause of faith. We believe Scripture, not because of, but through the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

• From Canon Revisited by Michael Kruger:

The reason some refuse to believe the Scriptures is not that there is any defect or lack of evidence in the Scriptures … but that those without the Spirit do not accept the things from God (1 Cor. 2:10-14)

Jesus himself affirmed this reality when he declared, “My sheep [i.e., those with the Spirit] hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Likewise, he said of his sheep, “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). Put simply, canonical books are received by those who have the Holy Spirit in them. When people’s eyes are opened, they are struck by the divine qualities of Scripture—its beauty, harmony, efficacy—and recognize and embrace Scripture for what it is, the word of God. They realize that the voice of Scripture is the voice of the Shepherd.

Learn more:

1. Sam Storms: The Theology of John Calvin (see section B2,  Calvin on the Testimonium Internum Spiritus Sancti)

Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• canon of scripture

Filed under Scripture

1From Canon Revisited by Michael J. Kruger

Do you have a term you would like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.