Selected Reading, March 26, 2022

 

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Creatures

Why Should I Care About Animals?
My answer is “because they’re cute.” William Boekestein’s answer is just a bit more theological.

Horseback-riding goat a hit on B.C. farm
Arret and Bouge have an unusual friendship. At least check out the video.

Bible 

The Bible Is More Accurate in Texas (Well, Sort of …)
That title make you want to read, right? This is a clever introduction to the Y’allVersion, which “fixes” the places where the Greek and Hebrew use a second person plural, which we don’t have in standard English. (By the way, a You’uns version, a Yinze version, or a Youse version would fix the problem, too.)

Bible Study Is Hard Work (And That Is OK).
“[A]re you struggling in your reading of God’s Word? That’s OK. You’re supposed to. The Bible is deep, rich, and ancient. There are words in the Bible that are unfamiliar to modern ears. There are truths in the Bible that seem too good to be true. There are challenges in the Bible that we can’t live up to. There is conviction within the pages of the Bible as it reveals our sin.”

But it’s worth all the work, I promise.

Kids’ Lit

Stig of the Dump
Someone recommended this and it sounded like exactly like the sort of book my grandsons like, so I ordered it for them. I was right; they love it. Any 7-12 year old readers you know might like it too.

Here’s from the publisher’s blurb: “Barney isn’t supposed to go near the chalk pit. His grandmother and sister both told him the edge could give way and he could fall in—but what else is he supposed to do on a miserable gray day?
 
It’s not long before Barney falls into the pit and bumps his head. But where he lands is more than an old garbage dump: It’s a home. There’s a little hut built out of discarded junk, and more surprisingly, there’s a boy, about Barney’s age, inside. He speaks in grunts instead of English, wears a rabbit-skin loincloth, has shaggy black hair, and might be named something that sounds like ‘Stig.’”

I had never heard of this children’s novel, and I consider myself a bit of a classic children’s literature expert. I guess I’m only an expert in North American classic children’s lit.

(And Tony Robinson—the perfect narrator for it—reads this novel here and here.)

Theological Term of the Week: Assurance

assurance
The believer’s conviction that, by God’s grace, he belongs to Christ, has received full pardon for all sins, and will inherit eternal life.1

• From scripture: 

  ….since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:21-22 ESV)
  

  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!  (2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV)
  

  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…. (Romans 8:15-17 ESV)

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 18:

Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation

I. Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and estate of salvation (which hope of theirs shall perish): yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.

II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God, which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.

III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.

IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God’s withdrawing the light of his countenance, and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived; and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair.

• From Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke:

  Assurance reveals itself in close fellowship with God, childlike obedience, and an intense longing to glorify Christ in all things. Assured believers view heaven as their home and long for Christ’s returen and their translation to glory. (2 Tim. 4:6-8)

  …Assurance helps the believer persevere, first, by encouraging him to rest on God’s grace in Christ and His promises in the gospel; and second by presenting these as a powerful motive for Christian living. As the Puritan Thomas Goodwin says, assurance “makes a man work for God ten times more than before….[It] causes the heart to be more thankful, and more fruitfully and cheerfully obedient; it perfects love, opens and gives vent to a new stream of godly sorrow, adds new motives, enlarges and encourages the heart in prayer, winds up all graces to a new and higher key and strain, causing a spring tide of all.”

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: How can I have assurance of my salvation?
2. Simply Put: Assurance of Salvation
3. Kevin DeYoung: Assurance in the Reformed Confessions, Part 1 and Part 2
4. Tom Schreiner: Perseverance and Assurance: A Survey and a Proposal (pdf)
5. D. A. Carson: Reflections on Assurance (pdf)
6. Roger Nicole: The Privilege of Assurance

Related terms:

• justification
• perseverance of the saints
• sanctification
• saving faith

Filed under Salvation

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Sunday Hymn: Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last!

Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me!
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in thee I find:
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy Name;
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within:
Thou of life the Fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee;
Spring thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.

—Charles Wesley

Another hymn for this Sunday:

• There Is No Love Like the Love of Jesus at The Happy Wonderer