A Catechism for Girls and Boys

Part I: Questions about God, Man, and Sin

29. Q. What do we inherit from Adam as a result of this original sin?
      A. A sinful nature.

(Click through to read scriptural proofs.)

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Round the Sphere Again: Church History

The Fathers
Michael Haykin on why you might want to the church fathers, starting, perhaps with Augustine’s Confessions.

Isaac Watts
A few things we can learn from The Reformer You Know By Heart But Not By Name (Mike Cosper at The Gospel Coalition Blog).

• Worship leading is pastoral.
• Contextualization is about comprehension. 
• Worship should be concerned with truth and beauty—but beauty is a servant of truth. 
• Worship should be both wide and deep.

Read the whole post to see these points spelled out.

Called According to Paul: Romans 11:28-29

This is another repost of an old post in the Called According to Paul series. I’m reposting them all, one per week (sort of), so I can link to them in the sidebar under Favorite Posts. An explanation of this series can be found here, and the already reposted pieces are here.

 Here are the verses from Romans 11:

In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. (28-29 NET)

What I’m not going to do is explain exactly what these verses mean. I think we can glean at least a couple of things about the way Paul uses the word “call” without explaining exactly what it is Paul is teaching about the Jews here.

• The call is associated with God’s choice (election). This is a common theme in regards to calling throughout Paul’s writings, so it’s not the first time we’ve seen it.
  
  
• The call is irrevocable. There is certainty or surety in the call.

Is there more? What more can you see about the way Paul uses the word call from these verses?