Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

Sunday
Jun292008

Sunday's Hymn

We sang only a couple of hymns out of the hymnal this morning and one of them was an obscure Mennonite hymnal only song that I can’t find online, so I’m stuck repeating a hymn I posted only a month ago. This time I’ll post the words as we sang them this morning rather than how they appeared in the Olney Hymnal.

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

—-John Newton

If you’d like, you hear my church choir singing Amazing Grace when we sang it last month. You’ll be downloading the mp3 if you click that link. (The choir sang this hymn in this arrangement at my husband’s memorial service, too.)

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

Have you posted a hymn today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.
Friday
Jun272008

Quiz: Scripture

It’s been close to a year since we’ve had a theology quiz, so I’ve decided to make another one—one on the historic Protestant doctrine of scripture. Just to make things easier for you, everything you need to know to answer these questions correctly can be found somewhere in the Theological Term of the Week posts. I’ll give the answers some time next week.

1. The books I find in my Bible are authoritative because

  • a. God is their ultimate source.
  • b. they are included in the canon of scripture.
  • c. Christians down through the ages have considered them authoritative.
  • d. a and b above.
  • e. all of the above.

2. That scripture is sufficient means that

  • a. scripture reveals everything I need to know in order to be obedient to God.
  • b. scripture reveals everything I need to know in order to be saved.
  • c. scripture reveals everything I need to know.
  • d. a and b above. 
  • e. all of the above.

3. The ordinary reader of scripture who seeks God’s help will

  • a. find every bit of it is very easy to understand.
  • b. need to have what is read interpreted by the church in order to understand it correctly.
  • c. be able to understand what God requires of him.
  • d. a and b above.
  • e. all of the above.

4. Because God is the ultimate source of all scripture,

  • a. scripture is a unified whole.
  • b. clear passages can be used to help interpret more obscure passages.
  • c. one passage of scripture should not be interpreted in a way that contradicts the rest of scripture.
  • d. a and b above.
  • e. all of the above.

5. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 can be used to support the following doctrine(s):

  • a. the inspiration of scripture.
  • b. the authority of scripture.
  • c. the sufficiency of scripture.
  • d. a and b above.
  • e. all of the above.
Thursday
Jun262008

Gas Up: June 26

June%2013%20gas%20sign

Same old, same old for me. The price of gas at the nearest gas station stayed exactly the same for yet another week.

Since I don’t drive a lot, it isn’t gas prices that bother me. I’m more concerned with the price of fuel oil come winter.

I finally got an appointment for a quote on a new furnace. (Everyone and his cousin is looking to install a new furnace this summer, so appointments for quotes are hard to come by.) Hopefully, by the time winter rolls around I’ll be set up with a furnace that uses less fuel oil, because I really, really need one. The furnace I have now is very big,  very old, and very inefficient. And very noisy to boot.  Oh, and the humidifier leaks water all over the basement floor.

I can’t use wood for heating anymore, either. I am, it seems, allergic to pine, and all the wood for burning around here is pine. A few years ago I started getting a very itchy rash on my scalp and neck (and my arms when I wore short sleeves) during the season when nasty yellow pine pollen is dusting everything. This year when the real Christmas tree was indoors I started getting a rash, too. Then, when it got cold and we used the wood stove to supplement the oil furnace, I got rash whenever I touched the logs. As long as someone else did all the log handling, I was fine; but next year I won’t  have anyone to bring in the wood and feed the fire for me. So you see, I really do need a new furnace, don’t I?

Can you guess what happened with the price of gas where Dorothy lives?

What about the prices where you get your gas? Up, down, or the same? And as long as we’re on the subject of furnaces, are you worried about heating costs next year, too?