This Week in Housekeeping

Some recently updated theological terms.

common grace

• Added a link to Tim’s Challies recent post explaining common grace. 

eternal generation of the Son

• Added a link to Keith Johnson’s Is the Eternal Generation of the Son a Biblical Idea?
• Added a link to Jung S. Rhee’s The History of the Doctrine of the Eternal Generation of the Son and Its Significance in Trinitarianism

canon

• Added links to the Michael Kruger Kistemaker Lectures that I recommended in this post last Monday.

The Hidden Life of Prayer, Chapter 4

The fourth chapter of The Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre, contains instructions and encouragement for worshipping God in our prayer. McIntyre divides our “tributes of praise” into three categories:

• Acknowledgement of daily mercies, the “benefits which recur with so much regularity that they seem to us ‘common’ and ‘ordinary,’ which penetrate with golden threads the homespun vesture of our daily life.” These are things we barely notice, and yet, they are wonderful gifts from our good God and ought to be counted and remembered and included in our praise. “For the beauty of nature, the fellowship of the good, the tender love of home; for safe conduct in temptation, strength to overcome, deliverance from evil; for the generosity, the patience, the sympathy of God; and for ten thousand thousand unobserved or unremembered mercies, let us unweariedly blee His Holy Name.” We also should thank God for the difficult things that come into our lives because ” all things—even the trials—work together for our good.
• Thanksgiving for redemption, our acceptance by God in Christ. “The blood of Christ, the grace of the Spirit, the light of the Divine countenance, are ‘three jewels worth more than heaven’.”
• Contemplation of the divine perfection—adoring God for who he is. “[I]t is probable that to each sincere believer there are granted seasons of communion when, as one turns to the unseen glory, the veil of sense become translucent, and one seems to behole withing the Holiest the very Face and Froms of Him who died for our sins.”

With this chapter, I began to see why some consider this little book a classic. These divisions of worship in prayer are quite practical. I plan to use these three categories of “tributes of praise.” as reminders to give me direction when I pray.

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for God’s aseity. It’s because God is self-existent that he can be the source of every created thing, including me. So my very life, and every blessing I have, exists only because God “has life in himself.” And because God is ase, I am confident that he will be able to keep his promises, since he is not dependent on anything outside himself to fulfill his word. I am grateful for the self-existence of God and all the good things that flow from it.

Do you remember that I promised another post on the vocation of grandmotherhood? I’ve been so busy being a grandmother that I’ve had no time to write it. My youngest granddaughter has been miserable, so she and her mother have been spending lots of time at my house so I can help with some of the walking and rocking she needs. I spent some time today looking after my oldest granddaughter, too, who has learned to crawl and cruise and bite with her new teeth. I am so thankful both babies live nearby so I can be with them and help care for them. I’m thankful that I have time and energy for this!

I’m thanking God for the summer season, too. I’m thankful for long days and midnight sun. I’m thankful for this afternoon’s thundershower. They don’t happen often here, and I love them.

I’m thankful for a full produce section in the supermarket. I’m thankful for the truckers that bring our groceries and the highway they drive on.

I’m thankful for Jesus, who came to this world to dies for his enemies.