Selected Reading

I read these this week and recommend them to you.

Bible

Five Ways to Feel Scripture
From Jared C. Wilson, five tips to help you increase your biblical literacy and gain a “greater feel for the brilliance and power of the Bible.”

Salvation

So Great a Salvation
An outstanding diagram and explanation of God’s work in our salvation.

Sanctification: “I’m justified, so why sanctified?”
Why should we care about sanctification? If every believer is completely justified before God, why does our sanctification matter?

Christian History

Women of the Reformation: Marie Dentiére
The story of the only woman whose name is on the Reformation Wall.

Sunday's Hymn: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

—George Matheson

 Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• Jesus, Priceless Treasure at The Happy Wonderer
• The Mark of Covenant Grace at Tried With Fire
• I Didn’t Do Anything at The Outspoken Tulip 

Selected Reading

I read these recently and recommend them to you.

Biography

Ten Baptists Everyone Should Know: William Carey
Although he probably wouldn’t be comfortable with you reading about his accomplishments.

Women of the Reformation: Argula von Grumbach
“They called Argula a wretched and pathetic daughter of Eve, a female desperado, an arrogant devil, and a shameless whore. They wanted the ‘silly bag’ tamed and punished. Her husband lost his administrative post in Dietfurt as punishment for not properly controlling his wife.” Luther, on the other hand, called her “a singular instrument of Christ.” 

Women of the Reformation: Jane Grey
Because I can’t stop at just one. Jane’s story is one of amazing faithfulness in the face of martyrdom, especially considering she was only sixteen or seventeen when she died.

Church History

Why the Reformation Still Matters
“Five hundred years later, the Roman Catholic Church has still not been reformed. For all the warm ecumenical language used by so many Protestants and Roman Catholics, Rome still repudiates justification by faith alone.” What’s more, “[o]utside Roman Catholicism, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is routinely shied away from as insignificant, wrongheaded, or perplexing.” So “[n]ow is not a time to be shy about justification or the supreme authority of the Scriptures that proclaim it. Justification by faith alone is no relic of the history books; it remains today as the only message of ultimate liberation, the message with the deepest power to make humans unfurl and flourish.”