On Hiatus

Unlike the cat who thinks Josephus makes for a good pillow, I am actually putting the books to good use. Definitely swamped with all the fun* end-of-the-term stuff, so regular posting will return after 19 December.

*For those with defective sarcasm detectors: that was sarcasm.

Prayer for the Lord’s Day

A prayer for the Lord’s Day from the book of prayers, Valley of Vision:

O Lord, My Lord,

This is thy day,
the heavenly ordinance of rest,
the open door of worship,
the record of Jesus’ resurrection,
the seal of the sabbath to come,
the day when saints militant and triumphant unite in endless song.

I bless thee for the throne of grace,
that here free favour reigns;
that open access to it is through the blood of Jesus;
that the veil is torn aside and I can enter
the holiest
and find thee ready to hear;
waiting to be gracious,
inviting me to pour out my needs,
encouraging my desires,
promising to give more than I ask or think.
But while I bless thee, shame and confusion are mine:
I remember my past misuse of sacred things,
my irreverent worship,
my base ingratitude,
my cold, dull praise.
Sprinkle all my past sabbaths with the cleansing blood of Jesus,
and may this day witness deep improvement in me.
Give me in rich abundance the blessings the Lord’s Day was designed to impart;
May my heart be fast bound against worldly thoughts or cares;
Flood my mind with peace beyond understanding;
may my meditations be sweet,
my acts of worship life, liberty, joy,
my drink the streams that flow from thy throne,
my food the precious Word,
my defence the shield of faith,
and may my heart be more knit to Jesus.

Books, Books, and More Books

I’d completely forgotten how much fun reading is. For the first time in what feels like ages, I’m counting pages to the end of the book not to see how much longer it’ll take me to finish, but because I want to get to the end so that the murderer will be revealed! I’ve been reading lots and lots of Agatha Christie, and it’s fascinating to watch English culture change in the 20th C. Someday, I’ll read them in chronological order.

But in between mysteries and WoW and work, I’ve been doing my other reading as well. I’ve finished Michael Horton’s “Putting Amazing Back into Grace” (this morning) and started on A.A. Hodge’s “The Confession of Faith” tonight. The former was quite good. It was a more philosophical primer, I suppose I would call it, to Reformed Theology than Sproul’s “What is Reformed Theology?” It leads you through the logic of the Reformed thought process, bolstering things with Scripture as the book proceeds. I greatly appreciated Dr. Horton’s discussion of the atonement and his look at Romans 9.

Most challenging, however, was his chapter on the sacraments, particularly the first part on Baptism. There’s an issue that I thought I’d had settled in my mind… but now there’re lots of questions. I want to go back over it and write them down exactly and examine them further. I will, I’m quite certain, be adding “Believer’s Baptism” to my reading list…