I Love Hymns

In C. S. Lewis' story The Last Battle, many of the talking beasts in Narnia were deceived by a donkey wearing a lion's skin, who was giving orders and claiming to be the lion Aslan. When orders were given which seemed out of character for the real Aslan, doubts arose, but one line was repeated which kept the animals from entertaining serious doubts against the imposter: “He's not a tame lion, you know.” One line of truth used to conceal other truths, like Satan quoting Scripture to Jesus in His wilderness temptation. Feist is almost right when she says, the truth lies.



God help the church to not be so easily deceived when the world echos the serpents words, “Did God really say...”. It is one of my goals as a parent to have my children know the truth so well, even at their young ages, that they would be able to recognize a false gospel and other doctrinal errors. That is one of the reasons I love my children learning hymns. So many important doctrines are communicated in the hymns I love. And when I hear my little ones singing, “God and sinners reconciled...” from Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, I hope that their minds are being fortified against error through the truths they are enmeshed in.



Even if not everyone loves the tunes which the great hymns are set to, no one should miss the doctrine contain in them. We learn about God's sovereignty in Praise to the Lord, the Almighty: “Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wonderously reigneth.” We see our own frailty in Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing: “Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” We see the power of the gospel in O For A Thousand Tongues: “He breaks the power of canceled sin...His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.” We learn about Christ's three-fold office in Praise Him! Praise Him!: “Prophet and priest and king!” The trinity is articulated in Holy God We Praise Thy Name, which says, “Though in essence only one, undivided God...”. God's immutability is seen in Great is Thy Faithfulness: “Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not...”. We admit our likeness to Adam, and Christ's role as the second Adam in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: “Adam's likeness now efface, Stamp Thine image in its place: Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love.” God's Word is called, “..the golden casket where gems of truth are stored...the chart and compass...[which] guides, O Christ, to Thee.” in O Word of God Incarnate. We see what our affections ought to be in Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart: “...make me love thee as I ought to love...I see the cross, there teach my soul to cling...teach me the patience of unanswered prayer...”. We are reminded of God's purpose for trials in How Firm a Foundation: “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie...The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”

I know I will wince tomorrow about the hymns I forgot to include which deserve to be mentioned. I'm sure I've mentioned enough to get my point across. But I have to include this funny depiction of the difference between chorus and hymns:

A Funny Little Story About Hymns and Praise Songs
By Author Unknown
An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.
“Well,” said the farmer. “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.”
“Praise choruses?” asked the wife. “What are those?”
“Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer.
“Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife.
The farmer said, “Well it’s like this … If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you, ‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, in the CORN, CORN, CORN, COOOOORRRRRNNNNN,’ then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well that would be a praise chorus.”
As luck would have it, the exact same Sunday a young, new Christian from the city church attended the small town church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.
“Well,” said the young man, “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs.”
“Hymns?” asked the wife. “What are those?”
“They’re okay. They’re sort of like regular songs, only different,” said the young man.
“Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife.
The young man said, “Well it’s like this … If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a regular song. If on the other hand, I were to say to you,
Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth.
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
To the righteous, glorious truth.
For the way of the animals who can explain
There in their heads is no shadow of sense,
Hearkenest they in God’s sun or his rain
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.
Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight,
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed.
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night
They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn chewed.
So look to that bright shining day by and by,
Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn
Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn,
then, if I were to do only verses one, three and four, and change keys on the last verse, well that would be a hymn.”

History and Sovereignty

Even children know a good history book when they read it. My favorite history books are those which show connections between influential people, people who had formerly existed in separate spheres in my mind, or make connections between the mundane events in history and the pivotal ones, showing that history is not just a series of unrelated names and dates.




While recently studying Michelangelo, my boys and I learned that he was raised in the home of the famous Medici family. One of the children he was raised with later became Pope Leo X, the same pope who used the sale of indulgences to help pay for the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo worked as an architect on St. Peter's. The sale of these indulgences is what led Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses, which is considered by many historians as the start of the Protestant Reformation. Luther was later excommunicated by this same Pope Leo X of the Medici family.

While studying the history of England, I read about King Charles II of England's attempt to ban the newly introduced coffee and coffeehouses, issuing A Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffeehouses. In coffeehouses, he reasoned, defamation against his government was spread, so coffeehouses should be banned. When it looked as if people would revolt and overthrow the monarchy (as they had during his father's reign, King Charles I, who was eventually beheaded), he withdrew the ban. This King Charles II is the same one who kept John Bunyan imprisoned for preaching without a license. Prior to this, as a youth, John Bunyan was stuck in a moat and was helped out by a stranger, who later he found out to be Oliver Cromwell. This is the same Cromwell who was in charge of the army which overthrew the monarchy of King Charles I. It's amazing how intertwined events and people are.

In our own small sphere, we don't always see the lives which are affected by our words and our actions. But that doesn't make it any less real. The one who plants and the one who waters isn't necessarily there to see the growth of the fruit (I Corinthians 3:6-7). But that doesn't make the fruit any less real. 1 Peter 3:16 explains that a watching world will be put to shame by the good conduct of believers, and as my pastor has reminded us often while preaching through I Peter, our conduct matters. Yet though we know that our conduct matters, we also know that God is sovereignly orchestrating all of history for His glory.

Philippians 1:29 tells us that God has granted that His people should suffer, and He has granted us faith. We should acknowledge His sovereign control over all our suffering. We should acknowledge Him as the giver of faith. That God has ultimate and immediate control of the best that can happen and the worst that happens speaks to everything in between. God is in control of all of history. That's why Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”




In Chosen By God, R.C. Sproul makes the point that when the soveriegnty of God is taught, people sometimes consider that the same as teaching Calvinism. But in actuality, teaching that God is sovereign is simply to teach theism. A god who is not in control is not God.

We don't always like to think that the events which cause our pains and our joys are under the control of a sovereign God. We would rather, at times, have the outcome be determined by our feeble power and foresight, because we think that we really do know what is best. But praise God that those things which He has purposed in Himself are accomplished, and that our obtaining His inheritance does not depend on our work, but on His.

Law and Gospel

To understand the difference between the law and the gospel in Scripture, it is necessary for us to distinguish between commands and promises, between indicatives and imperatives. Regarding this distinction Martin Luther said, “This difference between the Law and the Gospel is the height of knowledge in Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory in the name of Christian should know and be able to state this difference. ” There are some who teach that there is never any antithesis between law and gospel in the Bible. And while it is true that the law and the gospel do not oppose each other in God's purposes, the two have different uses. Paul shows that they are in conflict when one uses the law to do what only the gospel can do, seeking to be justified by the law. But the Scriptures speak of a righteousness apart from law keeping (Romans 3:21).




Recognizing the difference between law and gospel is important for several reasons. In order for the law to be a school master to bring us to Christ, it has to be understood in its full severity. Reading commands as if they are only advice keeps us from seeing our need for the One perfect law keeper, Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 1:8 says that the law is good when it is used lawfully. When the law is taught as law, souls are convicted and made new.

On the other hand, to read gospel passages as if they're obligations for us to fulfill is to turn good news into bad news. To read the indicatives of Scripture, such as “...the just shall live by faith...,” as if they are instead imperatives, (let us live faithfully), is to mishandle the Word of God. Sometimes the gospel is presented as a set of new laws, laws which are easier to keep that the Old Testament regulations. But a softer set of rules cannot provide relief from our sin nature inherited from Adam.




I am privileged to sit under preaching where this distinction is carefully observed. The sweetness of the gospel is set before me often, and the imperatives of Scripture are proclaimed, yet the two are not blurred. Preaching should not just be a 45 minute list of “oughts.” God's Word is to be handled with respect to its original purpose. Theodore Beza has rightly said, “Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.”

A hymn by Isaac Watts

The law commands, and makes us know
What duties to our God we owe;
But 'tis the gospel must reveal
Where lies our strength to do his will.
The law discovers guilt and sin,
And shews how vile our hearts have been;
Only the gospel can express
Forgiving love and cleansing grace.
What curses doth the law denounce
Against the man that fails but once!
But in the gospel Christ appears
Pardoning the guilt of numerous years.
My soul, no more attempt to draw
Thy life and comfort from the law,
Fly to the hope the gospel gives;
The man that trusts the promise lives.

Giving Up Things

In the last days, some will depart from the faith to follow false teaching. Paul tells us it is so in I Timothy 4. And what will be the content of the deception intended to lead people astray? What are those teachings which he calls the doctrine of devils? They will speak lies. They will forbid marriage. And they will command people to abstain from certain foods. Not what immediately comes to mind when we think of the doctrine of devils, right?

The Christian religion is not one of asceticism. Sometimes we confuse difficult with God-honoring. But pleasure is not a bad thing in the Scriptures. This seems an important concept to remember during this season when many are participating in lent. In Rome, penitent Catholics are still climbing on their knees up the stairs called Scala Santa, especially popular during lent. In our country, chocolate and coffee are popularly given up for lent, and not because it's thought to be sin, but because to some, we just have to give up something...



If we seek to please God by our denial of personal pleasure, we misunderstand what it is that God is pleased with. Paul prays that the Christians in Colosse would be fully pleasing to the Lord, which he describes as being fruitful in good works and increasing in knowledge of God. If anyone thinks the Bible is against pleasure, consider how the goodness of wine is described in Psalm 104:15, that it makes the heart glad. Food is given to be received with thanksgiving (I Timothy 4:4). And then there's Song of Solomon.



Self-denial for the needs of others is a good thing (Philippians 2:3). But self-denial for it's own sake has no value against the indulgence of the flesh (Colossians 2:23). Colossians 2:20-23 calls the regulations to not touch, taste, and handle the commandments of men. These teachings are self-imposed; it is false humility.

There is a time for mourning. There is a purpose to fasting. And so we all know we should be thoughtful about the things we indulge in. But let us also be careful about the things we forbid.

Defining The Word "Mystery"

“This Is a Great Mystery...” Ephesians 5:32

What comes to mind when the word “mystery” is used? We might think of that which is unknowable, something that is beyond us, that which we do not have the ability to comprehend, or even that which is contradictory. We see this explanation in the writings of some theologians. But when we look at the Bible's use of the word “mystery,” we see something different: The word “mystery” in the Bible means a truth that is or was a secret, later to be revealed.

John Murray explains the Biblical usage of this word in Redemption Accomplished and Applied. He writes, “We are liable to use the word [mystery] to designate something that is completely unintelligible and of which we cannot have any understanding. That is not the sense of Scripture.” Murray goes on to say that a mystery is something which was hidden in the mind of God, but that it did not continue to be hidden: God has made it known.



This is how the word mystery is used in Colossians 1:26. The mystery of the Gentiles is said to have been hidden, but now has been revealed. Romans 16:25 speaks of a mystery which was hidden in times past, but has now been revealed. Mystery is not opposed to comprehension, it stands in contrast to that which is made known. God has disclosed Himself in words, and man is to receive them.

There is difference between saying that a given truth is not known, and saying that it cannot be known. There is a temptation to think, if I don't understand a concept, then it is not understandable. But that is an unwarranted leap. To some, it may may seem that it is a display of humility or piety to declare that the truth of God is unknowable. That God reveals to man knowledge about Himself that is comprehensible is rejected by Herman Bavinck. He expresses this opinion when he says, “...the idea that the believer would be able to understand and comprehend intellectually the revealed mysteries is...unscriptural. On the contrary, the truth which God has revealed concerning himself in nature and in Scripture far surpasses human conception and comprehension.”




Yet Jesus tells His disciples, to them it has been given, to know mysteries (Luke 8:10).

And what good news that is, that God's Word is given that we can comprehend it. We should hold on to those truths which God has made known. Because knowing Him is eternal life.


"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Preparing Children for Worship

With forethought and anticipation, we can prepare ourselves for corporate worship Sunday morning. And as parents, we can help prepare our children for the worship of God. This is a great privilege.

Having conversations with our children on the way to church which anticipate which hymns we'll sing and what we might learn does much to turn our mindset from our distractions.

I am thankful to attend a church that not only allows children to join in the corporate Sunday morning worship, but welcomes them. There are churches which actually stop people at the door who want to bring a young child in to that corporate gathering which Scripture commands us to not neglect (Hebrews 10:25).

More Than Just Sitting Quietly

Having our children in the service with the adults, we have had to teach them to sit quietly. But sitting quietly is not the end goal. We want them to be able to participate, and to know that what we do as a corporate body is not just for them when they are older, it is for them fully now, especially if they believe the same Word of truth.



Knowing the songs we sing and and the creed we recite helps them be a participant in the corporate worship. I just started teaching my two and a half year old the Nicene Creed, which our church recites together as a body every Sunday. I didn't choose to teach her the Nicene Creed because it is the single most valuable thing she can have memorized at her age, but because I think enabling her to participate Sunday morning is important.

Besides participation with the corporate body, one added benefit of teaching hymns and creeds at home to your children is, the truths they are learning leads to discussions such as, What is meant by the phrase His Word can't be broken, in Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken? Or what does it mean to say that Christ is the second Adam from above, in Hark the Herald Angels Sing? Elect from every nation, we learn in The Church's One Foundation.

Even little ones can be engaged during the sermon by keeping track of words and concepts they recognize. When my older children were three and four years old, we used a peg board with words written on it. They move the peg around and place it next to the familiar word they have heard.



Later we moved to tally marks.



At five and six years old, they started drawing a visual narration from the sermon.





After church, I would have them tell me what the sermon was about, and I would write their narration down.



All of these things could be a distraction for some children instead of a help. The important thing is that our children know that we come to church to worship Him. And children are included.

Tortured For Christ

Read Tortured For Christ, and you will know how you can help the underground church, the church which believes the same gospel you do, but lives in countries where it is against the law to talk of such things. I know, it's overwhelming, because there are so many needs and so many people. Go here to see which countries have laws against believing Christianity to be true or teaching Christianity to others:

http://www.persecution.com/public/restrictednations.aspx?clickfrom=bWFpbl9tZW51

"The underground church is like a surgeon who travels by train. The train collided with another train, and hundreds of people lay on the ground, mangled, injured, dying. The surgeon walked among the dying, crying out: 'If only I had my tools! If only I had my tools!' With these surgical instruments he could have saved many lives. He had the willingness, but he did not have the tools. This is where the underground church stands. It is so willing to give all. It is so willing to give its martyrs! It is so willing to risk years in prisons! But all of its willingness is of no value if it does not have the tools with which to work. The plea of the faithful, courageous, underground church to you who are free is: 'Give us the tools- the Gospels, the Bibles, the literature, the help- and we will do the rest.'"

Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured For Christ

When Richard Wurmbrand received Bibles in Romania from American and British Christians, he met two men who had walked from a nearby village to shovel snow all winter to buy a Bible. Wurmbrand gave them a Bible and refused their money, and they took it back to their village and dividing the Bible into thirty sections. Those thirty people received their piece of the Bible with joy!

Voice of the Martyrs send Bibles into restricted nations through the donations of people who love Christians they have never met. Voice of the Martyrs also financially supports the families left behind when a Christian is arrested or killed. Oftentimes, it is made a crime to help the family of a Christian martyr. When Wurmbrand and his wife were arrested, a woman risked her life by taking their son into her house. She was sentenced to eight years in prison. All of her teeth were kicked out. Her bones were broken. She was crippled for life, never able to work again.

"The underground church works under very difficult conditions. Atheism is the state religion in all the Communist countries. They give relative freedom for the elderly to believe, but children and youth must not believe. Everything in these countries and other kinds of captive nations- radio, television, cinema, theater, press, and publishing houses- has the aim of stamping out belief in Jesus Christ. The underground church has very little means of opposing the huge forces of the totalitarian state. The underground ministers in Russia had no theological training. There are Chinese pastors today who have never read the entire Bible."

Tortured For Christ was written in 1967. Today, it is estimated that 171,000 Christians are martyrs every year. The examples of what Christians have been willing to suffer for their faith, then and now, is so far beyond what what most of us will ever experience. Yet our prosperity can be meaningful in so many ways if we so choose. Our prosperity can travel throughout the world for His sake.