I was ready to send you one of mine, but Irene beat me to it. This little volume is my constant companion. The comfort that it has brought in places like hospital rooms, even living rooms where the husk of a dead saint who on a hospice gurney lies, the living equipped to sing the 103rd, citing the catechism, even reading the psaltery as poetry, the ministry cannot be quantified. There really is no better example of the commitment to historic Christianity and personal piety our tradition once maintained than the little book you crave. The Lord will use this little book to revive you and your's, may he revive the heirs and publishing houses who forsook it too.
Thank you for your kind words, I'm encouraged to find like-mindedness around what my mother (Verna De Boer, Nee: Kortenhoeven) used to say was; "the only thing we take to heaven with us". Materially of course, she was being humorous, but theologically, the Psalms are part of God's inspired and eternal truth, which shall endure to all generations. Mom would follow up her commentary about the "heavenly hymn book" by saying that; "If we're going to sing them in eternity, we might as well get good at it now". God graciously gave us His prescriptions for worship, and a divine corpus of musicology which addresses all of the human experience, the physical, the emotional, and the eternal.
With regard to your desire for a personal accompaniment recording, I know not of one exactly like you describe, however, there is something close. URCPsalmody is a youtube channel put together by a talented, young worship musician, in partnership with a younger minister in the United Reformed Churches (URCNA). They don't yet have the whole Psalter in their archive, but it is nonetheless a delightful resource for both personal devotion, and vocational worship planning.
One excellent guideline to inform our worship according to the regulative principle, is to skip ahead two catechism questions, to number ninety-eight, still in Ursinus' treatment of the Second Commandment under Lord's day 35.
Q. But may not images be permitted in the churches as teaching aids for the unlearned?
A. No, we shouldn't try to be wiser than God. He wants His people instructed by the living preaching of His Word--not by idols that cannot even talk.
The regulative principle of worship gets only passing notice in our seminary, where in both the homiletics, and worship planning curricula, the inclusion of "video clips" are eagerly encouraged. Our people come to church for as little as an hour and a half a week, perhaps the only waking moments that they are not influenced by a screen. So, in addition to obedience, and to confessional adherence, the Lord's ways provide a practical respite from the enculturation by mass media now prevalent among the saints.
When I teach this Lord's Day lesson, I remark about God's prescriptions for the first organized worship described in Exodus chapters 19 and 20, and then, remind that it was only a short time later, that God's people craved a tangible image.
Curing idolatry in the churches is a painful process, sometimes you have to drink pulverized gold from the brook.
I was speaking in a general way like Jeremiah did in chapter 2:13, but am indeed very grateful for a remnant whose worship is regulated by Scripture. We sang the 24th, 118th, 8th and 29th in the morning (Third Commandment sermon), and the 98th, 110th, 72nd & Phil. 2:11 (Mk 12:35-37 sermon) in the evening this past Lord's Day. We are actively planting ordinary means of grace, Psalm singing churches because once you show it to people in the Word and in practice they willingly throw off the inventions of broad evangelicalism. I am sincerely convinced that in a generation the Church may be able to undo the damage of the last generation who made everything youth group.
Though the Three Forms of Unity do not devote much ink to Christian liberty and conscience, the Westminster Assembly did. There are many places in the Scriptures to inform your decision and undergird both a Biblical and constitutional case against compulsory injections.
Westminster Confession of Faith XX.2
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to his Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience: is to betray true liberty of conscience and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.
Confer;
Romans 14:23b
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Additionally;
James 4:12
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Acts 4:19
But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Psalm 146 (as set in both the 1912 Psalter and the 1959 Psalter Hymnal)
Breathtaking, that the author would invoke I Timothy chapter five while at the same time calling for a celebration of the CRCNA's quarter-century of disregard for the indicative and imperative elder qualifications, and prohibitions which are detailed in I Timothy chapters two and three. A few days ago I replied to this thread with one of those very passages. I did so using the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, the most accurate Greek translation of the New Testament available today. The moderator deleted the plain presentation of Holy Writ. Someone actually undertook the mechanics of deleting God's Word from the online discussion.
The essay appeals to "felt" experience while retelling family anecdotes of "proudly" approving the visible church's parallel with secular feminism "which all began in 1970". The response to loving, pastoral rebuke in the comment thread, appeals not to Scripture, but to a council of men whose narrow majority plunged the denomination into decline, and now even apostasy, in some quarters.
Nonetheless, elders in this denomination continue to patiently do the work that they are called to do, in accordance with the instructions from Jesus in Moses, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. That work, the work of making disciples of Jesus, requires great humility, because we too are sinners, yet we must patiently and lovingly do the work, the work of calling those who claim a confession of faith in Christ, to turn from the rebellion and usurpation of authority which is the defining characteristic of all sin.
Where are we 25 years after ordaining women as pastors?
Rev. Zylstra, Here is the twice repeated injunction answering your question about heterosexual monogamy in Scripture. Genesis 2:24 & Ephesians 5:31; Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
Rev. Zylstra, It should be noted that the author you have cited for hermeneutical credibility is in fact open and affirming himself. In the book you invoke, on page 252, James Brownson writes; "Can we imagine a world in which the divine pronouncement at the beginning of creation, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18), might find a range of deeply satisfying resolutions, from heterosexual marriage, to celibate communities, to gay and lesbian committed unions?" As an author and hermeneutician, his body of work exhibits biases of the "broadened hermeneutic" which has led so many in the CRC into the egalitarian fog. The fog which now blinds as we near the homosexual cliff.
Yes! As Paul regulated the worship in the churches his injunction to Ephesus (Eph. 5:19) was that their melody making to the Lord consist of Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Jesus authored the Psalms, sang them with a human tongue, as a boy in synagogue, as a pilgrim ascending the Jerusalem plateau, after the institution of the sacrament He sang from the Hallel, and He sings with the great congregation (Heb. 2:12) this very day.
We in Sumas, Washington include at least one, usually more psalter settings each Lord's Day. From Bourgeois in 1551, to 2014 and RC Sproul's rendition of Psalm 91 called "The Secret Place".
My mother, a gifted, lifelong church vocalists has long said; "The only thing we take to heaven with us is the psalter!"
I urge you pastors and worship leaders to put the heavenly hymn and prayer book on the lips of your people.
Glory be to God.
A great psalmody reference is a Youtube site maintained by some of our United Reformed brothers, it is a terrific resource for personal devotion, and, worship planning.
If we think justice is misunderstood or rare, what of faith?
"And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" Luke 18:7-8
The most important thing that the Church can do is broadly sew the gospel, trusting that God will effectually call His elect in it's hearing, granting them faith. A spiritual commitment of the heart is the only place from which right behavior ensues. The classic text in Micah 6 is oft quoted without the terseness of it's contextual response to the preceeding rhetoric, showing how justice has long been confused. Spiritual blindness has always been the cause.
If the Lord tarries with His coming justice, what is that to us? He will not delay longer than is perfect, in the meantime we must circumcise our own hearts, cry out to Him, and plead with other sinners to meet Christ in His mercy now availed, so that they may be justified in Him and may be spared when meeting His swift justice.
Posted in: Vaccination Status of Church Volunteers?
The fear expressed in this thread, coupled to blind faith in man's efforts and decrees is breathtaking.
Posted in: Pocket Sized CRC Psalter Hymnal?
John,
I was ready to send you one of mine, but Irene beat me to it. This little volume is my constant companion. The comfort that it has brought in places like hospital rooms, even living rooms where the husk of a dead saint who on a hospice gurney lies, the living equipped to sing the 103rd, citing the catechism, even reading the psaltery as poetry, the ministry cannot be quantified. There really is no better example of the commitment to historic Christianity and personal piety our tradition once maintained than the little book you crave. The Lord will use this little book to revive you and your's, may he revive the heirs and publishing houses who forsook it too.
Posted in: Pocket Sized CRC Psalter Hymnal?
John,
Thank you for your kind words, I'm encouraged to find like-mindedness around what my mother (Verna De Boer, Nee: Kortenhoeven) used to say was; "the only thing we take to heaven with us". Materially of course, she was being humorous, but theologically, the Psalms are part of God's inspired and eternal truth, which shall endure to all generations. Mom would follow up her commentary about the "heavenly hymn book" by saying that; "If we're going to sing them in eternity, we might as well get good at it now". God graciously gave us His prescriptions for worship, and a divine corpus of musicology which addresses all of the human experience, the physical, the emotional, and the eternal.
With regard to your desire for a personal accompaniment recording, I know not of one exactly like you describe, however, there is something close. URCPsalmody is a youtube channel put together by a talented, young worship musician, in partnership with a younger minister in the United Reformed Churches (URCNA). They don't yet have the whole Psalter in their archive, but it is nonetheless a delightful resource for both personal devotion, and vocational worship planning.
https://www.youtube.com/user/urcpsalmody?reload=9
Posted in: How Does the 'Regulative Principle' Inform Worship?
One excellent guideline to inform our worship according to the regulative principle, is to skip ahead two catechism questions, to number ninety-eight, still in Ursinus' treatment of the Second Commandment under Lord's day 35.
Q. But may not images be permitted in the churches as teaching aids for the unlearned?
A. No, we shouldn't try to be wiser than God. He wants His people instructed by the living preaching of His Word--not by idols that cannot even talk.
The regulative principle of worship gets only passing notice in our seminary, where in both the homiletics, and worship planning curricula, the inclusion of "video clips" are eagerly encouraged. Our people come to church for as little as an hour and a half a week, perhaps the only waking moments that they are not influenced by a screen. So, in addition to obedience, and to confessional adherence, the Lord's ways provide a practical respite from the enculturation by mass media now prevalent among the saints.
When I teach this Lord's Day lesson, I remark about God's prescriptions for the first organized worship described in Exodus chapters 19 and 20, and then, remind that it was only a short time later, that God's people craved a tangible image.
Curing idolatry in the churches is a painful process, sometimes you have to drink pulverized gold from the brook.
Posted in: Why Youth Don't Like New Worship Songs
YHWH wrote a whole song book and many more canonical hymns, but His covenant people abandoned them for their own inventions.
Posted in: Why Youth Don't Like New Worship Songs
I was speaking in a general way like Jeremiah did in chapter 2:13, but am indeed very grateful for a remnant whose worship is regulated by Scripture. We sang the 24th, 118th, 8th and 29th in the morning (Third Commandment sermon), and the 98th, 110th, 72nd & Phil. 2:11 (Mk 12:35-37 sermon) in the evening this past Lord's Day. We are actively planting ordinary means of grace, Psalm singing churches because once you show it to people in the Word and in practice they willingly throw off the inventions of broad evangelicalism. I am sincerely convinced that in a generation the Church may be able to undo the damage of the last generation who made everything youth group.
Posted in: CRCNA Stance on Religious Exemptions for Vaccination
Though the Three Forms of Unity do not devote much ink to Christian liberty and conscience, the Westminster Assembly did. There are many places in the Scriptures to inform your decision and undergird both a Biblical and constitutional case against compulsory injections.
Westminster Confession of Faith XX.2
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to his Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience: is to betray true liberty of conscience and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.
Confer;
Romans 14:23b
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Additionally;
James 4:12
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Acts 4:19
But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Psalm 146 (as set in both the 1912 Psalter and the 1959 Psalter Hymnal)
Put no confidence in princes,
Nor for help on man depend;
He shall die, to dust returning,
And his purposes shall end.
Posted in: Where We Are 25 Years After Ordaining Women as Pastors
Breathtaking, that the author would invoke I Timothy chapter five while at the same time calling for a celebration of the CRCNA's quarter-century of disregard for the indicative and imperative elder qualifications, and prohibitions which are detailed in I Timothy chapters two and three. A few days ago I replied to this thread with one of those very passages. I did so using the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, the most accurate Greek translation of the New Testament available today. The moderator deleted the plain presentation of Holy Writ. Someone actually undertook the mechanics of deleting God's Word from the online discussion.
The essay appeals to "felt" experience while retelling family anecdotes of "proudly" approving the visible church's parallel with secular feminism "which all began in 1970". The response to loving, pastoral rebuke in the comment thread, appeals not to Scripture, but to a council of men whose narrow majority plunged the denomination into decline, and now even apostasy, in some quarters.
Nonetheless, elders in this denomination continue to patiently do the work that they are called to do, in accordance with the instructions from Jesus in Moses, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. That work, the work of making disciples of Jesus, requires great humility, because we too are sinners, yet we must patiently and lovingly do the work, the work of calling those who claim a confession of faith in Christ, to turn from the rebellion and usurpation of authority which is the defining characteristic of all sin.
Where are we 25 years after ordaining women as pastors?
Isn't it obvious?
Posted in: Turning the CRC Into an Lgbtq+ Ally
Rev. Zylstra, Here is the twice repeated injunction answering your question about heterosexual monogamy in Scripture. Genesis 2:24 & Ephesians 5:31; Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
Posted in: Turning the CRC Into an Lgbtq+ Ally
Rev. Zylstra, It should be noted that the author you have cited for hermeneutical credibility is in fact open and affirming himself. In the book you invoke, on page 252, James Brownson writes; "Can we imagine a world in which the divine pronouncement at the beginning of creation, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18), might find a range of deeply satisfying resolutions, from heterosexual marriage, to celibate communities, to gay and lesbian committed unions?" As an author and hermeneutician, his body of work exhibits biases of the "broadened hermeneutic" which has led so many in the CRC into the egalitarian fog. The fog which now blinds as we near the homosexual cliff.
Posted in: Does Your Church Still Sing Psalms?
Yes! As Paul regulated the worship in the churches his injunction to Ephesus (Eph. 5:19) was that their melody making to the Lord consist of Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Jesus authored the Psalms, sang them with a human tongue, as a boy in synagogue, as a pilgrim ascending the Jerusalem plateau, after the institution of the sacrament He sang from the Hallel, and He sings with the great congregation (Heb. 2:12) this very day.
We in Sumas, Washington include at least one, usually more psalter settings each Lord's Day. From Bourgeois in 1551, to 2014 and RC Sproul's rendition of Psalm 91 called "The Secret Place".
My mother, a gifted, lifelong church vocalists has long said; "The only thing we take to heaven with us is the psalter!"
I urge you pastors and worship leaders to put the heavenly hymn and prayer book on the lips of your people.
Glory be to God.
A great psalmody reference is a Youtube site maintained by some of our United Reformed brothers, it is a terrific resource for personal devotion, and, worship planning.
https://www.youtube.com/user/urcpsalmody/playlists
Posted in: How Do You Define "Justice"?
If we think justice is misunderstood or rare, what of faith?
"And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" Luke 18:7-8
The most important thing that the Church can do is broadly sew the gospel, trusting that God will effectually call His elect in it's hearing, granting them faith. A spiritual commitment of the heart is the only place from which right behavior ensues. The classic text in Micah 6 is oft quoted without the terseness of it's contextual response to the preceeding rhetoric, showing how justice has long been confused. Spiritual blindness has always been the cause.
If the Lord tarries with His coming justice, what is that to us? He will not delay longer than is perfect, in the meantime we must circumcise our own hearts, cry out to Him, and plead with other sinners to meet Christ in His mercy now availed, so that they may be justified in Him and may be spared when meeting His swift justice.