Comfort food

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That we with body and soul, both in life and death, are not our own, but belong to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all our sins, and delivered us from all the power of the devil; and so preserves us that without the will of our heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from our heads; indeed, that all things must be subservient to our salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures us of eternal life, and makes us sincerely willing and ready, from now on, to live to him.

[The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 1, de-individualised]

Better than chocolate. Should be turned into a congregational song, I think!

Meet the family

A triad well-worth meeting, introduced by Andy Shudall:

QUADTYCH: ...pared and set free!

POOR TRAIT: 'Year in, year out. This is my home. This is my heart.'

PRODIGAL: Discover how prodigal this prodigal is.

[Thanks, Andy.]

Theology Matters

I have no idea what the book's like, but the video's good!

[HT: Chris]

Have you heard the good news?

One of the best posts I've read in a while, from Dave Bish: Have you heard the good news?

With lyrics from Galatians, set to a melody by Luther, arranged by Reeves, kicked off with an intro by Pascal: but all of Christ, and I'm grateful to Dave for treating us to it. Make it yours.

Christians find themselves not in possession of a get out of jail free card, but caught up into the relationships of the members of the Triune God. In the Son, with the Spirit of the Son in their hearts, considered by the Father to be his son. And this is no legal fiction but the realisation of the perfect and eternal purpose of the Father’s grace in his Son by the Spirit. His design is that the Christian might know him, just as his beloved Son does - joined to Christ, found in Christ - and in the gospel this is accomplished - we die with him, we rise in him. Everything in him. Is it good to be a Christian? Yes.

A Christian is someone in Christ. Good men would wish that this were true, and it is.

Read the whole thing: please.

Beneath the cross? No fear!

I love radio, and particularly at the moment BBC Radio 3, 4 and 2, depending on the mood and in that order. Earlier today BBC Radio 3 was playing various lamentations, judged appropriate for the Saturday of Easter. I switched over. I just can't keep myself mournful on the Saturday of Easter. I do find some aspects of the church calendar tradition very helpful to our corporate memory. And it is not that I don't consider it right to grieve over the ongoing presence, corruption and effect of sin and the curse: but death, hell and sin are now subdued - all grace is now to Jesus given; and so I plead the atoning blood, and by his grace receive his heaven! How can I be gloomy when that is the reality of the universe, and applied to me by the Spirit of God?

Of course, you may say that Christ's death was indeed a sorry affair, at that we await Easter Sunday. But we don't! We cannot view Christ's death without the resurrection - the cross is empty; it is finished! It is no longer gloomy, beneath the cross.

Rather this, which I discovered and sang on Friday, by Keith & Kristyn Getty (2005):

Beneath the cross of Jesus I find a place to stand,
And wonder at such mercy that calls me as I am,
For hands that should discard me hold wounds which tell me come.
Beneath the cross of Jesus my unworthy soul is won.

Beneath the cross of Jesus, His family is my own.
Once strangers chasing selfish dreams; Now, one through grace alone.
How could I now dishonour the ones that You have loved?
Beneath the cross of Jesus, see the children called by God.

Beneath the cross of Jesus, the path before the crown,
We follow in His footsteps where promised hope is found.
How great the joy before us to be His perfect bride.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, we will gladly live our lives.

[Music here - clip of mp3 streamed or sample the whole score with Sibelius Scorch (free) here.]

Timely new Driscoll title

I wish I'd spotted this earlier today - but a great new Driscoll book is out: Sweetheart. The review's worth reading.

'I'm sorry but it's not my fault.'

It's not really a real apology when you blame someone else, is it? The current Roman Pope has sent a 13 page letter to the Irish Roman church to say, 'Sorry: the Irish church leadership should clean up its act.' Hans Küng, a German priest of Rome and its frequent critic (his right to teach theology has been rescinded), suggests that Ratzinger himself is the one who needs to apologise for a top-down coverup. He also suggests that Rome's insistence that forbidding priests to marry has an unsurprising and strong connection to systematic sexual abuse of decades. The Bible says that forbidding marriage is the teaching of demons; the Reformers critiqued it (as there were known examples of immorality 'hushed up' in their time) and we're supposed to be totally surprised about child sex abuse now? Küng:

Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at last pronounce his own "mea culpa".

Read it here.

[HT: Carl Trueman]