Perhaps you've noticed that I have an interest in quality music that is quality in two ways; musically and lyrically.
Well, I believe that Tim Challies has pointed me to just such an artist in Matthew Smith. These words were modified from a hymn written by William Cowper (a contemporary of John Newton who wrote "Amazing Grace", if you don't know who Cowper is, check out the biographies John Piper has done) but Smith has written new music for it and it sounds great. You can stream his whole album for free (14 tracks) here. By the way, don't only listen to this one - there are a few other really good tracks there; I really appreciated "Goodnight".

The person of Christ; who He is, is a fundamental Christian doctrine. Proudly, evangelicals deny the Arian heresy that claims Jesus was merely a created man. Again, the stalwarts of orthodoxy refute, on the other extreme, Docetism which claims that Jesus only appeared to be flesh and was, in fact, pure Spirit. Walking the fine line of affirming the hypostatic union is something that has been handed down to us from the vast manual of history. It may seem surprising, then, to accuse evangelical thinking of practically denying this truth. To write an article that grabs readers though, one must do surprising things, and this is the accusation brought by this blog today.

What a fantastic reminder; today, a couple thousand years ago a Galilean carpenter/teacher proved to be more than just a rabbi or even a prophet but the very Saviour of mankind.

Regarding the question of Jesus' identity, Melito of Sardus (a second century bishop) wrote this:

One of the great things about studying theology is the variety of things that one gets to talk about and think about at college. A week ago, we had a talk on music in church. Of course the topic is enormous but the one thing that the speaker did that everyone really enjoyed was that he taught us a hymn. The hymn is called "There is a Hope" and the words are as follows;

A couple of days ago I was in a local bookshop where I picked up "The Surprising Work of God" by Jonathan Edwards really cheaply. Surprised at the price, the lady behind the till checked the publisher and then knowingly nodded; "Whitaker House," she said, and so I asked her why the publisher was relevant. She continued, explaining to me that Whitaker House worked hard to publish books cheaply (the cover threw her off because it looked too fancy to be a Whitaker House book), although they don't use much discretion in what they publish. So, in search of a good deal, I decided to visit the Whitaker House website which is where I discovered this interesting advert.

I've just discovered a new website - perhaps others are more familiar with it... I find that often my love for reformed theology is at a loss when it comes to music because there are very few artists who produce consistently good songs (both musically and lyrically). Sovereign Grace Music is one notable exception as I have enjoyed much of their music.

The great thing about going on holiday is that it takes one away from his/her regular activities. This gives him/her the opportunity to engage in such activities as extensive reading. I wish I could say that this is what I did, but I can't. However, in the past week I did finish reading John Piper's "The Legacy of Sovereign Joy", the first book in his series "The Swans are Not Silent" (available as a free pdf ebook download here [600kb - it's worth it!]). The subtitle is an accurate summary of the books content, "God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin".

Pastor Robert Elliott is described as follows:

"Pastor Elliott was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Though he was raised in a Christian family, it wasn’t until his mid-teens that he embraced the Lord Jesus as His Savior. Upon becoming aware of the call to preach, and being encouraged by his church to do so, Robert attended seminary at the Free Presbyterian Theological Hall in Northern Ireland. He married Janice, whom he had known for many years in the summer of 1985 and since then they have been blessed by God with three daughters.

It seems appropriate that the first content on this site should be a review of a book about the reformation. "The Reformation" was published in 2007 but as usual, it took its time getting to South African shores. I picked my copy up at CUM Books a few months ago (sorry) for only R20 so it was quite a bargain.