December 2012

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December 22: WSC Q. 104

22 December, 2012 in December 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

Praying for Present Provisions —

When this writer spoke about historical Presbyterians going on Sabbatical in the month of December with a resultant scarcity of  their history, we meant what we said.  Nowhere is that statement clearer than for us having to follow up one catechism study with another one, because of nothing being found of any historical significance in Presbyterianism on December 22.

The fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer is expounded for us in Shorter Catechism answer number 104.  It says, “In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread, we pray, that of God’s free gift, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.”

The first three petitions were all upward in scope. We prayed, according to our Lord’s example, for God’s Name to be hallowed, His kingdom to arrive, and God’s will to be done on earth as the angels do that divine will in  heaven. The focus was all on God — His Name, His kingdom, and His will. With the last three petitions, we see the horizontal scope of prayer as they deal with the saints.  The fourth petition deals with our body and the next two deal with our soul.

When we pray this fourth petition, we give an acknowledge first that everything belongs to God.  James understood this when he wrote in James 1:17 that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is not variation or shifting shadow.” (NASB)  What he defined as God-given was also acknowledged by the Psalmist David in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.” (NASB)  So God is the owner of all things in this earth and world.

As such, each of us saints, including unbelievers, need to depend upon God for that which is sufficient for our daily needs.  This writer used to proclaim to his middle-class members that they had a perfect aim given to them in God’s Word.  It is Proverbs 30:8,9, which states, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.”  We could paraphrase and say, “make me a middle class citizen, Lord.”  We depend upon God for needs, this day, daily.  As the Larger Catechism states, we wait upon God’s providence through lawful means, such as work, in supplying our daily needs.

Upon all of God’s competent portions, we seek to enjoy His blessing with them.  “Bless this food,” we pray before our meals.  We then partake, to enjoy His blessing of them.

Words to live by:  All of these blessings are God’s free gift to us.  We don’t deserve them.  We are not to trust in them.  That would be substituting the things of this earth for the Person of the God who bestowed them upon us. That is idolatry, and ought to be forsaken by the believer.  Let us live instead in the light that all that we need comes to us through God’s providence, and bless Him alone for giving them to us to enjoy.

Through the Scriptures:  1 John 1, 2

Through the Standards:  Proof texts of the state of man after death

Genesis 3:19
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (ESV)

Job 19:26
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin  has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” (ESV)

2 Corinthians 5:6 – 9
“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”  (ESV)

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December 21: WSC Q. 103

21 December, 2012 in December 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

A Priority Response of God’s People —

With no conservative Presbyterian dates found on December 21, we turn to the treatment by the Confessional Fathers on the doing of God’s will.  It is found in Shorter Catechism answer 103, which says, “In the third petition, which is, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” we pray, that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.”

There are two statements in this petition of that which is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. First, there is a statement of faith. God, being the Sovereign God of all things, does  His will at all times. The fact that it was acknowledged by a pagan king, namely Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:35, after that earthly sovereign was thoroughly humbled, makes the truth all the more powerful.  He said, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to  Him ‘What have You done?”  We who are of the faith, of saving faith, of the Christian faith, says “Amen” to that declaration so long ago.

Second, there is a statement of life.  It is one thing to say that we believe it.  It is quite another to state that we live our lives in the light of this.  But this petition, when earnestly prayed, states our desire that God by His grace, and we could add, as the Larger Catechism does, “by His Spirit,” would enable us to know, obey, and submit to God’s will in all things, just like the angelic beings do in heaven.

First, it is important to “know” the will of God. We generally “know” the will of God because it is revealed to us in Scripture.  This is the revealed will of God, or called His preceptive will.  All His commands, whether we speak of the Ten commandments, or the commands found in all of Scripture, is able to be known by us.  We “know” them when we read the Scriptures daily,  or hear the Word preached to us by those called of God.  Sometimes we “know” the will of God due to God’s providence  of the affairs of life.   Solomon in Proverbs 16:9 stated, “The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.”

But we are to go further than merely knowing God’s will.  We are to “obey” God’s will in all things.  We are to do God’s will actively in what He commands.  Whether it be the moral law, as is found in Exodus 20:1 – 17, or that of loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbors as ourself, as is found in Matthew 22:36 – 40, or any of the other commands revealed as God’s will in His word, this is the revealed will of God  for us.

Part and parcel of this is submitting to God’s will patiently in what He allows in our life.  This is the secret will of God.  It may be disappointments in our plans, sorrows over the sickness or death of loved ones, or sufferings in this life for unexplained reasons not revealed to us.  Submission to God’s sovereign allowance of these events in our lives falls into doing the will of God.

The standard of knowing, obeying, and submitting is the activity of the angelic beings.  The Larger Catechism explains this as “humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy.”” (WLC 192)

Words to Live By: The next time you utter this petition of the Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” remember that you are asking God the Father, by His grace, to make you able and willing to know, obey, and submit to His will in all things. That last phrase “in all things” may be the challenge to us. We must be able to say like our Savior said in the garden, “not my will, but Your will be done.”  Try it this day, the next few days, the next week, month, etc., and you will find God’s will to be best for you.

Through the Scriptures:  2 Timothy 1 – 4

Through the Standards: Destiny of the righteous and wicked

WCF 32:3
“The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonor; the bodies of the just, by His Spirit, unto honor; and be made conformable to His own glorious body.”

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December 20: Rev. David Rice

20 December, 2012 in December 2012 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

The  Apostle of Kentucky —

There were several pseudonyms given David Rice. The apostle of Kentucky was one. Or the pioneer minister of the Presbyterian Church of Kentucky was another.  Perhaps the best title was that of “Father” Rice. The Rev. David Rice was all these titles to the state of Kentucky, and especially to the Scots-Irish saints of Kentucky.

Born December 20 in 1733 in Hanover County, Virginia, he was one of twelve children of a farmer in that county. Reared Episcopalian originally, he early associated with the Presbyterian cause.  Educated at the College of New Jersey at Princeton, New Jersey, he afterwards was trained in theology under one of the assistants of Samuel Davies, a man by the name of John Todd. Ordained by Hanover Presbytery in December of 1763, he became the pastor of Hanover Presbyterian Church. When the period of the Revolution came in the colonies, he took a decided stand in favor of the Revolution, serving as a chaplain to the Hanover militia. He was married by this time, having  married Mary Blair, the daughter of Samuel Blair, of Faggs Manor. Together, they would rear twelve children.

The Hanover Virginia congregation, where Samuel Davies had been the pastor before his move to the College of New Jersey, was weakened in number due to many of the Scot-Irish Presbyterians moving west for better opportunities. In fact, it was a number of those immigrants who invited David Rice to move to Kentucky in 1783. He was the first Presbyterian pastor to move into the state.

His ministry here included both church and state. As far as the church part, he would eventually pastor four Presbyterian congregations in the state. During this important pastoral work, he founded the first presbytery, the first synod, and the first seminary, called Transylvania Seminary, which is now a university. It was also here that he became convicted over the slavery issue, and sought to have it abolished by both the church and the state.  His organ for doing so was the Kentucky Abolition Society, for which David Rice was a life-time member.  He felt that Christians should lead the way for a gradual abolition of the slave trade as a result of their religion and conscience. Though he worked hard to this end, he was never able to accomplish it.

As far as the state was concerned, he was a member of the Constitutional convention of Kentucky to write the state constitution. He took up his call for abolition of slavery there as well, but was rebuffed again by the other citizens in the convention. Despite this failure, he stayed true to his convictions on the evils of slavery and was forever urging its demise.

They described him as tall and slender, quiet in his movements, with a remarkable degree of alertness even in his seventies. “Father Rice” is buried in the cemetery of the Presbyterian Church of Danville, Kentucky.

Words to live by:  David Rice was one of those Christian men who took his stand for righteousness even as he faithfully ministered the Word of God to the masses in Virginia and Kentucky.  He was used of the Lord in both church and state.  What a challenge to be at the starting points of so many works of the Lord.  God has especially called some of His church to engage in similar ministries.  In whatever Presbyterian denomination you are in, pray for the missions agencies, as well as individual church planters, who start with a few and then by God’s Spirit, build up a congregation for His glory.

Photos of the grave site of the Rev. David Rice can be viewed here.

Through the Scriptures:  Titus 1 – 3

Through the Standards:  General resurrection of the dead

WCF 32:2
“At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed: and all the dead shall be raised up, with the self-same bodies, and none other (although with different qualities), which shall be united again to their souls for ever.”

WLC 87 — “What are we to believe concerning the resurrection?
A.  We are to believe that at the last day there shall be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust: when they that are then found alive shall in a moment be changed; and the self-same bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls for every, shall be raised up by the power of Christ.  The bodies of the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by virtue of his resurrection as their head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible, and made like his glorious body; and the bodies of the wicked shall be raised up in dishonor to him, as an offended judge.”

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December 19: Rev. Henry A. Boardman

19 December, 2012 in December 2012 by archivist | No comments

A Political Message in a Presbyterian Church —

It was evidently a message which the well-known Presbyterian pastor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had to deliver, given the times.  To wait for some better time would be wrong, he must have thought.  So the Rev. Dr. Henry  A. Broadman on two successive weekdays delivered the same sermon entitled “The American Union: A Discourse” to two different audiences. The first occasion was on Thursday, December 12, 1850 on the day of Annual Thanksgiving in the state. The second was on Thursday December 19, 1850 in the sanctuary of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Here are some quotations from the message:

“No man who believes that there is a Providence can take even a brief retrospect of our history, like that which has now engaged our attention, without discovering in numerable evidences of his benignant agency.  He who does not see a Divine hand directing and controlling the whole course of our affairs, from the landing of the colonists at Jamestown and Plymouth until the present would hardly have seen the pillar of cloud and of fire had he been with the Hebrews in the wilderness.

“The Union is not the work of man. It is the work of GOD. Among the achievements of his wisdom and beneficence in conducting the secular concern of the world, it must be ranked as one of his greatest and best works.  And he who would destroy it is  chargeable with the impiety of attempting to subvert a structure which is eminently adapted to illustrate the perfections of the Deity, and to bless the whole family of man.” (p. 30)

Dr. Boardman then goes on to speak of one issue which was actually at work in the 1850’s which, in his estimation, would destroy the American Union. The identification of this is put in all capital letters, and it is, SLAVERY.  The rest of the long address is on this issue, and the divisiveness which it is causing to the American Union.  Readers can find it on the world-wide web and read it in its entirety.

This patriotic message in a Presbyterian Church (which is now aligned with the Presbyterian Church in America) was proclaimed by the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian, not on Sunday, either the Sabbath morning or Sabbath evening, but on a Thursday at a special service.  And because he saw it as an important message, he had it printed into a booklet for the masses to read, especially the Christian people of the land.  It was one attempt to heal the union of the land rather than see it splintered into two nations, as was the case eleven years later in 1861.

Words to live by: There is a place, as our Confession speaks in W.C.F. 31:4 of  speaking to our citizens “by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary, or by way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate.”  This writer does not know if the discourse was a humble petition or a requirement by the civil magistrate, but it was delivered by this Presbyterian clergyman to his congregation and others in that eastern city of Pennsylvania. Certainly God’s Word does bear on the affairs of our nation.  We must speak to it in extraordinary times. Who can deny that the potential schism caused by the Civil War was an extraordinary time.  Christian reader: pray for our nation today, for our president and all his advisers, for the cabinet, the members of Congress, and especially our military forces all over the world, including those in harm’s way.

Through the Scriptures:  1 Timothy 4 – 6

Through the Standards:  Intermediate state, according to the catechisms

WLC 86 — “What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?
A.  The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness, and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies, which even in death continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds, till at the last day they be again united to their souls.  Whereas the souls of the wicked are at their death cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, and their bodies kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.”

WSC 37 — “What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A.  The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.”

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December 18: Woodrow Wilson

18 December, 2012 in December 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

The Most Profoundly Christian Politician of the Twentieth Century —

How would you react if you discovered that an ancestor of yours had been James Stewart the First, the king of Scotland? That is what Woodrow Wilson found out in growing up in the home of Joseph Ruggles Wilson in the late nineteenth century.  And the famous ancestors did not stop there. On his mother’s side, she had descended from Pocahontas of Jamestown fame.  What a family ancestry!

His father was a Presbyterian minister who moved to Staunton, Virginia to take a church there. That was where Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, the third of four children. Even though Ohio had been their first place of ministry, a Southward trip to Augusta, Georgia, where Woodrow Wilson would spend much of his growing up years,  landed them square in the Confederacy in thought, fervor, and commitment.  They owned slaves and defended their action on that social issue. For a while, the father was a chaplain in the Confederate army. After the War Between the States, he became a founder of the Southern Presbyterians Church, U.S., becoming its stated clerk and eventual moderator in 1879.

Meanwhile, young Woodrow was being trained privately by his father, attending Presbyterian schools, and eventually Princeton University, from which he graduated. In 1885, he married Ellen Axson, from which marriage three daughters were born.  Serving initially as a lawyer in the south, Woodrow eventually became the president of Princeton University between 1902 – 1910.  From the university to the governorship of New Jersey, the rise in politics was rapid. Campaigning on the Democratic ticket, Woodrow Wilson would serve for two terms, the latter of which was enveloped by World War I.

It was during the first term that his wife Ellen died. He became one of three presidents who were widowed while in the White House. Soon afterwards, he was married a second time, to Edith Galt on December 18, 1915.

You can read in any history book the accomplishments of his presidency. We are interested in the fact that not only did he have an upbringing in  Presbyterian convictions, he remained deeply religious all of his presidency and for that matter, his life. The Bible was the guide of his life, as he read and studied it daily. God’s guidance was frequently sought and received. He considered the United States a Christian nation.  His Calvinistic convictions we’re particularly needed when he suffered a paralysis during the latter part of his presidency.  His wife Edith became the de facto president as she guided him in his duties as the chief executive. Three years after he left the office, he died.  His wife survived him, living all the way into the presidency of John Kennedy.

Words to live by:  Too many believers separate their spiritual beliefs from their lives. Woodrow Wilson was different from that common practice. With a solid Calvinistic upbringing, he lived his faith and walked by faith. To him, everything he did was colored by the Christian conviction gleaned from the Word of God which he read and studied every day.  You and I are to be no different in this one aspect of his life.  Read the Word, and then, live the Word. No sphere of life is to be divorced from the application of the Bible.

Through the Scriptures:  1 Timothy 1 – 3

Through the Standards:  The immediate state between death and resurrection

WFC 32:1
“The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption: but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them: the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest  heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory, waiting for  the full redemption of their bodies. And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torment and  utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Beside these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledges none.”

 

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