April 2015

When pastors approach the Bible as if every text in Scripture is simply another opportunity to preach the Gospel, it makes sense for the Bible's detailed history to be relegated to the sidelines. This sort of preaching promoted as "redemptive-historical" or "Christ-centered" provides the perfect justification for the timorous to skip out the back, Jack, and preach John 3:16 every Lords' Day of the year. Then what does it matter if Adam and Eve were the first man and woman or merely the mythological father and mother of an early tribe of hominids? If the sermon text is Scripture's "narrative" of Adam and Eve, Creation, and the Fall, those stories are only there to show...

Here is an audio page from Clearnote Fellowship's work called Clearnote Songbook. Start now with the hymns Lead On, O King Eternal, In the Fulness of Time and Rejoice the Lord Is King, then continue Ah, Holy Jesus, Wash Me in the Blood; Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, and Immortal, Invisible. Here are original settings of Psalm 1 and the Ten Commandments. (We regularly sing the Ten Commandments in corporate worship as Calvin did in Geneva.) Here are two Children's songs, I Am the Way and Little Lamb. Then a couple pieces from our choir, Star in the East and I Want Jesus To Walk with Me.

Finally, if you listen to nothing else, you must not miss His Final Word. My spirit is lifted to Heaven each time we sing this in worship.

The Songbook currently has over a hundred Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for use in worship—some for choir, some for children, but most for the congregation. There are a number of original contemporary hymns and Psalms, as well as traditional hymns with settings written for instruments in addition to piano and organ. The Songbook also contains other worship resources including prayers, confessions, Powerpoint aids, lead sheets, etc.

Use the Songbook. You'll find it a great help in the continuing work of church reformation. And if there are things that would be helpful that our worship leaders and musicians haven't thought of, please e-mail them.

Reformed men today are fond of calumniating John Knox, particularly for his work, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. On the occasion of Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton's candidacy for the presidency being officially packaged and released by video, here is a short excerpt from Knox's work which does a good job explaining why Reformed pastors today ought not be silent concerning the violation of God's Order of Creation of women exercising authority over men...

This is the first sentence of an article just published by USA Today under the headline, "WNBA star Brittney Griner, fiancée arrested on assault allegations":

A verbal argument between Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner and her fiancée turned physical on Wednesday afternoon resulting in the arrests of both women on assault and disorderly conduct allegations, according to a police report.

I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.  - Psalms 77:11

This begins a new series of posts long overdue. Readers know Baylyblog is a non-profit work. Its authors are not under contract. We have received no advance on our writing and have no publisher riding rein on us to assure what we write will be popular and sell. Thus David and I have had a different sort of calling than other blogs. We have not had to labor under the burden of getting people to like us. Our congregations and families give us all the love a man could want, although readers know only too well that neither of us deserves the love we receive. Yet God has been pleased to give us these blessings and we thank Him.

So this blog is free to do unpopular work and this has been our commitment. We defend the doctrines that are under attack. We expose the errors that are popular. We warn against celebrity Christian leaders that all men speak well of. We sign our names to everything we write, and because of the freedom we have here, it's the things other men think or believe, but keep to themselves, that we specialize in. We're known for warning day and night with tears, so as I said, this series of posts is long overdue.

There are men and women who have taught and shown David and me true godliness—men and women who have been faithful in suffering and persecution, resisted their own greed, punctured their pride, sacrificed their career or position for the honor of God, called attention publicly to their failures, condemned notorious hypocrites, disciplined popular pastors and eminent scholars, emptied the bedpan of their mother living out her dying days in their living room, refused the blandishments of Evangelicalism, and so on. Most of these men and women are unknown outside their own homes and churches, and yet some of those David and I know we believe our readers would benefit from knowing, also. These are men and women worthy of praise, but our larger concern is to glorify God Who works in and through them.

Speaking of resisting the blandishments of Evangelicalism, let's begin this series with Kent and Barbara Hughes...