crosby

 

  

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recent apps

 

 I downloaded some great apps for my mobile phone recently which didn't cost me one single brown penny. 

1) Daily Light

Samuel Bagster's collection of themed verses. I find this especially helpful for fuelling my prayer times. The adverts at the bottom can be distracting though. If I thought the app provider (Tap Tap Studios) would do an edition free of any advertising then I would purchase it. The lay out of the app is nice.

2) The Believer's Hymnbook

This is a Plymouth Brethren production. I still have my wee blue hard copy from my time in the Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast over 30 years ago. This is a very devotional hymnbook, suited particularly for use around the Lord's Table. It contains a great hymn (#30) which we often sang and which I have never found in any other hymnbook:

Behold, behold the Lamb of God,
On the cross, on the cross!
He sheds for you his precious blood
On the cross, on the cross!
O hear his all important cry,
"Eli, lama sabachthani;"
Draw near and see your Savior die
On the cross, on the cross!

I think it was very ingenious of the author getting the very Aramaic words of the Saviour into the metre.  I see from here that there are several more verses to the hymn than appear in the BH.

I had downloaded the app with Gadsby's hymns (A famous Strict and Particular Baptist writer) but it took up too much room and wouldn't transfer to the memory card. So I'll stick with the Brethren compilation. Again, an aid for the devotional side of things. I'll have to look to see if I can get the Metric Psalms on it as well.

3) Calvin's Institutes 

Strangely this appears as an app rather than a book. It contains over 900 pages but takes up very little MB space on the phone. Always nice to have some Calvin round me. #NoFluffStuffHere! 

Of course, I have a whole host of other apps too. I have a Bible app for stealing (redeeming?) an odd moment when out and about with the KJV on it. On a side note, I seem to prefer the black background with white print for reading.

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charitee

 

Click on Photograph to Enlarge

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Solid Fare

  


In a recent post, I looked briefly at three songs which the #creampuff wing of Fundamentalism put forth as it's standard fare. I decided to follow this up with the obvious thing to do i.e. give three hymns which I would rather be identified with. The choice was difficult because there is a section of the Christian church which eschews the above and desires to feast on good doctrinal hymns which we feel we can bring in serious worship to God. 

The selection below is not necessarily a list of my all time favourite hymns. I pick them out because they fall into three specific categories.

IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, GOD ONLY WISE:

This hymns concentrates on the Person of God and his attributes. Even if God justly left us in our lost estate of sin and misery, we would still (as His creatures) be required to worship and glorify Him simply for who He is. Even the very demons who believe and tremble (without any hope of salvation) brought themselves to acknowledge Christ as the "Holy One of God." I always feel something of the grandeur of God when singing this great hymn, which was written by Scottish Presbyterian Calvinist, Walter C Smith.

O LOVE DIVINE, WHAT HAST THOU DONE?

Struggled between this one and Philip P. Bliss's great "Man of Sorrows, what a name" but at the moment, Charles Wesley's hymn slightly edges it for me.  Here the emphasis is on what God did when He sent His Son to the Cross. The wonder of it all is captured brilliantly in the highly charged exclamation of the first line. Very doctrinal indeed. Another hymn in this category I enjoy singing (although, sadly, not in my denomination's hymnbook) is Behold! Behold the Lamb of God, On the Cross! I have only seen it appear in the Believer's Hymnbook of the Plymouth Brethren who attribute it with to "Joseph Hoskins?".  I always marvelled at the hymn writing ability of the disputed author, managing to skilfully  weave the cry of the Saviour on the Cross into the metre:

O hear His all important Cry// Eli!, Lama Sabbachani

Draw Near and see the Saviour die// On the Cross

I ONCE WAS A STRANGER TO GRACE AND TO GOD:

Written by another Scottish Presbyerian, Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, this hymn falls into the testimony category, relating those basic details that often accompany the experience of many in their coming to Christ. It is distinctly Calvinistic with the emphasis on the free grace awakening him by light from on high. Having said that, Charles Wesley's "Thine eye diffused a quickening ray" is pretty much in the same strain, and Wesley was an Arminian. However, I sometimes feel that the great Calvinist George Whitefield was breathing heavily down CW's neck when he wrote some of his hymns :o)   John Newton's 'Amazing Grace' is another in this category. 

Of course, even the #creampuffers mentioned above sing these hymns too. We welcome them to come and share our rich Protestant heritage. What three hymns would you pick under these three distinct categories?

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puffpastries

SPOT THE DOCTRINE!

Readers of this blog, and especially my twitter page, will quickly discover that any dealings I have had with #Hamblin have signally failed to find him possessed of any spiritual depth. He is master of the corny and sometimes downright childish outlines with which he hopes some day to save America. But enough of that. This post is not about #Hamblin's idiocyracies but more generally of a whole genre of self proclaimed #oldpaths Fundamentalists of whom #Hamblin is both a product and a specimen. 

I wrote before about the singing habits of some fundamentalists. Of course, they can, and do, sing some great doctrinal hymns (usually written by Protestants and Calvinists), but there is an awful lot of light #fluffstuff as seen by #Hamblin's selections above. 

See the words of the three songs above here, here and here. What great Christian doctrine is taught in any of these hymns? Why could a Jehovah Witness or a Muslim not conscientiously sing them as well as a Bible believing Christian? 

BTW: The writer is not totally without blame in this regard. It struck me one night while leading a prayer meeting, that our chosen hymn "Work for the night is coming" could easily be sung by a Buddhist priest! (I said something to that effect on the night) We were actually assuming so much about this hymn which was not actually present in the words. This ought not to be. Our Protestant heritage has left us a rich volume of meaningful hymns that are spiritually rich in their content.

Brethren and sisters, let us sing the great doctrinal hymns that lift us up in worship to God. If you are toasting marshmallows round some campfire and someone one breaks into "Gimme that old time religion" - well, it's hardly the end of the world. Even the most stringent diet allows the odd puff pastry now and again :o)

THE END 

P/s Since writing this article a few days ago, another hymn came to my notice which was tweeted by @HymnsOfFaith. Entitled "There’s an old, old path, Where the sun shines thro’" it was actually written by a Mormon lady. To be fair to HOF, they did pull it immediately I drew attention to its source. But (coming from the point of view of the article above) view the words here and (again) point me to any great doctrinal truth. 


See Follow Up Post: Solid Fare

 
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