Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 07:17AM 
A blessed and happy thanksgiving to all!
Here's the thanksgiving prayer from the future URCNA hymnal . . .
Our Sovereign God, who created all things for your pleasure and who gives to all life, breath, and every good thing, we praise you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. For rain and sunshine, in abundance and in lack, we acknowledge that our times are in your hands. You supply all of your creatures with your good gifts: the just and the unjust alike. Nevertheless, we especially give you praise for the surpassing greatness of your saving grace that you have shown to us in Christ Jesus our Savior. For our election in him before the foundation of the world; for our redemption by him in his life, death, and resurrection; for our effectual calling, justification, sanctification, and all of the blessings of our union with him, we give you our heartfelt thanks. And we look with great anticipation toward that day when you will raise us to life everlasting, glorified and confirmed in righteousness, so that we may sing your praises without the defilement of our present weaknesses, distractions, and sins. As you have served us with these gifts, we ask that you would give us grateful hearts so that through us you may serve our neighbors. In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen
Reader Comments (5)
As some may know, I sell Auto, Home, Life and Medical insurance. I also work in a group home. They couldn't get work coverage for the group home, so I volunteered to work today from 2:00 P.M. until tomorrow morning at 6:00 A. M. I am thankful to God for the extra money to provide for my family and also to be able to show God's love to those in the group home. Many of those in group homes don't have families that care for them, and get very depressed over the holiday season.
Prof. Ken Samples: Hope all is going great for you and your family! My brother (who is coming out for Thanksgiving weekend from L.A.) says that you are recommending some books to read as a quick summary of the Reformed faith. He wants to learn about the Lutheran and the Reformed faith without having to spend too much time on it. (He does mostly apologetics.)
I told him that the best way is to read all of the confessions of the two traditions, but that it will take him some time to do so. There are no short cuts. Ah, we do, indeed, live a microwave society, where we have to have quick answers.
A guest (here for Thanksgiving), actually asked me to give him a quick summary in one sentence each on: 1. The Reformed view of Christ's human and Divine nature, 2. The Lutheran view of the same. (He actually insisted that it could only be one sentence.)
Are we coming into the age of Christianity now where many Christians will be getting their particular theological understanding of Bible doctrine and their understanding of the various traditions by reading pamphlets?
Are we now coming into an age where if we have a question on theology, we just google it, and read one paragraph, and then form an educated opinion on a theological question?
Maybe I'm old school, but the best way is still to read and to study each camps confessions in light of the Scriptures. Then, after that read the best theologians of each tradition, and then form an opinion.
In the study of the various traditions, it is better to just stick with the confessions in light of the Scriptures, because, in some cases the theologians might not be in total agreement with their confessions. (And, the confessions are the official mouthpiece of each tradition.)
In the study of Lutheran theology, it is much easier because the confessions are all under the Book of Concord (although it is a massive book). Whereas the Reformed have several confessions with some differences on doctrinal issues.
A while back, I read a great quote from a Lutheran theologian. He stated that when there is a screwball Lutheran that comes out with a new theology, we can confidently discard it, because our confessions were settled almost 500 years ago.