Preparing our Hearts to Worship
In an effort to help you prepare for the June 16, 2019, Sunday morning corporate worship gathering and to aid you in your own reflections on What God wants us to Believe, Do, and Become. I wanted to pose a few questions and provide a few resources to prayerfully consider over the coming days. Our sermon is entitled, “Trinity Sunday”. The main Scriptures for the day are the 1Peter 1:1-2.
(Pick and choose from the many resources and options, which I have tried to make available for your devotional life.)
From the Scriptures
You may also like to read and reflect upon these other New Testament passages: Matthew 28:18-20, 2Thessalonians 2:13, Luke 3:21-22.
From the Creeds and Confessions
Canons of Dort Main Point 1
Here are a selection of articles from Main Point 1
Article 6: That some receive the gift of faith from God, and others do not receive it proceeds from God’s eternal decree, “For known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world,” Acts15:18.”Who worketh all things after the counsel of his will,” Ephesians 1:11.According to which decree, he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe, while he leaves the non-elect in his just judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy. And herein is especially displayed the profound, and merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimination between men, equally involved in ruin; or that decree of election and reprobation, revealed in the Word of God, which though men of perverse, impure and unstable minds wrest to their own destruction, yet to holy and pious souls affords unspeakable consolation.
Article 7: Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, he hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of his own will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault, from their primitive state of rectitude, into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect, and the foundation of Salvation.
This elect number, though by nature neither better nor more deserving than the others, but with them involved in one common misery, God hath decreed to give to Christ, to be saved by him, and effectually to call and draw them to his communion by his Word and Spirit, to bestow upon them true faith, justification and sanctification; and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of his Son, finally, to glorify them for the demonstration of his mercy, and for the praise of his glorious grace; as it is written: “According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved,” Ephesians 1:4,5,6.And elsewhere: “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified,” Romans 8:30.
Article 8: There are not various decrees of election, but one and the same decree respecting all those, who shall be saved, both under the Old and New Testament: since the scripture declares the good pleasure, purpose and counsel of the divine will to be one, according to which he hath chosen us from eternity, both to grace and glory, to salvation and the way of salvation, which he hath ordained that we should walk therein.
Article 9: This election was not founded upon foreseen faith, and the obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality of disposition in man, as the pre-requisite, cause or condition on which it depended; but men are chosen to faith and to the obedience of faith, holiness, etc., therefore election is the fountain of every saving good; from which proceed faith, holiness, and the other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal life itself, as its fruits and effects, according to that of the apostle: “He hath chosen us (not because we were) but that we should be holy, and without blame, before him in love,” Ephesians 1:4.
Article 10: The good pleasure of God is the sole cause of this gracious election; which doth not consist herein, that out of all possible qualities and actions of men God has chosen some as a condition of salvation; but that he was pleased out of the common mass of sinners to adopt some certain persons as a peculiar people to himself, as it is written, “For the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil,” etc., it was said (namely to Rebecca): “the elder shall serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” Romans 9:11,12,13.” And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed,” Acts 13:48.
From the songs, hymns and spiritual songs of the Church
Hymn to the Trinity (James Wood): Lyrics
All hail Majestic Trinity (Michael Saward): Lyrics
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lyrics, Video
Praise the Father, Praise the Son (Tomlin): Lyrics, Video
For Thoughtful Reflection, Prayer, or further Study
Read and reflect uponTrinity Sunday.
Read and reflect a Trinity Sunday Worship Service.
Read and reflect on Zondervan’s What does the OT say about the Trinity?
The Sermon will be available online on June 16, 2019 at 12:30 pm.
Disclaimer: Reference to a particular article or website does not constitute endorsement or agreement with everything in that article or on that website.
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