Praise God

The Lord brought to my mind these words this morning:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I was thanking Him for my three little pooches, my remote car starter (yes, I thank Him for that a lot!), safety in the rain on the road to the groomer and just because...

I couldn't remember the second line correctly so I checked it out when I got home and discovered that those words are the last stanza in a much longer hymn written by Puritan, Thomas Ken (1637-1711). In typical Puritan fashion it has 11 verses (when sung, I bet that all 11 were sung, not just 1, 3, 5...heh).

The Lord has a sense of humor. If I had known the first verse of the hymn, I might have been singing something else...heh

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

You can check out the other verses here. The tune is unfamiliar to me, but it refreshes my mind since I am over-familiar with the tune with which I usually sing it.

songs for Sunday

from a fellow Pennsylvanian, Philip Bliss, 1838 - 1876. Man of Sorrows or Hallelujah, What A Savior! And I Will Sing of My Redeemer and Jesus Loves Even Me.

memory

So often, men and women who have been mightily used by God, are forgotten by men. From little known Thomas Bilney to Asahel Nettleton (who?) and even to Johann Gutenburg. Gutenburg is widely known today as the the inventer of the printing press, but at the time of his death he was a pauper, remembered by few and we have no idea where his grave might be. It was only much later that his contribution to history was realized.

Since Asahel Nettleton is a name and a man those of us who are reformed should know, I present a series of links that will give you a good chance to learn about him. Enjoy!

Divine Election

Nettleton's Home Page

Forgotten

Faithful Preacher

Timeline

Evangelistic Style

Augustus Montague Toplady

This English clergyman and writer, (1740-1778), is best known for his beloved and very familiar hymn, which was just one of many he wrote, but in his short lifetime he was known for his works of verse Poems on Sacred Subjects and best known for his polemical and dogmatic works. Toplady had been strongly influenced by the teachings of John Wesley but moved away from the Arminianism of the Methodists to the doctrines of Sovereign Grace of the Calvinist church and was licensed to preach in the Anglican Church, serving in the Anglican Church for the remainder of his life.
Two of his most influential and popular published works were The Church of England Vindicated from the Charge of Arminianism (1769); and The Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England (1774).
There was a constant and bitter controversy between the followers of Wesley who stressed man's free will and those who followed John Calvin's doctrine of election. In an article written for the The Gospel Magazine in 1776 Toplady wrote "he supported the doctrine of election by arguing that just as England could never pay her national debt, so man through his own efforts could never satify the eternal justice of a Holy God." (from Amazing Grace by Osbeck). Included with the article was a hymn which was the climax of his article which God has preserved over these 200 years to bless and encourage countless souls, including some precious Methodists I have known.
As you read through these words, you will find the Sovereign Grace that is the rock....
the Rock of Ages:

Rock of ages, cleft for me, left me hide myself in Thee;
let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.

Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no languor know,
these for sin could not atone -- Thou must save and Thou alone:
in my hand no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.

While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death,
when I rise to worlds unknown and behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.
Augustus Toplady

"For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea....they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ." (1 Cor. 10:1,3,4)

next

Asahel Nettleton.

a happy ending

The Lollard's Pit in Norwich, England was one of the sites used for the burning of martyrs, those who were judged heretics by the Imperial Church of Rome; Smithfield was another. Images:

here, here, here and here (this last image is of the martyrdom of William Tyndale whose final prayer was "Lord, open the king of England's eyes". He wanted an English translation of the Bible for the common folk; this could only be done by the authority of the king.

While the images seem stylized, they nevertheless convey the experience of these martyrs. And Thomas Bilney was to be counted among them. He was convicted of heresy, but his friends pressured him and felt he would be throwing his life away just when he was spreading the gospel so successfully.

So he recanted; he was then paraded around a public area carrying fagots***** to remind him he had recanted and thus would not burn in an inferno of fagots. (See the images linked above to see the twigs and sticks bound together to provide this furnace of torture.) He was then returned to prison. *****At the site of Paul's Cross, he had to use his fagots to ignite and burn a stack of William Tyndale's Bibles.

However, the punishment of being burned at the stake was nothing compared to what was to come. The burning of William Tyndale's Bibles absolutely shattered him.

"After he spent a year in the Tower he returned to Cambridge, but he was so tortured by remorse that he had denied his Christ, that he could not bear to have anyone, not even his old friend Latimer, read or mention the Scriptures him. 'His mind wandered, the blood froze in his veins, he sank under his terrors; he lost all sense, and almost his life, and lay motionless in the arms of his astonished friends.' He could obtain no consolation."

"...he resolved to rectify the great wrong he had done. He determined never again to renounce the truth of God's Word."

He returned to Norfolk the town where he had first preached. He no longer had a license to preach and was soon apprehended.

"The night before [his] execution, friends who came to comfort, reminded him, 'Though the fire would be hot, God's spirit would cool it.' To show them his lack of fear he put his finger in the candle flame, leaving it there until it was burned off to the first joint. He told them, ' I feel by experience, and have known it long by philosophy, that fire by God's ordinance is naturally hot; but yet I am persuaded by God's Holy Word, and by the experience of some mentioned in the Word, that in the flame they felt no heat, and in the fire they felt no consumption; and I can constantly believe, however the stubble of this my body shall be wasted by it, yet my soul and spirit shall be purged thereby, a pain for the time, whereon, notwithstanding, followeth joy unspeakable.' He referred them to Isaiah 43:2 'When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.'"

"'Little' Bilney was executed at Lollard's Pit..." faithful to his Christ and to the Truth of God's Word.

Like Little-Faith, Bilney faltered and stumbled in his Christian walk, but by God's grace and the Holy Spirit coming along side, he persevered to the end to give glory to his Savior and praise to his God.



quoted material taken from the Friends of William Tyndale site.

the story of "Little" Bilney

Paul was uniquely gifted by God for a very specific purpose,

Acts 9:
15 But the Lord said to him [Ananias], "Go, for he [Paul] is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."

Jesus has confirmed that if the world persecuted Him, it will persecute His followers. Would we be prepared for that?

Have you ever heard of Thomas Bilney?

He was born in Norwich, England around 1495; he was a quiet, studious young man who was ordained as a priest in 1519. Like Luther, he made intense efforts to please God through vigils, fasting, confessing, going to mass, buying indulgences, ad nauseum. All to no effect, all to no achievement of peace of mind about his standing with God.

Just at this point in time, the Greek New Testament was circulating in the "underground". Imagine trying to be Christian with no Bible?!? The Latin Vulgate (Jerome 347AD-420AD), which had been translated by him a thousand years earlier, was the only translation for the West and was restricted to the churches and monasteries. Most people would have no idea what the Word of God had to say to them!

Erasmus (a Dutch humanist, ca 1466 to 1536) prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the Bible in 1522. His Greek New Testament was circulating in England that time. It was the first time that a parallel version of the Bible had been published, with a column of Latin on one side of the page and Greek on the other.

Bilney was called "Little" Bilney because of his slight stature. His intense desire to be right with God and his unavailing efforts to achieve this, led him finally to "read it [the NT] in secret. With considerable fear he purchased a copy and locking himself in his room, he allowed the book to fall open, and he read, "This is a faithful saying, which is worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Timothy 1:15

"Bilney grasped the idea readily, that if Paul thought himself the chief of sinners, and yet was saved, then he, Bilney, even a greater sinner in his own estimation, could be saved too. What a revelation! What a relief! Instead of despair, a great inward peace now came into his soul."

The Lord had saved him. What would be God's role for this newly saved saint in this turbulent, reformation era??

Stay tuned...