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This is a re-post of Pat’s Christmas blog post from 2007. Enjoy!
He rules the world with grace and truth,
And makes the Nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love…
My Pastor always tells us to pay close attention to old hymns because you can find some great theology in them. Such is the case with “Joy to the World.” This particular verse of this hymn is the reason I don’t participate in the ‘Christmas Wars’ and why you will never hear me decrying the commercialization of the Christmas holiday. Christmas as we celebrate it is the ultimate example of what this verse teaches.
Think about it for a minute. Christ’s dominion is such that pagan holidays have been gutted of their original meaning and filled with the things of Christ. So much so that the original pagan meanings have all but disappeared from our culture, and would be entirely forgotten, except for a handful of atheists who desperately try to use their origins in a pathetic attempt to delegitimize the Holiday.
You may be saying to yourself, “Well, our culture has forgotten the Christian meanings, too.” I say not entirely. Even then, Christ makes the Nations prove the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of His love.
The cathedrals of commerce, our shopping malls and grocery stores play Christmas music for almost a month before Christmas. Shoppers are literally drenched with the praises of Christ while they engage in what amounts to preparation for extravagantly sacrificial giving to friends and family. Believers and unbelievers alike, once a year, spend what many people consider far too much, just to give it away. This in turn creates a huge wave of cash that washes around the globe creating jobs that allow people in other countries to buy food and clothing. I heard recently that most retail outlets don’t turn a profit until Black Friday, the first day of the Christmas shopping season. God teaches us about giving and provides daily bread for millions. All this because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Workaholics and greedy businesses on this one day are forced to take a Sabbath rest. (I believe that this is a foretaste of that ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess’ thing mentioned in Scripture.) Families and friends are given a day to be together and enjoy each other.
The Scripture says “And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” By the power of the Word all this is accomplished at Christmas.
I’m not bothered when businesses talk about “Happy Holidays”, we all know which holiday they are referring to. Christmas is the 800 pound gorilla on the holiday block. A Jewish friend told me that Hannukah was on par with St. Patrick’s Day. Kwanzaa is in its holiday infancy and it will take a few hundred years (if the Lord should tarry) to see if it has any legs.
I can hear the protests—“These people aren’t Christians, are materialistic, are doing it for selfish reasons, don’t understand the true meaning”, etc, etc. These things are true. Let me paraphrase the patriarch Joseph. We mean these things for whatever reason we mean them, but God means them for good. For us and our neighbors.
Every year I marvel that the whole world can’t help but participate in the celebration of the Incarnation. I am also humbled by the mighty power of the Word that brings this to pass.
Truly it is “Joy to the World.”
By Pat KI don’t know if you’ve been carefully watching our site lately, but I thought you should know that we are once again offering Bible In An Hour on audio CD again.
We’ve been beating the bushes to figure out the best way to get these produced, and after all was said and done, the best solution for now is for us to produce them in-house. Until the time is right for larger production runs, this is a solution which has been working out great.
So, if you’ve been looking to get your hands on a Bible In An Hour CD, check it out in our catalog and grab one (or a few!) and we’ll get them in the mail to you. And, remember, these CDs have both the audio presentation and the PDF files on them, so you can listen to the CD in any CD player PLUS put it in your computer to print out the accompanying charts!
By Ted RWe’ve been getting reports recently of people having problems assigning a state to their NRP account, receiving a “Field cannot be blank” error when trying to assign it. There was a bug in the code which copied the Billing Address to the Shipping Address fields if you checked the appropriate “Use Billing address for SHIPPING” box.
This has been fixed and you should no longer have this error if you were having trouble. If you continue having any problems like this in the account creation or order process, please don’t hesitate to contact us here and we’ll check into it ASAP.
In the mean time, if you had any problems creating an account or placing an order, we urge you to give it another shot, especially while there’s still time for us to get your order to you before Christmas!
By Ted RWow, has it been a year already? Things have been busier here at NRP than I can describe. (For instance, take a look at our product updates below.)
Firstly, let me say it has been and still remains a goal to offer information like this newsletter to you a little more frequently - or at least much more frequently than once a year. Again, we’re a bit behind schedule on some things like this. But bear with us, there’s construction dust flying behind them there walls!
In order to update you on NRP news, we’ve moved our main offices to California in the last couple of weeks. If you’ve experienced any delay in receiving your NRP shipment or getting a response from us recently, that is the reason why. It’s one thing to move your family from one home to another, but it’s an entirely different thing to up and take a business with you as well.
There are several reasons for the move, but one of the great benefits that we’ll get out of it is that we’ll be able to much more easily tie in with some of the folks we know in California (including Dr. Rosenbladt) to make more content and products available to you here on NRP. These continue to be very exciting times for us and we’re looking forward to taking full advantage of the new location through 2009.
We here at NRP hope you and yours are having a blessed and wonderful and happy Advent and Christmas season. Merry Christmas from all of us here at NRP!
Under the completely sufficient imputed righteousness,
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Don’t miss this much-anticipated resource. We would say it is arguably one of the best devotional resources in decades! It is receiving rave reviews across many denominational lines for a reason. We consider this a must-have.
The best overview of the Scriptures we here at NRP have ever seen. Amazingly, Bible In An Hour takes only 60 minutes to cover the full scope and content of the Scriptures, focusing on Jesus Christ. Either as a supplement to your existing Bible studies or used as a primer for the beginning student, we cannot recommend this enough. Available as either an audio CD or a downloadable set of MP3 files.
New Reformation Press in conjunction with Dr. Rod Rosenbladt has developed a new topical Scripture memory study tool. There is simply no better way to gain a grasp on these doctrines than to memorize the bedrock Scriptures upon which they are based. These cards are arranged doctrine by doctrine - such as the attributes of God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of man, sin, salvation and many more - all with the pertinent verses on the opposite side. 220 Scriptures in all.
On our new Simul Iustus Lions, both of the lions represent Christ. The crown on the clean lion represents justification by the King of kings. The horns on the bloody lion allude to the depth of evil and sinfulness that Christ took upon himself in our stead. Christ is represented as both the Judge and the recipient of just judgment.
The Chi Rho, often referred to as the ‘monogram of Christ’ consists of the first two Greek letters in the word Christ. This tasteful, yet edgy rendering also includes the Alpha and Omega, a name by which Christ refers to himself in the Revelation.
As some of you know, at NRP we are fans and supporters of Michael Spencer, (aka the Internet Monk) and his blog. To us, he represents what good blogging is all about. He has been blogging for about eight years, and we have been reading him for about two years. His writing is always good, but like a fine wine that improves with age, he just keeps getting better and better.
This past week he put up a couple posts that are simply fantastic. If you read Christian blogs at all, these two posts are required reading. The first one is his encouragement to many of his readers who find themselves in a church or situation devoid of the proclamation of the Gospel. It is basically a Gospel rant, and it’s a good one. He says,
As a Christian, I am staking my all on the Gospel. I am staking nothing on the law. As a minister, I am called and ordained by the church to proclaim the Gospel, not the law. When I can no longer speak, I pray that all I have spoken will be Gospel, Gospel and again, Gospel.
Preach it, Brother!
The second post is the bittersweet story of his father’s faith. Although his dad was a Christian for most of his life, he considered himself a “failed” Christian until he discovered the grace of Christ in the Cross in his later years.
This story profoundly affected me because I lived a similar but much shorter version of it. The discovery of God’s work through Christ on my behalf was nothing short of earth shaking. Much of the impetus behind New Reformation Press is born of the spiritual desperation I lived in before someone shared what the work of Christ meant for me, even as a Christian. That’s why we do this. That’s the common thread in all the things you see on this site.
Take a few minutes to read these posts. They say something really important. You’ll be glad you did.
By Pat KA commenter on Gene Veith’s blog drew my attention to this.
For the grand sum of $0.99 cents this application downloads to your iPhone and gives you devotional readings and prayers appropriate for each day in advent drawn from the Scriptures, Creeds, and the great saints throughout history. Although written by Lutherans, they have striven to make the devotions appealing to the broadest possible cross section of Christians, in their own words “catholic with a small c.”
For those who do not own an iPhone, they will be updating the devotionals on their blog for free every day.
I talked to Pastor Scott Ryll, one of the co-creators of iHabitus. He told me that they hoped to be able to do a Lenten series for 2009. Ultimately, their plan is to offer the ‘Daily Offices’ (Morning, mid-day, and Evening prayer) for every day of the year in sync with the the Liturgical Calendar.
The goal is follow Luther’s and many of the great saints’ habit (habitus) of balancing the tensions (tentatio) of life with prayer (oratio) and scriptural reflection (meditatio). The website has some great introductory material on the church calendar, the traditional observance of Advent, the Lectionary, and the Liturgy. The graphics are nothing short of stunning.
They have really done an excellent job. In addition, ten percent of the proceeds from these applications is donated to World Vision. I don’t even own an iPhone, but I will probably buy one just to donate to their cause, then follow the devotions on their blog. I urge any of you that are so inclined to do the same.
This is the kind of forward-looking endeavor that is a brilliant fusion of ancient orthodox doctrine and practice and the latest cutting edge technology. I think the Reformers would be proud. Check them out and give them your prayers and support.
Note: New Reformation Press is not affiliated in any way with iHabitus, nor have they solicited our endorsement. We stumbled upon their site and have been amply impressed. We feel strongly that great ideas like these deserve our support.
By Pat K