Sunday we sang an arrangement of Samuel Stone’s hymn The Church’s One Foundation. Stone wrote this hymn from the Apostles’ Creed. He actually wrote one hymn for each of the twelve articles of the great Creed. He did it to help defend the church from bad theology that was being circulated in the church. Below you will find an assortment of great articles as well as a fantastic cd put together by Cardiphonia. Each of these hymns are from Stone’s original twelve. Hope you

The Church’s One Foundation (a blog post from us)

Lyra fidelium, 12 hymns on the twelve articles of the Apostles’ creed - By Samuel John Stone

Hymns of Faith – Songs for the Apostles’ Creed - (the cd)

In honor of Reformation Day yesterday, here is a section of Luther’s commentary on the passage of Scripture from Sunday’s sermon.  “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Whenever you are being praised, remember it is not you who is being praised but Christ, to whom all praise belongs. When you preach the Word of God in its purity and also live accordingly, it is not your own doing, but God’s doing. And when people praise you, they really mean to praise God in you. When you understand this—and you should because “what hast thou that thou didst not receive?”—you will not flatter yourself on the one hand and on the other hand you will not carry yourself with the thought of resigning from the ministry when you are insulted, reproached, or persecuted.

It is really kind of God to send so much infamy, reproach, hatred, and cursing our way to keep us from getting proud of the gifts of God in us. We need a millstone around our neck to keep us humble. There are a few on our side who love and revere us for the ministry of the Word, but for every one of these there are a hundred on the other side who hate and persecute us.

The Lord is our glory. Such gifts as we possess we acknowledge to be the gifts of God, given to us for the good of the Church of Christ. Therefore we are not proud because of them. We know that more is required of them to whom much is given, than of such to whom little is given. We also know that God is no respecter of persons. A plain factory hand who does his work faithfully pleases God just as much as a minister of the Word.

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Rock of Ages – Augustus M. Toplady, 1776. (we don’t have a recorded version of the arrangement we sing, but feel free to click and buy a David Crowder arrangement)

Jesus Messiah | Chris Tomlin, Daniel Carson, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves | Copyright: 2008 Vamos Publishing (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) Alletrop Music (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.) | Amazon Link

I Stand Amazed | Charles Gabriel | Amazon Link

Bless the Lord | Jonas Myrin | Matt Redman | 2011 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
Said And Done Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) SHOUT! Publishing (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) | Amazon Link | Song Story

In his book, Sacred Marriage, Gary Thomas makes the point over and over again that marriage is the place where we learn what it means not only to love not only our spouse, but all people. He says, “Marriage can be the gym, in which our capacity to  experience and express God’s love in strengthened and further developed” (page 40).  The quote below reminded me of Pastor Mike’s sermon this week about love and the fulfillment of the law. The apostle Paul wrote: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14 ESV).

But Christian love is displayed in loving the most difficult ones to love. Best-selling author Philip Yancey writes, “Through the ages Christian saints have chosen the most unDarwinian objects for their love.” This is in response to Jesus’ call that when we hold a banquet, we shouldn’t invite our friends because they might invite us back and repay us for our hospitality. Instead, Jesus said, invite the lame, the paralyzed, the poor, the blind-those who can’t pay you back (see Luke 14).

That’s what’s so difficult about Jesus’ call to love others. On one level, it’s easy to love God, because God doesn’t smell. God doesn’t have bad breath. God doesn’t reward kindness with evil. God doesn’t make berating comments. Loving God is easy, in this sense. But Jesus really let us have it when he attached our love for God with our love for other people.

In the marriage context, we have absolutely no excuse.  God lets us choose whom we’re going to love.  Because we get the choice and then find it difficult to carry out the love in practice, what grounds do we have to ever stop loving?  God doesn’t command us to get married, he offers it to us as an opportunity.  Once we enter the marriage relationship, we cannot love God without loving our spouse as well.

Divorce represents our inability to hold to Jesus’ command. It’s giving up on what Jesus calls us to do. If I can’t love my wife, how can I love the homeless man in the library? How can I love the drug addict or the alcoholic? Yes, this spouse might be difficult to love at times, but that’s what marriage is for—to teach us how to love.

Allow your marriage relationship to stretch your love and to enlarge your capacity for love—to teach you to be a Christian (41-42).