This blog is full of false starts and dead ends—series I decided to write and gave up on or articles I meant to continue and just plain forgot about. A friend recently pointed out that just about a year ago I discussed Chasing Delight and in that post wrote about Proverbs 11:1: “It is one of my favorite Proverbs, for reasons I'll explain at another time. It says simply, ‘A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.’” As you may have guessed by now, I never did return to that verse. So, to close out that loop, let me write about it today.

Proverbs 11:1 must be one of the most mundane of all of Solomon’s proverbs. It deals with something that hardly seems at all significant—weights and measures. It tells us that a false weight is an abomination to God. According to Tremper Longman, the first phrase is used “to indicate the utmost divine censure against something. It offends Yahweh’s ritual or moral order.” The KJV captures a bit of this when it says “The Lord abhors dishonest scales.” The English language does not offer too many words stronger than “abhor” and “abomination.” So this is serious stuff.

God abhors a false or fraudulent scale. The scale that is described here is exactly the kind we’d imagine—two plates that would be suspended from a bar. Weights would be added to one side in order to measure what was in the other. When the scale was properly balanced, you would know the weight of your goods and, on that basis, the amount you would need to pay for them. You can imagine that there would be many ways that someone could manipulate the results: he could mislabel the weights, perhaps, or he could try to add extra ones without the customer noticing.

One of the happier musical developments in the Christian world over the past few years has been the resurgence of hymns. Though there are many contemporary worship songs that have excellent content and are ideal for congregational worship, we just can’t afford to lose the hymn.

There are two different kinds of contemporary hymn. In the first place, we have artists writing new hymns that come complete with new tunes. Alongside that we have artists who are finding old hymns and setting them to new music—either completely new melodies or contemporary adaptations of the traditional ones. In the list I’ve offered below, the first two seem to specialize in new hymns and new music while the others focus on the new music.

(Yes, there are many, many other artists writing new hymns or adapting old ones. I am focusing here on artists whose albums are predominantly composed of contemporary hymns)

Getty Music

Keith Getty grew frustrated with the songs his church was singing. He met up with Stuart Townend and together they decided to try to write something better. They ended up with “In Christ Alone.” The rest, as they say, is history. Keith got married to Kristyn, moved to America (he’s Irish by birth), toured the world, wrote many more great hymns, and recorded a handful of albums, most of which have a distinctly Irish feel. And the Christian world has been so much better for it. The most recent collection of hymns is titled Awaken the Dawn. Many of these songs are perfectly suited to congregational worship (already at Grace Fellowship Church we sing “By Faith,” “Creation Sings the Father’s Song” and “Communion Hymn.”).

If you want to learn more, it may be worth beginning with their YouTube channel. There you’ll be able to hear some of their best songs and hear them at their best through videos of their live performances. And trust me when I say it’s absolutely worth trying to catch their shows—their band is amazingly talented and they put on a very enjoyable, worshipful show (though somehow show doesn’t seem like the proper descriptor). If you want to learn about their tour schedule (try to catch one of their Christmas shows!) or buy one of their albums, visit gettymusic.com. I suggest you begin with Awaken the Dawn if you like albums, and each of the songs I’ve already mentioned if you prefer individual tracks.

Stuart Townend

Stuart Townend is the other half of the writing duo that has produced some of Keith Getty’s most popular hymns (including “In Christ Alone” and “The Power of the Cross”) but he has also written many without Keith’s help, including “How Deep the Father’s Love” and “Beautiful Savior.” Keith releases albums under his own name but also appears on other albums (such as Keswick Live, one I quite enjoy).

To learn more about Townend, it’s probably best to visit his web site (stuarttownend.co.uk). The site remains just a little bit underdeveloped, but still has lots of useful information, including a tour schedule and a blog. I’d recommend buying Keswick Live (if you can find it and if you enjoy live worship music) or Creation Sings if you prefer a studio album. If you prefer to just buy songs, go with “In Christ Alone,” “How Deep the Father’s Love,” “Speak, O Lord” and “The Power of the Cross.”

I was sitting in Grand Rapids airport on Saturday morning, about to catch a flight to Cleveland (and from Cleveland I’d catch a second flight to Toronto). It struck me as a little bit cruel that at the time there were two flights leaving from my gate—one going to Cleveland (for which I had a ticket) and one leaving for Toronto (for which I did not have a ticket). Ah well. I got there eventually (two or three hours after I could have).

Train Wreck - You may have heard of the train wreck R.C. Sproul was involved in many years ago (it was the deadliest crash in Amtrak history). In today’s blog post at Ligonier you can read all about it and see the meaning of providence through it.

Analog Rituals - This is a good little article on productivity. One thing I’ve learned in my studies on technology is that we tend to look for digital solutions to digital problems. But as this article shows, sometimes the best solutions are analog. Sometimes we just complicate things as we try to fix them.

Sale @ Monergism Books - Monergism Books is having a sale for the next few days. Place a copy of Tim Keller’s The Reason for God (DVD) and its Discussion Guide in your cart and receive 10 percent off any additional book (including everything in your cart) until November 1st. Simply type reasonforgod in the coupon code box at check out.

America: Land of Loners? - This article from The Wilson Quarterly, while written from quite a liberal perspective (with several obvious mis-steps along the way) does a good job of exhorting men to form friendships. It is ironic that when we are so connected online, we are less connected than ever in real life. This is a real “chew the meat, spit out the fat” kind of article.

Bankruptcy - Dr. Mohler lands another blow on the Crystal Cathedral. “In his 1986 book, Your Church Has a Fantastic Future, Schuller provided what he called ‘A Possibility Thinker's Guide to a Successful Church.’ The book is a manual for a ministry built on pure pragmatism, sensationalistic promotion, a therapeutic message, and a constant and incessant focus on thinking positively. His message about money was simple: ‘No church has a money problem; churches only have idea problems,’ he asserted.”

Piper on Memorizing Scripture:

The thirteen inches from our child’s head to his or her heart is the longest distance in the world. —William Farley

Daniel Doriani's commentary on James is one of the relatively few commentaries I’ve read cover-to-cover. It’s one I enjoyed a lot. In his discussion of the final portion of James 5, I found an interesting story that I thought I’d share with you. As I read it, I though of my continuationist (charismatic) friends. It is my experience that these people often typify cessationists like myself as those who do not believe in supernatural or miraculous healings. But this just isn’t the case. The disagreement really arises over whether or not the spiritual gift of healing is operative in the church today. I believe in heailngs, not in healers, so to speak.

This quote describes something that happened in a conservative, Reformed, Presbyterian context and something that I think is consistent with cessationist theology (even though cessationists may have some disagreement about what James refers to by anointing a person with oil). Doriani is not the only Reformed Presbyterian who has experienced this kind of blessing.

During the autumn when I first studied James in earnest, a friend suffered a viral infection of the heart. While it was not a heart attack, it mimicked many of the symptoms of one. My friend felt listless; he looked gray and lifeless. One day at church, I told him that James 5 instructs elders to lay hands on the sick and to pray for their healing; I suggested that he call the elders for that very purpose. Two weeks later, he told me he wanted to proceed. No one in our church had done this before, so we did something very Presbyterian: we studied the matter another six weeks and hoped he didn't die in the meantime.

At last, we appointed a night for prayer and the elders gathered. Our church's pastor (I was a college professor at the time) summoned the elders. Before we prayed, he told us not to expect a dramatic physical healing, since God heals in many ways. I appreciated his motive, but there was no need to restrain my enthusiasm; my doubting heart was already skeptical enough...

...My friend knelt down in the middle of a circle of elders. We anointed him with oil, laid lands on him, and began to pray. Since I had started the process, I was appointed to offer the closing prayer.

As soon as we began to pray, I had an overwhelming sense that God was, at the moment, healing my friend. My arms felt what I can only describe as bolts of fire pushing through them. As I grasped my friend's shoulder, heat and energy burned my hand. I felt that my one hand could lift all of his 230 pounds to the ceiling or push him through the floor if I wished.

I knew God was healing him. I wanted to shout, "We must stop praying that God will heal John and start praising God that he has healed him." But I was too astonished, too ensure of my sensations, to say a word to anyone that night. For four days, I kept my experience to myself.

Four days later, after church, my friend beckoned me with a wild grin, "Dan, watch this." At once, he dashed up a flight of steps. I dashed after him and met him at the top. He smiled, "And I'm not even breathing hard."

"I knew it," I exclaimed, and told him what I had felt a few nights earlier. And he told me, "I knew it too."

Since that day, I have joined elders to lay hands on the sick and pray for them. I have never again felt the fire. And while I occasionally feel a flood of warmth and emotion, I have learned that my feelings and God's healings have no connections. A small number have experienced immediately healing from serious illness. More have recovered gradually and under the care of physicians. Many have found spiritual healing--great peace and spiritual renewal in times of crisis and suffering, whether they recovered physically or not. And some have apparently gained no physical or spiritual benefit at all.

A page later he provides an interesting and important clarification about what James says about healing and something that is consistent with cessationist beliefs.

Sick men and women call the elders as a group. They do not call those with a gift for healing; rather they call all to pray for healing. James says the prayers of a righteous man are effective. Since the first qualification for an elder is holiness--not social standing or theological acumen--the prayers of elders are effective. The elders pray for healing, not for miracles. It doesn't matter if a healing is quiet or splashy, True healings garner all the attention they need.