The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question and Answer 154 describes the ordinary and outwards means of grace as the Word, sacraments, and prayer. We discuss these ordinary means and how they apply to the day-to-day ministry of the local church. Participants:…
Brian A. Jackson">The Work of Prayer: An Exercise in Helplessness
Glen Clary and Camden Bucey discuss Ole Hallesby’s classic book on prayer. Hallesby was a Norwegian Lutheran, who taught at the Free University of Oslo. He wrote over sixty books in his lifetime, including his excellent book, Prayer. While this book…
Hughes Oliphant Old Sums Up His Life’s Work
Hughes Oliphant Old has been publishing articles and books on the subject of worship since the 1970s. [See select bibliography below.] His book entitled Worship Reformed According to Scripture is hands down the best volume on Reformed worship in print.…
Ex-PCA Pastor Awards Calvin a Dunce Cap
Rumor has it that when Pope Leo X read Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, he said, “What drunken German wrote this?” It is also rumored that when Martin Luther read Jason Stellman’s post on The Biblical Basis of Man-Made Liturgy, he said,…
The Lord’s Prayer in Reformed Worship, Pt. 5
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer. The will of God is used in two senses in scripture: God’s secret will (that is, his counsel or decrees by…
The Lord’s Prayer in Reformed Worship, Pt. 4
“Thy kingdom come.” The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer is about the ultimate hope of God’s people—the coming of the kingdom of God. As devout Jews in the first century were waiting for the kingdom of God, they prayed earnestly…
The Lord’s Prayer in Reformed Worship, Pt. 3
The Lord’s Prayer has six petitions: three thy petitions and three us petitions. The first three petitions have in view God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s will; the last three petitions, our bread, our forgiveness and our deliverance.
The Lord’s Prayer in Reformed Worship, Pt. 2
The Lord’s Prayer may be divided into three sections (cf. LC 188). It begins with an invocation, “Our Father in heaven.” The middle section consists of six petitions. It ends with a doxology, “For yours is the kingdom and the…
The Lord’s Prayer in Reformed Worship, Pt. 1
Since the beginning of the Christian church, the Lord’s Prayer has been used as a guide for daily prayer. The treatises of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen on the Lord’s Prayer bear witness to this. The earliest witness, however, is the…
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi—A Reformed Perspective
The term “liturgical theology” refers both to theology of worship and theology from worship: the former meaning doctrines about worship; the latter, doctrines derived from liturgical texts. More recently, however, some scholars have argued that the liturgy itself is theology,…
