Update & Posting Schedule

We've had losses in power due to a recent storm, which knocked out our Internet for awhile this week. As such, rather than work to fill up my blog's backlog, I'm going to take this week and next off from the blog, and return with new posts in the new year. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Photo of the Week

What means this glorious radiance across Judea’s plain?

These white winged angels singing in such exultant strain?

The King of glory cometh, Earth’s broken hearts to bind,

And God’s salvation morning hath dawned for all mankind.

- from a hymn by Mary Servoss

Quote of the Week

"Just as the power of the sun is the only force in the natural universe that causes a plant to grow against gravity, so the grace of God is the only force in the spiritual universe that causes a person to grow against the gravity of their own ego."

- Simone Weil

Church History: The Age of Reason and Awakenings, Part 2 (17th-18th centuries)

(Click here for the church history series page)

Lecture audio: The Age of Reason and Awakenings, Part 2

(click here to listen or right-click to download)

Lecture Notes Outline

-        Nonconformists in England

-   Origins of the Congregationalists & Baptists

-   Persecution of Nonconformity

-   Isaac Watts & the rise of English hymnody

-   Rise of evangelicalism

-        The Evangelical Revival & the Great Awakening

-   Jonathan Edwards

-   John Wesley (Arminian)

-   George Whitefield (Calvinist)

-   Isaac Backus & Francis Asbury

-        Challenges of the Enlightenment

-   Unitarianism

-   Deism

-        English Protestant missions & activism

-   David Brainerd & the Native Americans

-   William Carey & world missions

-   William Wilberforce & the abolition of slavery

Photo of the Week

Then come, blest hour of sunset, along the golden way,

And thrill us with the splendors that fill life’s perfect day.

God is the end of living; He satisfies the soul,

And they who seek His glory will find in Him their goal.

Holy, holy! Angel voices sing it; Holy, holy! Cloudy pinions wing it;

Holy, holy! Gleaming towers ring it; Holy, holy, is the Lord most high.

- from a hymn by Calvin Weiss Laufer

Quote of the Week

"We are called to be saints by that same voice which constrained [the saints] to their high vocation. It is a Christian's duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their ardor and holiness. We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest satisfied until we have equaled them in heavenly character?"

- Charles Spurgeon

A Prayer from Ulrich Zwingli

I beseech Christ for this one thing only,

that He will enable me to endure all things courageously,

and that He break me as a potter’s vessel or make me strong,

as it pleases Him.