Reminder that Thanksgiving is the most Presbyterian holiday of them all!

PCA BCO 62-3: “…If at any time the civil power should appoint a fast or thanksgiving, in keeping with the Christian faith, it is the duty of the ministers and people of our communion to pay all due respect to it.”

Gideon in his later life, lived exactly as male influencers like the Tate brothers advise bedding many women having 70 sons (Judges 8:30-31).

It destroyed his family, killing his 70 sons, and ruined Israel for generations. (Judges 9:5-6). His legacy is a warning. ⛔️

Francis Grimke critiquing some preachers of his day: "They have preached on almost everything except Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God whose blood alone cleanses from sin. The thought of sin, from which we need to be saved, has largely dropped out of most of our preaching." (P.199)

“We speak to people very seldom about their soul’s salvation; and, when we do, as a general thing, it is done in such a perfunctory way, that it shows that we have no real sense of the seriousness of the task to which we have set ourselves.” - Francis Grimke.

“The stream of all religion runs either deep or shallow, according as the banks of the sabbath are kept up or neglected.” -Matthew Henry

“Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation.” -John Newton

Good change here in an update to the ESV translation from the 2016 edition. Most other updates are minor.

“The whole creation groans,
And wait to hear that voice
That shall restore her comeliness,
And make her wastes rejoice
Come, Lord, and wipe away,
The curse, the sin, the stain
And make this blighted world of ours,
Thine own fair world again!”
-Horatius Bonar

“All good things come from You, O God. All that is whole in me is from You. I have learned since my infancy that all that is good, either inside or outside of me, is Your gift. Every good gift proclaims to me who You are.”
-Augustine. Confessions.

Die Hard 1 was basically Home Alone:

“It would seem a good idea to venerate my skull after my death…

On the contrary, eww.”

-Thomas Aquinas, now probably.

Pharoah: “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Genesis 46:34)

Jesus: “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11)

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

-Ecclesiastes 3:11

Pastors, may all of your cultural references stay as relevant as this timeless wall art…

This was a good read. Important questions on the proper role of church distinguished from the realm of the state. Though at the end, I still prefer Charles Hodges’ doctrine of the spirituality of the church over the versions by Thornwell or Strange.

1818 statement of the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church on slavery: