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June 2017 New Horizons

Caring for Our Aging Parents

 

Contents

Caring for Our Aging Parents

Why We Also Sing Hymns

The Reformation of Vocation

Summer Reading Club

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Caring for Our Aging Parents

Every day she drove to her childhood home to check on her mom and aunt. She helped them clean and shop. She took them to numerous doctor visits and for medical tests. Paying the bills and dealing with medical claims fell to her. Lately, she had noticed that both her mom and aunt were declining physically and mentally. But they wanted to stay in their home, and they assured her they could help each other cope day to day. Then came the day she arrived to find one of the stove burners on, the coffee pot boiled dry, and a tea towel dangerously close to the flame. Neither woman remembered turning the stove on. As she looked around, she thought, “It’s 5 p.m. They are still in their bathrobes and their morning pills are in the containers. What do I do?” This particular scenario is real. Haven’t we all heard similar (or worse) stories? What should this daughter do? While there is no perfect plan for working through this life challenge, and solutions are as individual as the people involved, helping ... Read more

Why We Also Sing Hymns

In the last century and more, especially in North American evangelicalism, hymns have eclipsed psalms in the liturgy of the church. Actually, hymns themselves have given way in more recent years in many communions to the ubiquitous Scripture songs and choruses. We would hope that the forthcoming Trinity Psalter Hymnal might contribute to the recovery of both robust psalmody and robust hymnody. This comparatively recent loss of psalm singing is quite remarkable, especially in Reformed and Presbyterian churches, whose liturgies historically consisted either mostly or exclusively of psalms. We intend for this book to assist in the recovery of psalm singing for all of those churches, and we have in recent times seen hopeful signs of such. At the same time, we want to foster a recovery of first-rate hymnody. We as Presbyterian and Reformed Christians affirm that there must be positive warrant in Scripture for what we do in worship. We are not free simply to do what we want, at least as far as the elements ... Read more

The Reformation of Vocation

Lutheran scholar Gene Edward Veith asserted correctly that the Protestant Reformation depended on three doctrines: justification by faith alone, the authority of Scripture, and vocation. The last of these three, Veith added, was in many ways the most practical, since it concerned the everyday life of believers. Vocation encompassed such related ideas as the priesthood of believers, sanctification, and good works. Rather than a theological rationale for the Protestant work ethic or private property, vocation broke decisively with Roman Catholic teachings about work and the Christian life by recognizing the legitimacy of nonecclesiastical labor. Yet one will need more than a word search application to find the doctrine of vocation in the catechisms of the Reformation. The Westminster Confession of Faith, for instance, devotes separate chapters to Scripture and justification, but not to vocation. Related words, such as “calling,” “priesthood,” and “work,” are not identical to an understanding ... Read more

Summer Reading Club

“Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.” This quote has been attributed to many people, but whoever said it first, its truth is widely acknowledged, but often ignored. Believing that a knowledge of church history is an important component of Christian education, retired school teacher Patricia Watkins put together a Summer Reading Club in 2014 for the children (aged eight to thirteen) of her church, Mission OPC in St. Paul, Minnesota. Each participant received a folder with a list of resources (books and websites), a time line of church history, worksheets to fill out as they read, and directions for a final project. All of the books were biographies or collections of biographies of noteworthy Christians through the ages, and most were available from the church library. The books were to be read as interest led the reader or books became available in the library. The Reading Club met every month for about twenty minutes following the church’s fellowship meal. The readers talked ... Read more

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