Grace Abounding

The song “Thy Mercy My God” is a favorite hymn often sung at our local church in Alexandria, Virginia. It’s an old hymn by John Stocker (1776) put to new music by Sandra McCracken (2001). It’s the hymn of the month at Grace Church.

Why do we love this hymn? Because it preaches the gospel to us every time we sing it! The first verse revels with wonder at the transforming grace God has given believers. Verse 2 reminds us that our sin nature and willful sin disqualify us from knowing God and tasting real joy, but God has reversed our sinful condition out of his generous kindness. Verse 3 celebrates that God’s “mercy is more than a match for my heart which wonders to feel its own hardness depart,” a recognition that though we are great sinners, we have a Savior greater than our sin. The final verse thanks the Holy Spirit for applying the work of redemption in the believer’s life.

Get to know this hymn by downloading the sheet music here for free or by watching it worshipfully played on this YouTube video:

Thy Mercy My God
1. Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart. and the boast of my tongue;
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affections, and bound my soul fast.

2. Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here;
Sin would reduce me to utter despair;
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

3. Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.

4. Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.

©2001 Same Old Dress Music (ASCAP).

Previous songs of the month at Grace Church of Alexandria are listed here.

Sermon Title: Sin and the Child of God
Speaker: Ron Bean
Text: Psalm 51
Series: The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Starting Sunday, January 29, 2012, an Adult Bible Class will be held on Sundays from 9:25 AM –10:10 AM at Grace Church of Alexandria, prior to the 10:30 AM worship service. This year’s theme is “Christian Beliefs: 20 Life Transforming Truths.” Yes, for you folks who are sleepy on Sundays at that time, coffee will be served.

The new Sunday schedule at Grace Church of Alexandria:

• 9:25 AM – Adult Bible Class (childcare isn’t provided at this time)
• 10:30 AM – Corporate Worship Service (childcare is provided)

Sermon Title: Taste and See the Goodness of God
Speaker: Chris Spillmann
Text: Psalm 34
Series: The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Grace Church of Alexandria is hosting a seminar on Parenting With Faith and Wisdom on Saturday, February 4 from 9:30 am–3:30 pm, which you can register for here. The speaker is Rodney Pearce, father of four and Pastor of Families at Calvary Bible Church in York, PA. Everyone who attends Grace Church is welcome to come, and anyone from the community too. Please invite friends from the community to attend with you!

Parenting With Faith & Wisdom
When: February 4, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
(if you can’t make the whole seminar, sign up and note what part you can attend.)
Where: at Franconia Baptist Church, 5912 Franconia Road, Alexandria 22310
Who: For parents, aspiring parents, GraceKids workers, and anyone wanting to learn about helping children treasure God
Kids: Childcare provided by screened childcare workers
Book Table: GraceBooks will have a selection of parenting books and kids books available at the seminar by donation.
Free Gift! Every couple/individual will receive a free book from the GraceBooks Table
Lunch: Catered by Panera Bread (parents, please bring lunch for your child)
Cost: $9 per adult / $18 per couple

REGISTER HERE Please register by Sunday, January 29th.

Pastor Rodney Pearce and his family

 Topics for discussion include:

• The Source of Parenting Wisdom and the Goal of Parenting
• Getting to The Heart of Behavior
• Temperament and Development
• Salvation, Faith and Repentance, and Discipline
• Roles in Parenting
• A Smorgasbord for Further Reflection

Sermon Title: How to Pray the Psalms
Speaker: Jonathan Matias, Pastor
Text: Psalm 3
Series: The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Winter Sermon Series
This winter our theme for Sunday sermons at Grace Church of Alexandria is The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet. Our pastors are preaching a series of expository sermons that focus on the psalms. Take a look at the invite poster below:

Series Goals
Here are several goals we have for this series of sermons–

• Familiarizing you with the book of Psalms so you can study it on your own;
• Show how many of the psalms point to the person and work of Christ;
• Equipping you to get the most out of from the different kinds of psalms (thanksgiving psalms, ascent psalms, imprecatory psalms, wisdom psalms, psalms of repentance);
• Help you incorporate the psalms into your prayer life so you pray the psalms;
• Guide you to encouragement and hope in God from the psalms.

Sermon Title: God’s Never Ending Love
Speaker: Jonathan Matias, Pastor
Text: Psalm 136
Series: The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Book Title: Jesus and the Feminists: Who Do They Say That He Is?
Author: Margaret Elizabeth Köstenberger
Publisher: Crossway (2008)
ISBN: 1-581-34959-9
Pages: 256

The most common question I’ve been asked as a pastor of Grace Church of Alexandria is this: “Does your church allow women to be pastors?  You don’t! Well, why not?” Since Christ is the head of the church, it’s vital for us to see what Jesus’s teaching and view was regarding gender and positions of leadership in the church. I’d like to recommend Margaret Köstenberger’s book Jesus and the Feminists which ably explores that question from the Bible.

An Overview of Jesus and the Feminists

So what did Jesus teach about the role of women in the body of Christ? How welcoming was Jesus of women into his band of followers? When it comes to gender roles, was Jesus a traditionalist or an egalitarian? In Jesus and the Feminists, Dr. Maragaret Köstenberger provides a careful study of Jesus’s teaching and interaction with women as well as looks in-depth at the figures who promote a feminist reading of the Bible.

I think at the outset, it’s important to state that in Holy Scripture, God speaks of women and men as completely equal in value and worth. Of this there is no doubt. Also, advances in women’s rights in America over the last one hundred years have been essential because women have been denied basic human rights. This book addresses a feminism that is altogether different than that, such as feminist viewpoints that insist during Jesus’s earthly ministry he completely erased gender distinctions in God’s kingdom or that God should be viewed in feminine terms (as “Mother God”).

To begin, Köstenberger surveys the wide-ranging viewpoints on Jesus and women in the church in evangelical, mainline, and secular circles. She gives brief biographical sketches of the main figures that have promoted a feminist perspective within the church and analyzes their presuppositions about the Bible and God’s nature, to see how they arrive at their doctrinal position.

The most valuable asset of Köstenberger’s book is her careful study of the Gospels weaved into every chapter, going to Scripture to see how Jesus interacted with women and what he himself taught about the role of women in the body of Christ. Chapter 14, entitled “Who Do You Say That I Am? A Look at the Gospels,” is especially poignant, for it combs through the Four Gospels to answer the question, “Was Jesus a feminist?” Köstenberger finds that “Jesus showed special sensitivity to women’s concerns” and “treated women consistently with respect, dignity, compassion, and kindness” (p. 210-211) yet our Lord never “gave any indication that Jesus envisioned a community where men and women would be equal in position of leadership” (p. 212).

Conclusions

Köstenberger concludes that “Jesus was not a chauvinist, but he also was not a feminist” (p.214) and that Jesus never “obliterated gender-related distinctions in the church” as is often claimed by evangelical egalitarians. Jesus incorporated women into his ministry while reinforcing the rest of the Bible’s teaching that God has given men and women differing roles to carry out in the local church.

Jesus and the Feminists is a scholarly, orthodox contribution to the question of gender roles and gives helpful background to the debates raging in denominations and churches today. As it’s drawn from her doctoral dissertation, it’s not for the faint-of-heart. But if you’re looking to hear from an evangelical female scholar about what Jesus himself taught about women in the church, this is a worthy read.

Today my friend Jordan Minnick shared with me this prayer about the incarnation. It’s a fitting reminder to render praise to Jesus at Christmas for coming to rescue us. This prayer is entitled “The Gift of Gifts” and is drawn from the rich collection of Puritan prayers published in a prayer guide called The Valley of Vision. From time to time we include historic prayers like this in our church services to teach us how to pray. The prayer as listed below has just a bit of modernized wording compared to the original. 

“The Gift of Gifts”

What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts;
Your own dear Son, begotten not created,
My Redeemer, my proxy, my surety, my substitute;
Self-emptying, incomprehensible;
His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders:
He came below to raise me above,
Was born like me that I might become like Him.

Herein is love:
When I cannot rise to Him, He draws near on wings of grace,
To raise me to Himself.

Herein is power:
When Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
He united them in indissoluble unity,
The uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom:
When I was undone, with no will to return to Him,
And no intellect to devise recovery,
He came, God-incarnate, to save me
To the uttermost,
As man to die my death,
To shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
To work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
And enlarge my mind;
Let me hear good tidings of great joy,
And hearing, let me believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
My conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
My eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

Place me with ox, donkey, camel, goat,
To look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
And in Him account myself delivered from sin;
Let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,
Embrace Him with undying faith,
Exulting that He is mine and I am His.

In Him you have given me so much
That heaven can give no more.