Recap (6/1/2013)

Help Wanted:

• Grace is trying to find Benjamin Godard’s La Lanterne Magique III
  Do any of you happen to know where she can find a copy?

Stuff I’ve Read:

• The Most Important Type of Church (linked to by Lisa Notes)
  My husband and I have been asking ourselves what the most important aspect of the church is. What is the primary function or functions of the church? While mulling over these questions, I ran across this blog post. The author concludes:

  “The Bible doesn’t call us the Body of the Holy Spirit or the Body of the Word. We are called the Body of Christ and if we know that the the Bible is God’s very words and the Holy Spirit is the indwelling of Christ in us, well then it seems that Jesus should and must come first.

  A church relying mostly on the Bible or mostly the Spirit, or teaching only tenants of Christ, but not living them out, is broken, lop-sided, and lacking.

  The more I have begun to grasp the necessity to cling to the Person of Jesus and seek Him and His headship over everything else, the more I have felt a part of the church…the more I have felt whole as a member within His body.

  The church where Christ is head is best. Everything else is just secondary.”

  Of course, how that practically plays out within a church body is somewhat difficult to quantify.

• The Indulgence Box
  Tim Challies writes about the difference between the view of justification typified by the indulgence box and the view of justification Martin Luther was developing from his reading of Scripture:

  “Indulgences came to typify the widening gulf between the church’s teaching on justification and Luther’s new and growing understanding.

  Its significance is found far more in what it represents than it what it actually is. The pennies that slid through the slot and into the coffer represented a gospel of salvation by works, a gospel foreign to the Bible, a false gospel. Luther had recovered the great doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone, and there would be no place for indulgences and no place for meritorious good works.”

  The entire article is worth reading.

Books added to my TBR list:

• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (reviewed by Susan at Girls in White Dresses)
  I’m pretty sure I had this one on my list already, but Susan’s review convinced me to bump it up to the top again. Her conclusions?

  “So many threads to this story — twins who are separated, a gothic mansion, a fire, tragic accidents, plots twists (most of which I didn’t see coming; I love that in a story!), and more.

  Read this if you like a well-written, good story. Thirteenth Tale delivers!”