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In the PCAs it seems that you'll find a fair number of the more modern worship songs sung. However, the hymn that's been stuck in my mind lately dates back from the 1860s. I sung it in the (Woodgreen) PCA last weekend, and then in a URC this evening. Here are the lyrics of the song, courtesy of Cyberhymnal.org:

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate a good recording of the song. Have any of you heard this hymn before?

I suspect that at the moment anyone, and likely also their dog, could find some sort of employment here in Calgary with little difficulty. It seems that dining establishments are trimming hours and staff levels. Some construction projects seem to be sitting idle, and apparently the city doesn't have enough people to handle cutting the grass on a regular basis.

Now it seems that they've gone too far. I was down at one of the nearer-by Tim Hortons' locations and noticed that now that place is now closing between the hours of midnight - 4am. Whatever am I to do when I need an iced-cappucino at 2am? It's such a hard life ;-)

(That said ... when classes are under way I've been known to wind up studying at Tim Horton's at some rather odd times)

One of the other issues that I've been thinking about lately are the issues of the manner of dress for as well as the starting times of worship services.

As far as dress is concerned I think that the first point to emphasize is that visitors are to be warmly welcomed no matter the state of their attire. I also do not feel a suit and tie to be the epitomy of dress, and thus I am generally not found wearing one when in church (even though I do own a suit). I think that the general principle is to dress in clothing that is both clean and "decent" (I consider jeans acceptable even though I personally opt for something a little more formal than that). The point at which I tend to get a little uncomfortable is seeing corporate logos on clothing (even though I'm not quite sure why). One thing that I've been wondering at is why or if my attire for such an occasion should differ from something such as meeting with others for Bible study / prayer. Excepting the sacraments, by and large I find that there is little to differentiate the two types of gatherings. Yet I don't really pay much attention to my dress when showing up for such meetings (or for private worship). Do you think that there is some inconsistency in these attitudes? Is it the expectations of the particular local church that define proper attire? Should God's omnipresence play into discussions of appropriate manners of dress?

I dropped into the other PCA in the south of the city the past Sunday as they actually have an evening service - unlike the PCA up north. Incidentally, my drive down there took place during one of Calgary's ridiculously quick weather changes. It wasn't raining when I got into my car, and it wasn't raining when I got out of my car (after a half-hour drive) but the drive down there was a little more crazy. There were lightning strikes left right and center (including one a little too close for comfort) and traffic on Deerfoot Trail (a 100 km/hr zone) slowed to about 60 km/hr for a while simply due to the amount of water coming down.

Anyways - back on topic - when I got to the church for the evening service there really weren't all that many people there (perhaps 20% of the morning service's attendance in the end). In the approximate words of the one leading worship: "oh... everyone usually shows up about 5 minutes late for the evening service." The attendance is still something that bothers me (although both PCAs are quite young church plants which may have something to do with it). The latter comment hasn't bothered me quite so much anymore since I began to compare this situation to the manner in which Bible studies (and similar meetings) are often treated in CanRC circles. The Bible study that I used to attend in the valley officially started at 7:30, but unofficially the start time was probably around 7:40. I suppose that there are two ways to approach starting a worship service in a respectful manner. One way - which might even involve tossing an extra song at the beginning - involves starting at exactly the scheduled time. Another way would be to start once everyone has arrived, without such a worry as to the exact time at which the service begins. Is one approach intrinsically less respectful than another?

One thing that I've been thinking a fair bit about since I began attending the PCA is the attitude with which I approach the Sabbath.

I tend, as a matter of habit, to avoid shopping on Sunday, but at the same point in time this is more a matter of habit than of conviction for me. I've never been quite able to reconcile the following passage with such an attitude:

Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days - Colossians 2:16 (NET)

I was reviewing Joshua Harris' list of characteristics of a healthy church today, and when doing so remembered that he had also commented on this issue:

We see in Genesis that God takes a day a week for renewal very seriously. He made Sabbath-keeping one of the Ten Commandments. But if you're worried that I'm going to try to convince you that Sunday is the new Sabbath for Christians, you're wrong. I don't believe that Christians are called to observe the Old Testament laws about Sabbath-keeping. Still, I think we're missing out on enormous personal and spiritual blessings when we treat Sunday like any other day. Because it isn't. The early church called it "the Lord's day." It's a day to "receive and embrace," as Matthew Henry said, "as a privilege and a benefit, not as a task and a drudgery." (Harris, Stop Dating the Church, 102-103)

I tend to think that Joshua Harris views the Sabbath as is more a time for corporate worship then as a day to avoid the local Tim Hortons, or Starbucks, or whatever. Or are perhaps his words intended to reflect the thought of 1 Corinthians 6:12a (NET): "'All things are lawful for me' – but not everything is beneficial?" How does one best interprete his comment "Christians are called to observe the Old Testament laws about Sabbath-keeping" in light of its context?

I've also been thinking about Sabbath observance in a historical perspective. This is also a bit of a reflection back upon some of reading that I did in the book I recently finished entitled The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship. The reformation involved reflection back upon the works of the early church fathers but, at the same time, this did not involve an uncritical adoption of all that was seen there (and there also were of course many conflicts). Of those church practices that some in the early church supported , but which the reformers rejected, included such things as the veneration of Mary and of images. (I should note that some of those considered Church Fathers lived far from the time of the early church - almost as far as we are from the day of Christopher Columbus. How much do you know of the times of Columbus?)

It is known that Sunday as a state holiday dates from the time of Constantine (~ 300 AD), as do Christmas and Easter. One thing which pretty much any text of the time that I've read has emphasized is how this caused some confusion with the worship of the sun god. Sunday was named after the sun god, and the day that we now celebrate as Christmas was also associated with the same god. Just how much of an emphasis was there on sabbath observance in the early days of the church? Who of the early church fathers spoke of this?