The Regulative Principle, 2001

What is the Regulative Principle? What does it regulate? Does it come from the Bible? And what does it have to do with singing the Psalms?
The Regulative Principle and Exculsive A Cappella Psalm Singing as a Requirement for Worship.

The Full Rights of Sons

The complete Bible Study of women's redemption, rights and roles is online.

Here you will find easy access to all the chapters. Just scroll down to the Table of Contents.

My Rock

More from Let The Word of Christ dwell in your richly ... AS YOU Sing... (Colossians 3:16).

Since I did not receive permission from the RPCNA Board of Education and Publication for the publication of this selection book, I will only site The Book Of Psalms For Singing (1973 by The Board of Education and Publication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America) but not quote from it.

My Rock - "...and that rock was Christ."

The Light of the World

In 1993 Trinity Christian Community Fellowship of Larnaca, Cyprus published a Psalm Selection Book entitled: Let the WORD OF CHRIST dwell in you richly ...AS YOU SING... (Colossians 3:16). Here is...

Psalm 18:28

Believing the Right Thing

The conversation was over. It had been shot dead. He was right. The Bible does say that women are to be silent...


Believing the Right Thing

To A Good Land, 1966

I don't know what I was thinking with all the crazy spacing!

To A Good Land

Daniel: Ambassador for Christ, 2006

I love singing the Psalms. I love seeing the connections between the Old and the New Testaments. So for the grand finale of a Sunday school class at Christ Covenant Church we read and sang



Daniel: Ambassador for Christ

Knight on a White Horse, 1994

Good sex. What is it?

Good: adjective.
Morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious.
Satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree.
Of high quality.
Right; proper; fit.
Well-behaved.
Kind, beneficent, or friendly.
Honorable or worthy.
Genuine, not counterfeit.
Healthful, beneficial.
In excellent condition.

Sex: well, you know....sex.

Knight on a White Horse

Take Thursday, 1971

I remember well the evening I wrote this. Caleb was about six months old. We were living in a second floor apartment in Wilkinsburg. Next door, in another second floor apartment, lived Bob & JoAnne Willson. We were at their house for dinner along with other friends. Bob had cooked a great meal, as usual. In their living room, where we got into a lengthy discussion of our culture and how we were going to change the world, was a Goodwill couch, or maybe it was a curb-side couch, a huge full-length cigar store wooden Indian, a drum set and a stereo with huge five foot high speakers. Caleb slept quietly through the whole discussion, but ... maybe he was evesdropping! We went home late and I wrote...

Take Thursday

Storms

I love Kansas storms. So majestic and powerful!

When I was a child and fearful of storms, my Father would sing Psalm 29 to me. He told me I was a son of The Mighty. Mighty - Majestic - Glory - Splendor - Holiness. A storm is the voice of Jehovah, who blesses his people with peace.

This picture, by John Steuart Curry, always hung in our home. My Dad knew Curry and visited with him as he painted the huge tableaus in the Topeka Capitol building.

Psalm 29 Remembered in a Line Storm

Full Rights - Done!

It was a big project! I'm so glad it's done.

It was good for me to reread it. Such a wonderful gospel! I am really overwhelmed at the wonder of God, the creator of the universe, making me his child, his son.

Thank you, dear Father.

I wrote it 16 years ago. I sent it around to a number of publishers. No one wanted it. A few friends read it. Oh yes, my mother read it cover to cover. ;-))

Years went by. Computers came and went. The floppy on which it was stored became obsolete. No one could open it for me. I sent a hard copy to someone who scanned it for me. When it came back it was all those awful squares, lines, gibberish.

More years went by. Once again we got a new computer. I tried one more time to open the manuscript and....low and behold....there was something readable! Yes, it needed lots of correcting, but there it was.

So now it is out there in virtual world. I send it out with a prayer that's God's grace will go with it. I have that promise that God's Word will not return empty, but will accomplish his purpose. So, Come all who are thirsty.


God's Word is so beautiful!

The Full Rights of Sons - Opening Pages

Title Page - Dedication - Table of Contents - Scripture Citation

The Full Rights of Sons - Opening Pages

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XVII: Simply Put - "...By Faith"

This is the gospel.

This is how we must live,

By faith.

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XVII: Simply Put - "...By Faith."

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XVI: Sons - "You are all sons."

By explaining my freedom to me so carefully, Paul has been an agent for the administration of God's grace in my life. He has been one of the preachers through whom I heard the gospel. I heard and I believed. Since I believed, I called on the name of the Lord and he saved me. Paul's feet are indeed beautiful. He brought "good news" to me.

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XVI: Sons - "You are all sons."

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XV: The Middle of the Road - How safe is it?

How safe is the middle of the road?

When two opposing ideas both seem true we often try to walk between, to stay in the middle. We try to go in this direction here and that direction there.

Actually, the middle of the road is a notoriously dangerous place. Cars come at us from two different directions. It take careful attention, a lot of dexterity, and good judgment to stand in the middle of the road and not get hit. It certainly is not a place of freedom. Nor is it safe.

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XV: The Middle of the Road - How safe is it?

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XIV: Must She Be Silent? I Timothy 2:8-15

For women, this "good news, but..." leads to false feelings of inferiority and guilt because these reasons force us to look at who we are, in and of ourselves, and at what we have done, rather than at who Jesus is and what he has done. This point of view can only lead to deep humiliation and depression.

For men...

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XIV: Must She Be Silent? I Timothy 2:8-15

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XIII: Must She Be Silent? I Corinthians 14:26-40

Since the Scriptures are one whole, unified truth, these difficult passages must be interpreted in light of the clear truths we have already studied.

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XIII: Must She Be Silent? I Corinthians 14:26-40

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XII: The Exceptional Women of the Bible - Proof of the Rule

I asked, "But what about Deborah? What about Priscilla?"

The answer came, "They're the exceptions that prove the rule."

Well, it got me thinking!

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XII: The Exceptional Women of the Bible - Proof of the Rule

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XI: "The Head Over Everything" - Rule Through Reconciliation

All this would seem to say that there is no authority within the church other than Christ himself. Can this be true?

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter XI: "The Head Over Everything" - Rule Through Reconciliation

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter X: Brothers - :...you are all brothers."

Of the same womb.

What a beautiful definition for the word which Jesus used to describe all believers, "...you are all brothers." Nicodemus asked Jesus if he had to enter his mother's womb a second time in order to be born again. Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh give birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."

All believers are of the same womb of the Spirit. We share the same parent, God, our Father. We are all brothers.

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter X: Brothers - "...you are all brothers."

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter IX: The Head Over Everything - "You have only one master."

I believe it is important to pay attention to the little words. Sometimes they say a lot more than their size would indicate. Christ is the "...head of the body..." and "...head over everything..."

Did you catch it? Did you hear the two different little words? Does it make a difference?

I recently read this, "God created man to be head over the woman..."

That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that man is the "head of" the woman.

"Of" and "over". So what! Does it really make a difference?

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter IX: The Head Over Everything - "You Have Only One Master."

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter VIII: "The Head of the Body" - Oneness Through Servanthood

We who have believed have become the "one new man." We are motivated and compelled by servanthood and the exercise of authority is gone with the old life. Our differences are now an opportunity to "serve one another in love."

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter VIII: "The Head of the Body" - Oneness Through Servanthood

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter VII: "The Head of the Body" - Ephesians 5:22-33

Nowhere do women receive greater real everyday respect and honor from men than those in the Christian church. I believe this. I observe this. I feel this. I live this.


As the woman's offspring crushes the serpent's head the curse is lifted.


The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter VII: "The Head of the Body" - Ephesians 5:22-33

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter VI: "The Head of the Body" - I Corinthians 11:3-16

Hats, veils, bonnets, shawls, or scarfs. Such a big fuss about what women wear on their heads in church. What's it all about?


God's word is so wonderful! When I really dug in, I found something amazing.


The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter VI: "The Head of the Body" - I Corinthians 11:3-16

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter V: "The Head of the Body" - What does it mean?

Language scholars tell us there are two possible meanings for the Greek word which is translated "head" in the New Testament. Its meaning could be "authority over," or it could be "source of." When the Bible says that Christ is "...the head of the body, his church;..." does it mean Christ is the authority over the church or the source of the church? The difference is important...

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter V: "The Head of the Body" - What does it mean?

The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter IV: Servanthood - "Serve One Another in Love"

"...serve one another in love."

The Full Rights of Sons, Chapter IV: Servanthood - "...Serve One Another in Love"

The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter III: No Difference - "God does not show favoritism"

"...God does not show favoritism."

The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter III: No Difference - "...God does not show favoritism"

The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter II: Oneness - "You are all One"

"...you are all one..."



The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter II: Oneness

The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter I: The Interpretation of Scripture

The reformers summarized it this way,
"The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture, (which is not manifold, but one) it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly." (WCF I.9)

The Full Rights Of Sons, Chapter I: The Interpretation of Scripture

My Story, 1965-1990

The following is taken from a presentation I made to the women of my denomination back in 1990. The theme of that conference was "The Women of our Church: 1890-1990." I examined the last quarter of that century using my own experience to tell the story. I share it with you now as a preface to a Bible study of the role of women.

Preface to The Full Rights of Sons.

Nasrin's Story, 1994

What does biblical equality have to do with our Christian witness to the Islamic world? Nasrin was a close friend of mine when we lived in Cyprus. She helped me understand...

Nasrin's Story

Homesick, 1972

Nothing has changed much since 1972. I'm still Homesick for heaven.

At The Firs, 2006

In 2006 Ron and I attended the R.P. camp At the Firs in Washington state. I entered the poetry contest for Talent Night.

Simply put...

"Nothing is simple."
Everyman

Why a blog?

I'm starting a blog as a file cabinet, a storage bin, a closet, a place to put stuff, to simply put stuff.