I would certainly set the day apart and not do work or unnecessary housework. I try to focus on reading Christian books and spending time with church members in the afternoon as well. It helps to focus on God.

To add to that, there were even cases where a push for religious reform led directly to political reform, like the English Civil War.

And in the evening service, a version of the Nun section of Psalm 119 to the tune of “Amazing Grace”, and “The God of Abraham praise”

We did “Church of God, elect and glorious”, a version of Psalm 29 to the tune of “Immortal, invisible”, “How firm a foundation” and “Your glorious cause, O God” this morning.

Definite atonement is certainly the better term for it

For me it took a while to come to terms with Reformed Soteriology. Understanding God’s sovereignty is particularly tricky at the best of times and it didn’t particularly help that most discussions of it I came across were presenting it as a short 5 points description (where one of the points is “limited atonement”, which sounds a bit discouraging). A fuller understanding of it woven into the rest of Reformed theology helped, and I found the description given in the Canons of Dort quite well thought out.

I would say the point of confessions is that the Bible is a large book, and a book that is structured as God’s revelation to his people over time, rather than by theological topic. Confessions summarise our understanding of what the Bible as a whole has to say about the main points of the faith. Confessionalism recognises the need for creeds and confessions for the above reason and because people will usually have a theological framework they are applying to understand the Bible, but not declaring it upfront (as in a confession) makes it harder to discuss properly.

I’ve found The Creedal Imperative by Carl Trueman to be a helpful book on this topic.

I wouldn’t say that the words of scripture are insubstantial, because “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. (Hebrews 4:12 ESV) The Christian does have firsthand experience of God when encountering him in scripture, because we have the Holy Spirit, of whom Jesus said “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26 ESV) So in scripture we have a solid foundation for truth, understood through the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

In contrast, none of the methods you mentioned above have certainty of the truth of the revelation given. Meditation can mean a broad range of things, and thinking deeply on God’s word is commended in scripture, but just trying to come up with ideas of God from your own mind will quickly lead you astray. Hallucinogens are often illegal, and can obscure your senses in unhelpful ways, but everything seen in such hallucinations is likely to come from your own mind. Sex within marriage is a good thing, but it is not a path to see God; thinking that could lead you to worship sex or the person you have sex with, both of which would be wrong.

Seeing baptisms is always encouraging!

I had a good Lord’s day, we continued a sermon series in beatitudes, looking at “blessed are those who mourn”, and particularly considering the importance of mourning over our sin, but mourning so that we turn from our sin and receive God’s comfort in Christ. I had lunch at the house of one of our trainee ministers with some others from church, so it was good to share fellowship there. At our evening service, we continued going through the Heidelberg Catechism with Lord’s Day 35, on the second commandment.

For me it was in university, where on my first Sunday I went where the groups heading to churches were congregating and followed the first group I came across. In the providence of God, that group went to a presbyterian church with good Bible teaching (although I didn’t know it was a presbyterian church and I didn’t know what Presbyterianism was at that time). It was through the teaching I received there, and seeing it was consistent with the Bible that I came to be convinced, although it took a while before I stated such. I particularly like the way the Canons of Dort present the doctrines of grace.

Ah, I see you have made !reformedmemes@lemm.ee

I guess remaking r/ReformedHumor over here would be an option if we end up not wanting too many memes.

It would be good to see more activity on this community though.