:-P (sorry its so small, the lines didn't work out if I made it any bigger...)
When the odds stack against us and sins drowned our hope, what can we trust in, who won’t disappoint
When temptations are just one click away and our schedule gives us no time to pray
When fear and depression are what’s setting the tone, and the Christians you know are just worldly clones
When you fail and then try and then fail some more to get rid of the sin that lives in your core
When you think that Gods left and He’s not coming back, that you failed once too often and God won’t cut you slack
When life just seems worthless and you’ve kissed meaning goodbye, just turn once to Jesus He’s heard all your cries
It’s a death to ourselves and this world where we dwell, which in the end is just weight that will drag us to Hell
But with death comes His life that never will end, it’s a life lived in faith that He will constantly mend
He’ll hold you and guide you and lead you to glory, the road may be narrow but He’s writing the story
You where chosen before time so rejoice in His Love, your names in His book and your home is above
So live life as a stranger who boasts in the Cross, who fears not a man and counts everything as loss
Your life may be void of all earthly “pleasure” but turn your eyes unto Jesus He‘s the real treasure
And when you arrive at the gates full of splendor and all that you offer is a life of surrender
Jesus will stand and proclaim unto all, this is my child I didn’t let him fall
Through fear and through trial and unto his death he trusted my name with every breath
And then he will welcome you into your Home and love you forever as one of his own!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Choosing
I was thinking today about being a Christian and wondering about the question that is often raised about choosing. And after some thought, I really can’t give any clear explanation. My thinking goes like this: Did I decide the family I would be placed in, or the time I would be born? Who wired my mind the way it is, and shaped my body so that I would be good at some things and not others? When I see how little I had to do with any of this, namely nothing, I can’t conclude in the least that I had anything to do with choosing God. And when my mind hits that wall it comes to this conclusion: Oh how beautiful it is to be chosen by God! To be loved first, knowing that I owe nothing to myself, not only does this eliminate pride, it eliminates fear, fear that I will do something that will cause God to push me away. We are all sinners nothing in us caused God to choose us! What a beautiful promise it is when we are told that He will complete the work He started in us! The security of my soul is set in place by God himself; a security that no man can touch, no sin can mare and no fear can cripple! God is the same yesterday today and forever and His choice has been made! I rest in that fact yet double my effort to make my calling and election sure. Not because God will erase my name from the book of life if I sin, but because, though I confess with my lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead, I will do everything I can to not let mediocrity pull me down to a place where I look back and find that Christianity was just a phase for me and I am just another seed that was choked out by the thorns of this world. Thank You God for this promise of perseverance, for your forgiveness and for your continued working in my life!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Some thoughts on Gods sovereignty
Why in my mind, Gods sovereignty must reign in everything, from the smallest detail to the call on my heart that saves me.
When I first became a Christian I didn’t know much about any of the details that many congregations and people are split over. Some may say that it’s not relevant to saving people and I would agree with this idea to a point. Gods Sovereignty is not a battle that will decide the outcome of the war being fought between congregations, nor is the debate over speaking in tongues and the gift of the Holy Spirit a battle that will spread Gods word across the world. But as I looked more into the word of God and started really looking at chapters like Romans 9 and Acts 1 and 2 they begged these same questions again and again. I hold no great regard for my logic, what I see as making sense to me I have a hard time defending or explaining to others at times. But as I have read through the Bible, looked at the way this world works, talked with my dad, and friends, and read through authors such as C.S. Lewis and John Piper I had to try and lay out how I see all these ideas in my head. Not only to make it clear to myself, but also to see what doesn’t fit and what needs to continually be evaluated as I seek to follow the Lord. I wanted to tackle this explanation on two fronts: the sovereignty of God in everything, including the elect; and the Holy Spirit, or more specifically the question of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And after these discussions I wanted to tie the two together with writing on the ultimate Glory of God. This writing is thoughts on the first of these two, the Sovereignty of God. In my mind as I read through what I have written it begs the asking of more questions than it answers but any thoughts on what I have written would be appreciated.
So lets get it on: I have talked with people who hold to the belief that God does not micromanage our ever detail in life, that with his omnipotent power he only needs to step in when that power is needed. (See description of God reacting to situations, which shows his omniscience, but not his omnipotence) While this view is of course possible I see it as flying in the face of some basic verses in the Bible, the first of which is Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And the next verse which states And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. To me this is micromanaging to the nth degree. If someone in out society today where to not only count the hairs on their pet cat, but also to number each of them we would call them O.C.D., yet here God expresses both his omnipotent power in the smallest detail of the world, the will for a sparrow to live or die, as well as his omniscient knowledge in our lives, the numbered hairs on our head. He finishes this section of scripture by reminding us that we are worth more than many sparrows which in my mind is him telling us that he is even more involved in our lives then these sparrows that he wills to live or die! *This is shown also in both Acts 17:26 where God determines the exact places and times people would live, and if that’s not enough Proverbs 16:33 tells us that He controls every decision of the casting of lots, or in terms for us today, the roll of the dice.*
From here my mind wanders to the big question about Gods sovereignty, Election. Romans 9 contains the main verses that come to my mind when this is brought up.
10 Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Interesting thought here, Hatred and love….that is what God has, there is no in between, God doesn’t sort of like people.)
Too many times I have heard people make the argument that God is unjust and that a loving God would not send people to hell. Which brings to mind the verse in 2 Peter: 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. So why then if He doesn’t want anyone to perish does he send people to hell? My only answer to this question is: for His Glory, *He does ALL things for His glory. John Piper and Dr. Fuller are very helpful on this point. They argue that if God did not act for His greatest glory then He would be demeaning Himself and therefore Not worthy of all our praise.* God deserves all the glory and in so much as he deserves that glory, each part of his power deserves an equal amount of that glory. This idea I borrow from Jonathan Edwards. He wrote this idea out as follows:
Thus it is necessary, that God’s awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God’s glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974)
But you may ask how can God will something like this and not cause it to come about, or to word it differently, isn’t Gods willing absolute, can’t he bring this about through his omnipotent power? The answer is yes of course he could but he wouldn’t get the glory he deserves from this course of action. God set the universe up with just the right amount of people going to heaven and just the right amount of people going to hell so that he receives the absolute glory for all of it. The saved in Heaven will praise Him all the more because they where rescued from His wrath, which is showed against the deservingly punished in hell. This may seem harsh to us, but if we look at the Bible we see that we all are sinners, not one of us deserves to be in heaven. Only by Gods grace are we chosen and saved. But the question then arises; where we not created sinners? How do we have any other choice, its not like when I was born I could decide I would live a life without sin. How can a righteous loving God who wills that none should perish create sinners destined for hell? Is there a distinction then between Gods will and his purpose? We know there can’t be any contradiction here, but if these two don’t line up can these ideas still work? We know from Isaiah that nothing will thwart Gods purpose, so what is His ultimate purpose. I believe that it comes back to his Glory. God’s ultimate purpose is His glory. He wants to, and will, receive all the glory for everything he has done and will do in the lives of his created sons and daughters. Being a loving compassionate God who is slow to anger would mean that His will is that none would perish, but being a righteous judge whose ultimate purpose is for his own glory he knows that it cannot be this way. Now this is dangerous ground because if looked at wrong this could be interpreted as if God is held to some plan that must be followed so that he gets the ultimate glory. As if this path is the only one that can be taken and so if God really wants to get the glory he has to do it this way. This would be an interesting discussion I think, to have someone try and explain. I see it this way God is constrained only by Himself, no one outside of him can cause him to do anything. And since we know He is infinite, in power, creativity and knowledge, we know that he has no limitations. What I am trying to get at here is we can’t put God in this little box that says some outside force holds him to the path He chose. In our world we judge things by what is right or fair or good, and for Christians this has been set up by God through the Bible. But *God judges everything by whether or not it will ultimately bring Him the most possible glory. He is not constrained by our ideas of what is ‘fair’ or good or right or just. Something is good/right/ fair/ just if it brings Him the most glory…how can anything be good if it doesn’t properly recognize the inestimable worth of God?*
Back to the sovereignty of God, to me one of the biggest challenges with not accepting the view that God chooses is the flip side, or the other view held by men. Which is essentially something like this: God “knows” who is going to heaven, and this is who we would call the elect. I still don’t understand how this works. This view leaves something up to me, I, in essence, choose God, sure He first chose me, but I am doing something in this process as well, no matter how small the choice is, it leaves room for boasting. Faith, surely is required, but it appears to me from this description that God is reacting to his knowledge of my belief or un-belief in Him. *And God reacting to us is so contrary to anything we see in the Bible.* That is what I cannot accept, God does not react to anything, he causes and he purposes, when God speaks or when God moves in hearts or when God does anything it is for a purpose. When I go home from work today I will have a purpose, maybe I’m tired so I’ll take a nap with the purpose of getting rest. God does not work like this, when God acts it is in relation to nothing but His will. No outside influence causes God to act in my life. If I get in a car wreck and I am barely hanging onto life, God doesn’t have to quick save me from this accident. His purpose from before I was born would be for His glory through that accident. The accident would in some way not only bring him glory but would also be turned into some kind of good because I am His, He called me to be His own. He tells us time and again that he acts to bring about his purpose. Isaiah dominates this idea:
Isaiah 14:24 A Prophecy Against Assyria ] The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
Isaiah 46:11 From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Isaiah 48:14 Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD's chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.
Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
I realize this does not fully or in some cases even partially, answer the questions that can be asked of God’s sovereignty. But to me this subject is so refreshing to think about. Spurgeon puts it so plainly in this piece from one of his devotionals; I added my thoughts in parenthesis.
Being conscious of our own folly,(which I am all to aware of all the time) we would not desire to rule our own destinies. We feel safer and more at ease when the Lord steers our vessel than we could possibly be if we could direct it according to our own judgment. Joyfully we leave the painful present and the unknown future with our Father, our Savior, our Comforter.
So thats it for now let me know what your thoughts are.......Oh and sections surrounded by * are sections my Dad gave comments on, or gave the words for.
When I first became a Christian I didn’t know much about any of the details that many congregations and people are split over. Some may say that it’s not relevant to saving people and I would agree with this idea to a point. Gods Sovereignty is not a battle that will decide the outcome of the war being fought between congregations, nor is the debate over speaking in tongues and the gift of the Holy Spirit a battle that will spread Gods word across the world. But as I looked more into the word of God and started really looking at chapters like Romans 9 and Acts 1 and 2 they begged these same questions again and again. I hold no great regard for my logic, what I see as making sense to me I have a hard time defending or explaining to others at times. But as I have read through the Bible, looked at the way this world works, talked with my dad, and friends, and read through authors such as C.S. Lewis and John Piper I had to try and lay out how I see all these ideas in my head. Not only to make it clear to myself, but also to see what doesn’t fit and what needs to continually be evaluated as I seek to follow the Lord. I wanted to tackle this explanation on two fronts: the sovereignty of God in everything, including the elect; and the Holy Spirit, or more specifically the question of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And after these discussions I wanted to tie the two together with writing on the ultimate Glory of God. This writing is thoughts on the first of these two, the Sovereignty of God. In my mind as I read through what I have written it begs the asking of more questions than it answers but any thoughts on what I have written would be appreciated.
So lets get it on: I have talked with people who hold to the belief that God does not micromanage our ever detail in life, that with his omnipotent power he only needs to step in when that power is needed. (See description of God reacting to situations, which shows his omniscience, but not his omnipotence) While this view is of course possible I see it as flying in the face of some basic verses in the Bible, the first of which is Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And the next verse which states And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. To me this is micromanaging to the nth degree. If someone in out society today where to not only count the hairs on their pet cat, but also to number each of them we would call them O.C.D., yet here God expresses both his omnipotent power in the smallest detail of the world, the will for a sparrow to live or die, as well as his omniscient knowledge in our lives, the numbered hairs on our head. He finishes this section of scripture by reminding us that we are worth more than many sparrows which in my mind is him telling us that he is even more involved in our lives then these sparrows that he wills to live or die! *This is shown also in both Acts 17:26 where God determines the exact places and times people would live, and if that’s not enough Proverbs 16:33 tells us that He controls every decision of the casting of lots, or in terms for us today, the roll of the dice.*
From here my mind wanders to the big question about Gods sovereignty, Election. Romans 9 contains the main verses that come to my mind when this is brought up.
10 Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Interesting thought here, Hatred and love….that is what God has, there is no in between, God doesn’t sort of like people.)
Too many times I have heard people make the argument that God is unjust and that a loving God would not send people to hell. Which brings to mind the verse in 2 Peter: 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. So why then if He doesn’t want anyone to perish does he send people to hell? My only answer to this question is: for His Glory, *He does ALL things for His glory. John Piper and Dr. Fuller are very helpful on this point. They argue that if God did not act for His greatest glory then He would be demeaning Himself and therefore Not worthy of all our praise.* God deserves all the glory and in so much as he deserves that glory, each part of his power deserves an equal amount of that glory. This idea I borrow from Jonathan Edwards. He wrote this idea out as follows:
Thus it is necessary, that God’s awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God’s glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974)
But you may ask how can God will something like this and not cause it to come about, or to word it differently, isn’t Gods willing absolute, can’t he bring this about through his omnipotent power? The answer is yes of course he could but he wouldn’t get the glory he deserves from this course of action. God set the universe up with just the right amount of people going to heaven and just the right amount of people going to hell so that he receives the absolute glory for all of it. The saved in Heaven will praise Him all the more because they where rescued from His wrath, which is showed against the deservingly punished in hell. This may seem harsh to us, but if we look at the Bible we see that we all are sinners, not one of us deserves to be in heaven. Only by Gods grace are we chosen and saved. But the question then arises; where we not created sinners? How do we have any other choice, its not like when I was born I could decide I would live a life without sin. How can a righteous loving God who wills that none should perish create sinners destined for hell? Is there a distinction then between Gods will and his purpose? We know there can’t be any contradiction here, but if these two don’t line up can these ideas still work? We know from Isaiah that nothing will thwart Gods purpose, so what is His ultimate purpose. I believe that it comes back to his Glory. God’s ultimate purpose is His glory. He wants to, and will, receive all the glory for everything he has done and will do in the lives of his created sons and daughters. Being a loving compassionate God who is slow to anger would mean that His will is that none would perish, but being a righteous judge whose ultimate purpose is for his own glory he knows that it cannot be this way. Now this is dangerous ground because if looked at wrong this could be interpreted as if God is held to some plan that must be followed so that he gets the ultimate glory. As if this path is the only one that can be taken and so if God really wants to get the glory he has to do it this way. This would be an interesting discussion I think, to have someone try and explain. I see it this way God is constrained only by Himself, no one outside of him can cause him to do anything. And since we know He is infinite, in power, creativity and knowledge, we know that he has no limitations. What I am trying to get at here is we can’t put God in this little box that says some outside force holds him to the path He chose. In our world we judge things by what is right or fair or good, and for Christians this has been set up by God through the Bible. But *God judges everything by whether or not it will ultimately bring Him the most possible glory. He is not constrained by our ideas of what is ‘fair’ or good or right or just. Something is good/right/ fair/ just if it brings Him the most glory…how can anything be good if it doesn’t properly recognize the inestimable worth of God?*
Back to the sovereignty of God, to me one of the biggest challenges with not accepting the view that God chooses is the flip side, or the other view held by men. Which is essentially something like this: God “knows” who is going to heaven, and this is who we would call the elect. I still don’t understand how this works. This view leaves something up to me, I, in essence, choose God, sure He first chose me, but I am doing something in this process as well, no matter how small the choice is, it leaves room for boasting. Faith, surely is required, but it appears to me from this description that God is reacting to his knowledge of my belief or un-belief in Him. *And God reacting to us is so contrary to anything we see in the Bible.* That is what I cannot accept, God does not react to anything, he causes and he purposes, when God speaks or when God moves in hearts or when God does anything it is for a purpose. When I go home from work today I will have a purpose, maybe I’m tired so I’ll take a nap with the purpose of getting rest. God does not work like this, when God acts it is in relation to nothing but His will. No outside influence causes God to act in my life. If I get in a car wreck and I am barely hanging onto life, God doesn’t have to quick save me from this accident. His purpose from before I was born would be for His glory through that accident. The accident would in some way not only bring him glory but would also be turned into some kind of good because I am His, He called me to be His own. He tells us time and again that he acts to bring about his purpose. Isaiah dominates this idea:
Isaiah 14:24 A Prophecy Against Assyria ] The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
Isaiah 46:11 From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Isaiah 48:14 Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD's chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.
Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
I realize this does not fully or in some cases even partially, answer the questions that can be asked of God’s sovereignty. But to me this subject is so refreshing to think about. Spurgeon puts it so plainly in this piece from one of his devotionals; I added my thoughts in parenthesis.
Being conscious of our own folly,(which I am all to aware of all the time) we would not desire to rule our own destinies. We feel safer and more at ease when the Lord steers our vessel than we could possibly be if we could direct it according to our own judgment. Joyfully we leave the painful present and the unknown future with our Father, our Savior, our Comforter.
So thats it for now let me know what your thoughts are.......Oh and sections surrounded by * are sections my Dad gave comments on, or gave the words for.
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