why me?

These are questions we tend to ask when things aren’t going the way we would desire for them to go.  Why me?  Why this? Why now? Justin Taylor posts an answer tree from David Powlison, “God’s Grace and Your Sufferings,”  in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (pp. 172-173).. here is a paragraph from the middle, [...]

Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler’s surgery to remove a mass from his frontal lobe begins in about 20 minutes. Be in prayer for him during the surgery and for a complete recovery. Here is a post from Matt going into surgery about the things for which he is thankful. The beginning: The last seven days have been some [...]

God’s Glory

An interesting twitter discussion has arisen between Mark Lamprecht Wes Widner and Jacob Hall. Friends of Mark’s have a six year old son who has developed a brain tumor and on his blog, Mark posted John’s facebook entry about Faith, Sovereignty, and God’s glory. Go take a look at John’s response to this situation and [...]

the Jesus threat

Todd Bumgarner posts an interesting quote from John Stott. what do you think about this? The context is Stott talking about the first century Jewish people and their priests and how they reacted and responded to Jesus’ ministry: “So they felt threatened by Jesus.  He undermined their prestige, their hold over the people, their own [...]

Choice, Sovereignty and an example

John Piper recently explored free will, God’s sovereignty and Paul’s example. fascinating stuff. One of the most influential passages in the Bible that God used to open my mind to his sovereignty over my will is Philippians 2:12-13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to [...]

two on suffering

first courtesy of Vitamin Z we get this comforting bit that we will never be able to fully explain the problem of evil but that we can trust God anyway: So how do Christians explain the problem of evil? The reality is, we can’t provide an exhaustive theodicy or explanation of the existence of evil.  [...]

powerful stuff

Timmy Brister posted this video “Choosing Thomas” and like he says it is worth the next ten minutes of your time. somewhat related, Randy Alcorn talks here about the absolute necessity for Christians to have a well developed theology of suffering to avoid falling into serious error when something like the events in the video [...]

Do people have free will?

Andrew Naselli takes a long look at the question of free will over here. Fascinating stuff. take some time this weekend to explore it. Here is the introduction to get you started: Non-Christians and Christians alike often give the same answer to difficult questions like these: Why did God allow sin in the first place? [...]

conception of self part II

earlier I quoted C.S. Lewis in Perelandra to illustrate the point that our enemy has as his project the inflation of our ego to the point that we find it difficult to deny anything to ourselves and our own vision of how the world should be. Satan has as his project affirming to us that [...]

the Shack part I

I am reading the Shack. It took all the way to page 165 (out of 246) before I got completely angry. Up to that time I was reading at a relatively low grade frustration level. The prose was juvenile. the story was wooden. The theology was wrong. The emphasis was on Mack instead of God. [...]

sovereignty

John MacArthur nails it with the opening sentence of this post (the second and third sentences are excellent as well) which is an excerpt from the book Ashamed of the Gospel. No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God [...]

stormy seas? no problem

Courtesy of John Mark at Sweet Tea and Theology, here is a great quote from John Newton (the author of the hymn Amazing Grace) I heartily sympathize with you in your complaints; but I see you in safe hands. The Lord loves you, and will take care of you. He who raises the dead, can [...]

suffering

I noticed in the sidebar at the Straight Up blog a three part series on God’s role in suffering by Gerald Hiestand. Here is part three which contains links to the first two parts. Go check it out. I like these bits here especially well, but it is all good and very much worth a [...]

God’s glory

Al Mohler also touches on the question that I quoted from John Piper the other day. First he starts with an important reminder: Human beings are trapped in a human frame of reference. When we think of motivation, we inevitably start with our own self-conscious knowledge of our own motivations. For a human to seek [...]

Is God for us or Himself?

Is God for us or Himself? That is the question answered by this sermon from John Piper delivered at Wheaton College back in 1984. My brother-in-law, Todd, sent me the link by email last weekend. Such an excellent reminder of the whole point of this exercise we are going through. how do you react to [...]

Spectacular Sins

I am just finishing the book Spectacular Sins by John Piper. As you might expect from Piper, his purpose is to demonstrate from scripture the sovereignty of God in every situation including several specific spectacularly sinful occasions. He deals with the fall of Satan, Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden, The pride of Babel, [...]

Why pray?

Pulpit Magazine concludes its series on why we should pray if God is sovereign with part 4 here. The first three parts are linked here. “5. We should pray because God has ordained prayer as a means by which He accomplishes His eternal purposes.” This part is a little longer and more involved, but it [...]

why pray?

A recurring theme in our men’s Bible study and on this blog is the question “why should we pray if God is sovereign over all?” another variant is “why should we pray if God is going to to what God is going to do anyway?” Here are two previous posts that I have put up [...]

sovereignty of God

Joe Thorn is back up and running with his blog. here is his post quoting from A.W. Pink on the Sovereignty of God. here are two snips from either end, but go read the middle. How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of Deity which prevails [...]

God is Sovereign

Todd Burus is on the same wavelength that I was on in the comments to this post. God is sovereign. Honestly, I don’t think there are nearly as many people who believe this as there are that say it. Ask any ol’ Baptist biddy why it is that she is maintaining faith even though her [...]

another thought for the day

Charles Spurgeon from Reformation 21: “Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee; but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation: [...]

we must get this

here again is a link to John MacArthur’s two part message on God and evil. if you only have 25 minutes, then listen to part two only. Unfortunately, the free listening of the message is no longer available. They cost money (2 dollars) to download, but are worth it. originally posted on 8/27. everyone needs [...]

we must KNOW this Christ

this is the Christ we must know: parting question. does the supremacy of Christ recited here give you comfort? or does it provoke some other emotion? Just asking. hat tip to Vitamin Z

calvinism and evangelism

Tim Challies has a long detailed look at calvinism and evangelism that is well worth reading for those who do not understand why someone who believes in sovereign grace feels the need to spread the good news of the gospel far and wide. Here is the question Tim is answering. “Given the tenets of total [...]

more on Prayer

Here is part 2 of R. C. Sproul’s article on prayer. (I mentioned part 1 here) In this one he asks two questions. Does prayer change God’s mind? Does prayer change things? The answer he gives is different for each one. Go read the whole thing with bonus quotes from Jonathan Edwards. key paragraph No [...]