The Sovereignty and Freedom of God and the Responsibility and Freedom of Mankind (2)
It’s all well and good to talk about the sovereign hand of God when things are going great for us but what do we do when it seems as if life couldn’t get any worse?
William Cowper lived from 1731 to 1800 and during his life he wrote poems and hymns. One of William’s most memorable hymns was “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” which he wrote in 1779.
The Sovereignty and Freedom of God and the Responsibility and Freedom of Mankind (1)
As we have eyes to see we start to notice verses throughout Scripture where both the sovereignty and freedom of God are stated right alongside the responsibility and freedom of mankind. This characteristic holds true in Philippians 2:12-13.
Spending the Summer in the Gospel of John
Last Sunday, Gary preached on drawing near to God and one of the ways in which he suggested we draw near was to read and/or listen through the Gospel of John during the summer.
Only the Triune God is Love
What was God doing before creating all that is? For thousands, or millions, or billions of years (however long eternity past is) God had to be doing something, but what was it?
Exegetical Meditations (9)
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7, ESV)
Here Paul writes that God’s mercy comes from “the great love with which he loved us” (v. 4). Not only that, but God loved us “whenwe were dead in our trespasses” (v. 5a). That’s what mercy is.
Exegetical Meditations (8)
Traditions are a funny thing within the context of the Christian religion. It can easily serve as a helpful guide when determining faithful orthodoxy and orthopraxy. It can also easily serve as an unhelpful guide when it holds an authority over the voice of God.
When the Pharisees came to Jesus in Mark 7 they brought with them a question of how Jesus’s disciples were or were not following in the footsteps of the established tradition.
Exegetical Meditations (7)
One of the wonderful things about the New Testament and the gospels in particular is the way in which the personalities of the writers remain intact through the inspiration of God. God could have just as easily decided to strip the writers’ style and tell them exactly what to write in each instance because we know he’s done that elsewhere. However, for his own good and perfect purpose, he has decided to allow Matthew to sound like Matthew and Luke to sound like Luke.
Exegetical Meditations (6)
Although being quite different from the context we live in (we’re in the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant), Jesus’s exhortation to the Pharisees in Mark 7 is quite helpful to us as we examine our lives in light of what the New Testament teaches.
There’s no doubt the Pharisees talked a good game. The problem, however, was that they did not always live according to what they said.
Exegetical Meditations: God's Work of Forgiveness
It’s a shame when some see the work of God in the world and yet miss God being a part of that work. Worse yet is to be upset with someone being used by God because they can’t possibly be doing what God has asked them to do.
In Matthew 9:1-8 is the famous story of Jesus forgiving and healing the paralytic who was carried in by people as he lay on his bed. After Jesus forgave the man on his bed, the scribes who were there said this was a blasphemous thing to do.
Exegetical Meditations: Is God Looking Out for Me?
I’ve know God loves me but does he care for me?
This is the feeling a lot of Christians have at one point or another (or at many points) in their lives. We can struggle with the idea that God really does care for us—even down to the day-to-day things we go through. I think we struggle because we know God loves us (this is a given in the Bible) but then uncomfortable and even horrible things happen to us, so we compartmentalize a little bit. We recognize and do business with the fact that God loves us but then (when the uncomfortable or horrible things happen) we wonder if God cares about what we’re going through.