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Meditations

Knowing that God, In All Three Persons, Is Sovereign

Some people think that because God doesn’t need anything, because he is very smart, very good, very kind, and very strong that he gets to be sovereign, or in charge. But God isn’t in charge because of those things. God is in charge because He is God! God has the right to freely do whatever He wants over what He made.

  • Whatever the LORD pleases to do, he does it! (Psalm 135:6)

This absolute right belongs to all three persons of the one triune Godhead.

  • Our God in the heavens does whatever he wants. (Psalm 115:3)
  • The Lamb of God is lord of lords and kings of kings (Rev. 17:14 )
  • The Spirit sovereignly decides the gifts for individuals (1 Cor. 12:11)

The fact that God, in all three persons, is all good, all loving, all knowing, all powerful, and all wise, just means that he is always able to perfectly act on his rights: nothing can stop him.

  • God has planned it, so it will be: who can turn his hand back? No one. (Isa. 14:24–27)
  • God causes all things to work together for good for those who love (Rom. 8:28)

This is fantastic news. God never loses control. God, in all three persons, is truly in charge, even when things are bad and horribly sad. If God is behind a ministry or giftedness, He is able to make that ministry fruitful in his own way! As the hymn in Christ Alone says:

No guilt in life, no fear in death: this is the power of Christ in me 

From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny 

No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand !

Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

In Christ Alone
Categories
rey's a point

How To Be A Christian In The Modern World?

The modern world runs rampant. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. On the one hand people refuse to give thanks to God and embrace every spiritual stupidity available to them. On the other, people take a morally superior, yet hypocritical, high-ground which looks really godly but denies the power of God.

And then you’re supposed to applaud each individual effort at being self-governed.

How is a Christian supposed to live with convictions in a world like that? How can someone even be a Christian in this modern world?

Samuel, one of the last judges, lived in a day like ours. When he was called as a prophet in 1 Samuel 3, we learn four major things about God, his word, and the proper response of God’s people.

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study

Russ on the Sovereignty of God

In my last several posts, we began the process of looking at each of the components of TULIPS in order to see how well this model of salvation aligns with Scripture. In looking at Total Depravity, we agreed with much of the traditional position though we found no Scriptural evidence for: regeneration prior to faith; an understanding that death means spiritual inability to act; and that the non-believer is unable to exercise faith. Thus, we stated that a person will never seek God in their sinfulness. However, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, God seeks each individual making them aware of their standing before Him. It is at this point that a person does or does not exercise their faith in Jesus. Once they believe, they are given life which is the presence of God through the Holy Spirit living in them. All the benefits of salvation are immediately bestowed upon them (though final fulfillment awaits our resurrection).