Time Is Short

the world is a stage
it's said, all will play their part,
then exit on cue

"And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9: 27-28)

"Since his (man's) days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, . . ." (Job 14:5)

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them." (Psalm 139:16)

MacLaren on Genesis

Another note from Alexander MacLaren's commentary on the book of Genesis. The first of these was posted yesterday.

"Abram saw plainly what he had to leave, but not what he was to win. He had to make a venture of faith, for 'the land that I will shew thee' was undefined."

God says, "I need you to go."

"Where?" we ask.

"I'll show you later. For now, go."

What if this went through our heads every morning?

Alexander MacLaren on Genesis

Recently I had occasion to read part of a commentary on Genesis written by Alexander MacLaren. MacLaren was born in Scotland, but spent his years of ministry in London.

From his commentary about God's call to Abram to leave his home in Ur:

". . . for (God's) command is to be supreme, and clinging hands that would hold back the pilgrim have to be disengaged." 

In Your Distress

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me." Psalm 120:1

When in distress, call to the Lord. Distresses come in all shapes and sizes. Some may be manageable; some may be unmanageable. There is an Almighty God Who stands outside of and beyond Creation and He Who spoke it all into existence can smooth out any distress by a word. (by saying God is outside and beyond, I don't mean to suggest He is removed or detached, but simply that He is greater) Honor Him by calling on Him in times of trouble for He is able enough, good enough, supreme enough to fix it. No one else is.

Where you and I turn in times of trouble reveals who, or what, we consider to be our god.

Resigning Or Embracing?

There is resigning oneself and then, there is embracing. For a while now, I have been resigned to my lot. I think it comes from a pure desire to acknowledge, to praise the Sovereignty of God but, while His sovereignty is indeed praiseworthy I, by my attitude of resignation, have esteemed it as a lesser thing, a thing that is merely endured.

From the Valley of Vision:

Jehovah God,
Thou Creator, Upholder, Proprietor of all things,
I cannot escape from thy presence or control, nor do I desire to do so.
My privilege is to be under the agency of omnipotence, righteousness, wisdom, patience, mercy, grace.

The Puritan praying above sees it as a privilege to be under God's control and wisdom. He has not 'resigned' himself to it. To see it as privilege is to 'embrace' it.

"There has been a wonderful alteration in my mind, in respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty . . . The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God."  (Jonathan Edwards)

May it be so.

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

I found this post last summer, but it seems as if it were waiting for me to come back to it now, what with all the little circumstances that attend my life now. I would encourage you to read the whole post that is linked here.

The lesson (I don't like that word in this case) that strikes me is that God fills in the missing parts. In the case of George Matheson, it was his sense of being abandoned by, first a fiance, and then by a sister. In that state of feeling alone, his heart can sing, "my God will not let me go!"

Right now, friends I know are burying loved ones. The brother of a friend lost his house in the tornadoes. Kathy and I both need to find work. A woman I know suffers a chronic illness that may take her life.

There is a Love, though, that will not let us go.

It is a strange "not letting go" however. This "not letting go" takes us through some very dark places. It takes us places where it seems that we have been let go. We suffer and we cry. We ask questions and don't hear answers. Matheson might have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland of his day. Instead he lost his sight. Yet, he said he was not let go.

It seems, then, that in all our "not being let go" that we don't merely have Someone holding us as we walk through the valley. It may be that the One not letting us go is actually leading us into the valley.

How can it be otherwise, for He has never let us go?

Spurgeon on God's Sovereignty

I read this today and it did my soul good.

"There is no attribute more comforting to (God's) children than that of (His) Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation - the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands - the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we trust." - Charles Spurgeon

Spurgeon On Redemption, Part 3

Here is Part 3 of Charles Spurgeon's thoughts on Redemption from God's view. Spurgeon conjures here what God the Spirit might have covenanted regarding mankind's salvation in this imaginary, though Bible-saturated, statement,

"I hereby covenant that all whom the Father giveth to the Son, I will in due time quicken. I will show them their need of redemption; I will cut off from them all groundless hope, and destroy their refuges of lies. I will bring them to the blood of sprinkling; I will give them faith whereby this blood can be applied to them; I will work in them every grace; I will keep their faith alive; I will cleanse them and drive out all depravity from them, and they shall be presented at last spotless and faultless."

Previous posts, Part 1 and Part 2.

Make Plans, Not Resolutions

I don't know where you are at, of course, but for me, this was timely:

“First, God is central to plans and motives. God is not first on a priority list, but rather central to all areas of life.”

Said another way, God is not first among equals (the rest of the list), but the star around which all things move, their orbit ordered by that star.

The article from The Resurgence.

I Don't Have Time Tonight

. . . to elaborate on a thought that I hinted at during the World Series. The thought had application during the Super Bowl and also applies to the current political season.

(DING! We have sports seasons, seasons of life, political seasons, seasons of the year, buying seasons, selling seasons. I find some satisfaction in the fact that this pastoral word remains vital in 21st century vocabulary.)

The thought, in a nutshell, is that God is sovereign. What is unfolding - at the World Series, at the Super Bowl or on Super Tuesday - has all been foreseen and permitted. If permitted, then on some level it is God's will and plan. God is good, beneficent, powerful and all-knowing. I shall not fret over outcomes, but rather accept events as His revealed will and trust that He knows best. It's a lot easier to live with outcomes I think I don't prefer when I trust my Father about them.

There's more, but I am retiring for the evening.

Uh Oh

OK, controversial confession time.

I'm a Calvinist. I have been for a few years now. I didn't go looking for it, it found me. (What did you expect me to say?) I'm not militant about it - others hold different views - and there's room for that.

One of the things I have found in this system of belief is tremendous comfort and I point you to this article as an example - here's a snippet, parentheses mine:

"It (unconditional election) is good news because it means no
unbeliever is so bad that they can say in response to our gospel pleading, "I
can’t be elect; I am too evil. I have sinned too long and to deeply." God’s
election is not based on how much we do or don’t sin. It is not based on
anything we do or think or feel or choose. Therefore, the proper response to
that kind of despair is to say, "Who do you think you are to exalt your sin to
the level of God? Who do you think you are to wallow in your despair and make
your sinful will the sovereign of the universe, as if you could decide who is
elect and who is not by the quantity of your sinning?" No! You have no right and
no power to declare yourself beyond God’s election. He and he alone decides who
is elect. And he decides NOT on the basis of your sin or your righteousness, but
on the basis of his inscrutable will alone. You may not play God with your sin.
None of it proves you are not elect. Repent, therefore, and call on the name of
the Lord through Jesus Christ who has died for sinners. For he has said,
"Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’" To the despairing
soul who feels he has sinned himself out of the possibility of election,
unconditional election is good news."

The whole thing.

Frankly, knowing my heart as I do, had I been sovereign over my eternal soul, I'd have reason to despair. Thankfully, God is sovereign.