Archive for January 2011
DailyTheocentrism: It’s not ‘ok’ to EVER doubt God. (Job 42:1-6)
January 27, 2011 | 
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Two summers ago I heard Ray Pritchard, former Pastor of Oak Park Baptist(?) speak. He told us in his message that the mature believer doubts God.
In Job’s plight, the text shows us how a man that God would call “blameless and upright” reacts to INTENSE suffering – “The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” He had lost his children, wealth, support of his wife, health and comfort. He remained steadfast . . . for a while. (Job 30:16-31) Then Job makes a case. (Job 31)
It is good at this point to remember that if ANYONE would receive an accepted “doubt” from God, it would have been Job. After all, he was a man that God supported and showed confidence in. If the ‘mature’ should doubt God, here is the case where it would be seen.
After a brief reminder by Elihu about the Perfect LORD, God speaks to Job’s doubts. He spends more than three chapters reminding Job that the ‘one’ who would speak with such demand of “rights” would surely have the power over creation – the mark of sovereignty. He is essence asks Job, “Boy, who do you think you are?!”
Really?!! After all God brought on Job at a point in his life when he had remained so faithful – God would say that he had no right to doubt what He was doing?!!
Really.
DailyTheocentrism: Because God is “First Cause”, Creator/Sustainer/Sovereign, He is . . .
DailyTheocentrism: Because God is “First Cause”, Creator/Sustainer/Sovereign, He is the First of/in everything; Knowledge-if you don’t know Him, you can’t truly know anything.
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Tags: Chief End, Epistemology, God, Sovereignty, Truth | 
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DailyTheocentrism: It’s not ‘ok’ to be mad at God. (Job 40:1-5)
I have heard more than a few say that it is ok to be mad at God – both from the pulpit and from the pen. They contend that God appreciates our honesty and candor – That He “gets it” and would never turn away the honesty of one of His children.
Honestly, we are rotten, deranged sinners. Honestly, we faced God in the Garden and at Galilee and we honestly suppressed the truth and honestly hated Him. Honestly, apart from Him we have no being, or movement, or minds, or existence. Honestly, I have no good in me, save Christ, who is the only honesty in me.
So, to depart from Him, so as to accuse Him at whatever level is ridiculous at best and blasphemous at . . . well, that’s what it is. From where would we draw an ethic or morality by which to bring God to account? He expresses truth and reality and righteous is what He IS. not just what He is like. There is no other pool from which to dip to fill a cup of judgment to pour on Him – He alone is Just and the Justifier.
Honestly, it’s not ‘ok’ to ever be mad at God.
Prepositional Salvation
We are saved:
- From God
- By God
- To God
- For God
We are often perplexing the masses for a blanket call to “be saved.” The question begged is, “What do we need to be saved from?” We know where this is going: sin, because it’s against God, because He’s Holy, because He will punish . . . and so on. The reality is that not only are we thorougly plagued by a very small view of God, but we are also plagued by a very small view of sin. In Ezekiel, God says. “Is it so small a thing?” Based on how we respond to so much of the sins we encounter, we would answer in the affirmative – no big deal, right?
The reality is that we are not in trouble with sin, rather because of it. This kills us and now death is our enemy (more on that another time). The reality is that the death we receive is at the hand of God and it is His wrath that we need to be saved from, “For the wrath of God . . .” (Romans 1) Since we cannot “save ourselves” we are helpless, hapless and hopeless – were it not for a Savior. It is marvelous that the Savior is God, though. So, truly, we are saved from God, by God.
DailyTheocentrism: He’s not “like”, He Is.
God is not a holy God, or a just God or a loving God; HE IS Holiness, HE IS Justice, HE IS Love- these do not describe Him, they flow from Him. Reality was born by the self-revelation of He, who IS the Sovereign. To attempt to capture the Source by a reflection or copy – or worse yet, a perversion is to diminish to the point of offense. Definition begins with Him.