Posts Tagged ‘Accountability’

DailyTheocentrism: The Divine Will of God and the providential will of God

It must be said that there is an attribute, both eternal and uniquely divine, about God’s will so as to say that it is immovable, immutable and the only reality there will ever be. (Job 42:2)

This is coupled with the fact that He provides some freedom to those who have been reborn and can thus be alive and make choices. It CANNOT be said that man ever has freewill, as a “free-will” would be able to do anything it wants to do anytime it wants to do it – only God can do that. Rather, we live within the realm of responsibility and Divine Sovereignty, as D.A. Carson writes. Yet, how if God’s WILL is sovereign over all can we ever make a choice. Well . . . we can and we cannot.

This is where the principle of complexity needs to replace ideas of contradiction. Two items may only seem to contradict, unless they are elementally opposed – then they contradict. Otherwise, they may be two corollary attributes of a thoroughly complex system. Here that applies to the reality that the tension between say, the imperatives (commands) in Scripture and the fact that God has no thing outside of His WILL, is no tension at all – it only seems to be. This applies to sin and the Sovereignty of God as well. His Will is complex enough to contain His will (providence with man) and it is neither a contradiction, nor a diluting of the integrity of God.

See the illustration below:

God’s providential will (the filial application of God’s Sovereign WILL to His relationship with mankind) lies always within His Sovereign will, namely because it is born out of it – as all things are. Yet, it is within the complexity of His will a real realm of [limited] choice – namely to please or not to please Father. These two categories are essential to even begin a dialog on the Will/will of God. For truly, no thing can ever thwart the WILL of God.

A small/BIG reminder for us men – For Steve and Me and all my brothers

I have often told soon-to-be-new parents that they needed to prepare for the event of when the doctor hands them their newborn baby. For when he, or she, hands them the baby, he, or she, will take convenience away from them from that point on. The fact is, I haven’t slept well in 7 years.

The truth is, though – it’s worth it. The rich life and truths and pictures in parenting so far outweigh any so-called independence that the benefits could be described as transcendent.

Andrew Peterson (song) here provides a helpful perspective. Take time to watch it after the bath, and the story and the prayers and the hugs’n kisses. You’ll be tired, but for the right reasons.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1428169?pg=embed&sec=1428169[/vimeo]

Shame on us: The Abimelech Principle

(Reposting for my Apologetics Class)

I call this the Abimelech principle, because this is a situation that we are faced with too often as Christians – namely, a non-believer providing a better example of commitment to Christ or to the Gospel than us; or in the case of Abraham (Genesis 20), being rebuked by a non-believer over ethical issues. The truth is that I do not share Christ with others enough; I do not bear witness to the truth enough; I say that I cherish Him, but clearly don’t act as if I want enough others to cherish Him.

According to this video, that might mean that I am hating people. I am not trying to be melodramatic here. I know he, like Abimelech, is an unbeliever – but, maybe he’s right.

I do not share Christ with others enough. Of that I repent.

DailyTheocentrism: Dependency reaches from the integrity of molecules to the trappings of men (John 15:5)

It is true. (John 15:5)

There were great ironies on the cross that D.A. Carson talks about here.

In line with that, it is true that while men were mocking the Lord on the Cross, He was, by the exercise of His will holding their molecules together; making the air respirate in their lungs that bore the blashphemous sounds to their tongues; maintaining the gravity that stayed them fast to the ground that His blood dripped upon; holding the planet on which they reside in its orbit around the sun; maintaining the integity of the universe in which IT resides. (Col. 1:17; Acts 17:28)

Even at the Cross of Calvary, it was through Him that all things are accomplished. (John 10:18)

DailyTheocentrism: . . . the purpose: His Holy Name.

DailyTheocentrism:The event of the Assyrian/Babylonian captivity for the nation of Israel was so significant that all the prophetic books are about it,the nation never fully recovered from it,the kings disappeared after it;the purpose:His Holy Name. How important is His name to us?