Everybody Wants Reformation......but who's willing to let "goods and kindred go?"

An Encore Presentation

A earnest plea for a day of prayer and fasting.
No fanfare; no programs; no religious leaders jockeying for media attention; no K-Street e-spin; no DVD's or MP3's to profit from; no books to promote; no CD's to sell; no reformation contests to judge; no personality focused better life agendas to publicize, etc. Just simply God's people taking leave of themselves and from the duties of their daily lives to humbly seek the Lord and His Word (read Isaiah 58) to bring revival, repentance, and reform to His church once again.

We need a new Reformation today beloved; we need another Great Awakening!

"O Christian, never be proud of things that are so transient, injurious, and uncertain as the riches of this evil world! But set your heart on the true and durable riches of grace in Christ Jesus." -ISAAC AMBROSE

TO A BAND OF BEREANS
October 31st is Reformation Day--the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door at Wittenberg calling a recalcitrant Roman church away from the gross sin of indulgences for legal tender to recapturing the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Today's evangelicalism needs another Reformation--a genuine move of God among His people that calls and returns His believers back to biblical Christianity and the gospel of sola fide once again.

A friend of mine yesterday (Brian H.) made an interesting comment in jest when talking about shopping--he said, "impulse buying is good; it always leads to happiness." Now, a part from the obvious hedonism of those words, here is where they strangely apply and ring true on the wanton state in evangelicalism today. Some foolishly promote the assertions that:

• Impulse faith is good; it always leads to a more happy life.
• Impulse contextualization of the gospel message is good, because it always leads to better and more effective evangelism.
• Impulse secular ownership of Christian music and publishing companies (Word, Sparrow, Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, etc.) is good, because it always leads to more market exposure to mainstream audiences, which means more opportunity for the gospel to be heard.
• Impulse Emerging Church Movements are good, because it always means that we can be "relevant and sensible" to seekers who don't know Jesus--by appealing to them through pragmatic tactics which result in significant church growth.
• Impulse Evangelical Co-Belligerence is good, because real morality and family values are sequestered through legislation not regeneration; and with an important election around the corner in our nation, nothing could be more important to deal with the ills plaguing our society than to Christianize the political process through turning the church into a religious PAC or lobbyist group.

What is the solution beloved to this plight?

"OPEN HEAVEN LORD": BRING REFORMATION, REVIVAL AND REPENTANCE TO YOUR CHURCH AGAIN
Beloved, this October 31st let's set out sights heavenward and off our own self-absorbed concerns and ministries to seek the Lord for another Reformation to sweep through His church once again.

Why don't we use our blogs, radio programs, websites, email lists, etc. on October 31st to lovingly, with brokenness, bathed in contrition, but yet with a holy boldness to sound the alarm and make a clarion call for true reformation to come to HIs church once again?
 
Would others that read COT here be willing to commit October 31st as a day of fasting and prayer and humbly ask the Lord Jesus to sovereignly move among His people by His Holy Spirit to revive us, cleanse us, reform us, and embolden us to proclaim His gospel of grace to lost souls right where we live?

 Wouldn't it be tremendous beloved, to be a spectator of God's grace, hear from heaven, and see yet another Great Awakening in our day if the Lord would make it so? It is time to "plow up the fallow ground" and entreat God to revive His people in such a time as this.

Listen to these powerful words from an uncompromised voice of his day. Unlike today's evangelical leaders, he was not for sale and couldn't be manipulated by pragmatic allurements for the advancement of his own name, fame or financial increase. If he were alive today, he would never be found putting his own name on a Bible, charging for the ministry, courting political powers, being part of the cultural chatter of the day, or taking the easy road. Oh for men of God like this to rise up from the ashes of evangelicalism who "do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24).

POUNDING ON WITTENBERG'S DOOR
“Everybody admires Luther! Yes, yes; but you do not want any one else to do the same today.

When you go to the Zoological Gardens you all admire the bear; but how would you like a bear at home, or a bear wandering loose about the street? You tell me that it would be unbearable and no doubt you are right. So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago; the past ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron cage for him; but narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one.

Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and their composers had said, ‘The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.’ Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on. Note what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe our fathers. It is today as it was in the Reformers’ days.

Decision is needed.

Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it. The faith I hold bears upon it marks of the blood of my ancestors. Shall I deny their faith, for which they left their native land to sojourn here? Shall I deny their faith, for which they left their native land to sojourn here? Shall we cast away the treasure which was handed to us through the bars of prisons, or came to us charred with the flames of Smithfield?….An ancestry of lovers of the faith ought to be a great plea with us to abide by the Lord God of our fathers, and the faith in which they lived.

As for me, I must hold the old gospel: I can do no other.... It is today as I was in the Reformers’ days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it…. Look you, sirs, there are ages to come. If the lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to his truth today. We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to his Word. I charge you, not only by your ancestry, but by your posterity, that you seek to win the commendation of your Master, that though you dwell where Satan’s seat is, you yet hold fast his name, and do not deny his faith.

God grant us faithfulness, for the sake of the souls around us! How is the world to be saved if the church is false to her Lord? How are we to lift the masses if our fulcrum is removed? If our gospel is uncertain, what remains but increasing misery and despair? Stand fast, my beloved, in the name of God! I, your brother in Christ, entreat You to abide in the truth. Quit yourselves like men, be strong. The Lord sustain you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” -C.H.S.

MOTHER NATURE'S GOT A FATHER...seeking biblical understanding when devastating acts of nature occur

The $64,000 question that seems most pundits are asking these days is: was what occurred in Louisiana, recently Nashville, and the other national disasters a cosmic mistake… a roll of the celestial dice? Was nature running wild while God was helplessly watching? How could a loving God allow such a thing to happen? And if He did allow (or cause) this to happen, then is He truly a loving God at all? Can God be both loving, omnipotent (all-powerful) and sovereign concurrently? On Bill Maher’s HBO "Real Time" program few years ago, he and others had the unabashed audacity to suggest that this was all President Bush's doing; that somehow the selfless relief efforts by thousands of volunteers helping those hurt most by this disaster was nothing short of a “racist act” by rich white people against poor black people. Preposterous! (Can liberals cease to be politically jaded for a moment on anything without using tragedy as a punch line for their biased agendas?)

What is the answer? How are we as Christians to respond to others when national disaster by phenomenal acts of nature happen? Can we love our neighbor and bring help and aid to them in the midst of their severe loss and still point them to the God of all creation as a witness to the gospel? The obvious short answer is yes.

God is Lord over all His creation; even hurricane Katrina—and He will accomplish His plans for His glory, even through this devastation and tragedy. God was not sleeping and He was in the storm.

So contrary to the Open Theists (Libertarian Free Will); the environmentalists; the sociologists; the politicians; the pundits; the racists; and the theological liberals – the following verses below are what the Scriptures teach about “Mother Nature” and Heaven’s Dread Sovereign. Mother Nature does not have a free will; she does not act of her own accord or desires; she does not engage in lugubrious augury; and with certainty, does not by chance target coastal cities known for their debauchery as an indiscriminate prejudicial judge. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no random occurrence by nature in this world—catastrophic or otherwise. Mother Nature's got a Father.

Read with awe of the transcendent omnipotence
of our holy God over all nature in this world,
and then fall to your knees in humble worship!

“Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things” (Jeremiah 14:22).

“I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:7).

When Jerusalem crumbled and Jeremiah saw many people that he loved captured and killed, the weeping prophet lamented with these profound words: “Who has spoken and it has come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should any living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord” (Lamentations 3:37-40).

Elihu exhorted Job that God was not absent from, but truly is, Lord of the storm: "From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen" (Job 37:9-13).

In chapter Job chapter 38, the Lord answers Job by sovereign interogation saying: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; when I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and I said, "Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop? Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?” (Job 38:1-13).

"Who has cleft a channel for the flood, or a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land without people, on a desert without a man in it, to satisfy the waste and desolate land and to make the seeds of the grass to sprout? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? Water becomes hard like stone and the surface of the deep is imprisoned” (Job 38:25-30).

We need not look any further than those profound words from God’s Word. As we pray for and be of assistance to those who have been left destitute by this hurricane, we must also come to rest in the sure immutable unwavering truth that nothing can thwart God’s plans, purposes, and promises over His creatures and creation. In His wrath and in His mercy He will be glorified; for there is no injustice with God (cp, Romans 9:7-23).

In the end beloved, the issue comes down to this: are you prepared for eternity if your soul was required of you this hour; if a hurricane devasted your town? (cp, Luke 13:1-7).

Love your neighbor as yourself…
As the Day draws near,
Steve

an encore presentation

THE AMERICANS WHO RISKED EVERYTHING...the cost of freedom was considered by them to be "sacred honor"

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. —

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. — John Hancock

New Hampshire: 
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: 
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
 Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: 
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
 William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
 Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: 
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
 Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
 Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
 George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
 William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: 
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: 
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

this has been an encore presentation

THE PURPOSE OF GOD'S DECREES...by Thomas Boston

And this is no other than His own glory. Every rational agent acts for an end; and God being the most perfect agent, and His glory the highest end, there can be no doubt but all His decrees are directed to that end. Rom 11:36, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever." "that we....should be to the praise of His glory," Eph 1:12 In all, He aims at His glory; and seeing He aims at it, He gets it even from the most sinful actions He has decreed to permit. Either the glory of His mercy or of His justice is drawn from them. Infinite wisdom directs all to the end intended. More particularly,

God Glorified in the Creation of the World
1. This was God's purpose in the creation of the world. The divine perfections are admirably glorified here, not only in regard of the greatness of the effect, which comprehends the heavens and the earth, and all things in them; but in regard of the marvellous way of its production. For he made the vast universe without the concurrence of any material cause; he brought it forth from the womb of nothing by an act of his efficacious will. And as he began the creation by proceeding from nothing to real existence, so in forming the other parts he drew them from infirm and inert matter, as from a second nothing, that all his creatures might bear the signatures of infinite power. Thus he commanded light to arise out of darkness, and sensible creatures from an insensible element. The lustre of the divine glory appears eminently here. Hence David says, Psalm 19:1. "The heavens declare the glory of God." They declare and manifest to the world the attributes and perfections of their great Creator, even in his infinite wisdom, goodness, and power. All the creatures have some prints of God stamped upon them, whereby they loudly proclaim and show to the world his wisdom and goodness in framing them. Hence says Paul, Rom. 1:20, "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead."

God Glorified in the Creation of Men and Angels
2. The glory of God was his chief purpose and design in making men and angels. The rest of the creatures glorified God in a passive way, as they are evidences and manifestations of his infinite wisdom, goodness, and power. But this higher rank of beings are endowed with rational faculties, and so are capable to glorify God actively. Hence it is said, Prov 16:4, "The LORD has made all for Himself" If all things were made for him, then man and angels especially, who are the masterpieces of the whole creation. We have our source and being from the pure fountain of God's infinite power and goodness; and therefore we ought to run towards that again, till we empty all our faculties and excellencies into that same ocean of divine goodness.

God Glorified in Election and Predestination
3. This is likewise the end of election and predestination. For "having predestined us....to the praise of the glory of His grace," Eph 1:5,6. That some are ordained to eternal life, and others passed by, and suffered to perish eternally in their sin, is for the manifestation of the infinite perfections and excellencies of God. The glory and beauty of the divine attributes is displayed here with a shining lustre; as his sovereign authority and dominion over all his creatures to dispose of them to what ends and purposes he pleases; his knowledge and omniscience, in beholding all things past, present, and to come; his vindictive justice, in ordaining punishments to men, as a just retribution for sin; and his omnipotence, in making good his word, and putting all his threatenings in execution. The glory of his goodness shines likewise here, in making choice of any, when all most justly deserved to be rejected. And his mercy shines here with an beautiful lustre, in receiving and admitting all who believe in Jesus into his favour.

God Glorified in the Work of Redemption
4. This was the purpose that God proposed in that great and astonishing work of redemption. In our redemption by Christ, we have the fullest, clearest, and most delightful manifestation of the glory of God that ever was or shall be in this life. All the declarations and manifestations that we have of his glory in the works of creation and common providence, are but dim and obscure in comparison with what is here. Indeed the glory of his wisdom, power, and goodness, is clearly manifested in the works of creation. But the glory of his mercy and love had lain under an eternal eclipse without a Redeemer. God had in several ages of the world pitched upon particular seasons to manifest and reveal one or other particular property of his nature. Thus his justice was declared in his drowning the old world with a deluge of water, and burning Sodom with fire from heaven. His truth and power were clearly manifested in freeing the Israelites from the Egyptian chains, and bringing them out from that miserable bondage. His truth was there illustriously displayed in performing a promise which had lain dormant for the space of 430 years, and his power in quelling his implacable enemies by the meanest of his creatures. Again, the glory of one attribute is more seen in one work than in another: in some things there is more of his goodness, in other things more of his wisdom is seen, and in others more of his power. But in the work of redemption all his perfections and excellencies shine forth in their greatest glory.

This is the goal that God proposed in their conversion and regeneration. Hence it is said, Isa 43:21, "This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise." Sinners are adopted into God's family, and made a royal priesthood according to this very design, 1 Pet 2:9, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light."

Quote of the Day...is there such a thing as "free will"? consider this:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,
of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh,
indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."
-Ephesians 2:1-3

"Free will has carried many a soul to hell; but never a soul to heaven." -C.H. Spurgeon

CANON 7. "If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, as is expedient for us, or that we can be saved, that is, assent to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes all men gladly assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray by a heretical spirit, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, "For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and the word of the Apostle, "Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God" (2 Cor. 3:5). -The Canons of the Council of Orange 529 AD

"All that the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
No one can come to me unless
the Father who sent me draws him.
And I will raise him up on the last day."
-John 6:37, 44

"To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect." -John Owen

"...we allow that man has choice and that it is self-determined, so that if he does anything evil, it should be imputed to him and to his own voluntary choosing. We do away with coercion and force, because this contradicts the nature of the will and cannot coexist with it. We deny that choice is free, because through man's innate wickedness it is of necessity driven to what is evil and cannot seek anything but evil. And from this it is possible to deduce what a great difference there is between necessity and coercion. For we do not say that man is dragged unwillingly into sinning, but that because his will is corrupt he is held captive under the yoke of sin and therefore of necessity will in an evil way. For where there is bondage, there is necessity. But it makes a great difference whether the bondage is voluntary or coerced. We locate the necessity to sin precisely in corruption of the will, from which follows that it is self-determined." -John Calvin (from Bondage and Liberation of the Will, pg. 69-70)

For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing;
it is the gift of God, not a result of works,
so that no one may boast.
-Ephesians 2:8-9

"If any man doth ascribe of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright." -Martin Luther

"But when the kindness of God our Savior
and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us,
not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration
and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us
richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace we might be
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
-Titus 3:4-7

There is No Pit So Deep Where God's Love Is Not Deeper Still...unshakable assurance through trials

God's Love Turns Sinners into Sons
1 John 3:1 Look at how great a lovea the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.
1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

God's Love is a Justifying, Hopeful, Preserving Love
Rom. 8:31 ¶ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Rom. 8:32 He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?
Rom. 8:33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies.
Rom. 8:34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Rom. 8:35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Rom. 8:36 As it is written:

¶ Because of You we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

Rom. 8:37 ¶ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us.
Rom. 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Rom. 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

God's Love Surpasses Knowledge
Eph. 3:14 ¶ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father
Eph. 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
Eph. 3:16 |I pray| that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
Eph. 3:17 and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. |I pray that| you, being rooted and firmly established in love,
Eph. 3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and width, height and depth,
Eph. 3:19 and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Eph. 3:20 ¶ Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think— according to the power that works in you—
Eph. 3:21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Though We Are Great Sinners, God is a Greater Savior
Eph. 2:1 ¶ And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
Eph. 2:2 in which you previously walked according to this worldly age, according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
Eph. 2:3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and by nature we were children under wrath, as the others were also.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us,
Eph. 2:5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved!
Eph. 2:6 He also raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavens,a in Christ Jesus,
Eph. 2:7 so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace in |His| kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Eph. 2:8 For by gracea you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
Eph. 2:9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Eph. 2:10 For we are His creation—created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

What is the Message of the Bridge Collapse in Minnesota?...a biblical response

In the midst of such tragic and painful events such as the recent collapse of the bridge in Minnesota this past week, what are the lessons to be learned, what is the message we should take away from such profound tragedy, and what should be our response as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ?

To those important questions I humbly offer the following:

1. Begin with God; He is Sovereign
The sovereignty of God may be defined as the exercise of His supremacy-Being infinitely elevated above the highest creature, He is the Most High, Lord of heaven and earth. Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent; God does as He pleases, only as He pleases always as He pleases. None can thwart Him, none can hinder Him. So His own Word expressly declares: "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10); "He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand" (Daniel 4:35).
Consider these verses:

Is. 45:7 The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

Psalm 135:6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth,
in the seas, and all deep places

Lam. 3:37-40 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth? ¶ Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins? Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the LORD.

One of the most flagrant sins of this age is irreverence. By irreverence I am not now thinking of open blasphemy, or the taking of God's name in vain. Irreverence is, also, failure to ascribe the glory, which is due the great and dreadful majesty of the Almighty. It is the limiting of His power and actions by our degrading conceptions: it is the bringing of the Lord God down to our level. There are multitudes of those who do not profess to be Christians who deny that God is the omnipotent Creator, and there are multitudes of professing Christians who deny that God is absolute Sovereign. Men boast of their free will, prate of their power, and are proud of their achievements. They know not that their lives are at the sovereign disposal of the Divine Despot.

Even in tragedy such as the bridge giving way this past week, we may rest in the knowledge that God is sovereign over all things, including these kinds and place our confidence in the Lord's providential hand in all things. Suffering is part of our fallen world; trials and tribulations will come; and therefore, as believers in the Lord and His Sovereign control over all His creatures and creation, we find unshakable comfort in the reality that He is working all things for our good and His glory.

God not only created everything, but everything, which He created, is subject to His immediate control. God rules over the works of His hands. God governs the creatures He has made. God reigns with universal dominion.

2. "...weep with those that weep." (Roms. 12:15)
Because we begin with God and His irresistible and absolute sovereignty over all things, then when people are hurting and their lives are devastated by life's unexpected profound events, we are free to adhere to the words of the Apostle Paul when he said, "weep with those that weep." Hurt with them; empathize in their despair and agony.

This was something our Lord did as well. He wept with Mary, Martha and others at the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11:30-37). Christlike compassion does not begin by proclaiming the story of the tower falling killing 18 people (Luke 13:1-4) in the immediate face of disaster to cover our theological assertions. That would not be love, but calloused religious pride.

But if you live in the Minnesota area and know some of the families deeply touched by this tragedy, a powerful ministry to them is to initially identify with them in their tears and crushed hearts. Weep with them; empathize with them; identify with their pain and show compassion to them in their suffering. This is not a call to be emotional, bleeding hearts - but is the physical empathy representative of genuine Christ-honoring love (1 Cor. 13:1-7).

3. "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39)
This is the second of the two great commandments. Not only should we identify with them in their pain, but continue to walk with them in their needs. What a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate the love and mercy of our Lord to those who have been directly affected by this tragedy. This may manifest itself by providing meals for these dear people; offering others a ride to work or even having your church help get them a new car; if there was the loss of one of the parents, the surviving parent may need help with their children in the weeks and months to come... Many ways to practically assist others. Whatever the case may be, daily care for people during these days can communicate much to them of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Pet. 2:12.

4. "pray always..."
Most of us are looking on at a distance at this tragedy and might be asking, "what can we do?" As Christians, one thing we can all do is pray.

Pray for the pastors and churches and other believers in the Minnesota area for strength, wisdom, and endurance as they daily minister to others and speak to this situation. "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints," (Eph. 6:19).

Pray also that the Lord will use this as a means by which His gospel is proclaimed and many hearts would be made open to the hope of the gospel. "Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation." (Roms. 10:1)

5. "give a reason for the hope that is in you"
National tragedies such as this one often provide great opportunity to share our faith. In fact, you will find as I have already, people will approach you and ask you very pointed and penetrating questions concerning suffering, death, God, hope, etc. This bridge collapse is no exception. In the daily conversation with friends, family and coworkers, questions on this will undoubtedly come up.

So be ready beloved, "to give a reason for the hope that is in you." And do so Peter says with "gentleness and reverence." (1 Peter 3:15-16). Longsuffering mixed with grace and respect should be the demeanor of all who name the name of Christ in ministering to others during these days. But when asked, be ready to talk to them about who Jesus is; His finished work on the cross; His bodily resurrection from the grave; His gospel; and what saving faith truly is.

6. "compel them to be reconciled to God"
When you have walked with people in and through their deepest pain, inevitably they will ask you about your faith in Christ and this is a great joy to be able to proclaim to the gospel.

When doing so, humbly but lovingly call them to repentance (Acts 17:30-31); command them to follow Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:24-26); to flee the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10); and compel them to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:17-21). And do so in humility, brokenness, tears, and love.

Some well meaning Christians in their zeal to proclaim Christ and His gospel during these kinds of tragic events might "feel led" to just coldly blurt out their theology, rather than patiently wih gentleness explain carefully and compassionately the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't minimize the gospel or sentimentalize it; give the whole gospel, but give it graciously.

As we hold up the Law of God it acts as a tutor pointing people to Christ; it shuts the mouths of all people for "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."The Law convicts of sin and prepares the fallow hearts to receive the seed of the gospel. So as we are serving, identifying, walking with, loving, and praying for these dear people and their families, may the Lord give some the opportunity face to face to remind them of the fragility of life; that we are vapor that evaporates so quickly; and that no one knows the moment that their soul will be required of them. Those people traveling across that bridge had no idea that it would soon collapse and end some of their lives. Call them to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives so that in any unexpected moment as this, they do not have to fear death, sin, judgment, and the grave (Heb. 2:14-16).

7. "the fields are white with harvest, but the workers are few"
Lastly, we live not only in a fallen world, but one marked by tragedy almost daily. The days are growing evil beloved and we must not sleep them away.

What is the message of the bridge collapse to the church?

Be urgent about the gospel. Redeem the time; make the most of every opportunity for the days are evil. We are dealing with people's lives for eternity. We should not pass away the days by being consumed with the trivialities of our lives. "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel..." Paul said. Is that your passion and burden today? Are we marked by an urgency in as witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. "Repent and believe" should be on the tongues of all true Christians. When was the last time you explained the gospel to someone, encouraged them to be followers of Jesus Christ and talked with them about eternity?

Today is the day beloved. May we live as if this day were our last with the care, urgency, love and hope in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In closing, I have included a lyric to a song that I wrote (along with the help of Isaac Watts) when I went through a very tragic time in my life. May it encourage you all in the person of our God.

As the day draws near...
Steve
2 Cor. 4:5-7

The Sovereign Hand
Music by SJ Camp; Lyric by Camp/Watts

1. Behold the Potter and the clay, He forms His vessels as He please
Such is our God and such are we, the subjects of His high decrees
Does not the Workman's power extend, o'er all the mass which part to choose?
And mold it for a nobler end and which to leave for viler use

The Lord is in control
And He brings peace to our troubled soul
Nothing can shake His sovereign hand
He's the beginning and He is the end

2. May not the Sovereign Lord on high, dispense His favors as He will?
Choose some to life while others die and yet be just and gracious still?
What if to make His terror known He let His patience long endure
Suffering rebels to go on and seal their own destruction sure?

The Lord is in control
and His Law convicts our sinful our soul
Yet, He is the sinner's Friend
He's the beginning and He is the end

3. What if He mean to show His grace and His electing love employs
To mark out some of mortal race and form them fit for heavenly joys?
Shall man reply against His Lord and call His Maker's ways unjust?
The thunder of whose dreadful word can crush, a thousand worlds to dust

The Lord is in control
And He brings hope to our desperate soul
Because He lives we face tomorrow again
He's the beginning and He is the end

4. But O, my soul, if truths so bright should dazzle and confound thy sight
Yet still His written will obey and wait the great decisive day
Then shall He make His justice known and the whole world before His throne
With joy or terror shall confess, the glory of His righteousness

The Lord is in control
and He brings grace to our revengeful soul
We're free to forgive the most evil of men
He's the beginning and He is the end

This song can be heard through the online store at AudienceONE Ministries.
It is available in MP3 format from the CD, Desiring God.