Tag Archives: God

God’s Plan

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I read about a young man who was determined to win the affections of a lady who refused to even talk to him anymore. He decided that the way to her heart was through the mail, so he began writing here love letters. He wrote a love letter everyday to this lady. Six, seven times a week she got a love letter from him. When she didn’t respond, he increased his output to three notes every twenty-four hours. In all, he wrote her more than seven hundred letters. And she ended up marrying the postman.

Our plans don’t always turn out the way we thought they would. We work so hard to get everything just the right way; nevertheless, things have a habit of going a different direction than we could have ever imagined. It can make life challenging or frustrating depending on your outlook.

I have found the best way to face the uncertainty of life is to trust my entire day to the Lord. Proverbs 16.3 says, “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established,” and then He continues the thought in 16.9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” If I commit my entire day to the Lord by asking Him to guide my plans, thoughts, decisions, actions, and reactions then I find life less frustrating and more enjoyable. Situations still arise that are difficult to handle; however, because I have trusted them to the Lord I know that He is guiding me through them.

Lord, will You please guide our steps today. Let us seek You that we might recognize Your perfect plan for our day, and no matter what may come we live it for Your glory. Amen.

Does God Send People to Hell?

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I cannot even begin to count the number of people over the years who have asked me, “What happens to people who never get to hear the gospel before they die?” They ask because they are genuinely concerned and wonder what will happen to the eternal souls of those who are never reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Justin Taylor deals with this subject in his study on Romans 1.18-21 entitled “What Unbelieving Pagans Know about God and Why They Are Responsible for It.” He makes it perfectly clear that each and every person is responsible for what they do with God. His study also shows us the importance of being ready to share Jesus with everyone we come into contact with.

Mr. Taylor writes:

I am continually amazed at how much dense theology Paul is able to pack into a few lines of a letter. Consider, for example, just four verses: Romans 1:18-21.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Paul has just finished exulting in the “good news” of the gospel (Rom. 1:15-17), but he now begins to paint a contrasting backdrop of the “bad news” for those who rebel against their holy creator. Whereas “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” to all who believe (vv. 16-17), “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” against all who suppress God’s truth (v. 18). Paul piles up the terms in reference to the godless Gentiles: on the one hand, “ungodliness and unrighteousness” describes what they do, and on the other hand “by their unrighteousness” is the way in which they go about their work of suppressing truth. The reality of the redundancy is repulsive: by their unrighteousness they perform unrighteousness.

Paul immediately grounds this programmatic statement with the important insight that “what can be known about God is plain to them” (v. 19). Paul is not saying that these unbelievers, apparently without access to special revelation, know everything there is to know about God, but rather that they know everything that has been commonly or generally revealed to all. That is, they know “what can be known.” How does Paul himself know this? How can he claim with certainty what every man knows about God? Has he interviewed them all? In line with his God-centered theology, Paul grounds his own certainty about this universal knowledge in God’s act of common revelation: “God has shown it to them” (v. 19b).

Paul now proceeds to explain  in verse 20 how this can be. Note four things.

First, the object of their knowledge is God’s “invisible attributes.” In particular, Paul points to God as Creator with eternality, power, and divinity (“eternal power and divine nature . . . creation of the world”).

Second, he explains the location of their knowledge of these invisible divine attributes: “in the things that have been made.” In other words, his invisible characteristics are found in his visible creation.

Third, he explains the duration of their knowledge, to the effect that this has always been the case: “ever since the creation of the world.”

Fourth, he points to the quality of their knowledge: it is “clearly perceived,” hearkening back to his comment that this knowledge is “plain to them.”

Paul adds all of this together and draws the inescapable conclusion (oun, so, therefore) for those who know God but suppress his truth: “they are without excuse.” None can plead ignorance, therefore none can excuse their moral responsibility and culpability.

Paul continues to explain what he means in verse 21. Their knowledge of God should lead to two appropriate responses, but instead we see two regrettable reversals: (1) they refused to honor God as God and (2) they refused to thank God for his wonderful gifts.

This then yields the two commensurate results: (1) they became futile in their thinking and (2) their foolish hearts were darkened.

In the remainder of this first chapter Paul unfolds the consequences for this knowledge-suppressing behavior, showing the further descent into the darkness of idolatry in light of God’s inaugurated eschatology of judgment.

Studying just these few verses gives us enormous insight into what the pagans know and why they are responsible. May it motivate us to bring the gospel to those who are both near and far.

A Psalm of Giving Thanks (Ps 100)

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Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2  Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and  we are his;[a] we are his  people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

From the English Standard Version of the Bible.

A Biblical Understanding of Gambling

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Throughout the years I have read several articles on why Christians shouldn’t be involved with any form of gambling. However, Dr. Albert Mohler’s article in the Christian Post entitled “When the Accounts Are Called: A Christian Understanding of Gambling” is one of the best I have ever read on the topic. As Christians we have a moral calling to Continue reading →

TAG! God’s It!

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As a boy growing up, I loved to run. I was not only quick, but could run all day long. If we were playing tag and someone was chasing me, there was a good chance they wouldn’t catch me. However, there was one problem with being so fast, no one wanted to chase me. Since they couldn’t catch me, they chased after those they could. Even though I was playing “tag” with them, I wasn’t really in the game.

Often times, we run through life unaware anyone is pursuing us. We go to work, take care of our family, do our daily chores, watch some television, exercise, as well as a host of other responsibilities all the while thinking this is life—one big race. However, in reality, God is pursuing us. He desires to save us, to know us, and to love us, and each day He follows closely behind always ready to catch us and begin the most important relationship we could ever know.

In her blog post “Leaving the Ninety-Nine,” Margaret Manning beautifully illustrates this idea of God in pursuit of His most cherished creation.

Ms. Manning writes:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?”(1)

C.S. Lewis, the self-named most reluctant and dejected convert in all England, penned this now famous and oft-quoted account of his conversion. Unlike some who decided to follow Jesus with urgency and willingness of heart, Lewis came kicking and screaming! While some may resonate with Lewis’s dogged reluctance, others gladly pursue the path home.

Lewis’s reluctant conversion fascinates me, but I am even more moved by the glimpse into God’s character his story affords. For Lewis reminds us of the love of God that relentlessly pursues even the reluctant prodigal who would turn and run in the opposite direction in order to try and escape God’s gracious embrace. The God revealed in Lewis’s account is a God in pursuit. Perhaps this God is even particularly enamored with the reluctant prodigal, leaving the ninety-nine sheep, as Jesus insists in Luke’s gospel, to pursue the one lost sheep.

The apostle Paul, who described himself as “the chief of sinners,” often talked about this God in pursuit. In what is perhaps the apex of his letter to the Romans, Paul writes: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates God’s own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of the Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:1-11).

Paul’s progressive description of our condition before God reveals the depths of God’s love. First, Paul notes that God’s love pursues humanity “while we were still helpless.” Then, Paul states that God loves “while we were yet sinners,” and finally, God loves and reconciles humanity even “while we were enemies.” Indeed, Paul insists on God’s great love towards even the vilest offender through the life and death of Jesus. He doesn’t make this claim as one who stands removed from the vilest offender. He makes it as a part of his own testimony. “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”(2)

But Paul’s recognition of God’s grace didn’t end with himself. As Paul grasped the depths of God’s reconciling love in his own life, it led him to proclaim that same reconciliation for others. To the Corinthian church he wrote, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

In reflecting on the reconciling work of God in Christ, scholar Miroslav Volf draws a pointed application: “God does not abandon the godless to their evil but gives the divine self for them in order to receive them into divine communion through atonement, so also should we-whoever our enemies and whoever we may be.”(3) For the Christian who recognizes her own inclusion into God’s gracious love, she cannot help but include others in the good news of God’s reconciling love in Jesus—even with those she might deem her enemies.

We may struggle as reluctant converts, or we may not fully grasp the depths of God’s great reconciliation. But perhaps as we are moved to see a common inheritance as those in need of saving, we might be drawn deeper into the embrace of this God in pursuit.

What we need to remember, God is able to catch us at any time; however, He continues His pursuit, constantly calling for us to stop running away, and enjoy His loving embrace. Are you tired of running from God? If so, just stop running, call out to Him, and enjoy the perfect love of heaven!