Category: God
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god is good
God is Good I struggle with depression. One of its symptoms is mental fatigue. There are times when I am beyond thought yet negative thoughts crowd in. Often in these situations and others less intense I’ll rehearse in my mind, ‘God is good’. It is an affirmation of faith that can help lift my spirits…
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god’s sovereignty
God’s Sovereignty I suspect all Christians believe in the sovereignty of God. It is so frequently attested in Scripture that it would be difficult not to believe in it. However, we often inject qualifiers that effectively limit, even neuter, his sovereignty; God is sovereign… but he will never interfere with human freedom; he does not…
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free will
Free Will I was involved in an online discussion with another Christian on the topic of ‘free will’. Free will was very important to him and while God could ‘persuade’ the will this persuasion could not be at a level that overcame personal autonomy. The discussion raised issues I have not thought about for years.…
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the word became flesh
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he…
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trinity, a simple reflection
Who can understand God? Who can grasp far less explain all that is meant by the Holy Trinity. Who can even adequately explain what is revealed. The creeds and confessions seek not so much to explain what we mean by trinity as guard against what we don’t mean. This snapshot reflection is just that, a…
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the glory of the cross
Est 6:6 (ESV) … the king said… , “What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honour?” The story is set in Susa, the Persian capital, during the reign of King Ahasuerus, better known by his Greek name, Xerxes I (486–464 b.c.). Some Jews had returned to Jerusalem, where they enjoyed a…
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the righteousness of god in the gospel (1)
This is the first of an intermittent series of posts that reflect on aspects of what is involved in the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. The subject of God’s righteousness is large and has been the focus of fierce debate in recent years. These short posts can only hope to be snapshots of…
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preaching about suicide
First of all, a further apology for such a time between posts. Productivity is likely to remain low over the next couple of months so apologies again in advance. On a recent Sunday past, a group of students from a nearby Bible College were responsible for our Morning Bible Hour. Their preacher was a young…
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our extravagant god
To recognize the fulfilment of his [God’s] promises, you must base your expectations not on the minimal but maximal interpretation of their terms’ David Gooding An Unshakeable Kingdom (Pg 30) David Gooding’s small commentary on Hebrews ‘An Unshakeable Kingdom’ is among the finest of its kind on this book. And it is free for download…
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letting god be god
Rom 9:14-24 (ESV) What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who…
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romans, and the righteousness of god (2)
Rom 1:16-17 (ESV) I am not ashamed of the gospel… for in it the righteousness of God is revealed… A world that is right is what is needed. Creation groans eager to birth a world right in every way, a new world suffused with righteousness where righteousness is the plumb-line (Isa 28:17), flows like the…
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Christ is new creation
Our thoughts about Christ leave a lot to be desired. All too often they are inadequate and demeaning. Two notions I have been disputing over the past few months illustrate this well. I have been inveighing against a rising tide that seems to suggest that new creation is simply Eden restored. Christ takes us back…
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piper and christ as the image of God
What do you think of John Piper’s ‘imagining’ of what it means for Christ to be the image of God? I believe he gets it from Jonathan Edwards. … it would be totally misleading to say that the Son in whom God delights was made or created at the incarnation or at any time. “In…
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reformed judaism!
Classic Reformed Churches house many godly Christians. Some of the most able preachers of the gospel are found in their pulpits. Yet running through this rich gospel lode is a streak of anomalous legalism that causes more than a little head-scratching and hair-pulling. Some of these C21 gentile believers seem almost as zealous for the…
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the trauma of holiness
God is good. God is kind. God is love. God is generous. God is gracious. When as Christians we reflect on these aspects of God He is approachable. But God is also holy. Ah, there is the rub. He is infinitely majestic and pure and hates all impurity. His goodness is a holy goodness. His…
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Carson and the God who calls for worship
Below is an extract of an extract. That is, it is a section of a PDF from a book just published. The book is ‘Holy, Holy, Holy: Proclaiming the Perfections of God’ by a symposium of writers. The PDF is the chapter contributed by D A Carson. Below is an extract from this chapter based…
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god’s wrath is real and personal
The Bible teaches us God’s wrath is real and personal. God is angry because he has been attacked. The essence of human rebellion is an attack on God’s right to be God. We have attempted to unseat him. In our antagonism we would rather worship empty things rather than Him. Consequently he is stirred to…
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god’s women
It ought to be crystal clear to any who read Scripture (though I know it is not) that God has placed authority in this present world in the hands of men. In both OT and NT God’s model of order in society involves male leadership. Yet any who infer from this that women are either…
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fear of God, boxer shorts and piers morgan
Prov 1:7 (ESV) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Rom 3:18 (ESV) There is no fear of God before their eyes. When interviewers ask the President of the USA whether he wears boxers or briefs and British Prime Ministers choose to appear on Piers Morgan and emote about private moments (presumably…
Cave Adullam 