The best sermon I’ve ever heard on the “Eternal Decrees of God”, and one of the best sermons I’ve heard on any topic, ever. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 50 min. Please take a listen, I know you will be edified.
“Scripture: The character of God’s activities; antinomy explained; the importance of understanding the harmony of the Biblical doctrines; God’s unchanging plan; the decrees of God are unconditional and sovereign; problems in understanding this doctrine; God is not unjust.”
Yah, here’s some personal stuff, which you know I hate to talk about. Someone had asked me in a comment if I have a testimony on the blog. I don’t, so here it is. Jesus is great.
As an 18 year old, I’d decided I wanted a traditional life. It felt right and good to pursue that. I’d grown up in a time which normalized everything that was contrary to God: open marriage, adultery, feminism, gender roles were reversed, experimentation was encouraged, drugs & alcohol were everywhere, etc. It was the 60s. None of that seemed right or good to me. I decided I wanted a marriage, home, and a career as a teacher. I wanted a solid, grounded, traditional life.
When I went to college I found the man. We hooked up when I was a freshman, and moved in together by sophomore year. We married when we graduated. We saved for a house, those were the days when you saved up, and put 20% down on a home. It was new, and we saved up for the furniture, and by then I’d gotten a teaching job. My husband was an engineer. Normal!
By the time I was age 26 he had found another woman, had an affair, and left. I was against the divorce. He left anyway. What happened to the traditional life I’d worked for? I did everything right, but it hadn’t worked out. I was perplexed. Where had it all gone wrong?
I was left with a mortgage to pay on a beginning teacher’s salary. Hard. I got a second job working 4 nights a week at the local movie theater, and still not making it, I got a third, weekend job at a local bookstore. It was still obvious to me that it was better to go through life two by two, a married man and woman, but no man was on the horizon. Alone, I had to deal with the chimney sweep who wouldn’t leave the house when he’d finished cleaning the woodstove, the tax preparer making crude and inappropriate comments as he looked over my W2s, the car salesman who said we had to finalize the car deal at the local bar, the rapist stalker I worked with the police to catch… It is clear that it was much better for a woman be married to and under the protection of the husband, emotionally, financially, and safety-wise. This is a philosophy many women today reject.
By the time I was 29 I was wrung out, tired, and frustrated with life. I pondered the following questions constantly:
–Is this all there is to life? It seemed that life was so short compared to whatever else was out there. What was it all for? To work 50 years, retire and die? It seemed all pointless. Humans had obviously not evolved but there had to be another purpose to man, since biological human complexity far outweighed the vaporousness of what seemed like a relatively short life.
This was the 80s and consumerism was at its height. I had a house, a new car, a 27 inch tv, a VCR (expensive item in those days) yet none of the ‘stuff’ fulfilled me either. I had friends and literary and cultural pursuits and dinner parties and jaunts to the beach but those didn’t satisfy for very long either. I was totally confused as to what life was about. I knew deep in my heart, though, that something else was out there. I kept looking.
That was the Ecclesiastes portion of my life.
By the time I was 29 I’d had it with traditional living. It was not cutting it for me. Maybe the 60s were right, a NON-traditional life was the way to go, except that people picked the wrong experiences to have and I’d pick better ones. I decided to dump my life and find a new one. My version of a non-traditional life was to not work a 9-5 job but instead to travel. I joined an Earthwatch Archaeological expedition and went to Italy for a month, the first two weeks traveling by myself and the second two in Tuscany digging up a castle.
At this exact time my friends set me up with a date with a man. We went out a few times but didn’t really connect, until he asked the $64,000 question. “If money was no object and you could live any way you wanted to, what would you do?” I answered right away that I’d get on a boat and sail to Bora Bora. He dropped his slice of pizza and said that he was in the middle of buying a yacht and he planned to sail to The Bahamas. We discussed our philosophies of non-traditional living, and by the time I came back from my August in Italy, he’d bought the boat and we went sailing away by October.
And so began the Romans 1 portion of my life- God revealed in creation.
We sailed about 11,000 nautical miles, we delivered a 22 foot motor boat from Naples Fl to RI adding another 1100 miles under our keel, we went across country in the VW van, we went in an ice breaker ship in Labrador, we drove around Ecuador, train traveled around Europe a bunch of times etc. I was still looking for that ever elusive something, and indeed my heart connected with God by seeing His creation, but not Jesus and my sin.
It was not until the third portion of salvation road that got me over the salvation threshold, something from the book of Mark (a story for another day).
Sailing was interesting. I saw the entire US coastline at a 3mph rate. We docked in every port. We passed every type of marine conveyance from kayak to aircraft carrier. We learned about canals and locks. The Dismal Swamp, Intracoastal Waterway, barges, fishermen, Chesapeake watermen, bridge tenders, smugglers. In the photo below, we had decided to make an overnight passage sailing from Charleston SC to St Augustine FL. The photo was snapped by my husband at about 6AM, it was sunrise and I’d had the dogwatch- 4-6 am. It’s the coldest, darkest part of the night and you are never so happy as when you see that sunrise. Everyone hates the dogwatch. I’m dressed in three sweatshirts and two pairs of sweatpants, and gripping a cup of hot, black coffee my husband had just passed me as it it was a life preserver!
Ocean sailing at night is disorienting. You look and look for the Lighthouse and when you see that light you sigh with a deep relief because now you know where you are and where you are going.
 |
| The famous diamond pattern on Cape Hatteras, NC lighthouse. |
In the ocean, there are things to hit. Buoys. Whales. Even containers. When a container ship is in a storm, some of the containers fall off the deck, did you know? They float just a few feet below the surface for a few hours or so on their way to the bottom. If you’re sailing at night, there’s no way you’d see it in the dark. During the day you might notice a strange wave pattern- if you happen to be looking that way. Sometimes you read in the paper that a container washed up, once a container full of Nikes spilled out onto a WA beach. This is a snippet of a news article from 1999 Nat Geo:
“The sneakers were lost at sea when the container ship P&O Nedlloyd Auckland encountered a hurricane mid-Pacific. Heavy rolling threw a dozen 40-foot-long (12-meter) containers overboard, two filled with Nike shoes.”
 |
| Hopetown Harbor, Bahamas lighthouse |
Anyway, until the container is either picked up or washes ashore or sinks completely, it presents a hazard to mariners. Sometimes you hit one and you sink. Or you could hit a whale. Steve Callahan’s story was made famous in the 80s with the publication of his book, Adrift: 76 Days Lost At Sea. He “hit an unknown object” and his badly damaged boat sank, he later said he thought it was a whale. He made a sextant with three pencils and an elastic he had in his pocket and navigated himself in the lifeboat that way. Cool.
Coastal overnight sailing is more hazardous than mid-ocean overnight sailing. Objects in the mid-ocean are there but the chances of hitting them are reduced dramatically. Sailing at night along the coast means you have to be ever vigilant that the wind doesn’t push you toward shore- and hidden reefs- or that the current doesn’t push you, or that you don’t hit other boats out there fishing or smuggling (illegal fishermen and smugglers don’t use running lights). The biblical metaphor here is that in coastal sailing you have to constantly check course. Even being a half a degree off for any length of time could wash you up on the rocks pronto. That’s why I don’t give an inch on doctrine. None of the Apostles did, warning us severely.
Below is a photo of our vessel. A Tayana 37, Taiwanese made 37′ boat with wooden mast, wooden bowsprit, full keel, faux-lapstrake, beamy, lots of beautiful teak, and 24,000 pounds of solid, if not immediately responsive, live-aboard sailing yacht. I used to joke that we had to make a reservation to get her to come about. She was a good boat.
Anyway, she was my home for two years, along with my husband and the myriad of motley non-traditionalist fellow sailors out there who became friends. We were all looking for that certain something. I know I found it and it turns out that I didn’t even have to sail 11,000 miles to find it. Or maybe I did.
The sailing ended at age 34, the world traveling ended at age 40. Then I got saved at age 43. Ah! So THIS is what life is all about!
When Jesus talks of Him being the Lighthouse, I can relate. When Paul says do not make a shipwreck of your faith, I can understand. When Hebrews writer says do not drift away, I get it. When Jude warns of hidden reefs and wild waves of the sea swept along by winds, I know what he means.
Shakespeare was right, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” (Hamlet) I knew it, I just knew it.
“For the invisible things of him, that is, his eternal power and Godhead, are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his works, to the intent that they should be without excuse” (Romans 1:20)
The LORD made a wondrous world, set me adrift in it, watched me from the beginning, gradually shortened the leash, and in His timing, brought me to His bosom. I traded the leash of sin for the chains of glorious servitude to my master. More to the metaphor, my anchor holds, He is Jesus, and the chain will never break. As beautiful as this world is, I know that the next one will defy comprehension and exceed in beauty anything we can conceive. “No man has seen…” I think we will all be there soon.
This is about what the Lord does in times of apostasy and it is about why He does it.
There are false teachers out there, and they are not coming in singly anymore, but brazenly, in packs.
They are corrupting the precious faith, and with curling lips and sharp teeth, they are dragging off many an unwary person. For those of us who warn and cry out, seeing these captured ones fail to heed and become devoured prey is heartbreaking- and that word doesn’t even cover the spiritual sadness at knowing there are so many who fell, are falling and will fall to satan’s wiles.
However, despite there being so many false teachers we praise the Lord because He does not leave us without good teachers! He is always raising up someone to teach, preach, and exhort! God continues to call preachers and teachers and the Holy Spirit still empowers preachers and teachers to speak the Word to the sheep.
Look at the time of Isaiah. In 739 BC, King Uzziah died after having been King for 52 years. Isaiah was called to preach that same year. The LORD gave him a unique opportunity at the time of his call- a vision of Himself in the Holy Temple! Isaiah was devastated at this, seeing the glory of the LORD and his own sinfulness. But it’s an astoundingly tender moment, the angel cleansed Isaiah’s lips and he was pronounced clean, his sins atoned for. (Isaiah 6:6-7).
 |
| Tiepolo: The Prophet Isaiah |
The LORD then gave Isaiah his commission; preach doom to the people. Preach their abandonment. Preach their judgment. Preach ruin.
Isaiah asked how long he was to do this. The LORD answered, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste.” (Isaiah 6:11) In other words, until the end, until you die, for all your long life. Not so seeker friendly, is it?
However, the LORD left Isaiah with some hope, despite the difficulty of what He was called to do. God said a tenth would still remain in the Land.
God showed Isaiah what He was going to do amongst these people:
“Go, and say to this people:
“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)
Matthew Henry’s commentary says of verse 9, “Many hear the sound of God’s word, but do not feel the power of it. God sometimes, in righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind, because they will not receive the truth in the love of it.”
This is called the wrath of abandonment. John MacArthur preached on this same notion, (here, here, and most recently, here) as seen not only in Isaiah 6 but in the NT book of Romans 1. At a certain point, God gives a nation or a vast populace over to their blindness and stubbornness.
 |
| Art by Borislav Sajtinac |
Though seasons come and go where it seems the great amount of people believe and live according to His Word, there are also seasons of time that come where it seems that the great amount of the people do not believe in Jesus nor live His word. Those times are now. It is my opinion, that it is the last cycle of apostasy directly before the time leading to the Great Apostasy. (2Thessalonians 2:3). It’s hard.
Matthew Henry’s commentary reassures us over the wrath of abandonment, “Christians need not fear this awful doom, which is a spiritual judgment on those who will still hold fast their sins.”
But it’s no harder for us than it was for the first century Christians who lived in a time where everyone was apostate, being the only Christians on earth!
During this time of apostasy it stands to reason that some apostates will be teachers. Yes, there are many bad teachers. But God has raised up good teachers, as shown in the example of Isaiah himself. Even in a time of wrath and abandonment, He sent an anointed one to preach to the people, and in today’s time He has done the same. He raises up good teachers to edify us or in some cases, remind us of the wrath of God. Either way, God is faithful.
There are many reasons for this, but here is one reason God raises up good teachers even in a time of abandonment.
I find it in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 2-3 God is raising up Ezekiel and calling him top prophesy. However the task would be hard, as it was for Isaiah. God told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 3:7,
“But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.”
So why does God go through all that if He knows they will not listen, or even as in Isaiah, He has already turned them over to blindness and dullness?
“And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 2:5)
On the Day, no one will be able to say ‘But, but, You didn’t tell us!’ They will know that He sent a prophet to be among them.
Even more glorious,
As God said in Ezekiel 2, whether they hear or refuse to hear, they will know a prophet has been among them. You see, He not only sends prophets and teachers for our edification, but He does so on account of His OWN Holy name- so that they will be without excuse. He magnifies His holy name by being the living embodiment of faithfulness, holiness, and justice.
Read Acts and be stunned and overwhelmed by the number of times they mention THE NAME. Why? Because the overwhelming theme running through the entire book becomes clear when reading, it is all about THE NAME. Thirty times I read a verse where it was all about His name- the name, in His name, for the name; in verse 19:13 they even tried to co-opt His name. The acts of the apostles were to spread the good news that salvation is now here under the name of Jesus. Everything they said, did, and accomplished was for that purpose and empowered by that name.
In Acts 4:17 the aggravated Sanhedrin asked Peter and John about a man they’d healed. They asked, “By what power or what name did you do this?”
No matter that we are in apostate times and growing worse each day. Take heart! He raises up men to preach His word! Even in the Tribulation when He has removed the Holy Spirit from His restraining ministry, He will send 144,000 to preach the word, (Revelation 7:1-4, Revelation 14:1-5) and He will send His angels to preach the Gospel to the whole world (Revelation 14:6). This is for the sake of His name.
What a comfort to know that He magnifies His own name. He is faithful to Himself and therefore will never falter. He will never fail.
Look at the fruit He bears for His name:
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10)
The LORD is mighty and He raises up men to speak His truths, He sends His spirit to regenerate new believers, He magnifies His holy name from heaven and throughout the earth. And we are a part of that. (Ephesians 1:4). We have His name, being adopted into the family of God.
“Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (1 Peter 4:16)
Did you know that on the television show on cable channel A&E called Duck Dynasty, the family prays at the end of each episode over the family supper table. They also mention God in some in the middle of some of the shows, too. When it comes time for the prayer at the end, they begin the prayer to Heavenly Father of Good Father or just Father. They pray in Jesus name at the end, or they mention Jesus. Father and God are rarely edited out. Jesus is always edited out. Only two times did you hear the name of Jesus on the show. God is a powerful name and so is Father but it is the name of JESUS that sends the non-believer into a frenzy. Friends, mention the name of Jesus whenever you can.
So never fear. He raises up good men to preach, This magnifies His name. If we are in His name, we can magnify Him. “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”
He will not abandon us because He will not abandon His name. Magnify Him, trust Him, honor Him. His name, Jesus. THE NAME. There is no other.
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” (Acts 4:12)
 |
| Source |
In a continuing downward progression of record-breaking, unprecedented and impacting weather, the western US is baking in an unusual scorching heat.
On Twitter, Shawn Reynolds of the Weather Center Live on the Weather Channel (@WCL_Shawn) posted the following on Twitter yesterday: “PIC: thermometer at Weather Channel’s Mike Seidel’s location in Vegas shows reading of over 140°”
Drudge had the following photo and headline for the main news item on his page:
This is the forecast:
Unfortunately, we have had our first fatality due to this freak heat.
Record-setting heat wave turns fatal in Southwest
“A record-setting heat wave will continue baking the Southwest on Sunday and into the work week. Already, the hot spell has set records in cities such as Phoenix (119 degrees) and Lancaster, California (111 degrees). Las Vegas tied its record high of 115 degrees Saturday. Civic and emergency officials throughout the Southwest say if there was ever a time to worry, this would be it. The reason isn’t just the oppressive heat that is plaguing the region: It’s the fact it is expected to hang around, and possibly even get worse, over the next few days. Man helps the homeless survive the heat The heat may have led to the death of an elderly man in Las Vegas. Paramedics found the man dead in his home, which did not have air conditioning, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said.”
I’m always hesitant to assign a particular event to God’s judgment. I don’t like saying “The freak heat is because of America’s stance on homosexuality”, because I don’t know the mind of God. However, I do know His standards and I do know His past actions because we have the bible. One only has to read the Old & New Testament to understand that God hates sin, and He warns people individually and He warns nations when they are rebelling.
We also know that God is in control of the weather. Earlier this week, when unprecedented hail fell in Singapore, I’d said, “Though satan can be the originator of some weather disasters, (Job 1:9-12, 19), he can only do so at the Lord’s permission. Ultimately, all weather is in the hands of the Creator.”
It is the Lord who sends the scorching east wind to demonstrate to a rebellious Jonah that He is in control:
“When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”” (Jonah 4:8).
God uses the scorching wind to accomplish His purposes –
“The LORD will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that anyone can cross over in sandals.” Isaiah 11:15).
We know for sure that the bible says that a prophecy will come about that will involve heat. That prophecy is not being fulfilled now, but I’d like us to please think on this present scorching heat as a shadow-picture of what will come. What will come will be far worse.
“The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.” (Revelation 16:8-9).
Newsman Matt Drudge wrote, “Vegas to hit its highest temp ever recorded this weekend? Drunk/420 tourists failing on blvd will literally be fried.”
Please keep in mind that in this present Age of Grace, the discomforts we experience are a picnic compared to the judgments to come. For today, 120 degree heat will be a memory when the Tribulation comes and heat that soars to 150 degrees or even 180 or 200 happen. It is coming, and that means only two things:
1. “and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” (Mark 1:15)
2. “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
David sang to the LORD after being delivered to a military victory.
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge,
my savior; you save me from violence.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies. (2 Samuel 22:2-4)
How much more should we sing of the Lord who delivered us from the enemy of sin, and the violence of the devil? How much more should we praise His holy name for being our fortress and deliverer, accomplished by using His own body, broken and punctured, dead on the cross while enemies mocked? How much more should we sing of Him who rose from the dead, conquering death so that we could conquer death, and be with Him forever? How much more should we sing of Jesus who is our shield and is the very horn of salvation?
Praise our Lord today! Sing, laugh, praise, and proclaim His goodness for all His works! I pray you are victorious in Jesus today!
A few days ago, I read an interesting article about a man who had been living in Minnesota for decades was really a WWII SS Nazi Commander. For him to have been a commander in WWII, he’d have to be really old by now, and the story says he is 94 years of age.
I thought that was an interesting coincidence because I’d just watched a movie called “The Stranger”. This is a fictional 1946 movie about a Nazi who had masterminded the genocide of the Jews and when the war was over managed to flee Germany to the United States. He settled in a small village in New Hampshire, obtained a teaching position at an academy, and married the town scion’s daughter. It starred Orson Welles as the Nazi, Edward G. Robinson as the FBI man chasing him, and Loretta Young as the wife who married the Nazi.
The movie built its suspense, making the conclusion a sneak attack of horror. Its chosen location was a burb so guileless that patrons of the General Store helped themselves to pouring the ever-percolating pot of coffee behind the counter while the genial proprietor sat playing checkers near the woodstove with anyone who’d take him on for a quarter. There were happy teens running track, a well-attended church, and a luminous bride chirping about her white wedding.
Harper, NH is a kind of town every person could admire, life there is what we hope for, and wants life to be like. A town that’s safe, pretty, innocent, and upright.
Its stomach-turning, gasping horror was due to the juxtaposition of the clean-cut innocence of the town being gradually overcome with the stain of the evil heart of the Nazi. It was like watching a baby just out of the bath being approached by a rabid, drooling, mangy dog ready to devour it.
The movie gradually descended you into the mind of the Nazi, but the resistance of our mind to recognizing such horror is strong, especially by the young wife who had just married the evil man masked as a thoughtful teacher. In response to her father’s question about walking home after dark, she had said, “In Harper, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
 |
| The fictional town of Harper, NH where the Nazi had come to live |
The wife resisted the clear implications of her husband being a murderous Nazi, even after he confessed to two killings. He had (made up) a good reason, after all. She resisted facing the truth to the point where Robinson had to show her film of a recently liberated Concentration Camp, complete with wasted skeletons of people weakly and pitifully thanking their liberators, right down to close-ups of the skeletons in the ovens. The Stranger is said to be be the first to show actual footage of the German camps.
Loretta Young’s character had a problem facing such evil, because one would surely be able to spot it? Something about the person would set him apart from all the other people who are not so evil, surely? We as rational, innocent, good people, would be able to distinguish ourselves from the Nazis who harbored such hellish minds and dark hearts? Surely we would not … marry a person like this?
Loretta Young’s character finally broke down and faced the truth. The movie is called The Stranger and the title is apt. The stranger is not the man who came to town with all his WWII evil hidden away, the stranger is the evil that is in all of us, a potential that waits coiled up like a snake at the base of our hearts, waiting to be fed.
So having just seen the movie the night prior and then reading the article about the Minnesota man, was interesting to say the least.
Report: Former Nazi SS Officer Living In Minnesota
A 94-year-old man who allegedly was a top commander of a Nazi SS unit responsible for the massacre of civilians during World War II is reportedly living quietly in Minnesota, according to an exclusive report by The Associated Press. The news agency says it obtained records through the Freedom of Information Act that show Michael Karkoc
 |
| “A June 3, 1944, photo provided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum shows SS chief Heinrich Himmler (center) as he reviews troops of the Galician SS-Volunteer Infantry Division.” Source |
lied to officials in 1949 about his past in order to immigrate to the United States. According to the AP, Karkoc concealed his military service during World War II as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukraine Self Defense Legion and later as an officer of the SS Galician Division. “The Galician Division and a Ukrainian nationalist organization he served in were both on a secret American government blacklist of organizations whose members were forbidden from entering the United States at the time,” the AP reports.”
Michael Karkoc Revelations: Nazi Unit Leader’s Minneapolis Life Prompts Shock
“The revelation Friday that a former commander of a Nazi SS-led military unit has lived quietly in Minneapolis for the past six decades came as a shock to people who knew him, prompted harsh condemnations from World War II survivors in the U.S. and Europe, and led prosecutors in Poland to say they would investigate. … “I know him personally. We talk, laugh. He takes care of his yard and walks with his wife,” his next-door neighbor, Gordon Gnasdoskey, said Friday. Gnasdoskey, the grandson of a Ukrainian immigrant himself, said he was disturbed by the revelations about his longtime neighbor.”
 |
| St. Michael’s and St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church |
Karkoc is a member of the St. Michael’s and St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, seen at right, and is a member in good standing, said his pastor. The implication being, how could such a quiet man, who the day before had been seen doing normal suburban things such as cleaning his gutters, have participated in brutal and evil crimes against humanity?
Paul Washer has the answer.
“Hitler was not an anomaly. Hitler was not a phenomenon. Hitler was what everyone in this room has the potential of being. Not only that, you need to understand that even in all the wickedness of Hitler, he was still restrained by the common grace of God. And you need to know this, that if it were not for the common grace of God, restraining you in your unconverted state, you would make Hitler look like a choirboy.” Paul Washer.
The “shock” is not that there is a Nazi living among us. The shock is, that any one of us could be a Nazi.
When we come to grips with our own terrible evil, evil we use and wield against God every day, we come to better grips with His love for us. His holiness is so pure, so strong and majestic, so piercing, that even a glimpse of it terrifies the common man.
“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Exodus 34:29-30).
His perfection and holiness puts fear into us. That is because we recognize how depraved and evil we are.
Isaiah saw immediately how depraved he was, when confronted by the holiness of God. “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).
The delusion satan brings is that we are good, we are innocent, we are pure. Or, at least to the slightly more honest among us, we’re not so bad. “We’re not like HIM” our minds cry out when we discover that our neighbor is a Nazi. We use each other as a benchmark of progress in the goodness department, when the true standard is God. Our minds want to shrink from using Him as a benchmark because deep down we know what we are:
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5).
Do you see how complete that statement is, “so great”, “every intention”, “continually”? We are saturated with sin, permeated down to the last molecule. Washer is right, “All men are born evil.”
Washer is right to say that Hitler was restrained from worse. The restrainer is holding back the full potential of sin in the human heart, and so we enjoy His common grace. But once the restrainer is out of the way,
“Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, … The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders…” (2 Thessalonians 2:7b, 8a, 9).
In other words, watch out! ‘Satan with all power’. Everyone on earth except those who believe in Jesus after the rapture will make Hitler look like a choirboy. God’s common grace will have been removed- which will reveal the undeniable fact that everyone is not just a Hitler, but is an antichrist.
Once we understand this, the shock shifts. We are no longer shocked by the Nazi man puttering in his garden, because we see ourselves as having the same potential. The shock is, GOD LOVES US ANYWAY.
We can have a higher and deeper awe and love for Holy God because he loved each and every little Hitler on earth. Our precious Jesus died and shed His blood to save us!
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).
If the Nazi in the camp had turned from the ovens and bent down and asked the Lord to forgive his sins, Jesus would have, and the Nazi would go to heaven and the Jewish man on the slab about to be put into the oven would go to hell. His infinite love forgives any sin- except the sin of rejecting Him. His love is eternal, infinite, unstoppable, and would blanket you in glory in an instant,
“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9).
The Lord will unhesitatingly save you, and change your evil heart to a holy heart.
Last night at Wednesday night bible study, we were approaching 1 Peter 1:10 toward the end of the lesson: (“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully”)
and the next section in 1 Peter 1 is titled “Called to be holy.” In vv. 10, & 13-21, it reminded me of the study I’m personally doing in Zechariah. This blog entry is about sharing my thoughts of the parallels between 1 Peter 1:1-21 and Zechariah 3. Chapter 3 in Zechariah is a tremendous passage in a tremendous book that really stopped me in my tracks this week.
Perhaps the reference Peter makes to the prophets of old prophesying about the grace of God can be seen in view here in Zech 3:1-5. Let’s see.
“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” 3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” 5Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.”
My understanding is that Joshua the High Priest here is a picture of all Israel, called to be a holy (priestly) people before God and a light to the Gentiles. Now, I don’t want to spiritualize this passage or make it be about the Church. In this vision, God was giving direct comfort and an explicit message to Israel, but there is a wider view that I think I as a NT believer after the cross can safely take in seeing the character of satan in this scenes and the character of God, because those things don’t change.
In looking at the nature of the uncleanliness of Israel in their sin … the words used here refer to their uncleanness as human waste of the filthiest kind. That is what “Joshua”/Israel was covered in. That is how God looks at sin. This is always instructive to see. Sin is not just ugly, but it is the worst sort of pollution.
The thought of standing before God in my own waste is a jarring enough picture. Satan is right to accuse Israel, they were filthy. They were idolatrous, blasphemous, and sinning upon sin. How does that old adage go? “when satan talks to us he lies but when he talks to God he tells the truth”. He is truthfully pointing out the sin staining Israel.
Satan accuses us New Testament believers also, including me. (Rev 12:10). I can imagine him standing next to Jesus saying, “Did you see that? She is filthy with sin!” Ow!
But the wondrous part is when I read in Zechariah that the LORD rebuked satan for pointing it out and making the accusation!! He reminds satan that He has pulled Israel out of the fire (and us too, after the cross, 1 John 2:1). How great is His mercy that despite our filth, He loves His chosen people (and by extension, us)! It is a tremendous, tremendous scene.
And then His mercy deepens by His decision to place clean garments on Israel. They truly are a people close to His heart aren’t they! And His Holy, Merciful nature is that He also put clean garments on us when we become justified. Perhaps I can say that as Peter says in verse 7, the faith that is “more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire” is this garment of salvation! The clean garments he places on us, and it is an amazing thing. Faith in His word He’ll cleanse us of our sin and have it remain so, forever, despite satan’s accusations.
As Zechariah closes out the section saying that the LORD ordered that a clean turban be put on the High Priest’s head, we read in Exodus 28:36 that the turban had an engraving on it that said “HOLY TO THE LORD”.
Replacing Israel’s filth stained garments, and after the cross, replacing the Church age believer’s filth stained garments, is to me the most incredible act in the entire universe. Is this what the angels think also, and is why they long to look into such things? (1 Peter 1:12). I dare to speculate perhaps so.
As we read further in the 1 Peter 1 chapter, the upcoming verses 13-15, the call of Peter for us to be holy is contrasted by this scene in Zechariah of the grace and mercy of God, who cleans His children of our own excrement, calls us holy, and gives us the garments to prove it so. Though the scene in Zechariah is discrete to Israel, I can use that picture to extend it through the cross to understand that He rebukes my accuser, cleans me of my filth, places on my head His name, and ordains over me the call to be Holy. We are to be holy because He is holy (Lev 11:44).
Understanding where I came from and what God has done for me through Jesus, and seeing the scene described so graphically in Zechariah helps me want to adhere fervently to the call of Peter to be holy for His sake- and not mine.
God is so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This blew me away.
A new setting of the hymn text “What God Ordains Is Always Good” by Samuel Rodigast (1649-1708). Music composed by Josh Bauder.
Performed by the St. Thomas Alumni Choir, April 17, 2013; Casey Johnson, director and soloist; Josh Bauder, accompanist; recorded by Chris Muggli-Miller. Special thanks to Brittney Larson and Jon Tschiggfrie.
All music © 2013 by New Hope Music.
This past Thursday, I wrote a bit about the providence of God. I am still studying this great doctrine. I love it when the Holy Spirit grabs me by the heart and keeps me wrestling with a topic for a little while. Not that anyone can ever exhaust the great riches of studying the Providence of God…but I enjoy both kinds of study- minutely examining one verse for a while, and also studying the entire biblical expanse of a topic. It’s good to study doctrines as well as verses, and I hope you think so too.
Like the word “Trinity”, the word “Providence” is not in the bible. As it is clear that the LORD our God is one God in three persons (Trinity), it is also true that His Providence also extends throughout the universe, throughout creation, and throughout the affairs of men, even if the word itself is not explicitly stated.
After I studied the bible for passages that exhibit the fact of His of providence, I studied several books which demonstrate it. Providence cannot really be completely demonstrated in one verse, like God’s love is (1 John 4:16), or Jesus’s compassion, (John 11:35). We know that God is holy, (Isaiah 6:3), and He is eternal, (Psalm 90:2, Deuteronomy 32:40). God’s Providence is expansive, for example, providence is shown as what God did throughout the entirety of Joseph’s life.
Did you ever stop to think of how He sustains His divine will throughout each and every event that occurs on earth at each and every moment? For example, Mary was chosen as the biological vessel to conceive, carry, and birth the savior. She was a virgin, and God kept her so. Not that she would have sinned in that way, but she wasn’t waylaid by bandits and raped either. And He brought her mother and father together, they of the exact lineage He wanted, and kept them alive and betrothed them and saw them married and the father not died in war and the mother not dead in childbirth before Mary could be born. And Mary’s grandparents, born of the right tribe, and lived to bring their children into the world not having died of infection from a cut or food poisoning or falling down a cliff or eaten by a bear or lion, and so on back and back all the way to Adam and Eve. God ordered those circumstances so that His chosen vessel would emerge on the world stage at exactly the time and place He ordained. And so He does this for each person on earth.
However, one cannot read one verse and see His providence, because it is not one event. Providence is a series of events which you may not understand at the time but in looking back it all connects together. As I said in the other blog essay, it takes time to see His providence emerge. “Looking forward what we have is trust, and looking back we can see the results of that trust- His divine will accomplished providentially.”
The books that demonstrate His providence that come to mind are Esther, Ruth, and of course Joseph. Each of those books are examples of how God manages all affairs, large and small, to perform His divine will. Charles Spurgeon says, “Just look at the case of Joseph. God has it in his mind that Joseph shall be governor over all the land of Egypt: how is that to be done? The first thing to be done is that Joseph’s brethren must hate him. O, say you, that is a step backward. Next, Joseph’s brethren must put him in the pit. That is another step backward, say you. No, it is not: wait a little. Joseph’s brethren must sell him; that is another step backward, is it not? Providence is one, and you must not look at its separate parts. He is sold; he becomes a favorite: so far, so good. That is a step onward. Anon, he is put in a dungeon. Wait and see the end; all the different parts of the machinery are one. They appear to clash; but they never do. Put them all together. If Joseph had not been put in the pit, he never would have been the servant of Potiphar: if he never had been put in the round-house, he never would have interpreted the jailer’s dream; and if the king had never dreamed, he would not have been sent for. There were a thousand chances, as the world has it, working together to produce the exaltation of Joseph. Providence is one: it never clashes.”
I was reading Ecclesiastes the other day, the entire book, and it occurred to me that Ecclesiastes is also a book which speaks of God’s Providence without using the word. In Ecclesiastes 3:10, Solomon says, “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” Barnes Notes explains,
“To bring ourselves to our state in life, is our duty and wisdom in this world. God’s whole plan for the government of the world will be found altogether wise, just, and good. Then let us seize the favourable opportunity for every good purpose and work.”
Every good purpose and work is God’s providence because it brings about His will, which of course, is good!
Charles Spurgeon preached on the doctrine of Providence in a most interesting way. He begins his sermon practically enough,
“While reading the scriptures, we tried to hint at the practical benefits of the doctrine of Providence. We attempted to explain that portion of Scripture which teaches us to “take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself.” Our blessed Lord had there uttered very precious words to drive away our fears, to keep us from distrust and from distress, and to enable us so to rely upon Providence that we may say, he that feeds the ravens, and clothes the lilies, will never suffer me to famish nor to be naked. Having shown you from our Lord’s own words the practical benefits of the doctrine of Providence, I thought I would endeavor to explain that doctrine more fully this morning. I am constantly talking about providence in my preaching, and I thought it quite as well to devote a whole sermon to explain what I believe are God’s great wonder-working processes which we call Providence.”
Spurgeon then goes on brilliantly to propose his interpretation of Ezekiel’s wheels within wheels (Ezekiel 1:15-19) as a visual representation of God’s providence. Wow!
Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
He makes his outline of points this way and then goes on to explain each one.
I recommend reading the entire sermon, it’s great. Whether you agree or disagree with all his points, Spurgeon certainly was excited about the doctrine of God’s Providence!!
If you want some further concrete examples of God’s providence in the bible, look up in context:
–Genesis 45:8, He shows that all was done by God’s providence.
–Exodus 1:12, The providence of God toward the Jews in captivity under Pharaoh
–Psalm 8:1
–Psalm 33:1 urges the righteous to praise Him because of His providence
–Psalm 40:1-3, David sings of His providence
It is good to think on these things. In Psalm 107, David sings of the amazing things the LORD has done all over the earth. He concludes in verse 43, saying:
You might also be interested in:
Providence Is the Hand of God, Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Wayne Grudem preaches providence as demonstrated in the Book of Ruth
The providence of God, the first essay I wrote on the topic.
God provides. He provides the big things. He provided a way to heaven through His Son Jesus Christ for all who would believe. He provides the Holy Spirit to indwell us and help us resist sin. He provides good gifts of the spirit to edify the body and grow in faith. He provides patience in between the time we sin and fail to repent. He provides the earth to live on.
He also provides the lesser things but which are still important, like food and clothing. He said, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
Even during the Exodus when the Israelites were marching hither and yon for 40 years, His observance of each person was so detailed, He saw to it that their clothes didn’t even wear out and their feet didn’t swell or get blisters! (Deuteronomy 8:4).
I had three needs this week. I am extremely frugal with my supply and I dearly attempt to shepherd it well so that the Lord would be pleased. I have little to none left over for personal things.
Earlier this week I said “I need a frame to put this sketch in.” A dear friend had sketched for me a biblical scene of the lion and the lamb. It is a fitting artistic rendering because I have an issue with pictures of Jesus. I wanted to put it into a frame but I didn’t have any.
Later in the week I said, I am getting low on tee shirts. The weather is warming up and over the winter I’d forgotten I had gotten low on shirts. You know how they get stained or worn or just to small. (That blasted dryer shrinks ’em! 😉 I wear them under other shirts in ensuring modesty. Necklines these days are atrociously low. So I wear smaller tee shirts underneath.
Yesterday I said “I need some books…” I have had opportunity to obtain some theological books, and I study those. But the books I meant are the kind where you go outside onto the patio and read a summer potboiler to unwind in the afternoon. I don’t like to watch television because the shows are so terrible and even if a show is clean, the ads are awful. I’ve had a hard time finding clean, good, interesting movies on Netflix. A quiet evening reading is what I had been longing for but haven’t had because I’ve read all my books on the shelf.
So the other day I receive a Facebook message from a local artist. She said “Hey, I still have your artwork here, can you come pick it up?”
Six years ago I participated in a gallery show, and some of my art work was hung. I had forgotten ALL about the pieces I had installed there. I went to pick up the things and there were half a dozen pieces of large and small size, including some I will use for re-framing the piece my friend gave me. Six years is a long time and out of the blue the message came- and suddenly there are frames I can re-use. Wow. Six years.
The gallery was also holding an indoor yard sale, something I’d never have known since I don’t travel to that side of town, ever. At the sale there were paperback books for a quarter. I bought three. And also there were tee shirts, $1 each. I bought four.
So for five dollars I had all three needs met.
I am not saying God is a genie who responds to wishes, He doesn’t. He is the sovereign and holy God who does what He wills. I didn’t “sow a seed” like Jentezen Franklin says to do. I hadn’t ‘expected’ him to ‘do great things‘ in my life as Joyce Meyer tells her audiences. I did not “declare” things to come to pass as Joel Osteen teaches.
I pray to the Lord, read His word, worship Him corporately and privately. I talk to Him, sing to Him, think about Him, thank him, and follow Him. I obey Him too. I have a living and active relationship with Him, and I think it’s a close one, because after all, He is my everything.
Now, prayer is an obedient act of dependence on God. Therefore I pray for the big things, salvation, intercession, repentance for others and forgiveness for myself. I pray for the little things too. Didn’t He not say “pray in this way”…”Give us this day our daily bread”? (Luke 11:3). The things I’d needed were small needs, and not completely necessary to my life or well-being, but they are in a way part of my daily bread- clean entertainment that’s God-honoring, clothing that helps me remain dressed modestly, and framing a gift an artist had drawn that is not an idol but a representation of Him as Lamb of God and Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Bread isn’t just food but things that help us in our daily needs.
God does manage provision in our lives down to smallest of details. The Lord provides. After all, He kept the clothing of 3 million Jews from wearing out, for 40 years. His eye was on the threads and straps and sandals of each person! He is a great and mighty God, but He is also our Father. My dad, Abba!
Jesus called God ‘Abba’-
“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
The Holy Spirit cries out to God as Abba-
“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6)
We who are His children by adoption call out Abba, too!
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)
the-end-time.org 