God

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An Unremarkable Faith

This article originally appeared here at Grace to You.

Meet Larry, a thirty-six year old Science teacher. Larry married Cathy 12 years ago. They love each other and enjoy raising their two sons. Larry’s life wouldn’t hold out much interest to the average citizen. His Facebook account doesn’t draw many friends and nobody ever leaves a comment on his blog. In fact, most people would summarize Larry’s life with one word—boring. But not Larry. Teaching osmosis to junior high students, playing Uno with his kids, and working in the yard with Cathy is paradise to him. But the real love of his life is Jesus. Larry’s a Christian. He’s been walking with the Lord for more than 20 years.

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Does God love the elect and hate the non-elect?

John MacArthur – Grace to You Q & A

Question:
There are some who teach that God loves only His elect and hates the non-elect. Please comment.

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The Saint Must Walk Alone

A W TOZER

MOST OF THE WORLD’S GREAT SOULS have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.

In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange darkness that came soon after the dawn of man’s creation) that pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.

Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.

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THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

John MacDuff,

“The Night Watches”

“Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Where shall I flee from Your presence?” Psalm 139:7

The omnipresence of God! How baffling to any finite comprehension! To think that above us, and around us, and within us — there is Deity — the invisible footprints of an Omniscient, Omnipresent One! “His Eyes are in every place!” On rolling planets — and tiny atoms; on the bright seraph — and the lowly worm; roaming in searching scrutiny through the tracks of immensity — and reading the dark and hidden page of my heart! “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!”

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Holiness and Prayer

Joseph Caryl, 1647

“But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf” Job 8:5-6

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He does as He pleases!

He does as He pleases!

(Arthur Pink, “The Sovereignty of God“)

“For the Lord Almighty has purposed—and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out—and who can turn it back?” Isaiah 14:27

To say that God is sovereign, is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and earth—so that none can . . .
defeat His counsels,
thwart His purpose,
or resist His will.

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A Humble Man

From a letter by William Romaine (1714-1795).

A humble man can come to no harm; he will be ever trusting in the Lord, because he finds nothing in himself to trust in, while he gives great glory to God by trusting much in Him. God gives him great grace, and this is to keep alive an abiding sense of what he is in himself: to show him his ignorance and helplessness, to open to him daily more of the mystery of iniquity, to reveal to him the stirrings of corruption, which others feel not, and make him sensible of these, even in duties and ordinances, that he may loath himself and his very best works. These are the fruits of true grace, and he who is under the teachings of the Holy Spirit will abound in them. The more God does in the heart, the more He humbles it. The great design of His grace—is to bring the proud sinner low, and then to keep him low.

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Sin’s Presence

Arthur Pink
February, 1948

There are two sides to a Christian’s life: a light side—and a dark one; an elevating side—and a depressing one. His experience is neither all joy—nor all grief; but a commingling of both. It was so with the apostle Paul: “As sorrowful—yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). When a person is regenerated, he is not there and then taken to heaven—but he is given both a pledge and a foretaste of it. Nor is sin then eradicated from his being, though its dominion over him is broken. It is indwelling corruption which casts its dark shadow over his joy!

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Is the Doctrine of Election Biblical

John MacArthur

Grace to You

Among the most hotly contested and persistent debates in the history of the confessing church, the doctrine of election is perhaps the greatest of all. The question goes like this: Does God choose sinners to be saved and then provide for their salvation? Or, Does God provide the way of salvation that sinners must choose for themselves?

Where’s the evidence?

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The Problem Of Evil

The Problem Of Evil

William Lane Craig

Website: Reasonable Faith

The problem of evil is certainly the greatest obstacle to belief in the existence of God.  When I ponder both the extent and depth of suffering in the world, whether due to man’s inhumanity to man or to natural disasters, then I must confess that I find it hard to believe that God exists.  No doubt many of you have felt the same way.  Perhaps we should all become atheists.

But that’s a pretty big step to take.  How can we be sure that God does not exist?  Perhaps there’s a reason why God permits all the evil in the world.  Perhaps it somehow all fits into the grand scheme of things, which we can only dimly discern, if at all.  How do we know?

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God Has Unlimited Power


John MacArthur From Strength for Today Grace to You

“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory
and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that
is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O
Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all.”
– 1 Chronicles 29:11

God has unlimited power and ultimate control over everything.

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Comforter

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening, 12 February, Evening

“He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” – John 14:16

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The Actions of One Who Forgives

Philemon 8-18

John MacArthur at Grace to You

This morning in our study of God’s Word together we return to the letter of Paul to Philemon, the epistle to Philemon. This brief epistle of 25 short verses, one chapter, is a living lesson on forgiveness. And this is our third out of four looks at this little epistle and we again this morning will sit at the feet of Paul and learn how to forgive. You remember the first three verses gave us the introduction. Then verses 4-7 showed us the characteristics of someone who forgives. And now in verses 8 through 18 we come to the action of forgiveness itself. We’re going to be looking at the very issue of forgiveness.

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The Last Word on Relationships

Titus 3:9-15

John MacArthur

Grace to You

Open your Bible to Titus chapter 3. We come now to the final message in our study of this wonderful power-packed condensed epistle of Paul to his young son in the faith ministering on the island of Crete. And we’re going to be looking at the final verses, verses 9 through 15, just some closing remarks by the Apostle Paul, having already given the full argument of the book itself. He has some final things to say. And listen as he speaks beginning in verse 9.

“But shun foolish controversies and genealogies and strifes and disputes about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning being self-condemned. When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis for I have decided to spend the winter there. And diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking for them. And let our people also learn to engage in good deeds to make pressing needs that they may not be unfruitful. All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.”

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Know Thy Enemy

Grace to You

Know Thy Enemy

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Are you ready to kill?

That’s a stark question, and it demands qualification, but killing is a regular part of the Christian life. There’s an aspect of being a Christian that’s downright violent.

You see, God commands us to hunt down and kill all remaining sin—to terminate it with extreme prejudice. Want proof? Here’s what Paul said in Romans 8:

So then, brethren, we are under obligation. Not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (vv. 12-14)

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