Growing In Grace

In the first installment we considered how the Bible portrays God's providence as governing all his creatures and their actions, which includes both "the Good and the Bad." We saw how both Naomi and Job declare God's providential control even over evil events which they experienced. And we started to ask the question, how do those texts fit with the many declarations of God's holiness and his inability to be tempted by or to tempt anyone to evil.  (See previous post here ) The Ugly Theologians have wrestled with these questions for years and the best explanation, in my opinion, is known as the Two Wills of God. At first glance the idea that God has two wills seems like theologians are accusing God of being bi-polar or something, but let's take a closer look at why this language has been used. Clearly it is God's will that people should not commit murder. This is, after all, one of the 10 Commandments - "You shall not murder" (Ex 20:13). Th

Recently we preached through Ruth and my love for the literary masterpieces of the Old Testament has been rekindled. Ruth is a book loaded with puns, wordplay, and double entendre which are all woven together to tell a wonderful story. For this post I want to focus on one of the central theological themes woven through Ruth - the doctrine of Providence. The Good  The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.” This teaching is found in many places throughout the Bible but Proverbs provides some punchy examples: Proverbs 16:1 “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.  Proverbs 16:33  “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” In all three examples we find God working

I recently finished reading the excellent little book by Alan Jacobs titled  How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. In this post I will review some of the highlights of the book and make some applicational comments along the way. Towards the beginning of the book Jacobs quotes T. S. Eliot, "when we do not know, or when we do not know enough, we tend to substitute emotion for thoughts." (1)  In our emotionally charged and polarized world it certainly seems that Eliot was right on target. It is grieving that in our cultural moment disagreeing with someone comes with a knee jerk emotional response and a painting of the other person as the slimiest demogorgon imaginable. Why do we react to things we do not understand the way we do? Since we cannot possibly think about every decision we need to make in a given day our survival depends on having groups which help us to think. Jacobs writes, "Thinking independently, solitarily, 'for ourselves,' is

Hidden in Plain Sight Anyone who has ever seen a young child attempt to hide by covering their eyes has enjoyed a heart warming laugh. They are sitting on your lap with your hands holding their sides to keep them from falling over as they throw their little hands up to hide their eyes convinced they are invisible. We find that adorable in an 18 month old, but how it would look if it were someone the age of Shaquille O' Neal? Of course the initial problem would be how well you would fair with having someone the size of Shaq sitting on your lap, but I digress. Clearly a young child does not yet understand that just because they can't see you it does not mean you can't see them. Adults know better, or do they? Romans 1:18-32 speaks of what is true of all people in their natural state. In particular look at: Romans 1:21 - "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hear