“To be glad instruments of God’s love in this imperfect world is the service
to which man is called.”
Dr. Albert Schweitzer ( 1875-1965)
A Large Place
“He brought me forth also into a large place;
he delivered me because he delighted in me.”
Psalm 18:19
And what is this “large place”? What can it be
but God Himself, that infinite Being in whom
all other beings and all other streams of life terminate?
God is a large place indeed. And it was through
humiliation, through abasement,
through nothingness that David was brought into it.
Madame Guyon (1648-1717)
God’s Will For Us
Jesus answered, “You would have no power
over me if it were not given you from above.”
John 19:11
One who was passing through deep waters of affliction
wrote to a friend: “ Is it not a glorious thing to
know that, no difference how unjust a thing may be,
or how absolutely it may seem to be from Satan, by
the time it reaches us it is God’s will for us, and
will work for good to us? For all things work together
for good to us who love God.
And even of the betrayal,
Christ said,
“The cup which my Father gave me, shall I not drink it?”
We live charmed lives if we are living in the center
of God’s will. All the attacks that Satan, through
others’ sin, can hurl against us are not only powerless
to harm us, but are turned into blessings on the way. -H.W.S.
from Streams in the Desert Volume 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman – August 14th
Powerful Delusion
They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:10b
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion
so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
2 Thessalonians 2: 11, 12
” Their sin is this: They believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness: they did not love the truth, and therefore they did not believe it;
and, because they did not believe the truth, therefore they had pleasure in unrighteousness, or in wicked actions, and were pleased with false notions.
Note, An erroneous mind and vicious life often go together and help forward one another.
Their ruin is thus expressed: God shall send them strong delusions, to believe a lie.
Thus he will punish men for their unbelief, and for their dislike of the truth and love to sin and wickedness; not that God is the author of sin, but in righteousness he sometimes withdraws his grace from such sinners as are here mentioned; he gives them over to Satan, or leaves them to be deluded by his instruments;
he gives them up to their own hearts’ lusts, and leaves them to themselves, and then sin will follow of course, yea, the worst of wickedness, that shall end at last in eternal damnation. God is just when he inflicts spiritual judgments here, and eternal punishments hereafter, upon those who have no love to the truths of the gospel,
who will not believe them, nor live suitably to them, but indulge false doctrines in their minds, and wicked practices in their lives and conversation.”
from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:11,12
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:13
” When we hear of the apostasy of many, it is a great comfort and joy, that there is a remnant according to the election of grace, which does and shall persevere; especially we should rejoice, if we have reason to hope that we are of that number. The preservation of the saints, is because God loved them with an everlasting love, from the beginning of the world.”
from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:13
This blog was originally posted on November 23, 2020. It bares repeating.
Why Not My Little Small World?
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image,
in our likeness, and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,
over the livestock, over all the earth,
and over all the creatures that move along the
ground.”
So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female
he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27
Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
Job 11:7
Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him
who rides on the clouds-His name is the Lord-
and rejoice before him.
Psalm 68:4
The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of
the heavens shook;
they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from
his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds
were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and
flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his canopy around him—the dark
rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning
blazed forth.
The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most
High resounded.
2 Samuel 22:8-14