Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
1 Tim. 1.14 – “and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
Genuine grace, when operating on the souls of men and women, invariably produces two main things: Faith in, and love for, Christ Jesus.
If either is missing, so is salvation.
’nuff said.
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from Scripture
1 Thessalonians 4.1 – Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
1 Tim. 1.5 – The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
Rom. 12.12d – Contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality.
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings in the Scripture
Rom. 12.12c – be constant in prayer
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from Scripture
Rom. 12.12b – be patient in tribulation
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from Scripture
Rom. 12.12a – Rejoice in hope
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
Luke 19.10 – For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
1 Cor. 15.19 – If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
John Owen John Calvin
Before you read the following, I should make it clear that I was never HYPER-Calvinist. That is a very specific designation. For one to be a hyper-Calvinist, there are some very specific criteria which must be met. Phil Johnson in his excellent “A Primer of Hyper-Calvinism” discusses them in the following paragraphs:
“Notice three very crucial points in that definition: First, it correctly points out that hyper-Calvinists tend to stress the secret (or decretive) will of God over His revealed (or preceptive) will. Indeed, in all their discussion of “the will of God,” hyper-Calvinists routinely obscure any distinction between God’s will as reflected in His commands and His will as reflected in his eternal decrees. Yet that distinction is an essential part of historic Reformed theology. (See John Piper, “Are There Two Wills in God? Divine Election and God’s Desire for All To Be Saved” in Thomas R. Schreiner, ed., The Grace of God and the Bondage of the Will, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995, 1:107-131.)
Second, take note of the stress the above definition places on hyper-Calvinists’ “denial of the use of the word ‘offer’ in relation to the preaching of the gospel.” This is virtually the epitome of the hyper-Calvinist spirit: it is a denial that the gospel message includes any sincere proposal of divine mercy to sinners in general.
Third, mark the fact that hyper-Calvinism “encourages introspection in the search to know whether or not one is elect.” Assurance tends to be elusive for people under the influence of hyper-Calvinist teaching. Therefore, hyper-Calvinism soon degenerates into a cold, lifeless dogma. Hyper-Calvinist churches and denominations tend to become either barren and inert, or militant and elitist (or all of the above).”
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
Judges 16.30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. 31 Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.
Samson is as tragic as he is heroic. His life demands examination.
Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from the Scripture
Judges 11.30 – “30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering…34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.”
