2 John 1:3 “Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.” ***** The Great Controversy The great controversy between God and man has been whether He or they shall be God; whether His reason or theirs, His will or theirs, shall be the guiding principle. If anything could frustrate God’s will - then it would be superior to Him, God would not be omnipotent, and so would lose the perfection of the Deity, and consequently the Deity itself; for that which did wholly defeat God’s will, would be more powerful than He. To be God and yet inferior to another, is a contradiction!--Stephen Charnock
******************************************* Lord Jesus Christ, We Seek Thy Face Author: Alexander Stewart Tune: Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow (L. Bourgeois) * 1. Lord Jesus Christ, we seek Thy face; O let Thy glory fill this place; Within the veil we bow the knee; O bless us while we wait on Thee. * 2. We thank Thee for Thy precious blood That purged our sins and brought us nigh; All cleansed and sanctified to God, Thy holy name to magnify. * 3. Here may we prove the pow'r of prayer, To strengthen faith and sweeten care, To teach our faint desires to rise, And keep Thy love before our eyes. * 4. When from the dust of death I rise To take my dwelling in the skies, E'en then shall this be all my plea, That Christ the Savior died for me! **************************************** God’s Most Hated Attribute! “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased!” Psalm 115:3
“Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.” Psalm 135:6
“And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” Daniel 4:35
On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, as the great, stupendous - but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah! Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne! They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of Heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean.
But when God ascends His throne - then His creatures then gnash their teeth! And when we proclaim an enthroned God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter - then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us - for God on His throne, is not the God they love!
No doctrine in the whole Word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind, than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God! Opposition to divine sovereignty is essentially atheism - and were it not for sovereign grace, none of us would ever have followed the path to Heaven. I am daily more and more convinced that the difference between one man and another is, not the difference between his use of his will - but the difference of grace that has been bestowed upon him. “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!” Revelation 19:6 --Charles Spurgeon ************************** His All-Seeing Eye “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!” Hebrews 4:13 God is omniscient. His knowledge is infinite in kind and extent. It is eternal. He knows all things past, present, and future; all things that ever have been, are, or ever shall be. In heaven, earth, and hell, nothing is hid from His all-seeing eye. God knows the hearts of all His creatures. God also knows all things which ever could have been, could now be, or could hereafter be on any conceivable supposition. His knowledge embraces all plans, all truths, all systems. God can neither learn nor forget anything. “Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite!” Psalm 147:5 --William Plumer ************************************* Daily Readings February 16-22 16 - Leviticus 19-20; Matthew 27:51-66 17 - Leviticus 21-22; Matthew 28 18 - Leviticus 23-24; Mark 1:1-22 19 - Leviticus 25; Mark 1:23-45 20 - Leviticus 26-27; Mark 2 21- Numbers 1-2; Mark 3:1-19 22 - Numbers 3-4; Mark 3:20-25