Tag: God's sovereignty
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The Conscripts
1 Kings 5:13 “King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel.” In the passage above, we are told that King Solomon used forced labor to build the temple. Typically, such conscripts were taken from the surrounding nations that had been defeated in battle. Earlier examples of this can be found in places such as Judges…
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A Word About Suffering
1 Peter 4:19 “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” Suffering: one of best definitions I’ve ever heard for it was the following by Elizabeth Elliot: “having something we don’t want or wanting something we don’t have.” According to the verse above, a similar…
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“Chance” Events
Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” This morning I happened to be walking by a sharp object in my garage and snagged and ripped a nasty hole in my coat. It’s a coat I really like and I was upset. As I thought more about…
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Our Sovereign God
1 Peter 3:17 “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” There is something that is incredibly freeing in being a follower of Jesus Christ. Actually, there are many things about such a life that are freeing, but it’s the one thing mentioned in…
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Plan A or Plan B
James 4:15 “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” There’s a verse in the Old Testament that was the basis for a song we used to sing in a church I attended many years ago. Its refrain went like this: “I cannot go beyond the word…
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Plans
James 4:13-14 “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” So,…
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Gracious Restraint
2 Samuel 16:13 “So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust.” Have you ever heard someone say or have you ever read somewhere that “God has a wonderful plan for your life”?…
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Why is this happening to me?!
Hebrews 12:3-6 “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly…
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The “God Things”
Matthew 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Some years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend whose view was that although God may have been involved…
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Why Thorns?
2 Corinthians 12:7 “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” If you are a Christian, are you one in which everything in life is wonderful? Do you have any…
