A friend asked if I would join in a “Sovereignty of God blog series” this Summer, giving no set boundaries other than to ask us to share how we interact with God’s sovereignty from a theological and personal perspective. On the docket are lots of well-known bloggers, and then me. Oh yeah, and he scheduled me to go first. Humbling. My post “A Story of Sovereignty” is up now It’s a bit longer than a normal blog post. Won’t blame God for that … (The revised version posted is a bit shorter than the full version I’ll start posting here tomorrow,...

“As God, Christ is the destination to which we move; as man, the path by which we go.” - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion , 3.2.1 (via OFI ) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Journey: our destination + path", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/12/09/journey-our-destination-path/" });

Never been able to make it to a Desiring God conference . This year’s conference ended today, and it looked to be an insightful time in God’s Word. Look forward to perhaps working through the audio recordings and become a better communicator of God’s glorious wonder. ————— The DG Blog has some recent posts summarizing the messages, with audio links and some notes either from the speaker or from an attentive listener Some of the posts: Pray More than You Criticize (about Mark Driscoll’s message) 3 Ways Singing Serves the Word (from Bob Kauflin’s...

"Note then the kindness and the severity of God : severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off." (Romans 11:22) Note the context (Rom. 11) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Behold", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/09/26/behold/" });

“God did not create us to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it. We were to join in the dance. If we center our lives on him, serving him not out of self-interest, but for the sake of who he is, for the sake of his beauty and glory, we will enter the dance and share in the joy and love he lives in. We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to center our lives upon him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting, and resembling...

“The ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. The suffering of the utterly innocent and infinitely holy Son of God in the place of utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be. This was the moment—Good Friday—for which everything in the universe was planned. In conceiving a universe in which to display the glory of his grace, God did not choose Plan...

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . . . The gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any [person] is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that comprises the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.” - A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy...

Today at Cornerstone School of Ministry we are studying perhaps the most important paragraph in all the Bible. It’s truths are so compellingly beautiful I can hardly contain myself; teaching God’s Word ignites my soul. Romans 3:21-26 is the paragraph in view, and verse 20 sets the stage. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Romans 3:20-26", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/04/17/romans-320-26/" });

John Stott writes in Between Two Worlds: It is my contention that all true Christian preaching is expository preaching. Of course, if by an “expository” sermon is meant a verse-by-verse explanation of a lengthy passage of Scripture, then indeed it is only on possible way of preaching, but this would be a misuse of the word. Properly speaking, “exposition” has a much broader meaning. It refers to the content of the sermon (biblical truth) rather than its style (a running commentary). To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view. The...

God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1) By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2) In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself . . . . God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. (Jonathan Edwards, The “Miscellanies,” ed. by Thomas Schafer, The Works...