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Showing posts with label Quieting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quieting. Show all posts

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Focusing on What You Do Have! Lie Down and Just Breathe - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 15 – Purity 1071


Focusing on What You Do Have! Lie Down and Just Breathe - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 15 –  Purity 1071

Purity 1071 06/17/2023 Purity 1071 Podcast

Purity 1071 on YouTube: Coming Soon!

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the light of the setting sun pouring through a massive cloud formation over Hallett Cove in South Australia comes to us from Dave Baun Photography (https://www.facebook.com/DaveBaunPhotography) who shared this heavenly scene back on April 17th commenting at the time: “Since I was stuck in the car for last night’s sunset, here’s one from not long ago.”  Well, I don’t know what the sunset that Dave missed may have been like, but I love the fact that he decided to get over whatever disappointment he may have felt by sharing what he was able to capture previously! Rather than lamenting over his missed opportunity, Dave focused on what he did accomplish and shared a photo that may have otherwise been put aside unseen.  Just like how his photo highlights how something good (the sun light) overcomes something we would consider not so good (that huge cloud formation is rather dark and foreboding),  Dave’s decision to share this photo (something good) overcame the “something bad” of Dave’s missed opportunity.

 Well, It’s Saturday and even though the local forecast in my neck of the woods states a 90% chance of showers for today (something we could see as bad) ,  I, like our friend Dave, am going to focus on the “something good” of a couple of days off of work in the presence of my beloved wife – that I do have – and not let what could be disappointing circumstances of the weather steal my peace or temper the joy I can have over all the things I have been blessed with that are unaffected by the current or forecasted atmospheric conditions.  

While a trip to a local beach to go swimming doesn’t seem to be in the offering today, there are options out there – museums, art galleries, malls, - for indoor activities if we feel the overwhelming urge to “DO SOMETHING” or we could decide to rest and rejoice over the humble comforts of home and recharge our batteries by “Doing Nothing”.  

At this early hour, I don’t know if we will do Something or Nothing with our day, but regardless of where the day takes us, I can already report that the day has been a success because of the things I “do have” and “did do” this morning.  

As I am always “selling” or encouraging all who read or hear these messages- I stress the importance of a DAILY SPIRITUAL PRACTICE – a time of prayer, meditation, and Bible Study with the Lord – that can give you peace and joy every single day.   I have already prayed, read a chapter of the Bible (I usually do two, but I am in the New Testament now and I don’t want to skim through the teachings and life of Jesus too quickly!) reminded myself of who I am by  reading, proclaiming, and meditating on  the Who I am in Christ List and the Overcomer’s Covenant, and practiced a little bit of gratitude – so I am “feeling pretty good” as I have grounded myself in the truth of who God is, what He has provided, and who He has made me to be!

I also gained a measure of peace with a few minutes of quieting and focusing on my breath.

And that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28 Day Joy Challenge, (https://4habits.org/) because we are encouraging ourselves and others, you, to “find peace” in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation.

The 28 Day Joy challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner & Chris Coursey’s latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free, and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Coursey on topic of Joy, by going to https://4habits.org/.  

So let’s jump into Day 15, which will direct us to kick back, relax, and just breathe.  

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Day 15 - Just Breathe

 

Welcome to Day 15 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge!

Today’s Encouragement:

The first few times you practice calming your mind and body, it is not unusual to have racing thoughts and increased anxiety because you are not used to being still. Hang in there! It will get easier with practice as you figure out what works for your mind and body to be more peaceful.

Today’s Practice: Exercise 15

Today we will practice breathing and noticing what helps us more effectively quiet and rest.

- How This Exercise Will Benefit You:

One overlooked aspect of growing more joy is resting. Rest grows our capacity, so we increase our joy levels.

- Exercise Steps:

For this practice, grab a book and find a quiet spot where you can lie down. Place the book on your stomach and breathe deeply in a way that makes the book rise and fall. Try to rest and breathe for three to five minutes. You can even play relaxing music if you like. Notice how it feels to quiet your body and breathe deeply.

Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice!

When I read today’s joy practice instructions I was taken back a little as I had to decide how exactly I was going to do this. In fact, I have to honestly confess I had a moment’s temptation to pretend we did it or to alter the instructions!

You see the instructions tell you to “lie down” and while I could easily do that on my bedroom floor or in my bed at River House,  things at my countryside home are a little different.  I do my prayer, Bible Study, meditation, and blog in the cramped confines of the office space that TammyLyn arranged for me to have in the small room off of the master bedroom that served as her closet before I came along.  While I guess it would have been physically possible to lie down on the floor, I have done it before, its current state is a little overcrowded and so I was left wondering if I was actually going to do today’s practice as instructed or not!

I contemplated just slipping into bed again next to TammyLyn for the 5 minutes of focused prostrated breathing but feared that I may disturb her sleep or end up falling asleep with her. 

I contemplated using the couch in the living room, but that area of the house is seldom used and is sometimes a way station for “the things being organized” or waiting to be given away, and there are two child gates – stacked one on top of the other to keep the pets out of that room and off the furniture and I didn’t know what the state of the living room was ( a quick check later revealed it is quite “ocupado” with some stuff) and I didn’t want to deal with the child gates to gain access anyway.  

But because I want to be true to the 28 Day Joy Challenge- by actually doing the practices, I decided to just grab a pillow and my phone as a timer and lay down on the kitchen floor to “get er done” and that’s what I did.    

Although I initially wondered whether I would be able to get any peace lying on the kitchen floor, I just followed the instructions. I grabbed a book – The Joy Switch by Chris Coursey, as a matter of fact, put it on my stomach, and just focused on my breath and the book going up and down with my rhythmic respirations.  I remember losing focus once with some distracting thought that I can’t recall but after that I just relaxed and “just breathed”.  

My mind was clear, my body relaxed, as I kept my attention on my breathing. It was a peaceful easy feeling for sure but after a time I wondered “how long has it been” and checked my phone to discover that I had elapsed the 5 minute mark by 17 seconds!  I felt good over successfully completing today’s challenge and even contemplating pushing it into “extra innings” by lying back and doing a few more minutes but decided against it because I wasn’t too comfortable on the kitchen floor but fIeared that I might fall asleep all the same.  Plus I hadn’t done my Bible study yet and wanted to get back to Jesus’ teaching of the Sermon on the Mount where I had paused yesterday.  

But I can say? Today’s joy practice of “just breathing” was a success and I was glad for the 5 minutes of peace.  

So what about you? Are you actually going to lie down and just focus on your breath like the instructions tell you?  

It may seem silly, but there is no benefit to just “understanding” that focusing on the breath or taking deep breaths can help you to relax, give you peace, and increase your capacity so you can increase your joy levels,  to realize those benefits you actually have to do the exercises.  

So let me encourage you to actually do what the instructions tell you to do and be diligent to complete the 28 Day Joy challenge because the work you do today may very well help you to establish the habits of being a joy-filled person and give you an enduring sense of peace and joy that stays with you regardless of which way the wind blows with the weather or the circumstance of your life.   

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verses are:

Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT2)
7  “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
8  For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Today’s verses are the words of Jesus that encourages us to be persistent in our relationship with the Lord by assuring us that if we believe and keep seeking the Lord’s will for our lives by asking, Seeking (HELLO), and knocking we will receive, find, and have everything we need opened up for us.   

Hey quick – walking in the Spirit report- as I have indicated in the past, my blog isn’t really planned out in advance, and I often find it interesting of how the content of the message and the things that come up from the various resources I share just seem to naturally flow together.  As I shared above, my personal Bible Study has led me through the entire Old Testament and has me in the beginning of the New Testament.  And even though I didn’t mention it yesterday – I studied Matthew 6 – and yesterday’s verse of the day from the NLT promise book for Men – was Matthew 6:33 where Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to us.   And today – I studied Matthew 7 and today’s verses are Matthew 7: 7-8! Which tells us again to Seek the Lord.  

Some would say that this confluence of my personal Bible Study, with the randomly selected verses from our devotional resource, and the continuity of the message of these subsequent verses,  would indicate that we are “tracking with the Spirit!”   Just saying, when these little “coincidences” happen we should be encouraged and know that because our Sovereign God is moving all things towards His purposes, we just might be doing something right, as it seems that God is bringing common themes together to get our attention and to let us know that He is with us, and we appear to be with Him!  

We stress seeking the Lord on this blog. In fact my wife’s podcast (which is currently on hiatus because of her schooling to become certified as a Special Educations Teacher) is called Ask, Seek, Knock, and so is the FB community (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) that she created where we share our encouragements.

  But the reason we stress asking, seeking, and knocking is because we have discovered the truth of these verses.  When we ask, when we seek, when we knock, we have received, found, and had doors open to us – in amazing ways.  

I don’t point people to the path of Christian Discipleship because we should all be “good little boys and girls and “do what is right”.  I mean, we should, but the reason we do what is right, is because of our interactive relationship with the living God!  We are in relationship with God – there is asking and receiving, seeking and finding. We ask and He answers. He leads and we follow.  

And notice above that I didn’t say that He will give you everything you “want”, but did say that “we will receive, find, and have everything we need opened up for us”  when we are persistent in following Him.  

So be persistent, ask, seek, and knock – and “do it again” – and wait and see what the Lord will do in your life when you love Him and trust Him enough to seek Him and follow where He leads.

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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)  

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

9 -The Work of the Spirit

The Spirit’s Operation in the Non-elect

Let us, then, now point out a few of the Spirit’s general and inferior operations in the non-elect, as distinguished from His special and superior works in the redeemed.

1. In restraining evil. If God should leave men absolutely to their own natural corruptions and to the power of Satan (as they fully deserve to be, as He will in Hell, and as He would now but for the sake of His elect), all show of goodness and morality would be entirely banished from the earth: men would grow past feeling in sin, and wickedness would swiftly and entirely swallow up the whole world. This is abundantly clear from Genesis 6:3, 4, 5, 12. But He who restrained the fiery furnace of Babylon without quenching it, He who prevented the waters of the Red Sea from flowing without changing their nature, now hinders the working of natural corruption without mortifying it. Vile as the world is, we have abundant cause to adore and praise the Holy Spirit that it is not a thousand times worse.

The world hates the people of God (John 15:19): why, then, does it not devour them? What is it that holds back the enmity of the wicked against the righteous? Nothing but the restraining power of the Holy Spirit. In Psalm 14:1–3 we find a fearful picture of the utter depravity of the human race. Then in verse 4 the Psalmist asks, “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.” To which answer is made, “There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous” (v. 5). It is the Holy Spirit who places that “great fear” within them, to keep them back from many outrages against God’s people. He curbs their malice. So completely are the reprobate shackled by His almighty hand, that Christ could say to Pilate, “thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11)!

2. In inciting to good actions. All the obedience of children to parents, all the true love between husbands and wives, is to be attributed unto the Holy Spirit. Whatever morality and honesty, unselfishness and kindness, submission to the powers that be and respect for law and order which is still to be found in the world, must be traced back to the gracious operations of the Spirit. A striking illustration of His benign influence is found in 1 Samuel 10:26, “Saul also went home to Gibeah: and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God (the Spirit) had touched.” Men’s hearts are naturally inclined to rebellion, are impatient against being ruled over, especially by one raised out of a mean condition among them. The Lord the Spirit inclined the hearts of those men to be subject unto Saul, gave them a disposition to obey him. Later the Spirit touched the heart of Saul to spare the life of David, melting him to such an extent that he wept (1 Sam. 24:16). In like manner, it was the Holy Spirit who gave the Hebrews favor in the eyes of the Egyptians—who hitherto had bitterly hated them—so as to give earrings to them (Ex. 12:35, 36).

3. In convicting of sin. Few seem to understand that conscience in the natural man is inoperative unless stirred up by the Spirit. As a fallen creature, thoroughly in love with sin (John 3:19), man resists and disputes against any conviction of sin. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Gen. 6:3): man, being “flesh,” would never have the least distaste of any iniquity unless the Spirit excited those remnants of natural light which still remain in the soul. Being “flesh,” fallen man is perverse against the convictions of the Spirit (Acts 7:51), and remains so forever unless quickened and made “spirit” (John 3:6).

4. In illuminating. Concerning Divine things, fallen man is not only devoid of light, but is “darkness” itself (Eph. 5:8). He had no more apprehension of spiritual things than the beasts of the field. This is very evident from the state of the heathen. How, then, shall we explain the intelligence which is found in thousands in Christendom, who yet give no evidence that they are new creatures in Christ Jesus? They have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:4). Many are constrained to inquire into those scriptural subjects which make no demand on the conscience and life; yea, many take great delight in them. Just as the multitudes took pleasure in beholding the miracles of Christ, who could not endure His searching demands, so the light of the Spirit is pleasant to many to whom His convictions are grievous.[1]

 

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

For those who require the assistance of a Deeper Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge     

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


[1] Arthur Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).

Friday, January 27, 2023

A 5 Minute Quieting Break & Praying for My Quantum Leap Blessing! - Purity 952

A 5 Minute Quieting Break & Praying for My Quantum Leap Blessing! - Purity 952

Purity 952 01/27/2023 Purity 952 Podcast

Purity 952 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of an August sunset falling into the horizon from the shore of an undisclosed location comes to us from a friend who shared this scene on social media back on August 23, 2020.  I’m cleaning out my phone’s photo archive “closet” so I don’t know the location or the friend who shared this back in the year of Covid-19, so if it you, let me know and I will update the blog to give credit where cred)it is due.  

Well, it’s Friday again, so let’s all give credit where credit is due by thanking God for delivering us to what is, for most of us, the end of another work week.  I of course had Wednesday off and have to work tomorrow but I am thankful all the same as it will only be one more day until I am reunited with my wife at our countryside home and I am looking forward to attending  Deeper Walk International’s Free Resilience Conference later this evening (https://deeperwalkinternational.org/product/free-resilience-online-conference/ )  , The event will be featuring Christian Counselor and Author, John Eldredge who will be discussing practices to strengthen our emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience. It is also free! So if you’d like to attend just follow the link that I am sharing on the blog today.   

The global pandemic has had far reaching effects and many people are still dealing with the effects of the trauma that happened when the world changed in 2020. Eldredge and the people at Deeper Walk International  have recognized that we can benefit greatly from “taking a break” from time to time to recharge our batteries with practices that are proven to assist in building emotional resilience.   

One such practice, highlighted in Marcus Warner &  Stephanie Hinman’s book “Building Bounce” is the “five minute quieting break” which utilizes “box breathing” (https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-box-breathing) – or breathing in a square, and other practices designed to help us to “return to joy” – to relax.   

I am currently enrolled in deeper walk International School of prayer ministry and the cohort that I am in meets on Thursday evenings. last night as part of our meeting we did the five minute quieting break. I found to be quite relaxing and so I'm including the instructions on the blog today. The instructions read:

Take a 5 minute quieting break.

1.    Breathe in a square. Inhale deeply as you count to four in your head. Hold your breath for a count of four. Slowly exhale as you count to four again. Hold your breath for a four count before going around “the square” two more times.   

2.    Bounce. Do jumping jacks, deep knee bends, or a little jig, whatever gets your body moving. Count to 10 while you do this, then pause and do it again.

3.    Sing. “Joy to the world” or “happy birthday”. singing helps activate both sides of your brain, and happy or silly songs can make you smile.

4.    Rub your arms while breathing deeply. Place your hands on your shoulders and run them down to your elbows 10 times while inhaling and exhaling deeply.

5.    Breathe in a square. Repeat step one.

6.    Sit quietly and think about something you enjoy. Think of a memory that makes you happy. Here are some questions that may help you in engage with the memory. Where were you? What was the weather like? What do you remember about the way you felt? What sensations did you feel in your body? Who else was there? What happened? How does it feel to go back and relive the experience?”

(Warner & Hinman, 2020 - Building Bounce Pages 41, 27)

In our modern lives, we don’t often take a moment to take a break as our lives are filled with activity of work and family life and even in our quiet moments we tend to busy ourselves with social media, email, or texting.  So I invite you to give the “five minute quieting break a try” and to consider doing it regularly to help build your emotional resilience.

As much as I love to ask God, “What’s next?” as I try to abide in His presence and walk in the Spirit,  that question can be a source of stress if we are asking the world to answer it. So seek to find some quiet in this noisy world and to take the Lord with you as you go through the day to day and into the weekend beyond.  

Jesus said in

John 14:27 (NKJV)
27  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So it is my prayer that you will continue to seek the Lord and His peace and that you find it.   

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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Jeremiah 17:7 (NLT2)
7  “But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that we are blessed when we put our hope and confidence in the Lord.  

I have a confession to make. Recently, I was inundated with some “quantum leap” wishful thinking that something good was coming my way that while possible was rather irrational and improbable.  As I anticipated this “good thing” that “just might happen”, I prayed for it to magically come to pass with the hopes that the Lord would be working behind the scenes in the spirit realm to influence and change the hearts and minds of people who could bless me.   Theoretically it was possible. God can “call us to do stuff” so why not call some people who are able to “bless me”?  

I have to shamefully admit that I have been a “hoping and a praying” for “God to move” in the hearts of minds of other people in the past too! When I was single, I set my eyes and heart at a woman at my local church and thought, hoped, and prayed that we would come together and become a “Christian power” couple in our local church. I imagined getting married to her and doing ministry with her and obsessively hoped and prayed that it would happen.   But my “aim” was off… I was to receive all I hoped for in my wife TammyLyn, but I had to wait for God to bring her into my life.  

So I was hoping and a Praying, for the wrong woman! It’ wasn’tGod’s – or this woman’s – will that we would be a couple.  So all those thoughts and prayers and dreams, while in the realm of possibility – turned out to be misplaced, and admittedly a little irrational and obsessive.  

So you would think, I would understand about not putting my hopes in some other thing, person, or situation  that while possible – was also irrational and improbable.  You would think that I wouldn’t try to use my prayers to push God’s hand to “bless me”, but I did.    

Because I could imagine a blessing – I took any and all signs that my “blessing” “could happen” as a sign that my blessing “would happen”.    Needless to say, the very good possible unlikely thing, didn’t happen.  In essence, the very good thing was the spiritual equivalent of “winning the lottery”.

 For example, my YouTube Channel and podcast could go viral and I get rich as an international ministry just blossoms overnight! Or someone in ministry invites me to become a part of their lucrative and successful ministry providing me with a purpose and the funding to not only to do the Lord’s work but to consolidate my wife and I into one household almost overnight!      

While we can pray for things like these to happen, we can run into trouble when we trust in these dreams rather than trusting in the Lord, when we put our hope and confidence in these “quantum leap super blessing miracles” rather than having a living hope and confidence in God alone through our relationship with Him.

So when the “impossible dream” didn’t materialize earlier this week, I was humbled. I would say I was a little disappointed but the because “the dream” so irrational it’s hard to stay upset when it doesn’t come to pass.  It’s like finding out you didn’t win the lottery. The odds were stacked against us. It wasn’t likely we would win and I shouldn’t have put my hope in “winning”.  I should put my hope in God.  

So just like today’s verse tells us, we are “blessed” when we trust in God and put our hope and confidence in Him alone.  

In Christ, we have the hope and confidence of eternal life with God and we shouldn’t put our focus on material or situational blessings to the point we will become discontented with what the Lord has provided us with and to the point we forget about the abundant life we have with God. 

So, pray for good things, but try to keep grounded in reality by remembering that you are already “blessed” because of who you are in Christ and that although God is moving all things together for the good of those that love Him, we don’t know what those things are.  So keep walking and talking with God and put your hope and confidence in Him.       

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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God.”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

CHAPTER FIVE

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN REPROBATION

“Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God” (Rom. 11:22).

In the last chapter when treating of the Sovereignty of God the Father in Salvation, we examined seven passages which represent Him as making a choice from among the children of men, and predestinating certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son. The thoughtful reader will naturally ask, And what of those who were not “ordained to eternal life?” The answer which is usually returned to this question, even by those who profess to believe what the Scriptures teach concerning God’s sovereignty, is, that God passes by the non-elect, leaves them alone to go their own way, and in the end casts them into the Lake of Fire because they refused His way, and rejected the Saviour of His providing. But this is only a part of the truth; the other part—that which is most offensive to the carnal mind—is either ignored or denied.

In view of the awful solemnity of the subject here before us, in view of the fact that today almost all—even those who profess to be Calvinists—reject and repudiate this doctrine, and in view of the fact that this is one of the points in our book which is likely to raise the most controversy, we feel that an extended inquiry into this aspect of God’s Truth is demanded. That this branch of the subject of God’s sovereignty is profoundly mysterious we freely allow, yet, that is no reason why we should reject it. The trouble is that, nowadays, there are so many who receive the testimony of God only so far as they can satisfactorily account for all the reasons and grounds of His conduct, which means they will accept nothing but that which can be measured in the petty scales of their own limited capacities.

Stating it in its baldest form the point now to be considered is, Has God foreordained certain ones to damnation? That many will be eternally damned is clear from Scripture, that each one will be judged according to his works and reap as he has sown, and that in consequence his “damnation is just” (Rom. 3:8), is equally sure, and that God decreed that the non-elect should choose the course they follow we now undertake to prove.

From what has been before us in the previous chapter concerning the election of some to salvation, it would unavoidably follow, even if Scripture had been silent upon it, that there must be a rejection of others. Every choice evidently and necessarily implies a refusal, for where there is no leaving out there can be no choice. If there be some whom God has elected unto salvation (2 Thess. 2:13), there must be others who are not elected unto salvation. If there are some that the Father gave to Christ (John 6:37), there must be others whom He did not give unto Christ. If there be some whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 21:27), there must be others whose names are not written there. That this is the case we shall fully prove below.

Now all will acknowledge that from the foundation of the world God certainly foreknew and foresaw who would and who would not receive Christ as their Saviour, therefore in giving being and birth to those He knew would reject Christ, He necessarily created them unto damnation. All that can be said in reply to this is, No, while God did foreknow these would reject Christ, yet He did not decree that they should. But this is a begging of the real question at issue. God had a definite reason why He created men, a specific purpose why He created this and that individual, and in view of the eternal destination of His creatures, He purposed either that this one should spend eternity in Heaven or that this one should spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. If then He foresaw that in creating a certain person that that person would despise and reject the Saviour, yet knowing this beforehand He, nevertheless, brought that person into existence, then it is clear He designed and ordained that that person should be eternally lost. Again; faith is God’s gift, and the purpose to give it only to some, involves the purpose not to give it to others. Without faith there is no salvation—“He that believeth not shall be damned”—hence if there were some of Adam’s descendants to whom He purposed not to give faith, it must be because He ordained that they should be damned.

Not only is there no escape from these conclusions, but history confirms them. Before the Divine Incarnation, for almost two thousand years, the vast majority of mankind were left destitute of even the external means of grace, being favored with no preaching of God’s Word and with no written revelation of His will. For many long centuries Israel was the only nation to whom the Deity vouchsafed any special discovery of Himself—“Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16)—“You only (Israel) have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). Consequently, as all other nations were deprived of the preaching of God’s Word, they were strangers to the faith that cometh thereby (Rom. 10:17). These nations were not only ignorant of God Himself, but of the way to please Him, of the true manner of acceptance with Him, and the means of arriving at the everlasting enjoyment of Himself.

Now if God had willed their salvation, would He not have vouchsafed them the means of salvation? Would He not have given them all things necessary to that end? But it is an undeniable matter of fact that He did not. If, then, Deity can, consistently, with His justice, mercy, and benevolence, deny to some the means of grace, and shut them up in gross darkness and unbelief (because of the sins of their forefathers, generations before), why should it be deemed incompatible with His perfections to exclude some persons, many, from grace itself, and from that eternal life which is connected with it? seeing that He is Lord and sovereign Disposer both of the end to which the means lead, and the means which lead to that end?[1]

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 87–89.