Provisions of Scritpture.

How great is the Word of God!? How often does it answer our needs?! I have been reminded again of the promises that God bestows upon his people within Sctripture after some recent events.

A friend of mine from church named Brian, 16, had a horrible accident whilst diving into a shallow river in Latvia last week and was left with a broken neck and, at the moment, paralisis from the neck down. The tragic events have some clear parallells at this point with the story of Joni Eaereckson Tada, if you are familiar with that. The last week has seen some really dark times for him, the family and the church but thankfully Brian is stable now and out of Intensive Care. However, there are a whole host of possibilities that might occue over the next few weeks but we can be comforted by the knowledge that Brian is under the care of his great God. A number of passages have stuck in my mind throughout the last week and served as promises of God's unfailing word and i'd like to share them as examples of how Scripture is unfailingly relevent.

The day before the accident the youth bible study looked at 1 John chapter 5 v14-5 which states:

14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

We know that if we pray to God seeking his will he will hear our prayers!! What a fantastic promise and real encouragment in the face of tragedy.

As a family we read a Psalm a day after tea and it so happened that on the day after the news we read Psalm 34 which says:

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. 18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

Whilst we might not know the will of God in Brian's life, or the result of this current state, we are assured of the Lord's presence and deliverence for his glory. What fantastic knowledge. Please pray for Brian and the family, our Lord hears the prayers of his people.

Edwards on Arminianism

A few years ago I decided that I needed to mature in my spiritual life and began to take a great interest in reading and understanding doctrine. One of my first areas of consideration was the doctrine of Predestination (being the wonderfully volatile subject it is) and was introduced to a wonderful book called Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented by Steele, Thomas and Quinn. After reading the book, and the relevant scripture that is found in abundance within, I became a fully convinced, badge wearing Five Pointer (although more of a TUPIP than a TULIP). University then held many interesting conversations amongst my Christian peers and I tried my hardest to defend Calvinism.

However, I have always struggled with the challenge of knowing how firm to hold onto the set of doctrine known as Calvinism. Should it be something that I refuse no ground to? Or should I be willing to sacrifice it in the face of Arminianistic brothers and sisters in the name of unity? Iain Murray shares some helpful thoughts from Jonathan Edwards:

"...he saw, as Owen before him, that Christianity itself could not long be upheld if concessions were made to accommodate objections to Calvinism. The danger from Arminianism lay not simply in a few particular errors but in its whole tendency. While it claimed to be based upon Scripture the popular strength of its arguments depended on the contention that Calvinistic belief is not reconcilable with human reason... This mode off argument by-passed two facts; first, that reason is 'impaired, depraved and corrupted', and second, that 'the gospel requires men to believe things above reason merely on the authority of Divine revelation.' If all the doctrines 'which have anything of spiritual mystery in them and so not absolutely reconcilable unto reason as corrupt and carnal' were judged as Arminianism judges the doctrine of sovereign grace, how much Christianity would remain?" Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography by Iain Murray (published by Banner of Truth)