So.....many......thoughts.....

It's easy to think that God will _always_ make His presence when you spend your Lord's day listening to His word, but sometimes He seems to draw closer in an even more special way. A number of things struck a chord with me, both in the preaching and in our guys' bible study afterwards; hopefully, I'll capture some of them here for later remembrance. I feel like a very full cup after today; Lord willing, I'll be able to put some of it to good use in the coming weeks, as I fight my sin, minister to others, and go about my daily life.

The preaching was drawn from Colossians 1 in the morning and James 4 in the evening.

Salvation is a work of God alone, but it doesn't happen outside ourselves; we are under obligation to believe. By nature, we are like a body at an open casket funeral. God commands us to rise and walk. All the human will in the world isn't going to get that body out of that coffin; it's simply impossible. Life must be infused into that corpse from outside itself. Some would like to think that our will must _cooperate_ to make this infusion a success, but our will is like that body, completely unable to render any assistance. The person choosing to get out of that coffin is seen as this cooperation, when in fact the choice to get out of the coffin is completely contingent.

Some people see their battles with sin as a reason to doubt their assurance of salvation, as if _real_ Christians wouldn't have to struggle with it as much as they themselves do. Pirates don't attack empty ships, and beggars don't have to worry about being robbed. Similarly, the attacks of the devil from without and the flesh from within are proof in themselves of the fact that spiritual life [and the Spirit Himself] are in fact present. If you're spiritually dead, then there is _no_ battle. You're just floating in the current of this world; the battle is proof that you've been made alive and are swimming upstream against the current.

God is a jealous God; He takes it seriously when any of His people begins to seek out their fulfillment in anything other than in Himself. As a jealous husband or boyfriend would react if his wife or girlfriend were to begin a close friendship with another man, so God reacts when members of His bride, the church, turn to other things ahead of Him. As I wrote earlier, nothing less than unrivaled attachment is His due, both because He is my creator and more importantly, my Redeemer, having paid the ultimate price in taking my sentence of eternal separation to Himself

It's an all-too-common distortion of the doctrine of God's overruling providence to believe that if God hasn't stopped me, then whatever I'm doing must be fine with Him; this delusion is perhaps most commonly associate with the so-called health-and-wealth gospel. God nowhere in His word promises to hold us back from sin or from its disastrous consequences. While He does keep His elect from ever completely falling away, He does allow us the freedom of choice and its associated consequences. Our choices will greatly affect our happiness and more importantly our usefulness in His kingdom. While our justification is secure, depending only on the finished work of Christ, our sanctification can be slowed, hindered, and even stymied at times by foolish choices. Praise God that He can (and often does!) override us and work good into our lives despite (and even through) our foolish choices.