Thanksgiving

O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people, Psalm 105:1

I may be just an old cynic (as I have been told several times) but does the government have any right to tell us to be thankful???

Where are all those who harp about "separation of church & state" on this day (or Xmas for that matter?) I cannot be thankful by command of men. There is only way anyone can be truly thankful: God must make us so! I would like to be more thankful than I am. I can say the words but do I truly feel it in my heart. When the Almighty makes my heart soft, I do. I can't say how it is with you but that is the way it is with me. So, I'll eat some turkey and pray that our Lord God will make me as thankful as HE wants me to be.

Every day of the year should be thanksgiving for God's children. When we think of what He has done for us in and through Jesus Christ, how can we keep from being thankful to him. I'll tell how, because of the sin that permeates our being. Jesus emptied himself for his elect children and yet we do not bow before Him and pour out our heartfelt thanks to Him for all He did for us.

Most who claim to be "Christian" want to tell of their own works, but we shall declare God's deeds even in the face of those will-worshippers. His deeds are what saved us. Nothing man could, would, or should do can add one thing to the deeds which Jesus performed in the fulfilling of the law and the prophets. How much thankfulness does this spring up in the hearts of the Children of Grace??? Let us not look to governments to tell us to be thankful, or that we ought to be thankful, but let us look to our covenant God who sends us His Spirit to make us thankful.

Waldensis
An Inhabitant of the Valley of Achor

God's Control

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11


"There is One who knows the destiny of the world, He, who first made the sketch, He who controls and rules the world according to this plan. What is confusion for us is order for Him, what we call chance is designed by Him, thought out from eternity and executed with omnipotence. It is indeed much to know 'He thrones in might and doeth all things well.' Chance? With this sorry word we merely admit that we do not know why things happen as they do. But God knows; God wills it. " Emil Brunner, "Our Faith," pp 22-23

It doesn't matter what a man thinks of himself. He may decide he is strong, wise or skillful. If he perceives himself lacking, he may try to obtain these qualities. He cannot see all those things are nothing and can bring nothing which God has not from eternity willed to happen. It has been rightly said, "man proposes, God disposes." How many times, naturally speaking, have we seen the wise in the wisdom of this world confounded; the strong bested by the weaker; the swift hare bested by the slow tortoise. Men look at these events and say, "what an unlucky break!" There was no luck involved. It was God's determination and that before the world's were! Luck, Chance, Fate should have no place in the vocabulary of a Christian, for IF one has been taught of God they KNOW He does ALL THINGS well.

God

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God, Psalms 14:1 KJV, LXX Psalm 13:1

It is really a sign of mental disorder when a man asks, "Is there a God?" One might almost say that this is the question of an insane man, - a man who can no longer see things simply, clearly and calmly as they are. -- Emil Brunner, "Our Faith," page 4

Brunner is right in his analysis of that question. He also rightly, further on down the page, says the reason is sin. When we think back in our experience of grace, can we not see the truth of these statements? How long did we wander in darkness; how long did we deny with the fool or question with Brunner's insane the being of God. Some may say, "NO, I never did that!" Did you believe in the God that rules and reigns over all things, or did you believe in a God created by your carnal mind, who was "such an one as thyself?" Surely believing in the "wrong God" is not believing in the true and living God!!! How is one brought to believe in the "correct God?" We shall, Lord willing, see what the Bible says on that tomorrow

Waldensis
An Inhabitant of the Valley of Achor

A Hymn by Isaac Watts

Keep silence all created things,
And wait your Maker’s nod;
My soul stands trembling while she sings
The honours of her God.

Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown,
Hang on his firm decree;
He sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave TO BE.

Chained to his throne a volume lies,
With all the fates of men,
With every angel’s form and size,
Drawn by the eternal pen.

His providence unfolds the book,
And makes his counsels shine;
Each opening leaf, and every stroke,
Fulfils some deep design.

Here he exalts neglected worms
To sceptres and a crown;
And there the following page he turns,
And treads the monarch down.

Not Gabriel asks the reason why,
Nor God the reason gives;
Nor dares the favourite angel pry
Between the folded leaves.

My God, I would not long to see
My fate with curious eyes;
What gloomy lines are writ for me,
Or what bright scenes may rise.

In thy fair book of life and grace,
O may I find my name
Recorded in some humble place,
Beneath my Lord the Lamb.

This beautiful hymn by Watts sets forth both the glory of God and the response of a sinner to beholding that glory with a Spiritual eye. He knows God has determined all things which will befall him, but he does not want to know them. The important thing for him, is that his name is recorded in the Lamb's book of life. Those names there were written before the foundation of the world. They are the names of those chosen in Christ Jesus and given to him in Eternal Vital Union. The poor, trembling child of grace knows he cannot merit anything from God, cannot merit a place in that book. He may have tried and tried for years to do good, be good and stay good, but he has found the work of his hands to be insufficient for the eternal things of Jehovah. He cannot raise himself up. It must have been done for him and to him and in spite of him and his native, Adamic rebellion against the most high.

Think on these things.

Waldensis
An Inhabitant of the Valley of Achor

Greetings

Welcome to this my blog.

This blog will be Theological in nature, from a decided Predestinarian viewpoint. It is also unapologetically Old School Primitive Baptist. Too many today think they must either defend God, or apologize for His actions in the world. I shall do neither. God rules. God reigns through Jesus Christ today. God's will is what is done in, on, to and through this world and all of His creation. I can hear some now, "does that mean that God wants babies to die??" Yes, or they would not die. Remember frail, infantile man, God's thoughts are not your thoughts neither are His ways your ways. When He speaks it is done, and what He commands stands fast.

I hope to explore these thoughts further as well as other things regarding time and eternity and our place in it, by nature and by grace (if we be God's.)

A Waldensis
An Inhabitant of the valley of Achor