Tag: sovereignty of God
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What About Human Responsibility?
Jesus has so far affirmed Pharisee soteriology. God first loves an individual. In response to God’s love, the individual cares to keep God’s Law. If a person keeps God’s Law, that person is righteous. God’s love is what brought the person into righteousness (i.e. saved the person). When the person kept the Law, that was…
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It’s Been A While, But I’m Finally in a Healthy Frame of Mind
Hurt is hard. I realized in the last month that it has been more than a year since I have done any serious writing. I had given up on ministry and started my own business because, frankly, I was done being hurt. At the beginning of 2023, a friend of mine (a couple, actually) told…
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The Scourge of Calvinism Pt. 2- Total Depravity vs Free Will
I am looking at the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism because I have been asked to. From the outset, I want to remind my brothers and sisters in Christ that it is important for us to remain humble, not categorically making enemies of others based on whatever differences we perceive there to be in our…
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The Scourge of Calvinism: Pt. 1 The Unnecessary Conflict
What is Calvinism, and why should we be worried? I want to take a few weeks and talk about the doctrines of grace because I have been asked to. I very often hear people looking for ways to disprove Calvinism categorically. When people try to disprove Calvinism, I normally will ask five questions. 1. Do…
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Daily Devotional: Exodus 7:1-7
Yahweh instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh all that He commands, and Aaron is Moses’s prophet—or mouth piece. Here, we see the job of a prophet. A prophet is the mouth piece of God. What the prophet says as a prophet is the word of God, not his own words. That is why the Old Testament…
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Daily Devotional: Genesis 50:1-26
Jacob is buried in Canaan, and Joseph dies. Before he dies, Joseph’s brothers beg his forgiveness for their evil against him in Canaan. Joseph explains that he is not in the place of God. What his brothers meant as evil against him, God meant for good in order to bring about the salvation of many…
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Daily Devotional: Genesis 33:1-17
Jacob expects enmity and hostility from Esau. After all, he stole Esau’s birthright and inheritance. Yet, Esau greets Jacob as a brother with no hostility toward him whatsoever. We often expect trouble as we go, so we, like Jacob, fret and prepare. We spend our rime worrying about the future, and the problems we perceive…
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You Can’t Make Christ Lord of Your Life
The years of 2016, 2017, and 2018 were Hell on Earth for me. At least that’s the way I felt. Those years were not nearly as bad as Hell will be for those going there, not even close. During these years, nothing went right. I felt like I was being oppressed by God. I had…
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Has God Failed?
When I lived and did ministry in Durham, I remember being one of two pastors sitting in a meeting with eleven or twelve of our deacons. The issue of money was brought up because giving had gone down since the retirement of the ‘lead’ pastor. I love these men to death, so if anyone knows…