Round the Sphere Again: Thinking About God's Will

Updated! 

Updated again, May 8.

What Does God’s Will Mean?
We need to make distinctions, says R. C. Sproul, like distinguishing the decretive will of God from the preceptive will of God, (Update, May 8) and between the active and passive will of God.

Everything Is Predetermined?
Well, yes, says John Piper, including dust particles and all of our besetting sins. And yes, that’s a difficult truth.

That’s a problem, but the center of the solution is a choice you have to make about the cross. This is what has centered me, anyway: When you go to Acts 4:27-28 and you read that Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the Jews were all gathered together to do what God’s hand and God’s plan had predestined to take place in the killing of Jesus, you have God’s plan and hand predestining the most horrible sins ever committed.

How Do I Know God’s Will for My Life?
There are no secrets we must discover, writes Kevin DeYoung.

The will of God isn’t a special direction here or a bit of secret knowledge there. God doesn’t put us in a maze, turn out the lights, and tell us, “Get out and good luck.” In one sense, we trust in the will of God as His sovereign plan for our future. In another sense, we obey the will of God as His good word for our lives. In no sense should we be scrambling around trying to turn to the right page in our personal choose-your-own-adventure novel.

Update, 10pm: How Does God Lead?
“Instead of telling us, step-by-step, what to do, he instructs us in a way of life.” (David Kjos)

What Does God Want of Us Anyway?
Irish Calvinist reviews Mark Dever’s new book.

The book is good for new Christians who are trying to put their Bibles together. But it is also for older Christians who have either forgotten about the continuity of the Scriptures or have never learned this. Overall, it is a helpful tool to put in the hands of people who are trying to better understand the Bible

Look Away, Cat Haters!

I think I’m overdue for a little cat blogging. This is Leroy, in case you’ve forgotten. 

Sunday's Hymn

Jesus Shall Reign

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

For Him shall endless prayer be made,
And endless praises crown His head;
His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise
With ev’ry morning sacrifice.

People and realms of ev’ry tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His name.

Blessings abound where’er He reigns;
The pris’ner leaps, unloosed his chains,
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.

Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more;
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.

Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the loud Amen.

—Isaac Watts

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• See the Shining Dew Drops at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 18, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Break Thou the Bread of Life at Whatever Is Good
• Blest Be the Tie That Binds at Field Stone Cottage
• God Holds the Keys at Whatever Things
• Come, Every Soul By Sin Oppressed at Hiraeth
• Heart Aflame - May 2, 2010 at The Upward Call
• Hail the Glorious Golden City at Conjubilant with Song
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: A Word about Evan-jellyfish

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.