Our lives say much more about how we think than our books do. The theories we preach are not always the ones we actually believe. The theories we live are the ones we really believe.
To be conformed to Jesus, we must first begin to think as Jesus did. We need the “mind of Christ.” We need to value the things He values and despise the things He despises. We need to have the same priorities He has. We need to consider weighty the things He considers weighty.
What kind of a concept of God do we have that we would say that God is paralyzed by human choices? If His freedom is limited by our freedom, we are sovereign, not God. No, we are free, but God is even more free. This means that our freedom can never limit God’s sovereignty.
To be a Christian is to be a theologian – a student of God and his will. The church is where believers should be nurtured in the practice of correct theology. The contemporary disdain for theological content and emphasis on self-image and emotions were not shared by the apostolic church.
God just doesn’t throw a life preserver to a drowning person. He goes to the bottom of the sea, and pulls a corpse from the bottom of the sea, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive.
We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.
A god who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, and no wrath is an idol.
It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.
Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered.
Advice to aspiring ministers: Get in the Word. Stay in the Word. Master the Word. And for heaven’s sake, preach the Word!
When God says something, the argument is over.
Sin is not simply making bad choices or mistakes. Sin is having the desire in our hearts to do the will of the enemy of God.
When there’s something in the Word of God that I don’t like, the problem is not with the Word of God, it’s with me.
To know that God knows everything about me and yet loves me is indeed my ultimate consolation.