Dr Paul Allen

Psalm 1 in 1628 printing with tune, metrical version by Thomas Sternhold. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Our God remains incomprehensible and retains His simplicity. He tells us in His Word that He is not a God of confusion but of order. He is not at war with Himself. He is altogether good, altogether holy, and altogether sovereign. This we must affirm to maintain a biblical concept of divine sovereignty . Yet we must always balance this understanding with a clear understanding that God always exercises His power and authority according to His holy character. He chooses what He chooses according to His own good pleasure . It is His pleasure that He does. He chooses what is pleasing to Himself. But that pleasure is always His good pleasure, for God is never pleased to will or to do anything that is evil or contrary to His own goodness. In this we can rest, knowing that He wishes for, and has the power to bring about, all good things for us His children.What difficulties are you c...

Theologian Jonathan Edwards (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Every one of our sinful actions has a suicidal power on the faculties that put that action forth. When you sin with the mind, that sin shrivels the rationality. When you sin with the heart or the emotions , that sin shrivels the emotions. When you sin with the will, that sin destroys and dissolves your willpower and your self-control. Sin is the suicidal action of the self against itself. Sin destroys freedom because sin is an enslaving power. In other words, sin has a powerful effect in which your own freedom, your freedom towant the good, to will the good, and to think or understand the good, is all being undermined. By sin, you are more and more losing your freedom. Sin undermines your mind, it undermines your emotions, and it undermines your will. Sin Is Addiction All sin is addiction. Whether it's bitterness, whether it's envy, whether it's materialism, whether it's laziness, whether it's impurity —...