John Owen on the Works of the Holy Spirit.

John Owen comments on the Holy Spirit's work being distinct from the other two persons of the Godhead: Father and Son. In creation, John Owen points that it is the God the Father who creates ex nihilo. The Spirit hovered over the water. The Holy Spirit works with existing materials so to speak. John Owen goes on and writes:

The work of the Spirit being not an original but a perfecting work, it supposes the love, grace, counsel and eternal purpose of the Father, and the whole mediation of Jesus Christ: for it is his peculiar work to make these effectual to the souls of the elect, to the praise of the glory of the grace of God. (Owen, p. 134, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power

Packer on Friesen's Book "Decision Making and the Will of God."

J. I. Packer and Carol Nystrum critiques Garry Friesen's model for decision making in their God's Will: Finding Guidance for Everyday Decisions.

In Decision Making and the Will of God (Portland: Multnoma, 1980), Garry Friesen put forward, in place of the idea of guidance by immediate "impressions" or by arresting circumstances, a Bible-based "wisdom" model for determining the will of God with regard to school, marriage, career and all other significant choices, much in line with what we have been affirming in this book so far. But it has been reported that "many...came away from his presentation with a great disquiet, a disquiet that arises from a tone that implicitly denies that existential dynamic of the Spirit in the life of the believer and substitutes instead a formula (albeit a thoroughly biblical formula) for determining legitimate options in any situation." And Friesen's book was once roundly critiqued in J. I.'s hearing as a fine statement of the "Deist doctrine of guidance"--a doctrine that is, that denies, ignores, or otherwise leaves out of account all direct action of God the Holy Spirit in the deep Christian heart and consciousness. It has to be admitted that Friesen's book, however salutary in other ways, does appear overall as an example of the subspiritual mindset in action.

Packer and Nystrum go on to explain what the subspiritual believer does wrong: he overvalues reason, and he undervalues the grace of faithful waiting.

God will dwell in the tents of Shem. (Genesis 9:27)

Walter Kaiser Jr., in his book Toward an Old Testament Theology, traces what he calls the "Canonical Theological Center," which is the revelation of the promised seed throughout the Old Testament. He shows how Noah's cursing and blessing of his descendants in Genesis 9, provides further revelation about the promised seed.

The structure of Genesis 9:25-27 is a heptastich which is divided into three parts by the repeated refrain of Canaan's servitude, a son of guilty Ham:

And he said
Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants will he be to his brothers
--verse 25

And he said,
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem;
Let Canaan be a slave to him.
--verse 26

God will enlarge Japhet,
But He will dwell in the tents of Shem;
Let Canaan be a slave to him.
--verse 27

Now the key issue is this: Who is the subject of the verb "he will dwell" in Genesis 9:27? We concur with the judgment of the Targum of of Onkelos, Philo, Maimonides, Rashi, Aben Ezra, Theodoret, Barumgarten, and Delitzsch that the subject is God. Our reasons are these: (1) the subject of the previous clause is presumed to continue into the next clause where the subject is unexpressed; (2) the use of the indirect object of the previous line as subject ("Japhet") would require strong contextual reason for doing so; (3) the context of the next several chapters designates Shem as the first in honor of blessings; and (4) the Hebrew phrase weyiskonbe'ohole sem, "and he will dwell in the tents of Shem," hardly makes sense if attributed to Japhet, for Japhet had already been granted the blessing of expansion.

The plan of the whole prophecy appears to devote the first strophe only to Canaan, the second to Shem and Canaan, and the third to all three brothers. On balance, then, the best option is to regard God as promising to Shem a special blessing. He would dwell with the Semitic peoples. The word for "dwell" is related to the later concept of Mosaic theology of the Shekinah glory of God wherein the presence of God over the tabernacle was evidenced by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Hence, the man Shem would be the one through whom the "seed" promised earlier would now come. Had not God said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem" (Gen. 9:26)? And why did He use this distinctive form of address? Could it be that the blessing and indwelling were linked? And could it be that they were God's next provision to earths's latest crisis? (pp. 81-82, Toward an Old Testament Theology, Kaiser)

The promised seed of Eve can be traced through the line of Adam's and Eve's son, Seth. The seed then can be traced through Noah and then through Shem (father of the Semitic tribes). Abraham is from this tribe. This line of descendants can be tracked through David and thus to Christ. God gives us hope through his meticulous planning and care of the line of David. This gives us hope and comfort because we, through the Church, are adopted into this holy family.
The concept of dwelling with man is central here. God promises to dwell with Israel (Exodus 29:45). God through His Spirit promises to dwell within the Church (1 Corinthians 3:16), and individual believers as well (1 Corinthians 6:19). In Revelation, God the Father promises that the dwelling place of God is with man.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:3, ESV)

We have God in Revelation restoring the relationship with Man that Man lost in Genesis 3.

The Ruler of Promise: Genesis 49:10.

The following is from the ESV Bible. Genesis 49:10

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him;1 and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Footnotes
[1] 49:10 By a slight revocalization; a slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Targum) until he comes to whom it belongs; Hebrew until Shiloh comes, or until he comes to Shiloh

Notice from the footnote and from older translations of the Bible (KJV, ASV) "until tribute comes to him" is translated "until Shiloh comes." In his book, "The Promise-Plan of God," Walter Kaiser argues that Genesis 49:10 adds further revelation about the Man of promise (the promised Seed of Genesis 3:15) by quoting von Orelli. Von Orelli comments on the phrase "until Shiloh comes."

The context on one hand, the oldest authorities in respect of reading on the other, conduct us to our translation. Selloh was the reading handed down from antiquity, and the LXX [Septuagint] rendered this neutrally: heos ean elthe ta apokeimena auto [until there come the things stored up for him]. Instead of this abstract neuter subject we take the personal subject dominating everywhere here and render: until he comes into that which belongs to him, therefore into his own, his possession described on the sequel. Cf. especially the blessing of Moses on Judah, Deut. xxxiii.7: we'el ammo te bi 'ennu ["to his people bring him"]. As champion of the other tribes, he will display untiring energy until he has won his territory without curtailment; and then not merely will the tribes of Israel do homage to him but other nations also will bow to his rule.

Kaiser summarizes his argument that from Judah's descendants would come the prophesied Man of promise.

For Ezekiel, or later Jewish and Christian interpreters, to regard this as another addition to the doctrine of the seed to come is therefore not unwarranted. Neither was Ezekiel's allusion in 21:27, "until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come, to him I will give it," out of bonds either. The Man of promise would be overwhelmingly successful; he would reign over all the peoples of the earth because it was his right and destiny so to do. Furthermore, he would originate from the tribe of Judah in Israel.

Walter Kaiser on Genesis 3:15 and 4:1 -- Eve's expectation of her first born.

Walter Kaiser Jr. traces the path of the Promise through both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He makes some observations about Genesis 3:15 and 4:1.

But in the midst of the dirge of gloom and rebuke came God's surprising word of prophetic hope (Ge 3:15). A divinely instigated hostility--"I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring [or seed] and hers--is climaxed with the triumphant appearance of a "he"-- no doubt a representative person of the woman's seed. He would deliver a lethal blow to the head of Satan, while the best the serpent would be able or even permitted to do would be to nip the heel of this male descendant.

Who this male descendant was, was not immediately revealed. Perhaps Eve thought Cain was the one. She named her son Cain (Heb., qayin), saying she had "gotten (Heb.,qaniti) a man, even the Lord" (4:1); at least, that is a fair way of rendering the enigmatic phrase. Regardless of whether one agrees with this rendering, she was mistaken, and the biblical text only records her longings and perhaps gives us an insight into how an clear an understanding she had of Genesis 3:15 -- she expected that God would supply a person who would care for their sin that had occasioned the fall. (The Promise Plan of God by Walter Kaiser Jr., p. 43)

There is a footnote by Kaiser that Luther interpreted the passage this way in the German bible.

Other references that indicate that Old Testament believers were looking forward to the Promised Seed:

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:26, ESV)

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” (Genesis 5:28-29, ESV)

When Abraham puts his faith in God's promise that Abraham's seed will be from his own body, then that belief was counted as righteousness.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:4-6)

Israel prophesies that from Judah the kingly line will come in Genesis 49:10.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. (Genesis 49:10, ESV)

Genesis 29: Who is God using to discipline you?

I found a humorous and valid application of Genesis in a commentary(Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of the Book of Genesis by Allen P. Ross). My faith family studied the life of Jacob this week. In Genesis chapter 29, Jacob, because of the deception of Laban, married both of Laban's daughters. Jacob loved the younger, Rachel, but was not in love with Leah. God used Laban's family to discipline the not so righteous Jacob. Here's what Kidner wrote in how God used Laban, Leah, and Rachel to discipline Jacob.

In Laban Jacob met his match and his means of discipline. Twenty years (31:41) of drudgery and friction were to weather his character; and the reader can reflect that presumably Jacob is not the only person to have needed a Laban is his life.

Through this man he also drank deeply of his own medicine of duplicity; yet even as the loser he displayed qualities that were lacking in Esau. The tenacity that showed at his birth and supremely, at Peniel, enabled him to regard the defeat over Rachel as only a setback.

The lesson that Ross gives from the passage is the following:

The lesson is that, even though God's people may experience God's blessing on their endeavors, God will effectively discipline them by making them painfully aware of their unresolved sins.

Ross had to be smiling when he wrote this observation.

If we use the story of Jacob as a sample, we may say that, when we are thrown together with people who are crafty, arrogant, deceitful, contentious, gossipy, or a host of other human frailties, before we lament that we have to be around such people, we perhaps should take a long look at ourselves. It may be that some of those traits characterize us and that other people may be part of God's means of disciplining us.

I let the readers of this post sort out whom God is using to discipline whom in their own lives.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

John Owen writes about the ministry of the Holy Spirit within us.

And if we consider this promise of the Spirit as to the ends of it, we shall find that he is promised and given as the sole cause and author of all the good that we can enjoy in this world. For there is no good communicated to us, no gift, grace, mercy, privilege, or consolation bestowed upon us, but through the Holy ghost; nor is there any good in us towards God, any faith, love, duty, or obedience, but what is effectually wrought in us by him, and by him alone. (The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power by John Owen, pp. 112-113)

According to Ephesians 1, the Holy Spirit is the gift of God that opens the eyes of our hearts so that we understand the riches that God has bestowed upon us through salvation.

Jonathan Edward's View on Beauty in Creation

Jonathan Edwards comments on divine beauty in creation. God uses nature to communicate his beauty to His creatures.

Now we have shown that the Son of God created the world for this very end, to communicate himself in an image of his own excellency.

He communicates himself, properly, only to spirits, and they only are capable of being proper images of his excellency, for they only are properly beings, as we have shown. Yet he communicates a sort of a shadow, or glimpse, of his excellencies to bodies, which, as we have shown, are but the shadows of beings, and not real beings. He who by his immediate influence, gives being every moment, and by his Spirit, actuates the world, because he inclines to communicate himself and his excellencies, does doubtless communicate his excellency to bodies, as far as there is any consent or analogy. And the beauty of face and sweet airs in men are not always the effect of the corresponding excellencies of mind, yet the beauties of nature are really emanations or shadows of the excellencies of the Son of God. So that when we are delighted with flowery meadows, and gentle breezes of wind, we may consider that we see only the emanations of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ. When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see his love and purity. So the green trees, and fields, and singing of birds are the emanations of his infinite joy and benignity. The easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of his beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmuring streams are the footsteps of his favor, grace, and beauty. When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the golden edges of an evening cloud or the beauteous bow, we behold the adumbrations of his glory and goodness, and in the blue sky, of his mildness and gentleness. There are also many things wherein we may behold his awful majesty, in the sun in his strength, in comets, in thunder, in the hovering thunderclouds, in ragged rocks, and the brows of mountains. That beauteous light with which the world is filled in a clear day, is a lively shadow of his spotless holiness, and happiness and delight in communicating himself; and doubtless this is a reason that Christ is compared so often to those things, and called by their names, as the Sun of Righteousness, the morning star, the rose of Sharon, and lily of the valley, the apple tree amongst the trees of the wood, a bundle of myrrh, a roe, or a young hart. By this we may discover the beauty of many of those metaphors and similes, which to an unphilosophical person do seem so uncouth.

Michael A. G. Haykin comments on Jonathan's Edwards view of divine Beauty and its enjoyment of it by us is necessary in our walk with God.

Edwards' approach could also be helpful in that it explains why aesthetic experience is for many people also a religious experience. Moreover, by emphasizing that the beauty we perceive in the created realm is a mode of God's presence, he avoids the seeming nebulousness of much of the discussion about divine beauty.

If follows, of course, for Edwards, that those who ignore the beauty of God in creation are committing a religious fault. For Edwards, 'the beatific was basic' to God and the universe. Moreover, Edwards is convinced that men and women uniformly fail in this regard, for the have lost the faculty to see the visible beauty of God in his creation. They perceive the secondary beauty, but fail to see the divine beauty that saturates nature. This faculty can only be restored through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the 'agent of conversion and of all our good'.

What the Apostle Paul Prayed for.

Ephesians 1:17-18

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints

Peter O'Brien in his commentary on Ephesians notes the subject of Paul's prayer.

Unlike many contemporary Christians, the apostle does not pray for fresh spiritual blessings, as though he is unaware of the fact that God has graciously given them every spiritual privilege in Christ. On the other hand, Paul does not want his readers to become complacent. He does not assume that because everything is theirs in Christ they do not need to grow in their understanding or experience of these Christian blessings. (O’Brien, pp. 129-130)

Notice Paul did not pray for additional blessings for the Ephesians. He prayed that the Ephesians may understand the blessings and promises that God through Christ abundantly given us already. Paul wants us to pray for everyday needs, but we should also pray fervently that God would give us wisdom and understanding in knowing Him and His salvation for us.

The Puritan High View of Women.

I'm reading Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival by Michael A. G. Haykin. The author points out that Jonathan Edwards, deeply loved his wife, Sarah. As a matter of fact, Haykin quotes Amanda Porterfield about an interesting trademark about the American Puritans.

One of the most striking phenomena about the New England Puritans is that their greatest ministers and governors -- Thomas Shepard, John Winthrop, Simon Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Jonathan Edwards, for example -- loved their wives beyond measure. These men found their wives to be earthly representatives of God's beauty. For these men a loving wife was not only a model Christian but also an expression of the beauty of the world that pointed beyond itself to divine beauty. And the enjoyment of God's beauty was the essence of Puritan spirituality. (Haykin, p. 111)

This generation has seen a revival of the proclamation of the same doctrines to which the Puritans held. These Reformed or Calvinistic doctrines are claimed by an increasing number in our generation. Men, we can only pray that our generation of believers not only be characterized by doctrinal purity, but that we love our wives in the same manner of Edwards: our love should be beyond measure to the glory of God.

Francis Chan on Church Growth

Francis Chan, in his book Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit comments on the role of the Holy Spirit on church growth

Even our church growth can happen without Him. Let’s be honest: If you combine a charismatic speaker, a talented worship band, and some hip, creative events, people will attend your church. Yet this does not mean that the Holy Spirit of God is actively working and moving in the lives of the people who are coming. It simply means that you have created a space that is appealing enough to draw people in for an hour or two on Sunday.

It certainly does not mean that people walk out the doors moved to worship and in awe of God. People are more likely to describe the quality of the music or the appeal of the sermon than the One who is the reason people gather for “church” in the first place.

I share this not because the Holy Spirit is not working among us, but we should not let mere growth in the numbers who attend our church convince us that we are on the right path. The Reformers had a phrase ecclesia semper reformanda. It means the church is always reforming in accordance to the Word of God. We always need to examine our practices and programs to see if they in accordance to the Word of God. Chan is emphasizing we need to check if we are depending on the Holy Spirit for guidance and growth. The mark of a growing church in not numbers, but "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ." (Ephesians 4:15).

The Second Great Article of Gospel Truth

John Owen reflects on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his book, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power

We may observe that the doctrine of the Spirit of God, is the second great article of those gospel truths, in which the glory of God and the good of souls, are most eminently concerned; without the knowledge of which in its truth, and the improvement of it in its power, the first will be altogether useless. For when God designed the great and glorious work of recovering fallen man, and of saving sinners to the praise of the glory of his grace, he appointed in this infinite wisdom two great means thereof: the one was the giving of His Son for them; and the other was, the giving of his Spirit to them. (Owen, p. 43)

Spiritual Blessing in Ephesians 1:3

Ephesians 1:3-14 is called an eulogy because it is a prayer of praise to God the Father for all the spiritual blessings He gives his saints (faithful members of the Church). The following is a snippet of the commentary from Peter T. O'Brien's commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians. I thought it laid out the spiritual blessing in Ephesians 1:3 rather well. I put the blessings in a list format to highlight them.

Here the adjective spiritual means ‘pertaining to or belonging to the Spirit’, and thus ‘spiritual blessings’ signify those which ‘properly pertain to the life of the Spirit’. The adjective does not primarily point to a contrast with what is material (e.g., Deut. 28:1-14), secular or worldly. Nor do Paul’s words suggest simply the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:3-11. The nature of these gracious gifts is made plain in the following words of the eulogy (vv. 4-14), and include

• election to holiness,
• adoption as God’s sons and daughters,
• redemption and forgiveness,
• a knowledge of God’s gracious plan to sum up all things in Christ,
• the gift of the Spirit,
• and the hope of glory. (O’Brien, p. 97)

How can we not with Paul bless the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in prayer for giving us this blessing.

Inspiration and the Holy Spirit

R. A. Torrey addresses the heresy that inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Bible is just the same as an architect being inspired to design a building or a poet composing a poem.

A very scholarly and brilliant preacher seeking to minimize the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets and His work in other men calls attention to the fact that the Bible says that Bezaleel was to be "filled with the Spirit of God" to devise the work of the tabernacle (Ex. xxxi. 1-11). He gives this as a proof that the inspiration of the prophet does not differ from the inspiration of the artist or architect, but in doing this, he loses sight of the fact that the tabernacle was to be built after the “pattern shown to Moses in the Mount” (Ex. xxv. 9, 40) and that therefore it was itself a prophecy and an exposition of the truth of God. It was not mere architecture. It was the Word of God done into wood, gold, silver, brass, cloth, skin, etc. And Bezaleel needed as much special inspiration to reveal the truth in wood, gold, silver, brass, etc., as the apostle or prophet needs it to reveal the Word of God with pen and ink on parchment. [R. A. Torrey, pp. 248-249]

I would go one step further. The Christian is to honor God through the Christians's work. We can not honor God without Holy Spirit's help. The Spirit will empower us to glorify the Son through our every day work. God will provide us through our work the means and power to glorify Him.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

The Author's Intention of Ephesians

I'm preparing to lead a study on Ephesians 1. Here are some good quotes from Peter O'Brien's commentary on Ephesians, "The Letter to the Ephesians."

“He [Paul] writes Ephesians to his mainly Gentile Christian readers, for whom he has apostolic responsibilities, with the intention of informing, strengthening, and encouraging them by assuring them of their place within the gracious, saving purpose of God, and urging them to bring their lives into conformity with this divine plan of summing up all things in Christ (1:10). Paul wants to ‘ground, shape and challenge’ his readers in their faith. In other words, the main purpose of his letter is ‘identity formation’. (O’Brien, p. 57) brackets mine

Cosmic reconciliation and unity in Christ are the central message of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (O’Brien, p. 58)

The aorist infinitive ‘to bring all things together’ does not point to the past, but signifies purpose: the summing up of all things is the goal to be achieved. Yet the implementation of the divine plan is already under way. The letter makes it quite plain that significant steps have already been taken to set in motion the achievement of this goal: in particular, it is through Jesus’ saving work that the revelation of the mystery’s content has come about (1:7-9), while God’s placing all things under his feet and appointing him to be head over everything for the church (1:22) is an important step towards the fulfillment of this goal. But the summing up awaits the consummation, which will occur at the end. (O’Brien, p. 60).

O'Brien has a quote by Cargounis about "the summing up of all things." or anakephaloaiosis.

In his stimulating monograph dealing with the mystery in Ephesians, Chrys Caragounis claims that as Paul proceeds to amplify and explain the meaning of the anakephaloaiosis throughout the letter, he concentrates on two main representatives of these spheres, namely, the powers representing ‘the things in heaven’, and the church (particularly in relation to Jews and Gentiles in the body of Christ) representing ‘the things on earth’. Caragounis further suggests that the two obstacles which need to be overcome before the divine purposes of bringing everything back into unity in Christ can be fulfilled are (a) the rebellion of the powers, and (b) the alienation of the Jews from the Gentiles (2:11-22, as well as the estrangement of both from God, 2:16). Much of the rest of Ephesians is given over to explicating, with reference to each of these two spheres, the steps in the process that God has taken in order to ‘bring all things into unity in Christ’.

The Great Dividing Line between Rome and the Reformation

Sinclair Ferguson in his introduction to John Owen's book, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power, comments on the role the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has in church history.

Indeed the famous counter-reformation Jesuit missionary to England, Edmund Campion, once said that the great dividing line between Rome and Geneva lay along the axis of the doctrine of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In effect, in the place of the Holy Spirit the Roman Catholic Church had substituted the role of the church--its teaching authority, its priesthood, and its seven sacraments. In this respect, Owen stood on the shoulders of the Genevan reformer John Calvin whom B.B. Warfield insightfully called 'The theologian of the Holy Spirit.'

Like Calvin before him, however, Owen's exposition of the Spirit's ministry is not only set over against Roman Catholic sacramentalism but also against contemporary teaching that tended to separate the Spirit from the word of God and focus attention on individual revelation by the Spirit rather than on the Spirit's illumination of the revelation in Scripture. (p. 24)

The Joy of God's Love

R. A. Torrey writes in his book The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit about a father's love for his child. The example he gives is quite moving.

Some years ago there was a father in the state of Illinois, who had a child who had been deaf and dumb from her birth. It was a sad day in that home when they came to realize that that little child was deaf and would never hear and, as they thought, would never speak. The father heard of an institution in Jacksonville, Ill., where deaf children were taught to talk. He took this little child to the institution and put her in charge of the superintendent. After the child had been there some time, the superintendent wrote telling the father that he would better come and visit his child. A day was appointed and the child was told that her father was coming. As the hour approached, she sat up in the window, watching the gate for her father to pass through. The moment he entered the gate she saw him, ran down the stairs and ran out on the lawn, met him, looked up into his face and lifted up her hands and said, “Papa.” When that father heard the dumb lips of his child speak for the first time and frame that sweet word “Papa,” such a throb of joy passed through his heart that he literally fell to the ground and rolled upon the grass in ecstasy. But there is a Father who loves as no earthly father, who longs to have His children realize that they are children, and when we [pg 140] look up into His face and from a heart which the Holy Spirit has filled with a sense of sonship call Him “Abba” (papa), “Father,” no language can describe the joy of God.

It may be said, I think, the measure of joy in a relationship is the measure of love in the relationship especially in the parent's love for their children. Our greatest joy should be that God joys over us.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you (Zephaniah 3:17)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, ESV)

God's meaningful universe

John Frame in his book, The Doctrine of God, explains the significance of decrees and the job of humanity in understanding them.

God's decrees display his lordship attributes. In an obvious way, they display his control, for they are efficacious and universal. God's intentions will certainly be fulfilled, and they will be fulfilled for everything in the created world.

They also display his authority, for they are meaningful thoughts--wise plans or counsels for the world. As such, they interpret the world; they determine the meaning and significance of everything God makes. God's interpretations, of course, are always supremely authoritative. When he declares the significance of something for his purpose, that is the significance it has. So the doctrine of the decrees implies that God has authoritatively preinterpreted everything and every event. As Van Til emphasized, the interpretation of the facts precedes the facts. Our world is a world that is exhaustively meaningful, because it is the expression of God's wisdom. Among human beings, interpretation is not the work of trying to assess for the first time the significance of uninterpreted facts. Rather, ours is a work of secondary interpretation, interpreting God's interpretation. (pp. 316-317)

In theology, the universe is not random. The events and created objects are purposely created by God to declare His glory (Psalm 19:1-2) and His wrath (Romans 1:18) to anyone who will listen, and we all will listen one day. For those who love God, these facts express God's omnipresence and omnipotence and thus bring comfort and joy.

Genesis 17:1 -- "Walk before me and be perfect."

In his commentary on Genesis, Allen P. Ross quotes Benno Jacob (First Book of the Bible, pp. 109-110) who has some excellent insights into "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless."

If you want to become whole, which is my request for you, you must walk before me; you place yourself under my exclusive supervision, guidance, and protection. The image is taken from the shepherd who walks behind his herd directing it by his calls, or from the father under whose eyes the child walks. It is more than the walking "with" God of Enoch and Noah who were practically lead [sic] by the hand.

When questions arise you shall take directions only from God and be devoted to him without reservation. This word does not refer to moral conduct, for that would be too insignificant in this situation and is self-understood. The high demand corresponds to God's, "Be you mine, and I will be yours." (Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis, p.331)

Ross goes on writes that the Hebrew word "perfect" (tamin includes meanings of "without fault" and "complete" or "whole.") In other words, holiness and separateness is part of the meaning of the word.

C. S. Lewis and Hebrews 1:3

A friend of mine posted on Facebook from the "Science is Awesome" website. ***********************************************************************************************************

You are currently on a 4.5 billion year old spaceship

A self sufficient, organic, complex spaceship.

You are orbiting a power source that is a million times larger than your ship.

There are 200 billion more power sources, possibly with ships like your, in your group.

There are 40 more groups in your particular neighborhood.

Your neighborhood is moving at 2 million miles per hour to an object that is 150 million light years away.

Welcome to life. It's more exciting when you think on a larger scale.

**********************************************************************************************************
My friend attributed this quote to Carl Sagan, but the web site does not say. I must agree that it is in the spirit of Sagan. This quote raises many questions. Why does astronomical sizes and millions of years make life more exciting? If that is the case, should not contemplating the end of the universe be our most exciting meditation? The most popular theory of the end of the universe is "The Big Freeze." The universe will keep expanding until it approaches absolute zero. No life, no light, nor even matter as we know it will exist. It will be the big zero. The end of the universe is a big whimper. It is indeed an exciting end to contemplate.

The author of the quote introduces meaning or purpose through the words spaceship and direction; However,  in Carl Sagan's universe, the earth is not a spaceship, but the result of random events. In Sagan's view, we are just the product of time and chance. There is no design. In Sagan's universe we do not have a direction. We are on top of a spinning globe, which is spinning around a star, which is spinning around a galaxy, which is spinning around a local group of galaxies. There is no one driving. We are literally spinning out of control. The biblical world view offers an alternative. Life has meaning; the earth has meaning; and the universe shouts meaning. Read these two quotes.

When Hebrews 1:3 speaks of Christ "sustaining all things by his powerful word," sustain is the Greek verb phero, meaning "bear, carry." This not a picture of Christ as a kind of Atlas, holding up the world on his shoulders ("upholding," KJV), but a dynamic image of him carrying the world from one point to another through time. There is a destination, and Christ's purpose is to bring the world process to that goal, that conclusion. John Frame, A Theology of Worship Volume 2: The Doctrine of God, p. 276 by John Frame.

But already in the New Testament this "Son" is identified with the Discourse or reason or Word which was eternally "with God" and yet also was God. He is the all-pervasive principle of concretion or cohesion whereby the universe holds together. All things and specially Life, arose within Him, and within Him all things will reach their conclusion--the final statement of what they have been trying to express. (C. S. Lewis, Miracles. p.76)

Christ has an ultimate end in mind for the universe, it is for his glory; and He will bring it about.