there is something far more dreadful than physical calamity and suffering, namely, moral delinquency and spiritual apostasy. Alas, that this is so rarely perceived today!The Life of Elijah. Chapel Library.
Here then is the design of prayer: not that God's will may be altered, but that it may be accomplished in His own good time and way. It is because God has promised certain things that we can ask for them with the full assurance of faith.https://www.monergism.com/sovereignty-god-unabridged
How many a young man, never called of God, has been pressed into the ministry by well-meaning friends who had more zeal than knowledge. None may rightly count upon the divine blessing in the service of Christ unless he has been expressly set apart thereto by the Holy Spirit (Ac 13:2)Gleanings from Elisha (18)
False theology makes God's foreknowledge of our believing the cause of His election to salvation; whereas, God's election is the cause, and our believing in Christ is the effect
she was formed not from just any part of his body, but from his side, so that it should be shown that she was created for the partnership of love, lest, if perhaps she had been made from his head, she should be perceived as set over man in domination; or if from his feet, as if subject to him in servitudeThe Sentences, Book 2, Dist 18, Ch 2
we would say to any young man who is seriously contemplating entering the ministry, Abandon such a prospect at once if you are not prepared to be treated with contempt and made 'as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things'The Life of Elijah (chap 30)
Some might ask what the consensus of the church fathers was regarding the age of the earth. Overwhelmingly the church fathers believed in a young Earth. Thankfully, they didn't have the modern scientific community breathing down their necks. Some, ironically, use St. Augustine's view as precedent for not taking the creation week literally so that they can feel justified in taking an old-Earth view. Yes, St. Augustine wasn't literal but he actually believed that God created instantly and revealed it over the space of a week for our understanding, not over vast geological ages.2 So, to use St. Augustine to promote an old-Earth view is disingenuous because he actually believed in a slightly younger-Earth than typical young-Earth creationists.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 30). Roman Roads Press
Some may object, saying that Genesis is not a science textbook. Young-Earth creationists don't claim it is! History books can communicate the idea of deep time. I don't know Hebrew, but I do know that King Asa went against an Ethiopian army of a million in 2 Chronicles 14:9, so apparently big numbers can be communicated in the Hebrew language.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 27). Roman Roads Press
What was its intended meaning? Most people reading Genesis 1–11 don't walk away thinking that it spanned deep time. Translators chose the English word day for a reason. If the Hebrew authors wanted to convey the idea of vast amounts of time compatible with the secular geological narrative of Earth history, they have other, more appropriate words at their disposal. For instance, olam means a long duration of time.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 26-27). Roman Roads Press
What does yom mean? Yom is the Hebrew word for "day" and has a similar semantic range as the English word day. It doesn't always mean a 24-hour solar day. It can mean just the daylight portion of the 24-hour period, or it can mean a generation or so, as when your Grandpa says, "in my day (generation) we put in an honest day's (daylight period) work." However, in the Old Testament the overwhelming majority of the time it means a regular solar day.Darwin\'s Sandcastle: Evolution\'s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence (p. 25-26). Roman Roads Press
We must remember that the Christian belongs to the spiritual realm
as well as the natural, and so he has spiritual as well as natural foes;
hence he needs spiritual strength as well as physical.
When faith be not exercised upon Christ,
it nods and ceases to produce good works. When hope languishes
and becomes inactive, the heart is no longer lifted above the things of
time and sense by a desirous expectation of good things to come.
Then love declines and is no longer engaged in pleasing and
glorifying God. Zeal slumbers and instead of fervour there is
heartless formality in the use of means and performance of duties
A slumbering faith is an inactive one. It is not exercised upon its
appointed Objects nor performing its assigned tasks. It is neither
drawing upon that fullness of grace which is available in Christ for
His people, nor is it acting on the precepts and promises of the Word.
Though there still be a mental assent to the Truth, yet the heart is no
longer suitably affected by that which concerns practical godliness.
Where such be the case a Christian will be governed more by
tradition, sentiment, and fancy, rather than by gratitude, the fear of
the Lord, and care to please Him
If the Christian would meet with and have blessed fellowship with
Christ, he must not only walk in separation from all intimacy with
the profane world, but turn his back on every section of the religious
world which gives not Christ the pre-eminence.
What an anomaly! Drowsing on the verge of eternity! A Christian is
one who, in contrast to the unregenerate, has been awakened from
the sleep of death in trespasses and sins, made to realize the unspeakable awfulness of endless misery in hell and the ineffable joy of everlasting bliss in heaven, and thereby brought to recognize the
seriousness and solemnity of life.
This entire sanctification of our whole inner and outer man is absolutely indispensable. As there must be a change of state before there can be of life — "make the tree good, and his fruit (will be) good" (Matthew 12:33) — so there must be sanctification before there can be glorification
Evangelical holiness consists not only in external works of piety and
charity, but in pure thoughts, impulses and affections of the soul, chiefly
in that unselfish love from which all good works must flow if they are to
receive the approbation of Heaven. Not only must there be an abstinence
from the execution of sinful lusts, but there must be a loving and delighting to do the will of God in a cheerful manner, obeying Him without repining or grudging against any duty, as if it were a grievous; yoke to be borne. Evangelical sanctification is that holiness of heart which
causes us to love God supremely, so as to yield ourselves wholly up to His
constant service in all things, and to His disposal of us as our absolute Lord, whether it be for prosperity or adversity, for life or death; and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
In sanctification something is actually imparted
to us, in justification it is only imputed. Justification is based entirely upon the work Christ wrought for us, sanctification is principally a work wrought in us.
Let us now amplify our definition of prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude-an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God. Prayer is a confession of creature weakness, yea, of helplessness. Prayer is the acknowledgment of our need and the spreading of it before God. We do not say that this is all there is in prayer, it is not: but it is the essential, the primary element in prayerhttps://www.monergism.com/sovereignty-god-unabridged
God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass through the means He has appointed for their accomplishment. God has elected certain ones to be saved, but He has also decreed that these shall be saved through the preaching the Gospel. The Gospel, then, is one of the appointed means for the working out of the eternal counsel of the Lord; and prayer is another. God has decreed the means as well as the end, and among the means is prayer. Even the prayers of His people are included in His eternal decrees. Therefore, instead of prayers being in vain they are among the means through which God exercises His decrees.https://www.monergism.com/sovereignty-god-unabridged