Delight Yourself in the Lord (and Do Whatever You Want!)

"Love God and do as you please." That famous quote from St. Augustine has far outlived its author, but not everyone views it favorably. Some see his bluntness as irresponsible, possibly dangerous. But Augustine has solid ground to stand on. Thousands of years earlier, another theologian by the name of David said this, "Delight Yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4). Both are true. Watch, as John MacArthur explains...

How Then Should We Choose

Dan Phillips @ http://teampyro.blogspot.com provides a helpful book review and summar of "How Then Should We Choose?", edited by Douglas S. Huffman (Kregel: 2009; 269 pages)

This book is in the series of multi-perspective books were spokesmen for particular views on disputed issues (prophecy, ordinances, doctrines) present their own positions relatively concisely, then interact with each other.

With this volume, Kregel presents a symposium of sorts on the vital issue of the will of God.


In the body of the book, three views are presented.

• First to sally forth are Henry and Richard Blackaby, presenting the "Specific-Will" view (33-85).
• Then, the first to evaluate it is Garry Friesen, author of Decision-Making and the Will of God, representing the "Wisdom" view.
• Then Gordon T. Smith critiques from the "Relational" perspective.
• Next up is Garry Friesen for the "Wisdom" view (101-159).

Friesen comes to summarize his own view in four principles:

1. "Where God commands, we must obey
2. "Where there is no command, God gives us freedom (and responsibility) to choose
3. "Where there is no command, God gives us wisdom to choose
4. "When we have chosen what is moral and wise, we must trust the sovereign God to work all the details together for good" (103)

Taking the Mystery Out of Knowing God's Will

One of the subjects that is at the very center of Christian experience is the matter of the will of God, the will of God. Throughout all of my life, I have heard people tell me they were looking for the will of God, searching for the will of God, trying to find the will of God. In fact, many, many years ago, I wrote a little book called, The Will of God is not Lost. Because it seemed to me that so many people were acting as if it was lost, as if God had placed his will in some obscure place, as if God were some sort of a divine Easter Bunny who had stashed the golden egg in some bush and all he did was sit in heaven saying, "You're getting warmer," or, "You're getting colder," as we meandered through the shrubbery of life trying to find the egg.

The Enigmatic Will of God

By Mark D. Roberts @http://markdroberts.com

Part 10 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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To read this series, Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God, from the beginning, click here.

In February 2007 I found myself in a place I had never been before. My quest to discern how best to steward my gifts for the sake of God’s kingdom, combined with the impact of my sermon on Jesus’s parable of new wine and wineskins, had led me to a place of unprecedented and uncomfortable openness before God. My firmly held conviction that I would remain as the pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church for many years had to be surrendered to God as I sought His will for my vocational future.

The Will of God

God’s will. Now there’s a complicated subject, one I’m not going to get into right now, at least not in any detail. There’s a legitimate debate among Christians about whether God’s will for us is specific and pre-determined, as in “God wants me to serve Him in this particular place”, or whether God gives us a fair amount of latitude to make choices that honor Him, as in “God isn’t so concerned about where I serve Him as He is about how I serve Him wherever I am.” As a Christian with Reformed theological leanings, I tend to believe that God does have a specific will for us, but that He is graciously willing to work with our choices, even when we make the wrong ones. I do not believe that God has one perfect will for our lives, which, if ever we miss it, necessarily dooms us to a second-class life. God’s wisdom and grace make room for lots of failure on our part, thank God!

Much of what God wills for us is exceedingly clear and requires relatively little discernment, except in the question of application. There is no doubt, for example, that I should love my neighbor. The only questions concern how and where and when and whom. After all, I can’t love all of my neighbors since there are, in the words of the classic bumper sticker, “Too many neighbors, too little time.” If you go through Scripture and compile the clear commands of the Lord for us, you’ve got plenty of God’s will for your life. Unfortunately, discussions of God’s will often forget this part, choosing to focus only on the specific questions like, “Which neighbor does God want me to love?”

I do believe that God has a more specific will for us, much as He did for Abram, David, Isaiah, and Paul, to name just a few. In Genesis 12, God didn’t say to Abram, “Get up and go wherever you like.” Rather, He said, “Go to the (specific) land that I will show you.” It’s clear that God had a particular place in mind for Abram. Similarly, there are times in our lives when God answers the “Where are the neighbors I should love?” question in quite detailed and particular ways. I am fully convinced, for example, that in 1991 God was calling me to Irvine, California as the focus of my pastoral ministry. My neighbors to love lived in that city at that time.

Even if God has a very specific will for our lives, this doesn’t mean we necessarily know exactly what His will is. God told Abram to leave everything that was familiar to him and to go “to the land that I will show you” (12:1). Part of God’s will was very clear: Go! But the rest was still hidden: To the land I will show you. For Abram, faith translated into trustful obedience, even though he didn’t know where it would lead him.

The Enigmatic Will of the Enigmatic God

Often God’s will is enigmatic. This has everything to do with the fact that God is enigmatic. According to 1 Corinthians 13:12,

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. (NRSV)

If you were to read this verse in the original Greek, you’d find something a little surprising. It reads, “For now we see through a mirror in a riddle, but then face to face.” The Greek word translated as riddle is ainigma, which literally means “riddle.” Ainigma is the basis for our words “enigma” and “enigmatic.” God’s will for us is often enigmatic, revealed in riddles, even as God Himself is enigmatic this side of the age to come. (Speaking of riddles, Jim Carrey made a decent Riddler in Batman Forever, but I still prefer the classic Riddler of Frank Gorshin in the Batman television series.)

Sometimes Christians, especially Christians in the evangelical tradition in which I find a theological home, get nervous when somebody suggests that God is enigmatic. They quickly point to Christ and Scripture as clear and sufficient revelations of God. I would agree that there is a sense in which God’s revelation through the Word Incarnate and the Word inscribed is both clear and sufficient. Children can come to know God through Scripture, and none of us needs to look elsewhere.

Yet, at the same time, I would remind those who embrace Scripture as the inspired Word of God that it speaks of the fact that God exceeds our understanding. “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” said the Lord through Isaiah (55:8). “Now we see through a mirror in a riddle,” added Paul (1 Cor 13:12), who wrapped up the theological discussion in Romans with this exclamation: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (12:33). God has given us all we need in Jesus Christ and in Scripture. But this does not mean that God, including God’s will, is always clear. Sometimes it is, by God’s design, enigmatic.

In my next post I’ll suggest one reason God doesn’t make everything about His will crystal clear.

If God Wills Disease Why Should We Try to Eradicate It?

By John Piper @ www.desiringGod.org.

This question arises from the biblical teaching that all things are ultimately under God's control. "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose" (Isaiah 46:10). "Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps" (Psalm 135:6). "He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:35). "[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11).

This means that God governs all calamity and all disease. Satan is real and has a hand in it, but he is not ultimate and can do nothing but what God permits (Job 1:12-2:10). And God does not permit things willy-nilly. He permits things for a reason. There is infinite wisdom in all he does and all he permits. So what he permits is part of his plan just as much as what he does more directly.

Therefore this raises the question: If God wills disease why should we try to eradicate it? This is a crucial question for me because I have heard Christians say recently that believing in the sovereignty of God hinders Christians from working hard to eradicate diseases like malaria and tuberculosis and cancer and AIDS. They think the logic goes like this: If God sovereignly wills all things, including malaria, then we would be striving against God to invest millions of dollars to find a way to wipe it out.

That is not the logic the Bible teaches. And it is not what Calvinists have historically believed. In fact, lovers of God's sovereignty have been among the most aggressive scientists who have helped subdue creation and bring it under the dominion of man for his good-just like Psalm 8:6 says, "You have given him [He] dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet."

The logic of the Bible says: Act according to God's "will of command," not according to his "will of decree." God's "will of decree" is whatever comes to pass. "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:15). God's "will of decree" ordained that his Son be betrayed (Luke 22:22), ridiculed (Isaiah 53:3), mocked (Luke 18:32), flogged (Matthew 20:19), forsaken (Matthew 26:31), pierced (John 19:37), and killed (Mark 9:31). But the Bible teaches us plainly that we should not betray, ridicule, mock, flog, forsake, pierce, or kill innocent people. That is God's "will of command." We do not look at the death of Jesus, clearly willed by God, and conclude that killing Jesus is good and that we should join the mockers.

In the same way, we do not look at the devastation of malaria or AIDS and conclude that we should join the ranks of the indifferent. No. "Love your neighbor" is God's will of command (Matthew 22:39). "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is God's will of command (Matthew 7:12). "If your enemy is hungry, feed him" is God's will of command (Romans 12:20). The disasters that God ordains are not aimed at paralyzing his people with indifference, but mobilizing them with compassion.

When Paul taught that the creation was subjected to futility (Romans 8:20), he also taught that this subjection was "in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (v. 21). There is no reason that Christians should not embrace this futility-lifting calling now. God will complete it in the age to come. But it is a good thing to conquer as much disease and suffering now in the name of Christ as we can.

In fact, I would wave the banner right now and call some of you to enter vocations of research that may be the means of undoing some of the great diseases of the world. This is not fighting against God. God is as much in charge of the research as he is of the disease. You can be an instrument in his hand. This may be the time appointed for the triumph that he wills to bring over the disease that he ordained. Don't try to read the mind of God from his mysterious decrees of calamity. Do what he says. And what he says is: "Do good to everyone" (Galatians 6:10).

This question arises from the biblical teaching that all things are ultimately under God's control. "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose" (Isaiah 46:10). "Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps" (Psalm 135:6). "He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:35). "[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11).

This means that God governs all calamity and all disease. Satan is real and has a hand in it, but he is not ultimate and can do nothing but what God permits (Job 1:12-2:10). And God does not permit things willy-nilly. He permits things for a reason. There is infinite wisdom in all he does and all he permits. So what he permits is part of his plan just as much as what he does more directly.

Therefore this raises the question: If God wills disease why should we try to eradicate it? This is a crucial question for me because I have heard Christians say recently that believing in the sovereignty of God hinders Christians from working hard to eradicate diseases like malaria and tuberculosis and cancer and AIDS. They think the logic goes like this: If God sovereignly wills all things, including malaria, then we would be striving against God to invest millions of dollars to find a way to wipe it out.

That is not the logic the Bible teaches. And it is not what Calvinists have historically believed. In fact, lovers of God's sovereignty have been among the most aggressive scientists who have helped subdue creation and bring it under the dominion of man for his good-just like Psalm 8:6 says, "You have given him [He] dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet."

The logic of the Bible says: Act according to God's "will of command," not according to his "will of decree." God's "will of decree" is whatever comes to pass. "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:15). God's "will of decree" ordained that his Son be betrayed (Luke 22:22), ridiculed (Isaiah 53:3), mocked (Luke 18:32), flogged (Matthew 20:19), forsaken (Matthew 26:31), pierced (John 19:37), and killed (Mark 9:31). But the Bible teaches us plainly that we should not betray, ridicule, mock, flog, forsake, pierce, or kill innocent people. That is God's "will of command." We do not look at the death of Jesus, clearly willed by God, and conclude that killing Jesus is good and that we should join the mockers.

In the same way, we do not look at the devastation of malaria or AIDS and conclude that we should join the ranks of the indifferent. No. "Love your neighbor" is God's will of command (Matthew 22:39). "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is God's will of command (Matthew 7:12). "If your enemy is hungry, feed him" is God's will of command (Romans 12:20). The disasters that God ordains are not aimed at paralyzing his people with indifference, but mobilizing them with compassion.

When Paul taught that the creation was subjected to futility (Romans 8:20), he also taught that this subjection was "in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (v. 21). There is no reason that Christians should not embrace this futility-lifting calling now. God will complete it in the age to come. But it is a good thing to conquer as much disease and suffering now in the name of Christ as we can.

In fact, I would wave the banner right now and call some of you to enter vocations of research that may be the means of undoing some of the great diseases of the world. This is not fighting against God. God is as much in charge of the research as he is of the disease. You can be an instrument in his hand. This may be the time appointed for the triumph that he wills to bring over the disease that he ordained. Don't try to read the mind of God from his mysterious decrees of calamity. Do what he says. And what he says is: "Do good to everyone" (Galatians 6:10).