{"id":10990,"date":"2016-08-17T01:24:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/god-governs-all-things\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:24:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:24:10","slug":"god-governs-all-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/god-governs-all-things\/","title":{"rendered":"GOD GOVERNS ALL THINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>JOB 42:1\u20136<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>Then Job replied to the Lord: \u201cI know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(Job 42:1\u20132)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The idea that God governs and controls all things is sometimes questioned by Christians. But let\u2019s consider the alternative. Shall we believe that God is not in control of all things? Is it possible for God to be surprised by something unexpected? If this were possible, what would happen to our eternal security?<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><b><i>Determinism and Chaos<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The modern secular world is committed to the idea that the universe is governed by impersonal natural laws that are simply manifestations of natural forces. Because these forces govern all things, and everything that comes to pass is ultimately caused by them, it follows that everything that happens is pre-determined. This makes life utterly meaningless. Some have objected against this view, which is called \u201cdeterminism\u201d or \u201cfatalism,\u201d and have offered the alternative of radical \u201cindeterminism.\u201d This view says that there are no laws except those my mind creates and pretends to be true. In reality the universe is sheer chaos. Everything is totally meaningless.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>These two options are pretty grim for modern man, aren\u2019t they? Either way, life is completely pointless.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>As Christians we don\u2019t believe that blind impersonal forces operate in this universe, having their way with us willy-nilly. Neither do we believe that we live in a universe that is completely open to random chaos. Rather, we believe that we live in a universe under the government of an infinite, personal, righteous, loving God, a God we call Father. There is not one maverick molecule running loose in this universe outside the control of our Father. We are confident that He runs all things well.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Meditate on the alternatives set out in today\u2019s lesson. Consider that if God is not in complete control of all things, then there must be something outside of God that could surprise Him. Are there areas in your life where you resist God\u2019s sovereign control? Where in your life would you prefer God not be God? Why?<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><i>For further study: Job 38; Proverbs 16:9; 19:21; 21:30; Lamentations 3:25\u201340; 1 Timothy 6:11\u201316<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>thursday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>august<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOB 42:1\u20136 Then Job replied to the Lord: \u201cI know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted\u201d (Job 42:1\u20132). The idea that God governs and controls all things is sometimes questioned by Christians. But let\u2019s consider the alternative. Shall we believe that God is not in control of all &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/god-governs-all-things\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;GOD GOVERNS ALL THINGS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}