{"id":821,"date":"2011-07-15T04:38:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T04:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=821"},"modified":"2011-07-16T11:22:22","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T11:22:22","slug":"821","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=821","title":{"rendered":"SOVEREIGNTY"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOVEREIGNTY <\/strong>\u201cHow precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!\u201d<\/p>\n

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.<\/em> Isaiah 45:7<\/a>What a sad world this would be, were it governed by Fate. Were its blended lights and shadows, its joys and sorrows, the result of capricious accident\u2014blind and wayward chance! How blessed to think that each separate occurrence that befalls me is \u201ca thought of God\u201d\u2014the fulfillment of His own immutable purpose. Is it the outer material world? It is He who \u201cforms the light and creates darkness\u201d\u2014who appoints the sun and moon for their seasons\u2014who gives to the sea its decree\u2014who watches the sparrow in its fall\u2014who tends the lily in the field\u2014and who paints the tiniest flower that blossoms in the meadow.<\/p>\n

Is it the moral world? All events are predetermined and prearranged by Him. It is He who makes peace and creates evil. Prosperity and adversity are His appointment. The Lord who of old prepared Jonah\u2019s shade-plant, prepared also the worm. He gives and He takes away. He molds every tear. He \u201cputs them into His bottle.\u201d He knows them all, counts them all, treasures them all. Not one of them falls unbidden\u2014unnoted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.\u201d Over every occurrence in nature and in providence He writes, \u201cI the Lord do all these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

True, His thoughts are often mysterious, His ways past finding out. We are led at times, amid the bewildering mazes of His providential dealings, to exclaim, \u201cO Lord, how great are Your works, and Your\u00a0thoughts<\/em> are very deep!\u201d Be it ours to defer our verdict until their full development. We cannot envision the thoughts and intents of the architect or engineer in the first clearing of the ground for the foundation of some gigantic structure. The uninitiated eye can discover nothing but deep unsightly scars, or piles of unshapely rubbish\u2014a chaos of confusion. But gradually, as week by week passes, we see his thoughts molding themselves into visible and substantial shapes of order and beauty; and when the edifice at last stands before us complete, we discern that all which was\u00a0mystery and confusion<\/em> at first, was a necessary part and portion of the undertaking.<\/p>\n

So is it, at present, regarding \u201cthe thoughts of God.\u201d Often, in vain, do we try to comprehend the purposes of the Almighty Architect amid the dust and debris of the earthly foundations. Let us wait patiently until we gaze on the finished structure of eternity. \u00a0Oh, blessed assurance\u2014\u2019precious thought\u2019 of God\u2014that the loom of life is in the hands of the Great Designer\u2014that it is He who is interweaving the threads of existence, the light and the dark, the acknowledged good and the apparent evil. The chain of what is erroneously called \u201cdestiny,\u201d is in His keeping. He knows its every connecting link\u2014He has forged these on His own anvil. Man\u2019s purposes have failed, and are ever liable to fail\u2014his brightest anticipations may be thwarted; his best-laid schemes may be frustrated.<\/p>\n

Life is often a retrospect of crushed hopes\u2014the bright rainbow-hues of morning, passing in its afternoon into damp mist and drizzling rain. \u201cMany are the thoughts in a man\u2019s heart,\u201d (which know no fulfillment nor fruition,) \u201cbut the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.\u201d\u201cFrom eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do. No one can reverse My actions.\u201d<\/em>Isaiah 43:13<\/a> John MacDuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOVEREIGNTY \u201cHow precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!\u201d I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. Isaiah 45:7What a sad world this would be, were it governed by Fate. Were its blended lights and shadows, its joys and sorrows, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-gods-attributes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1091,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}