Only By Grace

In his 114 page book, Coronavirus and Christ,  John Piper responded in Part 2 to the question,  "What is God doing through the coronavirus?" Attempts like this to answer such question may appear presumptuous and insensitive in a time that many a people are hurting and confused. This charge of presumption and insensitivity can only be answered if one will take the time read the book. In fact, one of his relatives was infected with Covid-19. Moreover, in addition to the 2005 diagnosis that he had a prostate cancer, he no longer expected to see the publication of this book because of his age and the condition of his lungs.  In this article, I just want the share an excerpt from Piper's book showing his response to that controversial question: # 1 - "God is giving the world in the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin." “In other words, physical evil is a parable, a drama...

Consolidating my prayers for the months of March and April, I came up with the following prayer concern for the month of May: Help us live our lives with eternity in mind. Help us to live in love, joy, holiness and power. Let PTSCAS produce excellent, prayerful, joyful, holy, loving, powerful and productive missionaries, preachers, biblical counselors, theological educators, and Christian teachers, even chaplains and caregivers. Help us return to our first love and help us love you Lord for the remaining short and final years of our lives here on earth. Help us shepherd your people in love. Forgive us for taking your love for granted. Thank you that you are our closest Friend, our dearest Confidant, our heavenly Bridegroom. Help us sleep early so that we can wake up early and invest in eternity by spending time with you in communion and intercession. Help us to see the prison bars of our suffering as rubies and gold, as precious stones. Thank you for helping us realize that both the ex...

Ecclesiastes 1 1. The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. 11 No one remembe...

Revelation 1:1-8   English Standard Version (ESV) Prologue 1  The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God  gave him  to show to his servants [ a ]  the things that must soon take place.  He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,   2  who bore witness to the word of God and to  the testimony of Jesus Christ, even  to all that he saw.   3  Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it,  for the time is near. Greeting to the Seven Churches 4  John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from  him  who is and  who was and who is to come, and from  the seven spirits who are before his throne,   5  and from Jesus Christ  the faithful witness,  the firstborn of the dead, and  the ruler of kings on earth. To  him who loves us and  has freed us from our...