Today, I am off to the Spring Meeting of the grandly named Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association - a lovely, friendly professional association for some of us who work on church buildings like I do. We are in Bristol this Spring, staying one night and returning on Saturday evening. I shall not be able to do my customary morning blog tomorrow, so I shall pen a few reflections upon it now.
My readers will by now know that I have a different point of view from Piper about God's attitude to mankind, and I have probably said enough in post No 1 and post No 8. Having absorbed the sweep of scripture and now experiencing life with the Father, the Son and the Spirit at "home with me" (John 14:23), I cannot now repeat teaching that God was ever my enemy, needing appeasement or a ransom-price. Is that the picture Jesus paints in the parable of the prodigal son? Nor would I ever presume to say what is possible or impossible for God to do - who is John Piper to define or limit God's sovereign abilities?
Jesus' words restore a true perspective: "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). The faults and obstacles all lie in man. He reveals His true heart over and over again to His children. This is how Jeremiah heard Him:
"Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight?
Though I often speak against him, I still remember him,
Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion on him." (Jeremiah 31:20)
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