A FIRST BOOK OF DAILY READINGS
by D. Martin Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
...God sitteth on the throne
And ruleth all things well!
And ruleth all things well!
Things do not just happen. Events are not just accidental, for there is a definite plan of history and everything has been pre-arranged from the beginning. God who "sees the end from the beginning" has a purpose in it all, and knows "the times and the seasons." He knows when to bless Israel and when not to bless her. Everything is under His hand.
It was "when the fullness of the time was come" that God sent forth His Son. He allowed the great philosophers, with the clarification of thought, to come first. Then emerged the Romans, famous for ordered government, building their roads and spreading their wonderful legal system throughout the world. It was after this that God sent forth His Son. God had planned it all.
There is a purpose in history, and what is now happening in this twentieth century is not accidental. Remembering that the Church is at the center of God's plan, let us never forget the pride and arrogance of the Church in the nineteenth century. Behold her sitting back in self-satisfaction, enjoying her so-called cultured sermons and learned ministry, feeling just a little ashamed to mention such things as conversion and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Observe the prosperous Victorian comfortably enjoying his worship. Note his faith in science and his readiness to substitute philosophy for revelation.... Yes, the Church needed chastisement, and it is not at all difficult to understand this twentieth century when we consider the story of the nineteenth. There is indeed a plan discernible in all these things.
God does not stop to consult us, and everything takes place according to "the counsel of His own will." God has His time; He has His own way; and He acts and works accordingly.
From Fear to Faith, pp. 22-3
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