Sweet Providence

April 26, 2007

Joe,

I know you are on a road trip now and probably haven’t read the quote that I posted earlier today, but as I said I wanted to tell you what has been filling my mind about that quote since I read it.  It’s probably pretty obvious, but I find the providence of God in that whole event beautiful.

We know from Scripture that the lightning lands where God tells it to land: ” He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark” (Job 36:32).  So we know this lightning bolt, however close it actually landed to Luther, was sent by the Almighty.  And the fear that rose up in Luther’s heart in response to that lightning bolt caused him to become a Catholic monk.

And we know what happened in that monastery.  The protestant reformation was born.  It was as Luther studied Romans 1 in that monastery that his eyes were opened to the doctrine of justification by faith, the heartbeat of Christianity.  But had that lightning bolt never struck to scare Luther into the monastery, he wouldn’t have been studying Romans.  It is incredible how God uses the smallest of events to work out His eternal purposes.  Who would have thought that a twenty two year old getting scared into the monastery in 1505 would have such massive implications for the Church in the centuries that followed the event.

But such is the mysterious movement of the Lord.  It reminds me of the hymn by William Cowper:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

In awe of the One who governs the flight of the lightning bolt, the sparrow, and all else in the universe,

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Random Musings 

Comments

2 Responses to “Sweet Providence”

  1. on April 27th, 2007 1:35 am

    Lar,
    That is a great hymn to meditate upon. I was wondering if you or any of the readers knew of anyone who had recently done it on a CD. I always seem to learn the hymns that are on CD’s the best.
    Thanks,
    Erin

  2. on April 27th, 2007 8:08 am

    Erin,

    It’s on a CD that Sovereign Grace put out some time ago, called Worship Live, or Worship God Live, something like that. We picked it up while we were at the conference a couple of weeks ago, it has some great songs on it. The hymn is a quite a different arrangement than the original, but I still like it. You could probably check it out on iTunes.

    Larry

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