God's Sovereignty

Sovereignty is not a property of the divine nature, but a prerogative
arising out of the perfections of the Supreme Being. If God be a
Spirit, and therefore a person, infinite, eternal, and immutable in
his being and perfections, the Creator and Preserver of the universe,
He is of right its absolute sovereign. Infinite wisdom, goodness, and
power, with the right of possession, which belongs to God in all his
creatures, are the immutable foundation of his dominion. "Our God is
in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He pleased." (Ps. cxv. 8.)
"All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth
according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants
of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest
thou?" (Dan. iv. 35.) "All that is in the heaven and in the earth is
thine." (1 Chron. xxix. 11.) "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." (Ps. xxiv. 1.)
"Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above
all." (1 Chron. xxix. 11.) "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of
the father, so also the soul of the son is mine." (Ez. xviii. 4.) "Woe
unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned
it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?" (Is. xlv. 9.)
"Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?" (Matt. xx.
15.) He "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." (Eph.
i. 11.) "Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom
be glory forever. Amen." (Rom. xi. 36.)

From these and similar passages of Scriptures it is plain, (1.) That
the sovereignty of God is universal. It extends over all his creatures
from the highest to the lowest. (2.) That it is absolute. There is no
limit to be placed to his authority. He doeth his pleasure in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. (3.) It is
immutable. It can neither be ignored nor rejected. It binds all
creatures, as inexorably as physical laws bind the material universe.

This sovereignty is exercised, (1.) In establishing the laws, physical
and moral, by which all creatures are to be governed. (2.) In
determining the nature and powers of the different orders of created
beings, and in assigning each its appropriate sphere. (3.) In
appointing to each individual his position and lot. It is the Lord who
fixes the bounds of our habitation. Our times are in his hands. He
determines when, where, and under what circumstances each individual
of our race is to be born, live, and die. Nations, no less than
individuals, are thus in the hands of God, who assigns them their
heritage in the earth, and controls their destiny. (4.) God is no less
sovereign in the distribution of his favours. He does what He wills
with his own. He gives to some riches, to others, honour; to others,
health; while others are poor, unknown, or the victims of disease. To
some, the light of the gospel is sent; others are left in darkness.
Some are brought through faith unto salvation; others perish in
unbelief. To the question, Why is this? the only answer is that given
by our Lord. "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight."

Although this sovereignty is thus universal and absolute, it is the
sovereignty of wisdom, holiness, and love. The authority of God is
limited by nothing out of Himself, but it is controlled, in all its
manifestations, by his infinite perfections. If a man is free and
exalted, in proportion as he is governed by enlightened reason and a
pure conscience, so is he supremely blessed who cheerfully submits to
be governed by the infinite reason and holiness of God. This
sovereignty of God is the ground of peace and confidence to all his
people. They rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; that
neither necessity, nor chance, nor the folly of man, nor the malice of
Satan controls the sequence of events and all their issues. Infinite
wisdom, love, and power, belong to Him, our great God and Saviour,
into whose hands all power in heaven and earth has been committed.

(Hodge v 1 p 440-441)

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Kathee and I completed Exodus tonight. Here's a wonderful section:

40:34-38, "Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys"

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Work

1. Adobe Reader 7 has a security hole and needs attention
   
   
   
   1. Our solution is to deinstall Reader 7 and install Reader 8
      
   2. Our package to do this enters testing next week
      
   3. Upon successful testing, we need to update over 50,000 workstations. I envision that this will take more than a month.
      
   
   
2. I actually did some Cold Fusion programming today ... first time in several months!
   
3. I had coffee with Larry N. (another Wells Fargo employee). Larry is a member of Berean Baptist in Burnsville.
   
4. Our Vista image has gone from Beta to pilot, and I imaged my Dell desktop with Vista today. This is really looking good!
   

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Life

1. My Sister made reservations on American Airlines for my Mother to fly up to Rachel's graduation
   
2. I need to look at my garage door and see if I can get this issue resolved. If I cannot resolve it tomorrow I intend to have a garage door repair service come out next Friday
   
3. Roger has this weekend off. Last weekend he worked both Saturday and Sunday at Wells Fargo, and two weeks ago he had USMC reserves. So tomorrow is his first day off in 3 weeks.
   
4. Tomorrow I have some MWC business
   
5. Looks like it may snow on Sunday