The Sole Primary Cause

"...[W]ho works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will"  (Ephesians 1:11).
"...[I]n Him all things consist"  (Col. 1:17).
"For, 'In Him we live and move and have our being'..."  (Acts 17:28).
"The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the LORD" (Prov. 16:33).
"...[N]one can stay his hand or say to him, "What are you doing?"  (Dan. 4:34-35).
"...For who can resist His will?" (Rom. 9:19).
[He works in us] "...both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).


Definition of Providence per the divines of The Westminster Confession circa 1646:
"...God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least...."  [This is called the eternal decrees.]

God works through the most diabolical of events, including the crucifixion, which was according to plan and eternal decree (there is no Plan B) (cf. Acts 2:23; 4:28).  "... you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20).  "The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble" (Prov. 16:4).  God works through and directs all events but they do not impugn His holy being and He "remains pure from every stain of sin."    We are responsible (actually held accountable and culpable) and blameworthy (destined to be judged and punished--"For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment," declares Hebrews 9:27).  And again, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ"  (2 Cor. 5:10).

There are no flukes, accidents,  fate, fortune, or luck or any impersonal forces such as Mother Nature at work in a so-called "naturalistic" universe.

He is the sole primary cause of the universe who not only set things in motion, but maintains and sustains them called government, concurrence (cooperation with our wills), and preservation of them physically.  There are two other causes:  instrumental and final.  Faith is the instrumental cause of salvation, but God is the primary cause, and we are the final cause (God uses us, but we don't cooperate, because "Salvation is of the LORD" according to Jonah 2:9) in ratifying it by faith.  There are secondary causes in creation:  When Satan does some evil he has to get God's permissive will to do it--he doesn't have free reign over us but is a servant of God, or else!

Case in point:  David was incited by Satan to make a census, but it also said that God led him to do it.  God was just using Satan to do His decreed will.  Note that the preceptive, revealed will of God to us is not the same as the decreed, hidden will that is God's secret and none of our business ("The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" ( Deut. 29:29).  We don't know the hidden will until it happens and should not seek it by necromancy, tarot cards, seance, etc., but live our lives in faith trusting Him for the future.

Providence is the name given to God's personal involvement and sovereignty of His creation.  Man acts as His agent with a so-called free will, but the Bible says that God doesn't give up His sovereignty even in man's freedom of choice (cf. "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps,"  says, Jeremiah 10:23;  "A man's steps are ordered by the LORD" (Prov. 20:24);  "A man's mind plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" says Proverbs 16:9).

Think of all the evil that happened to Job and "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong"  (Job 1:22).   "Does evil befall a city, unless the LORD has done it?  (Amos 3:6).  "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil:  I, the LORD, do all these things"  (Isaiah 45:7 KJV). Note that God has a purpose for evil to exist:  "Surely the wrath of men shall praise you"  (Psalm 76:10).  God's relation to evil and sin is a mystery, not revealed in Scripture, but He remains unspoiled by it, i.e., without any taint of sin or evil, and holy or separate-- despite its existence.
Soli Deo Gloria!

Authentic Worship

"Blessed are the people who know the festal shout [hear the call to worship, those who have learned to acclaim you]"  (Psalm 89:15).


"Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name, worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness"  (Psalm 29:2).  This the key verse and theme of the Psalms.  The way to begin worship is by thanksgiving and praise, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise, give thanks to Him, praise His name" (Psalm 100:4).  We are to take worship seriously, because God is worthy and doesn't want our leftover time, talent, resources, money, efforts--He wants the first-fruits because that takes faith when we give God the priority of everything (e.g., people are not interruptions but opportunities, and we see God open doors for His will and good deeds). "Let the redeemed of the LORD, say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble"  (Psalm 107:2).

Here's are examples of OT worship:  "And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands.   And they bowed they heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground"  (Nehemiah 8:6).  "Worship was meant to be with the body as well as the spirit.  Also, Psalm 95:6 says:  "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!"

What we do for the Lord ought to be our best:  "A curse on him who is lax in the LORD'S work" (Jeremiah 48:10).   "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Col. 3:23).  Solomon says that whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might!

Man is called Homo religiosus (a religious man) and is made to worship God and, if not God will worship something in its place (idolatry).  Man is made for God and only happy in God.

Caveat:  "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teaching [doctrines] are but rules taught by men" (Matthew 15:8-9).  Malachi warned the Jews about their lukewarm worship--they were frauds at worship.


Martin Luther was the first reformer to declare and teach that we worship God by our labor as well as in song or at church.  When we work we are fulfilling part of our "image and likeness" of God and doing God's will, no matter what our calling in life.  Our life is a "spiritual service of worship" (Rom. 12:1) and is "holy and pleasing to God."  Labor used to be looked upon as a curse only fit for slaves or the lower class while the privileged lived in luxury talking about the latest ideas or something to that effect.  With God labor and work have dignity and everyone can serve.  We don't only go to church to worship, we worship by our sacrificial lives--we go to work to worship too.  Our lives are living worship.  Real worship is when we "first give [ourselves] to the Lord" because what God really wants is US!

It is vain to just give your money to church, if you think that is all it takes to please God ("Here, God, is your money!  I hope you're happy!), if you don't belong to the Lord yourself!  The idea of New Testament giving is that is voluntary, not compulsory according to 2 Cor. 9:7 says, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."   We should not give "grudgingly," but "excel in the grace of giving" because it is a matter of having faith to live in God's economy of it being more blessed to give than to receive--reaping what we sow, sparingly or abundantly, respectively.

"To obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams..." (1 Sam. 15:22).  Saul had gone through the rituals and illegal routine of offering a sacrifice, thinking he was doing his bit to please God; when, in fact, he was only lukewarm, half-hearted or tepid in his service and devotion--no man in the Bible had more opportunity and blew it more than this first king of Israel.  Isaiah 1:13 says, "... I can not endure iniquity and solemn assembly."

David, on the other hand, said, "I will not offer to the LORD  that which cost me nothing"  (1 Chronicles 21:25). This is exactly the way of following the Lord:  we can accept our discipleship to cost us something (e.g., friends, jobs, homes, family, and even life)--what they say is that freedom is not free; well, our salvation cost Christ dearly and salvation is a free gift to us to accept by faith, but it may cost us something to live the Christian life and follow Jesus. Samuel told King Saul that obedience was paramount, not ritual, and to listen to God's voice, not going through the motions of religiosity--anyone can put up a front, but Jesus sees through the veneer!

Some people sing in church not really meaning what they sing, because they say, "I'm just singing." God takes our attitude seriously and wants us to worship in "Spirit and in truth" according to John 4:24.   We need not only be correct in our thinking and teaching but be filled with the Spirit and in right relationship with our brothers in Christ.

Jesus said that if you go to offer a sacrifice and remember that your brother has something against you, go and reconcile and then offer your sacrifice. Worship implies fellowship, not only with God but with our Christian family.  They go hand in hand and can be distinguished, but not separated!  [Just like I can distinguish your soul and body, but if I separate them you are dead.]  In sum, shun lip service as abhorrent to the LORD (cf. Jer. 12:2; Isa.. 29:13).    Soli Deo Gloria!