Two sides of the same coin

Sometimes people would say Calvinism and Arminianism are two sides of the same coin. I personally don't think they are because they view God's sovereignty in salvation in opposing ways, in fact one school of thought started as opposition to the other.

But there is 2 truths that are two sides of the same coin, they are repentance and faith.

Sadly these 2 truths are misunderstood and even despised in this era.

People hate repentance because it implies we have wronged God, people misunderstand faith because it's not always explained clearly, and it runs against the grains of the popular notions of rationalism/free thinking.

But the servant of God has to tell people both truths, this requires Christians to die to the desire for the applause of other people. The apostle Paul rightly said that if I am still trying to please men, then I am no longer a servant of Christ.

Not only does our presentation of the gospel itself have to be true, but what do we tell people to do with the gospel also have to be true, and that is often the hard part because we run the risk of offending people when we tell them to turn from their sins.

But the effects of compromise are far worse than offending people. I've seen all kinds of softening of the biblical demand of repentance and faith in Christ, whether it be "just accept jesus into your heart", or by playing music to stir up people's emotions to induce some kind of response, the result is that we trade true spirituality for emotional feelings, and give people false assurance. A lot of people who made a decision without recognizing they should accept Jesus because they have offended God by their sins usually fall away and it'll be more difficult to engage them in gospel conversations again.

May the Lord help us to be faithful in this area.

Strange and perplexing sovereignty

In my mind justice should be accomplished by just instruments. But God doesn't play by this rule.

In the OT he uses wicked Assyrian to judge wicked Israel, and when he's done he judges the Assyrians.

It's almost like kings and mighty armies are but toy soldiers in his hands.

Except human free choice is not always directly overruled in God's fulfillment of his plans. This is the most perplexing mystery in the sovereignty of God.

We see the same sovereignty in salvation, how can hard hearted men who's will is bent on hating and disobeying God trust in Jesus? It ultimately comes down to God's work in gifting faith and not human will, yet he doesn't do this in a completely mystical way, practical instruments like other people and the bible are always used. God's recorded words are always involved to engage the mind, heart and will of men to choose to trust Jesus in salvation. It's just that men cannot find out exactly how God's intervention and our choices mingle together.

A most perplexing thing

How is it that joy is so fragile and breaks so easily yet sorrow lingers on like skunk spray?

Why are we creatures so fragile and easily discouraged on this side of eternity?

I can be happily experiencing a joyful time with God and see some comment on social media and immediately be sad and/or angry. The effort it takes to regain that joy is greater than it took to kill it by viewing those comments (which took almost no effort at all.)

Is this normal?