Talk to Yourself

Posted on April 16, 2013 by John Samson

Psalm 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in this psalm] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.’

… This self of ours has got to be handled. Do not listen to him; turn on him; speak to him; condemn him; upbraid him; exhort him; encourage him; remind him of what you know, instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you. For that is what he will always do if you allow him to be in control. The devil takes hold of self and uses it in order to depress us. We must stand up as this man did and say, ‘Why art thou cast down? Why are thou disquieted within me? Stop being so! Hope though in God, for I shall yet praise Him.’

– Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression p. 20, 21

Wouldn’t that be something?

Posted on April 15, 2013 by John Samson

“Your priorities are so messed up Ray, I think without religion, world peace could be possible; wouldn’t that be something?” Andrew Molina

They tried world peace without religion through atheistic communism. It resulted in the slaughter of an estimated 110,000,000 people. The North Korean regime is atheistic, and they are a continual threat to world peace, while religious extremists in the Middle East want to blow Israel off the map. The history of humanity is soaked in the blood of those who have been killed in the name of religion and in the name of atheism. So it’s clear that the problem is deeper than atheism or religion. The unexposed root of the problem is sinful human nature that branches out into religion and politics to carry out evil agendas. Human nature is so stubborn, proud, and rebellious that we can hardly agree with each other about anything. I’m sure you would disagree with that. – Ray Comfort

Six Teaching Videos Defending Divine Election

Posted on April 13, 2013 by John Samson

As a supplement to the “Twelve What Abouts – Answering Common Objections Concerning God’s Sovereignty in Election” book, here’s some video teaching I put together (now all in one place).

(1) The first session is on John chapter 6, here’s a 27 minute teaching I did on Divine election and how it relates to evangelism, as well as what is referred to as the Golden Chain of Redemption.

Twelve What Abouts – Session Two from Runway Productions on Vimeo.

(3) Romans 9 stands like Mount Everest – a majestic, spectacular, lofty and immutable testimony to God’s supremacy and sovereignty in salvation. Here’s a 36 minute video teaching I did on the chapter:

Twelve What Abouts – Session Three from Runway Productions on Vimeo.

(4) Many Christians reject the biblical doctrine of God’s sovereignty in election because of traditions associated with the love of God and what amounts to a pagan concept of the human will, as I seek to explain in this 20 minute video teaching: