God’s intentions in the death of Christ are complex not simple, multiple not single:

1) Christ died for the purpose of securing the sure and certain salvation of his own, his elect.
2) Christ died for the purpose of paying the penalty for the sin of all people making it possible for all who believe to be saved.
3) Christ died for the purpose of securing the bone fide offer of salvation to all people everywhere.
4) Christ died for the purpose of providing an additional basis for condemnation for those who hear and reject the gospel that has been genuinely offered to them.
5) Christ died for the purpose of reconciling all things to the Father.

http://post.ly/WhbT

24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant (δώῃ) them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

–2 Tim 2:24-25

διδωμι has a wide range of meaning, but it is always related to “giving.” Perhaps the closest to our passage in BDAG is “grant, allow.” So repentance is a gift, but how so?

My conclusion is that there is a road that leads from a gentle heart open to the convicting working of God’s Spirit, to patterns of sin, to the hard heart in which God gives people over to their sin (Rom 1:24,26, 28).

Earlier on in one’s journey, we are sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit and repent easily. But as we continue to neglect the voice of the Spirit, as we insist on our sin, as we establish patterns of unrepentance, those patterns become more and more entrenched.  Eventually, because we are so familiar with our patterns of behavior, we don’t even see the patterns and feel totally justified in how we live.

–Bill Mounce @ Koinonia blog.

Directions from Lamy Pen USA:

1. Place the entire nib in the ink bottle.

2. Fill the converter.

3. Expel the ink.

4. Fill the converter a second time.

5. Let the entire nib sit in the ink for an additional 5 seconds.

6. Withdraw the nib unit from the ink bottle, expel 3-4 drops of ink by turning the converter knob counter-clockwise.

7. Turn converter knob clockwise until it stops. **This is critical as it allows an air space between the ink and converter and assists in the even flow of the displacement of ink by air as you write.

8. Wipe off the nib assembly, assemble pen and you are ready to write.

Soldiers set up security and provide aid in Haiti

Originally uploaded by The U.S. Army.

A crowd gathers at a country club that U.S. Soldiers are using as a forward operating base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 16, 2010. About 200 Soldiers, assigned to the 82nd Airborne’s 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, are setting up security to help provide humanitarian aid to those left devastated by the earthquake. A survivor camp of thousands of displaced Haitians is near the base.

There is in us an envy, and wicked emulation. Oh, how hard a matter is it to rejoice in the gifts and graces, and services of others, and be content with the dispensation, when God will cast us by as unworthy, and use others for the glorifying of his name! Therefore that we may refer the choice instruments to God, we need go to him and say, Lord, ‘hallowed be thy name;’ do it which way, and by whom thou pleasest. We are troubled, if others glorify God, and not we, or more than we; if they be more holy, more useful, or more serious, self will not yield to this. Now by putting up this prayer to God, we refer it to him to choose the instrument whom he will employ. It was a commendable modesty and self-denial in John Baptist, which is described, John iv. 13, ‘He must increase, I must decrease.’ When we are contented to be abased and obscured, provided Christ may he honoured and exalted and be content with such a dispensation, though with our loss and decrease. Many are of a private station, and straitened in gifts, and can have no public instrumentality for God; now these need to pray ‘ Hallowed be thy name,’- that they may rejoice when God useth others whom he hath furnished with greater abilities.

[2.] A submission for the way; that we may submit to those unpleasing means and circumstances of his providence, that God will take up and make use of, for the glorifying of his holy name. Many times we must be content, not only to be active instruments, but passive objects of God’s glory. And therefore if God will glorify himself by our poverty, or our disgrace, our pain and sickness, we must be content. Therefore we need to deal with God seriously about this matter, that we may submit to the Lord’s will, as Jesus Christ did: John x11. 27,28 ‘Save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour : Father, glorify thy name. And there was a voice from heaven that Said, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ Put me to shame, suffering, to endure the cross, the curse, so thou mayest be glorified. This was the humble submission of Christ Jesus, and such a submission should be in us. The martyrs were contented to be bound to the stake, if that way God will use them to his glory. Phil. i. 20, saith Paul, ‘ So Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death :’ if my body be taken to heaven in glory, or whether it be exercised or worn out with ministerial labour. We need to deal with God that we may have the end, and leave the means to his own choosing; that God may be glorified in our condition, whatever it be. If he will have us rich and full, that he might be glorified in our bounty; if he will have us poor and low, that he may be glorified in our patience; if he will have us healthy, that he may be glorified in our labour; if he will have us sick, that he may be glorified in our pain; if he will have us live, that he may be glorified in our lives; if he will have us die, that he may be glorified in our deaths: and therefore, ‘ Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s:’ Rom. xiv. 9.

–Thomas Manton, Works, 1:77