The writings of Sunny Canne

Dear Sunny,

It lingers, each day I wake with the thoughts of her in my mind. Some hours are better than the others, but a cloud hangs over each day. Her beauty still stuck in my mind will not lift, an ever-pressing weight upon my soul that no other lady can move, no matter their attractiveness. Is this too much for me, and respecting her choice I keep far away. I wish she could hear my sighs, the lament under my pitiful cloud. How happy he is that is him who is with her, he is the one she chose, yet I could bet my life that I would happier be. Although I believe the Lord will come to remove her from my heart, yet the Lord’s coming is at times long and will leave me to pine and to learn not to love so high a mortal thing.

Come soon to comfort me Sunny.

Mani

K.Oni

Prayer for my soul

O, be not foolish that I would wallow so deep in any loss. Although I feel it as the weight of death, yet the love and satisfaction I receive in Christ much abounds. In my sorrow, I rejoice and so much so that all my actions overflow from His love rather than from my pain. May I leave all my sins behind and walk in righteousness to the praise of his glory.

K.Oni

So is my love

My love is like a thirsty man who dreams that he is drinking, 
But when he wakes, his thirst is not quenched. 
So is my love!

K.Oni

The writings of Sunny Caane

My good friend Dante sent me these words of his feelings when the girl he loved rejected him and wanted to send these words to her about his feelings. 

My dear, I wouldn't have told you if I couldn't deal with the consequence. I am not easily bruised. In fact, I knew all along what you would say. But to be a good leader I must lead myself and part of it is courage. My face was set towards you like Jesus' face was set towards Jerusalem. I knew coming to you was a sure crucifixion. But I would rather have you know than for you to be unclear and I would rather you hear it from me. And even though I despised the humiliation, but for the potential joy, I embraced it.

This is my feeling about me asking her Sunny. Please write soon to comfort me for I have heard the sad news that she is now seeing another. My heart breaks! I wish I was him. O I dreamed a dream that will never be and what to make of my life now. I pray a greater love would fall upon me like it did for Romeo when he met Juliet. But I fear that she was my Juliet and my Rachel and must I settle for Leah? 

Her hands that never took mine, so soft caresses his hair, that I wish I was his hair. She passed me by without a kiss or goodbye, she walked apathetically by. I called but my voice must have been so low.

 

Dante

K.Oni

We had it good

Hey, was the first word I spoke to ya

I knew I would love you

When I met you

Blue eyes under the blue skies

Never thought I’ll realize all my dreams in a woman

You were with him

I knew you had to be with me

Sincerely yours

It figures he made 8 figures

Drove you insane

But I told you if you changed plains

Our car would be on a smooth lane

I had my own fame

Surprised by what you gave, surprised by what you gave me

Lot of loving that nobody never gave me

So what went wrong

My ambition for money

Made me forget that you weren’t for sale  

Splendid amatory between us

All prevailing your beauty

I got jealous when the guys with you

Couldn’t trust you cuz I had issues

Too many nights you told me but I didn’t listen

Till you went away I missed all the facts in it

Sitting in my chair reminiscing

God sent me a blessing I didn’t keep it

You were lovely in all ways, a perfect frame

An appealing picture, sure you had faults

But they were in the stars

I'm on the ground asking why my heartaches

Baby come back I know you ain't

I knew I would love you

I should have walked by

Never holla’d at you, I should have walked by

Now I'm pleading for reasons to keep going

In my dreams, wishing, manifesting what I feel

Then I wake to the tears

We had it good but I was blind

One of a kind

Now I'm dining with ladies I don't even like.

K.Oni

Distinguishing God’s Will and His Precepts: A Brief Study of Calvin’s Biblical-theological Teaching

D. SCOTT MEADOWS 

John Calvin wrote that “God’s will is . . . the cause of all things, [which makes] his providence the determinative principle for all human plans and works, not only in order to display its force in the elect, who are ruled by the Holy Spirit, but also to compel the reprobate [i.e., the non-elect] to obedience” (Institutes I, xviii, 2, “How does God’s impulse come to pass in men?”).1

To refute his opponents, Calvin wrote, “It is easy to dispose of their first objection, that if nothing happens apart from God’s will, there are in him two contrary wills, because by his secret plan he decrees what he has openly forbidden by his law” (Institutes I, xviii, 3, “God’s will is a unity”). This complex argument may easily be misunderstood. The enemies of Calvin’s teaching about Providence believed that many things happen that actually are not God’s will. Calvin strongly objects to that notion. His opponents considered God’s law to be one aspect of God’s will, and, granting for sake of argument Calvin’s notion of God’s decree to be His will, they reasoned, “there are in him two contrary wills” (His law [commandments, precepts] and His decree), “because by his secret plan he decrees what he has openly forbidden by his law.” Now Calvin granted, along with his opponents, that if God’s law were thought of as His will, this would inescapably lead to the absurd conclusion of “two contrary wills” in God. Both Calvin and his opponents rejected this as a preposterous idea. Calvin’s ensuing argument was to deny that God’s law is His “will,” a term that should only be used formally of His decree.2

Calvin argues a little later, “God’s will is not at war with itself, nor does it change, nor does it pretend not to will what he wills. But even though his will is one and simple in him, it appears manifold to us because, on account of our mental incapacity, we do not grasp how in divers ways it wills and does not will something to take place.” Here Calvin strongly identified God’s “will” with His decree and nothing else. His commandments only appear to be His will to us because of our limited ability to understand God and His ways. To make things unmistakably clear, Calvin wrote, “when we do not grasp how God wills to take place what he forbids to be done, let us recall our mental incapacity.” This remark implicitly states Calvin’s deep conviction that God actually does will to happen what He forbids to be done by His law revealed to men. Not God’s law to men, but Providence (i.e., what actually happens according to His decree) is truly and literally the revelation of God’s will. This refutes the first objection of “two contrary wills” in God. It is only a figurative use of language to call God’s commandments His “will.” We cannot correctly and formally speak of God’s precepts as His will. God’s precepts are not God Himself. His precepts are revelatory in creation to teach us about God. On the other hand, God eternally willing is God, that is, God being Himself.

In this section of Institutes, a few other remarks are highly relevant to the subject of our attention. They confirm that we are not misunderstanding Calvin’s meaning. Opponents of Calvin’s doctrine of God’s decree, will, and Providence raised another objection. According to Calvin, they remonstrated, “If God not only uses the work of the ungodly, but also governs their plans and intentions, he is the author of all wickednesses; and therefore men are undeservedly damned if they carry out what God has decreed because they obey His will.” Again, it is clear that Calvin was actually asserting what they oppose, namely, that “God not only uses the work of the ungodly, but also governs their plans and intentions.” Calvin did not agree, however, that this makes God “the author of all wickedness.” Calvin explains why God remains without any blame, despite the sinning of His creatures under His perfect control, throughout this section of Institutes (Book I, Section xviii; your careful study of it in its entirety is highly recommended). Calvin would agree with his opponents that his doctrine would indeed be wrong if the conclusion they stated actually followed, namely, that “men are undeservedly damned if they carry out what God has decreed because they obey his will.” Calvin’s refutation of this is subtle. Men are not condemned for carrying out God’s will; they are condemned for violating His law, and, in this way, failing in their moral duty, even while they are unwittingly obeying His secret will in the eternal decree. Again, the mistake of Calvin’s opponents stems from confusing God’s will with His commandments. To quote Calvin, the problem in their reasoning is that “[God’s] will is wrongly confused with his precept: innumerable examples clearly show how utterly different these two are.” Calvin proceeds to give some examples from Scripture for proof of the point.

I deeply appreciate Calvin’s careful teaching here. God’s precepts are not His will. To speak of God’s “decretive will” (formally) alongside His “preceptive will” (figuratively) as if they were His will in the same sense is a grave mistake. When we think of God’s commandments as His will, literally, then pernicious theological consequences are bound to follow. Some imagine God willing opposite things within Himself and call it a mystery, but this is unscriptural, irrational, and less sound than Calvin and his opponents! A failure to appreciate the distinction between God’s will and His precepts, explained so well by Calvin, has led to great confusion, even among many identifying as Calvinists. Ω

—

1. Calvin, J. (2011). Institutes of the Christian Religion. (J. T. McNeill, Ed., F. L. Battles, Trans.) (Vol. 1, 1 p. 233). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

2. See the helpful discussion of proper (formal) and improper (figurative) language by Charles J. Rennie 2 in Chapter One, “Analogy and the Doctrine of Divine Impassibility,” of Confessing the Impassible God: The Biblical, Classical, & Confessional Doctrine of Divine Impassibility (RBAP, Palmdale, CA, 2015).

This post was taken from: https://www.monergism.com/blog/distinguishing-god%E2%80%99s-will-and-his-precepts-brief-study-calvin%E2%80%99s-biblical-theological-teaching

What did I do wrong?

What did I do wrong?
Were all my ways doomed to fail from the start?
Was there no hope, no future and all my dreams already dashed to the floor.
O, this Love, why why why did you come upon me
When I did not search you out only to cut me down.
Why cupid did you strike me and not her
Why did I feel this sweet heaviness
Like it came from God?
Why was I encouraged
And in my longing, why did I believe.
Should I have listened to my own sorrows
And sigh under the tree of regret?
But now I know the truth
And I am moved to rue my confession!
Would the blows of regret not have been softer
I could have mused that she loved me once
Although a lie yet hope would not have died with the truth
Worse yet, I minimize my groaning
To make her think her cut was not so deep!
Now I fetch for sleep, for a happy lure
For a contour to undo all that she's done.
O I lament that I should ever have been born
That I should have taken breath,
Her beauty was better than the warmth of the sun.
What did I do wrong?
Ah, in her eyes I am very wrong
Because if I was right, in my arms she would gladly unlax




K.Oni