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Anchored in the Word Morning Reflection: Season 5 Episode 183 Trust and Praise out of Sorrow: Justice Psalm 59 #morningreflections #strength #wisdom #growth #struggle

John Owen's Works, Volume 3 (Pneumatologia), provides a foundational, Spirit-centered defense of Christian theology that spans the Holy Spirit's distinct personhood, His work in Christ, regeneration, sanctification, and eternal election. Driven by a desire to defend the Spirit's deity against rationalist attacks while rescuing His internal ministry from both formal neglect and fanatical claims, Owen demonstrates that redemption applied by the Spirit is as essential as redemption accomplished by Christ. Through key insights—such as total depravity's darkening of the unregenerate mind (prefiguring presuppositional apologetics over Common Sense realism), the Spirit-wrought use of the means of grace in an awakened sinner without falling into preparationism, the absolute necessity of ongoing actual grace alongside habitual grace for every holy act, and a matured view of mortification—Owen roots all Christian growth in sovereign grace. By grounding these doctrines in both the election of believers unto holiness and the real-world conversion of Augustine, Owen establishes that true Christian living is an unceasing, Spirit-empowered work from initiation to final perseverance.

Pastor Brewer discusses the period of the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple in 516 BC. The Israelites discover "divine irony": That which could destroy them, becomes their safe haven and fulfillment, akin to the cross. We see the beginning of the n"coming in" of the nations in verse 6:21, the process that will be fulfilled in the New Testament era.