A friend, Jim, called from the tarmac at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. No “hello,” just a “What is the difference between God’s sovereignty and God’s providence.” I recognized his voice. He was thinking about this because of a comment Dr. R. C. Sproul had made on Renewing Your Mind . Well, I knew there was a difference, but I was busy preparing for hurricane Isabel, so I told him I’d get back to him. Let’s first look some quotes.

Sproul, Chosen By God, p24, “When we speak of divine sovereignty, we are speaking abolut God’s authority and about God’s power. As sovereign, God is the supreme authority of heaven and earth. … All other forms of authority exist by God’s command or by God’s permission.

Sproul, The Invisible Hand, p15, “providence” describes the activity of God. P16, “…refers to God’s provision for His people,” P17, “He looks after human affairs … He not only watches us, He watches over us.

Westminster Confession of Faith, V/1, “God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.”

So, in short, God is sovereign over all. And one way that He exercises His sovereignty is through His providence, being directly and immediately involved in our affairs for His own glory.

Secluda has an interesting way of dealing with spam with their “InboxMaster.” They do not even attempt to guess if something is spam or ham. They just ask the question, “Have you ever sent e-mail to this address before, or have you received and accepted e-mail from the i address?” After a “learning period,” every e-mail is checked against this question. The user and administrator had many options, but I will briefly describe the way I would use it. All e-mail from addresses that have written to me before or to whom I have written, gets delivered. A few times a day I would get an email with a list of the messages that have been held pending action. I scan the list looking for legitimate e-mail and tag them to be sent (and, perhaps, tag the address as “trusted”). I can also tag the address as one to always reject.

I think it is worth a look. So much so, that I am going to get a test copy to try out on my e-mail gateway and review. I”ll let you know.