By: Pastor Bill
Upcoming Church Scriptures To Read: Matthew 22:15-46 / 1 Kings 12-13
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30
Have you heard the call of Jesus to follow Him? Have you realized yet that God knew you and called you to be a part of His family before you were even born? Today, do you know that God knows you and knows where you’ve been and where you are going?
A story was told of the great evangelist of the 1800s D.L. Moody when asked about the question of do men choose Jesus or do they have to be called first, he said, “the elect are the whosoever wills, the non-elect are the whosoever won’ts.”
The story is told of a group of theologians who were discussing the tension between predestination and free will. Things became so heated that the group broke up into two opposing factions. But one man, not knowing which to join, stood for a moment trying to decide. At last he joined the predestination group. “Who sent you here?” they asked. “No one sent me,” he replied. “I came of my own free will.” “Free will!” they exclaimed. “You can’t join us! You belong with the other group!” So he followed their orders and went to the other clique. There someone asked, “When did you decide to join us?” The young man replied, “Well, I didn’t really decide–I was sent here.” “Sent here!” they shouted. “You can’t join us unless you have decided by your own free will!”
When it comes to this ISSUE many get bogged down in the mud and allow it to consume their thoughts and slow them down in their walk with the Lord. I personally love Paul the apostle’s perspective on these things. In Romans 8, right after speaking of the reality that God predestined us, that it is God who called us, and that it was the Lord, and the Lord alone who justified us (just as if our sin never happened), Paul then says this in 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things?” What was Paul’s answer to this question? We should study this and figure this out until we can get the Knowledge of God and His mind to fit into our puny human mind. Nope! What does Paul say, 8:31-32 “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him, freely give us all things?” Notice, Paul doesn’t turn into a theologian, or a bible scholar, or a know it all… PAUL TURNS INTO A WORSHIPPER. He responds in wonder to the REALITY that He, a Jewish man from Tarsus was chosen by GOD ALMIGHTY, CREATOR AND SUSTAINER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.
What about you? Do you still stand in wonder to the fact that you are CHOSEN and ELECTED and PREDESTINED by God to be His son… His daughter? If not, stand in awe of Him again…
By His Spirit,
Pastor Bill