Chosen? ELECTION-Service & Privilege

[farouk]

22 hours ago, Selah7 said:

That’s what the Elect do.  But that’s not why they were chosen and elected.   
 

s e l a h

@Selah7 It was by pure grace alone, not by human merit or inclination; Ephesians ch.s 1 & 2.

"All of grace, yes, grace surpassing,
Such a portion to bestow;
But the love all knowledge passing,
Grace has called us now to know;
Love that bore the stripes and sorrow,
Love that suffered on the tree,
Love that shares the bright to-morrow
With the loved ones, you and me." (T H Reynolds)

[farouk]

On 2/23/2023 at 6:29 AM, Heleadethme said:

I'm not looking for anyone other than the Word made flesh, who existed "in the form of God" (Phl. 2:6) and then stepped into our earthly realm of time and space so to speak, when He was born in Bethlehem. 

Heaven, the realm of the spirit, exists outside the realm of time and space.  I think there are many implications of this but not easy to grasp, and we only know in part.....who can fathom the Lord, He is so great!   But this is why the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, and why believers are foreknown by God....and I believe it's why Paul could write in the past tense truthfully when he wrote this:

Rom 8:30

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

 

 

@Heleadethme The election passages of chapters such as Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 & 2 remind me of the words of W H Monk:

"In deep, eternal counsel,
Before the world was made,
Before its deep foundations
On nothingness were laid,
God purposed us for blessing,
And chose us in His Son,
To Him to be conformed,
When here our course was run."
 

[Selah7]

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

- 2 Timothy 1:9 (KJV)

[farouk]

4 minutes ago, Selah7 said:

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

- 2 Timothy 1:9 (KJV)

@Selah7 Another great election verse there!

[Selah7]

16 minutes ago, Selah7 said:

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

- 2 Timothy 1:9 (KJV)

The scripture above begins with, “Who hath saved us and called us,” declaring, without a doubt, that God is the author of our salvation.

[farouk]

51 minutes ago, Selah7 said:

The scripture above begins with, “Who hath saved us and called us,” declaring, without a doubt, that God is the author of our salvation.

@Selah7 It indeed began with Him............."He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1.6).

[Heleadethme]

1 hour ago, farouk said:

@Heleadethme The election passages of chapters such as Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 & 2 remind me of the words of W H Monk:

"In deep, eternal counsel,
Before the world was made,
Before its deep foundations
On nothingness were laid,
God purposed us for blessing,
And chose us in His Son,
To Him to be conformed,
When here our course was run."
 

I'm seeing this like a coin with two sides,  and that God being outside the bounds of time might be seeing time as a full circle that is already complete from His perspective.  That might help to understand why or how He already knows the end from the beginning....and things that haven't happened yet in time have already happened from the perspective of heaven, they are a fait accomplis.  If so, and we  look at this as a complete circle, the past and present affects the future, but I believe to have glimpsed that the future also affects the past and present....which all has a bearing on election and being foreknown by God.  (And that would also  explain why we may have sometimes experienced echoes of our spiritual gifts even before we were saved, and why also the devil persecuted many of us before we were saved.) 

But these things are not easy to get our heads around and we only know in part.  Not something I would argue about, but just putting it out there.  If it isn't entirely out in left field it probably is only a partial understanding at best...it's just a glimpse and there might be more to it.

[Mr. M]

On 2/24/2023 at 6:31 AM, FreeGrace said:

Eph 1:4 says believers (us) are chosen to be holy and blameless.  We the saved are chosen to serve Him.  

Luke 1:

67 Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit,

and prophesied, saying:

68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.

" To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins"

Romans 7:

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Grace is given to those who love God, and called to HIS PURPOSE.

Grace is the power to overcome sin,

and serve God in righteousness and holiness.

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

[steve morrow]

MANS  WORKS  OR  GODS  WORKS  --  ARE  YOU  DOERS 

 

PSALM 33:4  for the word of  THE  LORD  IS  RIGHT  --and   --ALL--  HIS  works done in truth--

EPHESIANS 3:7  whereof I was made a minister  --ACCORDING  TO  THE  GIFT  OF  THE  GRACE  OF  GOD   ---   given unto me by the effectual working of  HIS  power--

PROVERBS 18:21  DEATH  AND  LIFE  --are in the  POWER  of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof--

 

PSALM 92:5  O LORD  how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep 

 

EPHESIANS 2:9  not of works ---LEST   --ANY  MAN  SHOULD  BOAST--

 

PSALM 92:6  a brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this

 

PSALM 31:23  O LOVE  THE  LORD  all you  HIS  saints for  THE  LORD  preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer 

 

1 JOHN 3:10  in this the children of  GOD  are  --manifest-- and the children of the devil  --whosoever  DOETH  NOT  RIGHTEOUSNESS  ---  is not of  GOD-- neither he that loveth not his brother 

PSALM 145:17  THE  LORD  IS  RIGHTEOUS  --  in all  HIS  ways and holy --IN  ALL  HIS  WORKS 

 

PROVERBS 10:2  treasures of wickedness profit nothing   --BUT  RIGHTEOUSNESS  DELIVERETH FROM DEATH--

 

PROVERBS 8:8   -- all the words of  --MY  MOUTH-- are in righteousness -- there is nothing froward or perverse in them 

LUKE 4:4  AND  JESUS  ANSWERED  HIM  SAYING -- it is written  --  THAT  MAN  SHALL  --NOT  LIVE--  BY  BREAD  ALONE   --   BUT  BY  EVERY  WORD  OF  GOD--

 

PROVERBS 11:4  riches profit not in the day of wrath  but righteousness delivereth from death

 

EPHSIANS 2:9  NOT  OF  WORKS  LEST --ANY  MAN  SHOULD  BOAST--

 

PSALM 106:25  but murmered in their tents and hearkened not  --unto the voice of  THE  LORD--

--106:35-- but were mingled among the heathen --AND  LEARNED  THEIR  WORKS--

--106:39--  THUS  WERE  THEY  DEFILED  WITH  THEIR  OWN  WORKS  ---  AND  WENT  A  WHORING  WITH  THEIR  OWN  INVENTIONS --

 

JEREMIAH 23:22  but if they had stood in  MY  counsel  and had caused  MY  people to hear  --MY  WORDS--  then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings 

 

PSALM 145:20  THE  LORD  PRESERVETH  ALL  THEM  THAT  LOVE  HIM  BUT  ALL  THE  WICKED  WILL  HE  DESTROY 

 

JOHN 14:15  ---   IF  YOU  LOVE  ME  KEEP  MY  COMMANDMENTS 

 

LOVING  THE  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST