A Devotion

[missmuffet]

3 minutes ago, Michael37 said:

It's more about design and purpose, but predestination implies those.

Rom 8:29  For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
 

The Bible says that people have the freedom to make choices, but God's predestining work ensures that His purposes are fulfilled.

[Michael37]

5 minutes ago, missmuffet said:

The Bible says that people have the freedom to make choices, but God's predestining work ensures that His purposes are fulfilled.

Ah, but we can only make choices about what's available, and with what we are provided by way of our person.

[enoob57]

The existence of sin was formed in lie and has nothing of God or God's purpose espoused... the overarching of eternal state makes that perfectly clear... God has never been thwarted and that which rebelled did so with His absence forever without end...

[missmuffet]

1 hour ago, Michael37 said:

Ah, but we can only make choices about what's available, and with what we are provided by way of our person.

Do you support Calvinism?

[Michael37]

1 hour ago, missmuffet said:

Do you support Calvinism?

No, but Predestination 101 = YOU DID NOT CHOOSE TO EXIST

[missmuffet]

29 minutes ago, Michael37 said:

No, but Predestination 101 = YOU DID NOT CHOOSE TO EXIST

That is an interesting thought. But we were born to serve Him. What happens if we

get off track and we do not grow up as a Christian?

Edited December 7, 2024 by missmuffet

[Neighbor]

32 minutes ago, missmuffet said:

What happens if we

get off track and we do not grow up as a Christian?

Are not all born "off track"?

Psalm 51:5 among other references seems to declare that to be so.

Who grows up as a Christian? ??? One might grow up in a Christian like family setting, one might parrot all that is taught on Sundays  with felt board cut outs, but grow up as a Christian?- does that not negate the statement of our Lord that all must be born again? Reference John 3: 3-8 seems to state one must be born again; of water and Spirit.

Further does not a father welcome back a son who once  left,  but returns?  Like 15:11-24

 From Romans 8 ..."Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  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."

 

 

 

[missmuffet]

9 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Are not all born "off track"?

Psalm 51:5 among other references seems to declare that to be so.

Who grows up as a Christian? ??? One might grow up in a Christian like family setting, one might parrot all that is taught on Sundays  with felt board cut outs, but grow up as a Christian?- does that not negate the statement of our Lord that all must be born again? Reference John 3: 3-8 seems to state one must be born again; of water and Spirit.

Further does not a father welcome back a son who once  left,  but returns?  Like 15:11-24

 From Romans 8 ..."Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  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."

 

 

 

Then you have to be born again. That is free will?

[Neighbor]

53 minutes ago, missmuffet said:

Then you have to be born again. That is free will?

Fair question to ponder for sure. 

Was my conception and birth of my freewill?  I think it was not. Does that then mean I am a robot? I don't think so.

So too is being born again not of one's own will,  but also not without one's own participation in response to the spiritual awakening made possible, even forced into choosing by the Holy Spirit.

 Overall I can only, with absolute certainty, speak of my own turning about to my repentance of sin against God (Denial of Him),  onto my being born again through reveal by the Holy Spirit that God is  present, He is real, his son is real, my savior. That by him alone am I  made acceptable  to God the Father.  

I was challenged turned on my head out of the blue and made to see that Jesus is Lord. Call it the scales being removed, poetically; but it was more a  one two punch experience for me! I was pivoted on the spot, no tracts, no felt boards,  no romans road even, just a direct confrontation, against which I had no alternative, not this side of my sanity. So freewill? Not really. 

Some sing of being freed from sin, I find I was captured by Grace; am still captive, and love it!

Freewill - Calvinism? I don't care, let those that love to debate have their entertainment.  I am quite willing to be the world's only freewill Calvinist.  If that is what I am. I know God because God is faithful to answer prayer of those that rightly petition him for proper things, things not for personal gain, but instead for His glory alone.

Was it predestined that  Grandparents would pray for me for years, and their prayers answered long after their deaths? I am certain  of it. Is that experience different from that of many others? I guess it is.

And so, I do not try fitting God into a box of my own design and manufacture. I simply praise Him for His mercy from everlasting to everlasting and that He knowing me  predestined me from before the  beginning  granting me this awesome adventure.

[missmuffet]

5 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Fair question to ponder for sure. 

Was my conception and birth of my freewill?  I think it was not. Does that then mean I am a robot? I don't think so.

So too is being born again not of one's own will,  but also not without one's own participation in response to the spiritual awakening made possible, even forced into choosing by the Holy Spirit.

 Overall I can only, with absolute certainty, speak of my own turning about to my repentance of sin against God (Denial of Him),  onto my being born again through reveal by the Holy Spirit that God is  present, He is real, his son is real, my savior. That by him alone am I  made acceptable  to God the Father.  

I was challenged turned on my head out of the blue and made to see that Jesus is Lord. Call it the scales being removed, poetically; but it was more a  one two punch experience for me! I was pivoted on the spot, no tracts, no felt boards,  no romans road even, just a direct confrontation, against which I had no alternative, not this side of my sanity. So freewill? Not really. 

Some sing of being freed from sin, I find I was captured by Grace; am still captive, and love it!

Freewill - Calvinism? I don't care, let those that love to debate have their entertainment.  I am quite willing to be the world's only freewill Calvinist.  If that is what I am. I know God because God is faithful to answer prayer of those that rightly petition him for proper things, things not for personal gain, but instead for His glory alone.

Was it predestined that  Grandparents would pray for me for years, and their prayers answered long after their deaths? I am certain  of it. Is that experience different from that of many others? I guess it is.

And so, I do not try fitting God into a box of my own design and manufacture. I simply praise Him for His mercy from everlasting to everlasting and that He knowing me  predestined me from before the  beginning  granting me this awesome adventure.

You were born because your parents conceived you. God knew you in the womb. The Bible tells us God knew us before

we were born. It is our choice to be born again and be saved and believe in Jesus Christ. God gives us a choice because

He loves us. We don't understand why God does what He does. We just have faith and trust in Him.