These past six days have been very busy days. Usually things are pretty slow around here, and we do the same things each day, none of which are time consuming. That is, until this last week.
Our son and daughter in law are expecting a baby in September, and they were here on Thursday night. They came with news of the sex of the baby, videos, and ultrasounds, which were all pretty exciting. We are going to have a granddaughter.
Saturday was hectic, and one of the last things we did was to take our younger daughter to audition for the play, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She's 8 yrs. old, and this is the first time she has ever auditioned for anything like that. She had the lead role in a Christmas play in our old church almost two years ago, and after having others tell us we should check into it, we finally did. We find out Thursday evening if she got a part or not.
Our hectic days prevented me from posting anything, which I missed. It also prevented me from reading any of the blogs I usually read, and I have really missed that. I'm still too tired to concentrate a lot.
"Scripture affirms that God, in His high sovereignty, singled out certain ones to be recipients of His distinguishing favors (Acts 13:48), and therefore He determined to bestow upon them the gift of faith. False theology makes God’s foreknowledge of our believing the cause of His election to salvation; whereas, God’s election is the cause, and our believing in Christ is the effect."
"Now the word "foreknowledge" as it is used in the New Testament is less ambiguous than in its simple form "to know." If every passage in which it occurs is carefully studied, it will be discovered that it is a moot point whether it ever has reference to the mere perception of events which are yet to take place. The fact is that "foreknowledge" is never used in Scripture in connection with events or actions; instead, it always has reference to persons. It is persons God is said to "foreknow," not the actions of those persons. In proof of this we shall now quote each passage where this expression is found."
He goes on to quote these verses:
Acts 2:23 "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."
Romans 8:29-30 "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."
Romans 11:12 "Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!"
1 Peter 1:2 "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you."
"God foreknows what will be because He has decreed what shall be."I fought foreknowledge, and unconditional election for many years. I was one of those who said I could never serve a God like that. But God knocked my theology right down the tubes, and I am so glad that He did. Because it's in times of tragedy, like what happened at Virginia Tech, and times of trials, that it's such a comfort to me.
I think that's about all of my thoughts for now. I'm still trying to recover from the busy week we had.
|