Good Thursday morning! Grey and cold again this morning. Perhaps we are going to have a Wisconsin winter this year: snow on the ground for months and no sunshine for days at a time. That isn't a prediction, I have no more idea than you how the winter will go. Last night in our Bible study we read the second verse of 1 Peter. That's all the farther we got for one evening's work. Sometimes a verse is so important and generates so much discussion that an hour of Bible study doesn't begin to cover the content of one little verse. The Bible is that rich in the wisdom and knowledge of God! Don't think that is possible? Try out John 3:16. See how long you can go on with Romans 8:28. By now you know that one verse can provide for an entire sermon, or even an entire book, or several books. We cannot grasp all that God has to tell us about one little verse in an hour, and yet we continue to try to place our will ahead of God's at times.
You might not claim to be guilty of that, but I'll bet the Holy Spirit is tapping on an area of your life even as you read this. I'm guilty, it is too easy to fall into that snare. Jesus set the example for us in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, "not my will, but thine be done." The interesting point of last night's discussion was the backward belief we sometimes run into where we are told that "you chose to believe in God, so therefore you are one of His chosen ones!" Sounds good, logical, and quite backwards. If we can choose and subject God to our will, then all of creation will be lost to the will of billions of people. What a mess that would be! I suppose the right way is that we chose to believe in Jesus because God had already chosen us before time began. We are all subject to God's sovereign will, but some will choose to not believe and perish. So how can that be? Does that mean that some are not subject to God's sovereign will?
We know from the Bible that God can always overrule man's will; whatever choice we make, God can overrule it. However, in one area it would seem that God will not overrule our choice. That area is in that one free choice we all must make. Do you and I believe in Jesus or not? It appears to me, and this discussion did not end without further questions hanging in the air last night, that in this one area, when a person chooses not to believe in Jesus, God chooses not to save that person. Please don't think that I'm going to solve this discussion in one morning's devotional. The pastor told us last night that theologians have been discussing this subject for centuries. You might say that everyone is chosen to be saved by God, unless that person chooses not to believe in Jesus. I'm sure that some theologian somewhere over the centuries of discussion has put it in just the same way... and the discussion did not end there. One thing I think we all agreed on last night is that God's ways are beyond our understanding. This discussion may not end until Jesus comes. We may have to trust God in this: we choose to believe, Jesus saves us, and God chose us before time began. Before we start in with the "how can He choose before we choose" questions, remember that God isn't limited by time as we are.
Praise and honor to Jesus Christ our Lord!
Bucky
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