Predestination

God will not hold me responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these is to look to God in deepest respect say, "0 Lord, You know all." These issues belong to God's omniscience. Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Ephesians 1:5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— Ephesians 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

Freewill

How can anyone be a Christian and not fully aware of the sovereignty of the God? Sovereign God is the absolute, infinite, unqualified ruler in all realms in heaven, earth and sea. God is to be Lord over all the creation, He is omnipotent, He is omniscient, He is omnipresent. He knows every little details and He has already planned out our tomorrows and He is holding the world in the palm of His hand. Sovereignty and omnipotence are together that one cannot exist without the other. Man is a responsible moral agent, though he is also divinely controlled; man is divinely controlled, though he is also a responsible moral agent. J.I. Packer In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, we act all. For that is what produces, viz. our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active. Jonathan Edwards The Bible clearly teaches that no one has true "freewill" except God Himself. God is in control and He will allow us to have freewill only if its according to His will. God KNEW Adam and Eve will sin so He did gave them a free will to sin. We have to understand that God controls everything including our freewill. The "freewill" is always subject to God's sovereignty and His divine freewill. God let's each of us chose whether they will be obedient to Him or not according to His will. The key is that God is ALWAYS in control even in our own freewill. God knows that people will use our "limited" freewill to reject or accept Jesus Christ. Those of us given the free gift of faith, we have escaped eternal punishment that we rightly deserved because of the mercy and grace of God, and we should be eternally grateful.

Quotes about Church

Wherever we find the Word of God surely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there, it is not to be doubted, is a church of God. John Calvin Churchgoers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out. Billy Graham The difference between listening to a radio sermon and going to church...is almost like the difference between calling your girl on the phone and spending an evening with her. Dwight L. Moody One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always. A. W. Tozer

Wise Christian

Someone has said "The wisest person in the world is the person who knows the most about God and place the Bible as the most important book in the world." So, I should be this wise Christian, who is committed into action of reading, putting faith in the Word, and surrender to the Holy Spirit so that I can learn from the heart. When Jesus said that the Comforter is coming, He was saying: "The Comforter will not come to stand on His own, to speak on His own authority. He will guide you into all truth-He will speak and act on the authority of the divine Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you do not yield and honor the Holy Spirit, your lives will not show forth the blessed fruits of the Spirit!" Preachers, priests, ministers, elders, bishops and even the Pope come and go, but the Bible remains. God gave me the Bible which is His Word so that I can diligently search scripture to determine if what I am being taught is consistent with the Word of God. In doing so, I can avoid being led blindly. I need to cultivate a healthy skepticism toward everything that cannot be supported by the Bible. Belief is faith only when it has God's revealed truth in any particular topics. The point is, the Word of God needs no support from traditions, however, traditions do need support from the Word of God. As a Christian, I must understand God's universal truth, translate it into my own particular situation and live it out. The Bible will only do me good if I keep an open mind and allow the Holy Spirit to teach me with a tender heart to believe and my surrendered will to obey. Am I studying the Bible for myself and observing God's Word? Is my personal Bible study a daily discipline for my spiritual growth? The purpose for reading the Bible is to change me as I read, believe and obey. The concept is this: The Holy Spirit guided writers of the books in the Bible so that the Holy Spirit can teach the readers. The Holy Spirit is the source that Christ promised me and I am to submit myself to the Holy Spirit as I submit myself to Jesus and His Father.

God is Holy

I am reminded that God's character is altogether impeccable. I have complete faith in Him even though I will not always understand Him since He is Almighty and Holy God. Without my faith it is impossible to please God because I need to understand God is perfect in holy, wisdom and love. Do we all really understand and comprehend what the Lord God means when He says, "I am the holy God."? When we worship God in image, we are to "Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy." (Psalm 99:9). I will never fully understand the full concept of Holy God but I do know God is very holy and very powerful that I am a forgiven sinner. We are to worship God from our hearts because we are the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:16), that God will search us and try us, and know our thoughts.(Psalm 139:23). God knows who we are by looking in our hearts, minds and souls. Like Paul said in Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."

Traditions, History and the Bible

Do we find ourselves at times ignoring or diluting certain passages of Scripture that penetrate our defenses and stare us in the face? It appears that we habitually love the verses that are easy on us and shy away from the ones that disturb us. Proneness to heresy is not confined to the cults because by nature, because we all are sinners which means we are all heretics at one point or another depending on the topic. Almost everyone practice selecting and ignoring. Historically, people unconsciously select for special attention (i.e. Scriptures, Traditions) for assurances and pass over the ones that rebuke and warn us. This trap is so easy for us to fall into due to unawareness of human pride and arrogant. There are those of us who are "stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!" (Acts 7:51). As I look back into Church history, I can see why God put together the Bible so He can correct tradition errors. The Bible is the voice of God calling us to wake up and He is saying this is the road map for the Church. Where God using His words to warn, command, rebuke, promise, encourage us. History demonstrated that every generation needs it own dramatic encounter with God, its great awakening by the Holy Spirit. Every generations need this awakening and the Holy Spirit is really working on us. By definition, to me, awakening means "to spiritually reform". There is a proverb saying that "all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history". The history have demonstrated plainly that almost every denomination began as a revolt against theological error or formality in worship, worldliness in conduct, externalism or ecclesiastical tyranny. God's Word (the Bible) sometimes wounds us deeply and it is imperative because through the Bible, God speaks loudly. The Bible illumines the dark corners of heart and mind by exposing sin but reveals the way of rightousness. The Word of God (Bible) rebukes in order that we may see our faults in traditions and human nature. ''Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.'' Psalm 119:105 "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Sciptures we might have hope." (Romans 15:4). Obviously, the Scriptures and history have taught us and still teaching us but as usual, we are "selective hearing" on various topics. Are we truly learning the lessons? According to history, I think we are doomed to re-learn hard lessons our spiritual forefathers learned and gave warning of. Just my thoughts.