Back and Kicking: Predestination

Ha! so it's finally finals week!!!
(and yea, i meant the 4th not the 2nd :3)
and i don't think i did too shabby on the devotions thing- i mean there were weeks...but i had a really good week as well where i was mad busy with school but still managed to do the devo's everyday- gooood ^_^

I decided that I'm going to try to stop preaching- so i'm working on that

Now when i decided to create this blog- i decided to be as real with it as i could about what is going on in my spiritual life: what am i wrestling with what are my doubts what are my praises what are my revelations.

One thing that God really has me thinking about is this idea of predestination: does God already know who is going to dwell with him in eternal life, or do we ask him to dwell in his eternal life. Now, i believe in Jesus- i will call myself a Christian. I do not believe in full predestination- as in i do not believe that God already knows who is going to dwell with him in eternal life and who is going to forever be condemned to hell. Now to most Christians this is a crazy concept and usually i don't share this view of mine unless pushed on it but it's become clear to me that the full predestination thing is something that needs to be squared away with- because it can be the difference between someone getting saved and someone not getting saved i think.

The idea of predestination is this:
God knows all- obviously because he is God. And it is only by grace we are saved- it is by no decision that lets say, I made to be saved from the eternal fire. With me doing nothing God has chosen to save me unconditionally and to have mercy on me and for that I am eternally grateful.
see, i understand that argument and it makes sense to me as well but the bible also speaks about God being love. And i cannot ignore the fact and the inconsistency of God being love and creating man in his image and as something to love and then to condemn more than half of his creation to hell. because the bible also says

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."- Matthew 7:13&14

So what am i to make of that? God chose to save those few? and chose to condemn most men to hell and eternal fire? no! that's is not God at all! see the end of that verse? 'only a few find it.' we obviously have some say. We obviously have some free will- because that is what this is saying- we do not have an option to follow God, we are predestined to do it.

My understanding on this subject of the few:
I believe that God is all knowing and all powerful, but there are things that God is capable of doing but wont do. For example- God is capable of doing evil but he can't do evil. That's because he won't do evil. I think this pattern is seen elsewhere. I believe that God is capable of knowing who is going to go to heaven and hell but, for the sake of giving us free will, chooses not to know that that end result. i believe in a partial predestination where there are things moving in our life and in this world and in reality that God wants to happen. So no matter what people decide, God's end result is going to be the same. But God still gives us room to decide things- one of those things is if we want to be saved or not.
Do not get me wrong, Acts 15:11 says,

"No! we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved..."

I believe that it is by grace that we are saved as well- but i believe that God has the invitation out for us to ask for. We, ourselves, do not reach an "enlightenment" of some kind where now everything makes sense but we come to the alter and ask God to save us.

"But what does it say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." -Romans 10:8&9

again

"for, 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." -Romans 10:13

We ask God to give his grace on us, and unconditionally God gives it to us- no matter what we did or what are backgrounds are or if we turned away from him. That's how i see God's grace being something unconditional and nothing but grace. Because it's something that he offers everyone freely but we have to ask for it and we don't even deserve it.
God created Adam and Eve and they loved Him. But there was no choice but to love God, so Adam and Eve's one rule of never eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge was the choice God gave them to show their love for Him. God basically said, "if you love me, you will listen to my one rule for you and not eat from this tree." God is giving us that same choice with salvation. but instead of being able to take the fruit, we have to come up and ask for some fruit.

I could go on on this topic, but like i said it's finals week and i need to study
I also want to make it clear that i am always open for God to change my mind on this subject as well. God knows how i am because he created me and he knows how to open my eyes through his word so that i can have understanding in things that are not made clear right now. There are many verses about predestination in the bible- i'll give you one even Romans 8:28-32
i'm ready to tell you right now i don't know what to take from it. but i will be patient with God, like he is patient with me and have faith that he will reveal his truth like he has countless times before.

Scripture that has caught my eye since April 10th:
19/4/09
"not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3-5

"for just as though the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one. man the many will be made righteous." Romans 5:19

20/4/09
"what shall we say then? shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? by no means! we died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Romans 6:1-2

"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of the sin might be done away within, the at we should no longer be slaves to sin- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." Romans 6:6&7

"Therefore don't let sin reign in our mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instrument of righteousness." Romans 6:12-13

21/4/09
"Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but hose who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds on what the Spirit desires." Romans 8:5

"because those led by the spirit of God are sons of God," Romans 8:14

"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. and by him we cry, 'Abba, Father'" Romans 8:15

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

"for the creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from the bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." Romans 8:20&21

"In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes from us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26

"And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will" Romans 8:27

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; hose he justified, he also glorified." Romans 8:28-30
~there you go, but here is where my faith steps in. I have faith that God will open my eyes and i refuse to let this present and apparent inconsistency hinder my faith.

"no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, either angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord," Romans 8:37-39

22/4/09
"it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring" Romans 9:8

"it does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy" Romans 9:16

"therefore God had mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and hardens whom he wants to harden" Romans 9:18
~this part made a reference to how Pharaoh's heart was hardened when moses asked him to let the Jews go

Romans 10:8-9

"for, 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can the call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear w/o someone preaching to them? And how can they preach without being sent? As it is written, 'how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." Romans 10:13-15

23/4/09
"Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!" Romans 11:11-12

"If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either." Romans 11:17-21

29/4/09
"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." Romans 12:1

Today
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Romans 13:1

"Give everyone what you owe him; If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor." Romans 13:7

"Love does no harm to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Romans 13:10

"accept him whose faith his weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters" Romans 14:1

"Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand" Romans 14:4

"But the man who has doubts is condemned if the eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin." Romans 14:23
~This one came from the context of a strong believer not judging a weaker person of faith for not eating certain things or drinking wine and for a weaker person of faith not condemning a stronger person in faith for drinking or eating certain things. It is saying here basically that if the weaker does the thing that the stronger does but still sees it as something wrong then for him, that is a sin.
putting it in another context- if i go out and drink (legal age and all that) i'm ok with drinking and being a strong christian. for someone else that may not be the case and i shouldn't push someone who sees it as a sin to drink because to them the feel wrong doing it- therefore, because their concious isn't clean now, them drinking has become a personal sin against God.

That's it- i think it's been over 2hrs... >.<>