Easy.

First, we have to understand WHAT is Predestined. It is, that from before the foundation of the world, God loved what He was going to create, mankind…(us!) Then He created it, and loved it all the more. He Predetermined or Predestined that those who would choose Faith in Jesus Christ would be saved for eternity.

Why? Because He knew that The Fall would happen and that man would need a Savior, so from before the beginning He made a way, through Christ Jesus, His death-payment for our sins! Jesus Christ is, remember, the Jewish Messiah, so those “before” Christ who believed in the coming of their Messiah would be … saved.

Man was given Free Will to choose, because man is not a robot. The very best gift a Father can receive is the Love he gets from his children! So if man did not have free will to love God then God would not really be loved at all!

So, please, see that it was the Plan of God that was Predestined, not the specific choices of specific persons, and as such that the Free Will of man is true also.

The larger question, really, might be “How does a man choose God?” What does a man do to “choose” Jesus Christ as his personal Savior? Is it “belief” in Christ? Is it “following Christ”? Is it “faith in Christ”? Obedience? Sacrifice? Love? And, how is it that a man’s choice is measured or determined? What is the proof of it? These things are worth our serious consideration.

It’s the end of another year, when lists of the best and worst of this and that are popular, and when we remember famous or loved people who have died during the year passed. It’s also the time of renewal of expectations, as a New Year launches us into New Hope, for victories over all that hinder us.

I love the coming of a new year. I love the emotional shedding of anything negative as I determine to look ahead to better days. That’s why Spring is so wonderful, as the sun breaks through the grey days of Winter and we rejoice with new life bursting through the once frozen ground.

You see, a participation is required. We get to choose whether to stay in Winter, or let Spring happen, and we also get to choose whether to receive the new year with faithful expectation, or to continue in the old. Now, here is where the skeptic, or worse yet the scientific, would point out that we get no choice whatsoever about the seasons. They happen without us doing anything, and without any participation by us at all. Well, that is exactly the difference between science, and Faith!

I believe we CAN make choices that supersede science, which is exactly what miracle is: super-natural. I believe we CAN put off the old man and put on a new. I believe we CAN be people of Faith, not ‘over’ circumstances, but in spite of them! I believe we CAN pray for our enemies, love our wives, respect our husbands, help the poor, and all the other wonderful ‘guidance’ we find in our Bible. The Law HAS been fulfilled in Christ, and because of Christ all things are made new, even YOU, as you let Him do what He loves to do—transform—-YOU.
Happy New Year, and Happy New YOU!

1. These are holy days; keep them holy.
2. It’s called Thanksgiving, right? So do it!
3. Don’t buy what you can’t afford.
4. Don’t try to purchase someone’s love. Give them yours.
5. Spend time talking together.
6. Go see holiday lights, store window decorations, the Christmas Ships, and other free things.
7. Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, talk about it.
8. Expectations? Don’t accept them, and get rid of the ones you have.
9. Sing!
10. Find a reason to laugh each day.

Yes, these are things that blow stuff up! Usually we think of bombshells in a negative way, as if in a war of some kind. Well, we ARE in a war, and we need some bombshells to blow some stuff up!

Reading the Bible this week uncovered all kinds of bombshells, able to blow up all kinds of stuff in my mind, if I would allow it. Imagine that! An enemy wants to bomb you, and you have the ability to cause it to pass by.

God, you see, is an enemy of worldliness and unfaithfulness. He wants to drop bombs on all of that which we cling to that isn’t Him! He isn’t OUR enemy, but the enemy of all that prevents us from yielding to Him.

Do we, then, let Him blow up the stuff in our lives that prevents us from living His Way? Or do we pass Him off so we can keep doing what we want, unencumbered with the Ways of the Spirit? Can you see it? Is it too simple? The Bible really does provide all kinds of bombshells to blow up the stuff in our lives hostile to God! His purpose is not OUR destruction, but the destruction of what keeps us from Him!

Why not try reading the Bible, today, with this idea in mind, that God will drop insight upon you! That He will instruct you in how to live! That He will show you how much He loves you! That He will reveal to you what you need to know, and DO!

Mixed with the almost unbearable grief is the growing outcry for some kind of change; some kind of control; just some way to stop it all. The pain is real, and so is the National Confusion about what to do. In this day of instant communication opinions flow like water, the media has a field day with our emotions, and the enemy of our very souls increases his purpose to rob, kill, and destroy.

Is there an answer? With so many tangled and intertwined issues of safety and rights, protections and freedoms, can anyone see through the fog of it all? Can a government really DO anything about it?

As if the horror of mass shootings isn’t enough for our National psyche, what about this “dirty dozen”?

1. Marriage, marital issues, & problems
2. Parenting
3. Debt & financial problems
4. Shootings, gun control, crime & the prison crisis
5. Illnesses, medicine, diet & healthcare
6. Relationships. Contracts. Lawsuits & justice
7. Power, control, authoritarianism, government & leadership
8. Immigration, State’s rights, & National boundaries/identity
9. Women’s rights, minority rights, discrimination & personhood
10. Sexuality, porn, gender confusion & personal identity
11. Bullying, anger issues, power & submission
12. Confidence issues, pride, & a surrendered faith

It’s a fair question to ask how I came up with this 12, and not some others, for surely I’ve missed some. I admit to trying to ‘simplify’ the entire question, because I am convinced we are caught in a ‘web of complexity’ when in fact ‘simple’ is the answer. This list did not come from the daily paper or the nightly news, but from the Church Directory!

A pastor is one who shepherds the sheep, to use a Biblical metaphor. This has many facets, but most would agree that it includes knowing the sheep, and protecting them, if possible, and leading them to the green pastures of good food. So when I let my eyes scan the Directory and think about what I “know” about those persons, well, the list forms.

I suppose our President feels this way at times. Our Congress, hopefully, is thinking about these things. Surely our Supreme Court must deal with this thought process to do its job.

So what’s gone wrong? With all these people in government, wanting to do what is best for their constituents, why are we in such a time of wretchedness, in the midst of the very abundance we all work for?

Is there answer, or are the problems just too big, too complex, and the Nation too fractured to deal with them?
I say it is simple. I say we can deal with them, effectively. I say the answer is the same it’s been for over 6500 years of recorded history. The purpose of history, after all, is to learn from the choices and decisions of those before us, and to not make the same mistakes. We have a book of history that reveals the record of man’s choices, and the results of those choices. It is clear. It is simple.

The Bible records in the Old Testament the choices that the people of God, the Hebrews, made over many years. It reveals the Blessings they enjoyed when they obeyed God, and it records the suffering they experienced when God allowed their enemies to put them into bondage.

Nothing could be more clear, more simple to comprehend. Follow God and be Blessed; reject God and be in bondage to another.

The New Testament reveals the Savior for ALL mankind, and offers this salvation to ALL, regardless of anything but the simple choice of obedience!

Why won’t America get it? Why won’t America wake up? Why are so many determined to keep the veil over their eyes and deny the answer right in front of them, the answer our Founders knew and tried to create a government to continue?

Why, indeed, would you WANT a separation between Church and State? Why, instead, wouldn’t you want an INFUSION of Church and State? Because you don’t want the State telling the Church what to do? It cannot. The State is a creation, and the creation cannot rule the Creator! Let the Creator have His way!

Look at the results. We’ve thrown God out of our government and then wonder why we have so many problems. I told you, the answer is really very simple. Return to the Lord Jesus Christ, call upon Him for His Leadership, surrender to Him, and expect the Blessings to return. Or not …

I love science because science proves things. The entire methodology of the ‘scientific method’ is to be absolutely certain that something is as we think it to be, and that we can prove it! Some people think science and faith have to go separate ways, because we can’t “prove” faith; that faith isn’t absolute, but metaphysical (beyond physics).
Consider, then, the word “truth.” What is truth? How can we know, or is it even possible to know for certain that something is truth.

Now consider the new “discoveries” about Pluto. Isn’t it amazing that what scientists used to tell us was “truth” about Pluto has been modified by what we learn from the satellite fly-by and wonderful pictures sent back to us. Has truth been changed, or have we learned new things? Perhaps both? If scientific truth has been changed, then it wasn’t true, so that may challenge what we say is “truth” so concretely in our science books.

The Bible tells us some interesting things, some fantastical things, that we struggle to comprehend, much less understand for our daily lives. Jesus said “I tell you the truth” at least 69 times in the Bible record, and I’m sure much more often in His real life. In John 14:6 He even goes so far as to say that He is “the truth.” That’s a definition of who Jesus Christ is. Truth. Can we prove it?

In Exodus 3:13 Moses asks God what His name is! God replies “I Am that I Am.” God simply says He is; He exists; implying, of course, that we now have to deal with that!

Perhaps even more peculiar is what John 1:1 says- that God existed BEFORE anything else, because everything has been made by God, except God, Who has been existent forever.

The point is that Truth is more than what we think “correct” is, based upon our ability to prove it! Truth is another name for Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God Almighty.

What our human cultures say is correct, as in politically correct or socially correct, is not necessarily what God wants. This is a huge problem. We are daily making choices based upon what WE want, instead of what God wants.

Think about how profoundly sad this is, because God wants for us the very best! God wants for us a life of joy and happiness beyond what we can comprehend- a life with Him!!!

I recently attended the Banks High School graduation, which was wonderful in many ways, especially for the graduates and their families. There were so many people there it was heartwarming to see all the support. But one thing really struck me: there were so many people there I didn’t know! And I’ve been a Pastor here in Banks since 1988, before these graduates were even born!

I began to ponder some questions:
Is the Church doing its job, or do people just not care?
How can so many seem to reject the community of faith right in their own home town?
Is it a lack of evangelism? Discipleship? Prayer and faithfulness?
Is it that the church is no different from the world, and yet the world offers more fun?
Are we, the followers of Christ, not attractive? Is our behavior not inviting?
Worse yet, are we driving them away somehow?
Is it OUR behavior?
Are we too judgmental? Or too permissive? Too legalistic? Or too critical?
We talk about Love, but do we do it? Can we do it?
Or are we in Banks under a spiritual attack of some kind; with a veil over us, blinding us to the truth?
Has God abandoned us? Or has He turned us over to the enemy because of our sins?
Do YOU have some questions like these?????

Fortunately, there are some answers we can read in the Bible, when we get overwhelmed like this, and perhaps question our own worth or effectiveness:

John 3:16 Tells us that God is up to something, and has made provision for us who believe, no matter what we see or how we feel about the conditions here. It is not OUR worth and value that win the day, but that of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Who saves those who believe in Him. This, I think, is pretty good news!

2 Cor 3:5 tells us that whatever we think we have to offer, if it’s any good, comes from Him, not us. The Lord is at work, and our job is to cooperate as best we can, and then trust in Him for the results. I think our pride gets in the way, and we try to measure things and define success differently than He does. When things go well we puff up and try to take credit, which of course isn’t very wise. When things go badly we suffer in our confidence and think we’re worthless or failures, which is also not very wise. In both examples we are putting ourselves in the seat of responsibility, instead of God Almighty!

The lesson, then, is to return again to a place of trust in Jesus Christ and be patient with how He works things out. Really? Really. Let faith arise, and the enemies be scattered!

If you’ve been dealing with these kinds of things, I recommend to you a review of God’s Promises!

The two quotations below came within the same week, Holy Week, and I rejoice to ponder them and learn from them, as the Holy Spirit takes me on a bit of a Camino, or journey. Perhaps you will be Blessed as well …

Palm Sunday is celebrated to remember the day Jesus triumphantly entered the City of Jerusalem, fulfilling Messianic prophecy to become, as the Baptist testified, “The Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.” For Believers in Christ today, “we should celebrate His triumphant entry into US !!!” (Anita Dugan, Dayspring Christian Fellowship)

“We live caught in the tension between the already and the not yet.” (Amanda Cronin, Operations Coordinator, Humanities and Social Sciences, Biola University)

Jesus Christ doesn’t come “into” us without purpose. His “triumph” over death, hell, and the grave is not just for the days past, as for others, but also for us, in the now. This is why WE can rejoice, because He is available to us, now, for whatever victory we need.

But we are caught between the ‘already and the not yet’! Isn’t that a great insight? What HAS happened is so wonderful, yes, but we can’t live in or upon the past. What we face right now is so dominant in our lives that the future is hard, sometimes, for us to grasp. The “not yet” seems to stifle our faith! We can weaken in spirit because of the “not yet.” Perhaps the entire concept of ‘backsliding’ is because of the “not yet,” as we give up on the Promises of God.

Don’t give up! God is not dead! His Promises are certain, because He is Faithful. We may be between the ‘already and the not yet’ but that doesn’t limit the power of Almighty God. He isn’t deterred by time. He isn’t taken off His game by the mistakes of mankind. Just think of what the Power of Forgiveness has done for you! Just think of what the Power of Forgiveness could do THROUGH you!!! Today, right now, dare to believe! Risk the step of Faith that God is calling you to take! The ‘already’ has happened, and proves God’s Love and incomprehensible ability to do whatever He wishes to do. The ‘not yet’ is about to unfold, and it will most certainly be according to His Victory In Us!!!