VIRB

Everything we do has consequences. The debate over free will versus pre-destination has raged in the church since before there was a church. Do we have a choice? Is everything already set in stone and we just live it out with a mere illusion of freedom? The Gospel of Christ is full of freedom, and responsibility, in the choices we make but it is also filled with reference to GOD's ultimate authority and the predestination of the elect. I can debate all day on predestination. I firmly believe, and can show proofs through scripture as well as arguments from temporal theory, that GOD created the universe whole and complete from beginning to end. Everything down to a blade of grass growing out of the sidewalk is following the plan GOD laid out from before creation. I am a diehard predestinationist. So what is choice, and where does responsibility come in if everything is already decided for us and we just follow the path?

Our freedom, and our choice is in ourselves and how we chose to walk. GOD leads us whether we follow joyfully or he drags us kicking and screaming. GOD's plan continues and nothing can stop it because it is already set. Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the universe. Long before man's fall or even his creation. We all have a destiny, and we complete that destiny in GODs time. Choice comes in the little things, and to us the little things matter a lot, but in the grand scheme nothing we chose changes GOD's plan. If I suffer lose in my life it is my choice to suffer the curse or accept the blessing. My choice how I react to it. But it is what it is, destiny. At this moment in time I may see it as the worse thing that could ever happen to me and fall into despair. Ten years form now I may look back and see where it has led me and count it as a blessing.  The event has not changed, nor has GOD's plan, only my point of view. We react to things in our life and choose to suffer them or rejoice in them but in reality time moves on and we continue down the path GOD has set for us.

Our blessed assurance in all this powerless moving through our destiny is that GOD has a plan, and it is for our good, even when we don't see that through the tears. At our deepest sorrow we can look up and say GOD is in control and he will deliver us. At our greatest success we can be humble and know GOD brought us there. So if all is destiny, and we simply move through it, why even care? The plan will be realized and completed without any effort on our part. Just go with the flow and wait to die. Maybe that is your destiny and that is sad, but we move through this world with freedoms and responsibilities and we are affected by our choices along the way.

We have the power in this world to lift up others or destroy them. Our destiny may be set but our freedom lies in ourselves. We choose who we help and who we hurt, how we react to life's up and downs. It sculpts us and molds our souls HOW we complete our "race", as Paul called it. We all heard the saying growing up 'its not whether you win or lose but how you play the game', that is our freedom of choice. It lies in how we play the game. Our choices effect our soul, the only REAL part of us. The rest was formed of the dust and returns there but what is real is the spirit within us.

GOD has created us and given us a perfect destiny that will, in time, perfect our souls. We chose to embrace that destiny, whatever it brings, and willingly succumb to the potters gentle hands. The course of time marches on, as does GOD's plan and our destiny, but we choose whether it effects us for good or ill. The potter has perfect skill, the wheel moves at the perfect speed, our choice is to allow ourselves to be molded in HIS image or fight against HIS hand, stiffening our souls until they are useless.  Our choice lies in things immortal not in things temporal. We choose to be the 'Sons of GOD' or to allow life to destroy us.

Its our Choice, our Destiny.

View original post >>