Study Romans 9-11. It touches on the topic on God's sovereignty over us.
These chapters speaks of God's very right of Lordship over us. So since He, the potter, created us, we, the clay, have no right over who we are and what we will become.
Election is mentioned several times over these few chapters. Election! God choosing who to be saved! Fear not the exclaimation marks, but listen to these excerpt on the matter of God's election from 'The Lion Handbook to The Bible" (it's a real book, i'm not joking.)
"In Roman 9 and 11 we have perhaps the most forthright treatment of this subject in the whole Bible. Paul's starting-point is that no one has any claim to God's mercy. He shows how God in his love has chosen certain individuals down the ages to play a special role in His purpose for the world (9:6-13). And he emphasises the wideness of God's mercy (11:28-32) . God the Creator has the right to choose, and we have no right at all to question his choice or doubt his justice.
...Paul talks about God hardening men's hearts, but in every instance there are people who have deliberately refused to listen to Him... It may be beyond our understanding how both of them (God's election and men's freedom) can operate simultaneously.... God is outside time, we cannot imagine anything beyond our limited range of understanding. So we can only take God's word for it, and hold on to both God's sovereignty and man's freedom to choose - not try to find a compromise between them."
Again, study Romans 9-11, see what conclusions you can find. Remember that faith is believing in things that you cannot see, and how true, where our limited wisdom may fail, a firm faith will provide a sense of peace.
Hope I provided a source of answer. There's still many question marks around my head on this issue. But if we are still perplexed, remember we have 3 pastors... haha.
On a side note, we must assemble a group of dinosaur hunters to flush out and destroy all the Psycho dinosaurs still prowling around. A dire threat, it is.
These chapters speaks of God's very right of Lordship over us. So since He, the potter, created us, we, the clay, have no right over who we are and what we will become.
Election is mentioned several times over these few chapters. Election! God choosing who to be saved! Fear not the exclaimation marks, but listen to these excerpt on the matter of God's election from 'The Lion Handbook to The Bible" (it's a real book, i'm not joking.)
"In Roman 9 and 11 we have perhaps the most forthright treatment of this subject in the whole Bible. Paul's starting-point is that no one has any claim to God's mercy. He shows how God in his love has chosen certain individuals down the ages to play a special role in His purpose for the world (9:6-13). And he emphasises the wideness of God's mercy (11:28-32) . God the Creator has the right to choose, and we have no right at all to question his choice or doubt his justice.
...Paul talks about God hardening men's hearts, but in every instance there are people who have deliberately refused to listen to Him... It may be beyond our understanding how both of them (God's election and men's freedom) can operate simultaneously.... God is outside time, we cannot imagine anything beyond our limited range of understanding. So we can only take God's word for it, and hold on to both God's sovereignty and man's freedom to choose - not try to find a compromise between them."
Again, study Romans 9-11, see what conclusions you can find. Remember that faith is believing in things that you cannot see, and how true, where our limited wisdom may fail, a firm faith will provide a sense of peace.
Hope I provided a source of answer. There's still many question marks around my head on this issue. But if we are still perplexed, remember we have 3 pastors... haha.
On a side note, we must assemble a group of dinosaur hunters to flush out and destroy all the Psycho dinosaurs still prowling around. A dire threat, it is.
pete the great found himself/herself@ 3:06 AM