He really cares about you, and what you opt to do with your future in relationship with His Son.
In this life we’re daily faced with hundreds if not thousands of big, medium and small choices. Some of them are kind of challenging for me, and I need to ask questions and take a little bit of time.
We can life. We can choose to sow to the Spirit in believing prayer, in fellowshipping with God first and then believers like a healthy church, as well as sowing to the Spirit in the Bible daily. You know, in wholeheartedly seeking the Lord as well as in sharing our faith with both saints and sinners .. or we can just choose do other things with our time. We are all free to choose. I love the liberty!
In this life we’re daily faced with hundreds if not thousands of big, medium and small choices. Some of them are kind of challenging for me, and I need to ask questions and take a little bit of time.
We can life. We can choose to sow to the Spirit in believing prayer, in fellowshipping with God first and then believers like a healthy church, as well as sowing to the Spirit in the Bible daily. You know, in wholeheartedly seeking the Lord as well as in sharing our faith with both saints and sinners .. or we can just choose do other things with our time. We are all free to choose. I love the liberty!
We can choose to listen to God, we can choose to do what God tells us to do in his Word.. and in the way He wants us to do it. We can choose to disregard our local church time or personal Bible and prayer time. But when we make the right choices (again, they’re not always easy to make) and choose to do what the Lord tells us to do, guess what.. He will indeed bless us. In fact He delights to bless His kids who obey His word. He even longs to bless you!
Every choice matters -- ask for wisdom and guidance. Read more verses in their context...
Real life is about choices -- the right ones. You've heard this.. we make our decisions, and then our decisions make us. But it's Christ who can forgive and make us totally regenerated (alive) inside. There is a time for those, and a time when many of those are no more. You remember in the Bible when God spoke through Moses his servant saying, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV).
Wait.. do human beings really have a free will that's truly F R E E? If “free will” means that God gives humans the opportunity to make choices that genuinely affect their destiny, then yes, human beings do have a free will. The world’s current sinful state is directly linked to choices made by Adam and Eve. God created mankind in His own image, and that included the ability to choose.
However, free will does not mean that mankind can do anything he pleases. Our choices are limited to what is in keeping with our nature. For example, a man may choose to walk across a bridge or not to walk across it; what he may not choose is to fly over the bridge—his nature prevents him from flying. In a similar way, a man cannot choose to make himself righteous—his (sin) nature prevents him from canceling his guilt (Romans 3:23). So, free will is limited by nature.
This limitation does not mitigate our accountability. The Bible is clear that we not only have the ability to choose, we also have the responsibility to choose wisely. In the Old Testament, God chose a nation (Israel), but individuals within that nation still bore an obligation to choose obedience to God. And individuals outside of Israel were able to choose to believe and follow God as well (e.g., Ruth and Rahab).
In the New Testament, sinners are commanded over and over to “repent” and “believe” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Acts 3:19; 1 John 3:23). Every call to repent is a call to choose. The command to believe assumes that the hearer can choose to obey the command.
Jesus identified the problem of some unbelievers when He told them, “You refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). Clearly, they could have come if they wanted to; their problem was they chose not to. “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7), and those who are outside of salvation are “without excuse” (Romans 1:20-21).
But how can man, limited by a sin nature, ever choose what is good? It is only through the grace and power of God that free will truly becomes “free” in the sense of being able to choose salvation (John 15:16). It is the Holy Spirit who works in and through a person’s will to regenerate that person (John 1:12-13) and give him/her a new nature “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). Salvation is God’s work. At the same time, our motives, desires, and actions are voluntary, and we are rightly held responsible for them.
However, free will does not mean that mankind can do anything he pleases. Our choices are limited to what is in keeping with our nature. For example, a man may choose to walk across a bridge or not to walk across it; what he may not choose is to fly over the bridge—his nature prevents him from flying. In a similar way, a man cannot choose to make himself righteous—his (sin) nature prevents him from canceling his guilt (Romans 3:23). So, free will is limited by nature.
This limitation does not mitigate our accountability. The Bible is clear that we not only have the ability to choose, we also have the responsibility to choose wisely. In the Old Testament, God chose a nation (Israel), but individuals within that nation still bore an obligation to choose obedience to God. And individuals outside of Israel were able to choose to believe and follow God as well (e.g., Ruth and Rahab).
In the New Testament, sinners are commanded over and over to “repent” and “believe” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Acts 3:19; 1 John 3:23). Every call to repent is a call to choose. The command to believe assumes that the hearer can choose to obey the command.
Jesus identified the problem of some unbelievers when He told them, “You refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). Clearly, they could have come if they wanted to; their problem was they chose not to. “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7), and those who are outside of salvation are “without excuse” (Romans 1:20-21).
But how can man, limited by a sin nature, ever choose what is good? It is only through the grace and power of God that free will truly becomes “free” in the sense of being able to choose salvation (John 15:16). It is the Holy Spirit who works in and through a person’s will to regenerate that person (John 1:12-13) and give him/her a new nature “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). Salvation is God’s work. At the same time, our motives, desires, and actions are voluntary, and we are rightly held responsible for them.
Lots of people put it off. Some people decide not to decide..which is to decide. But you can choose life today -- you can choose Jesus Christ right now.
Recommended Resource: Chosen But Free, revised edition: A Balanced View of God's Sovereignty and Free Will by Norm Geisler and The Potter's Freedom by James White
Recommended Resource: Chosen But Free, revised edition: A Balanced View of God's Sovereignty and Free Will by Norm Geisler and The Potter's Freedom by James White
