[Dr. Eckleburg]

The God of the Bible equips His people with "all power in heaven and on earth" to storm the gates of Hell, and to "win for the Lamb the reward of His suffering," the world that God so loved.

AMEN! I believe that 100%. The Gospel does not fail in this life. The Gospel triumphs.

A corollary to this fact is that Christ told us to be "wise as serpents" for we are in the midst of wolves whose hearts are filled with deceit and evil intent.

The redeemed are more blessed than they can ever know in this life, while the reprobates are so much worse than anyone can imagine. There are men who truly love death. And most people, being raised according to a simplistic and fallacious free will Arminianism, can't wrap their mind around that fact. Instead they believe everyone is basically good and their motives obvious.

Nothing is further from the truth.

As Christ warned us, some men "loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

They don't just "like" the darkness. They "love" it.

From my perspective, life is a 3-D adventure tale filled with twists, turns, subplots, intrigue, joy, frustration, fear, assurance and an inevitable and triumphant happy ending.

It's all God's world, for His glory. What will be, will be. And within the sovereign will and purpose of God is the protection and redemption of Christ's sheep.

Certainly worth the price of the ticket, paid for in full by Christ alone.

[Quix]

Your Biblical points do not wash away the horrific dastardly outrageous UNBiblical falsehoods of the post responded to.

Folks holding to that perspective are cautioned that such a perspective will increasingly be OUTSIDE THE CAMP

of God’s Spirit, Will and Life.

[ShadowAce]

And most people, being raised according to a simplistic and fallacious free will Arminianism, ...

Define sin, please.

[RJR_fan]

From my perspective, life is a 3-D adventure tale filled with twists, turns, subplots, intrigue, joy, frustration, fear, assurance and an inevitable and triumphant happy ending.

Gary Gygax, the guy who invented Dungeons and Dragons, became a believer in God, and perhaps even a Christian, during the last part of his life, for just this reason. He came to see that life, itself, is an epic quest, one bearing the evident marks of design, the fingerprints of a Designer.

• The fortune-tellers try to keep God at arm's length by looking for His patterns in their imaginary maps of hideous futures.
• Those who truly love their Designer and Redeemer rejoice to see the patterns of His will in their own lives and families.

If I can but seek to know, and energetically pursue, His will for my life, I can let Him worry about the details of the big picture.

The Turkish verb seyretmek applies to spectator events, things you passively sit back and watch.

• For the fortune-tellers, the epic is Out There, and is something we watch.
• For the godly, those who, in obedience to His Word, eschew fortune-telling, the epic tale of the Kingdom -- at least, my part of it, the one part I'm responsible for -- is right here, right now.

Minding my own business well takes all the wisdom zest, zeal, and passion I can bring to the task.

But, I still pray Psalm 2:8, and sing "O for a thousand Turks to sing, my Great Redeemer's praise." I believe God has opportunities for those who look to Him in faith, with glad expectation. The one thing I do know about the future -- God will give those who love Him "the desires of their heart" -- through creative and ingenious paths we never could have predicted.