Posted on 12/08/2023 1:38:20 AM PST by spirited irish
Arguably one of the greatest errors we can fall into when it comes to understanding grace is that ‘It’s all about me and all about now’. This attitude has reached epidemic proportions in Western churches and may well explain our relative lack of resilience and usefulness compared to other parts of the world. Such a view of grace is, however, not only far-removed from what has been true in the church through most of its history, but from the Bible itself. In a way that may seem surprising, Scripture indicates that there is a dimension of grace that we will only discover and experience in the world to come.
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotandliberty.com ...
ping
It seems that God's goal is to return humans to our pre-fallen state. And whatever that is (and it is hard to imagine), it's very exciting.
Well done
Beautifully, truly expressed
Our hope in Glory!
Yes, and it is exciting! One of the early Church Fathers (whose name I can't recall right now) said God will indeed restore us to our pre-fallen state, thus we will once again possess incredible powers, of mind (reasoning will be perfected) and abilities.
There’s nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.
Very exciting indeed.
It'll be pure hell when they realize what they missed out on by ignoring God.
It is my firm belief that even if God descended from Heaven in front of most of them they would still rebel and question his decisions.
You either trust in and will obey God, or you won’t. The whole debate over whether he exists is just a straw man.
I truly pity them. They had the choice, as we all do, but said no to our Lord's offer. So what is left for them but outer darkness.
I don't know if non-believers would change their decision at that point even if they could, but I think they will be surprised at what they missed out on.
BTW, I put "so-called non-believers" above in quotes because, as I think you suggested, it's not that they doubt his existence. It's that they don't want to obey.
I worry because I have family and friends who are headed there. I pray and pray and pray. But of course, God gives them free will.
I have heard something to the effect of *Getting old is God’s way of keeping us from wanting to live here on earth forever.*
I never thought of it that way. Those they most despise being honored by GOD with what those in hell wanted and wished they had and worked for all their earthly lives.
I wonder, sometimes, if part of the torment of hell is realizing what they rejected here on earth and were given multiple opportunities to avail themselves of and that they missed out on it after all.
And it works.;-)
It sure does.....
To paraphrase some believer on the radio somewhere from the past:
Not about me, it’s about Him
Not about here, it’s about His Kingdom
Not about now, it’s about spending Eternity with Him in His Kingdom
No clue who it was or where they got it from,but it’s a nice way to take one’s temperature on how much our selfish human nature is ‘winning’ against the selflessness state of a Grace filled believer.
Understanding why our choice is necessary may be beyond our comprehension at this point, but that is how it is.
As a side note, God, being omniscient, surely knew that man would fall. Perhaps that is part of what he is trying to tell us in Genesis 6. Our genetic code was tainted. The genetic code of some people was tainted beyond repair.
Though the Bible is a factual history, it is also a code that will be understood by the Elect and completely misunderstood by everyone else. It is a code that had to be relevant only to the Elect from Eden until the End of Days. As Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice."
It seems that real life hasn't yet begun. It won't begin until we are restored to the Kingdom.
Until then, we are in this crazy kind of boot camp. And those who love Righteousness (i.e., God) are being prepared--groomed--for graduation to the Kingdom.
As a professor of mine once said, "Though you may disagree, college isn't real life. Real life begins when you graduate. So work hard while you are here. Prepare for graduation and don't get side-tracked by silly pleasures. You won't regret it."
Thank-you for sharing!
The moral of this story is: Trust in the Lord.
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