Subject: Thoughts on Romans 9 |
Bible Note: Brother Curt: I had a much longer reply, however every time I try to go back from preview, my entire post is lost. I agree totally with you....but? I also agree that God desires us to search into his greatness that we might know him better. On the other hand we are not surprised when we find some things difficult to understand. Your example of Saul of Tarsus illustrates how that God will bring those who appear to be disobedient to his call to their kness, asking for forgivenness. If Paul would have made his own decision and if the Lord had not brought him down, he would have continued on with his religious zeal and without Christ. In Isaiah 53 we read "there is nothing in him, that we should desire him". In the post that I lost, I went over my experience with God. I will give you the short version. There was nothing inherently in me or my family that would endear us to God. I only knew the name of Jesus and of God as words to use in vain. I knew nothing of church or religion. My father who was 35 at the time was doing well at farming and yet within he felt an emptiness and a void. One day by chance (NOT) an old man visited us and told us he was having gospel meetings in a hall would we attend. My dad said, maybe, meaning no. The next day the preacher went down into the cow stable to talk to my dad and invited him again. This time he went and in a few weeks he was gloriously saved. This is how the good news came to me and my 4 siblings. I believed the messsage which my dad gave us and yet I could not understand it. I even tried believing on Christ and found that even though I thought I believed, I was not saved. One day on the way home from school, kneeling on a snowbank at the end of my laneway, I cried out to God in my need "I can't get saved, please help me!" And there alone as I thought of the words of John 3:16 I came to realize that Jesus had died for me. I rested on him and his promise that "I would not perish, but have everlasing life. My understanding was limited, but my joy was real and over the years God has continued to reveal to me what it was that I really came into "in Christ". In retrospect, I believe it was the Spirit of God who sent the messenger to our home and persisted with my father. In my own case it was God who placed me in a family where I would hear his word. It was God who worked within my heart and showed me my need and finally it was God who revealled the truth of his word to me. However, if I am preaching the gospel, I preach to the whosoever will! Paul says that one plants and another waters, but it is God that gives the increase. Praise his precious name. Robert |