"Free Will"...Part 4 of 4...Thursday

8/7/14

If you would like to reread Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series here are the links...Please copy and paste them into your browser

1. http://paintgodintoyourday.blogspot.com/2014/07/free-willpart-1-of-4.html
2. http://paintgodintoyourday.blogspot.com/2014/07/free-willpart-2-of-4thursday.html 
3. http://paintgodintoyourday.blogspot.com/2014/07/free-will-part-3-of-4thursday.html
   
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God is not actually sovereign in the sense that he can do everything. There are things God himself cannot do! He cannot change. He cannot lie. He cannot alter the word that has gone forth from his lips. He has exalted his word above his name. God is literally bound by his promises. For God to refuse to keep just one promise to one person who has met its conditions would give Satan the right to order God to leave his throne.

God has bound himself to honor" by whose stripes you were healed." He has bound himself to honor "I am the Lord your Physician." He has bound himself to "forgive all your sins and heal all your diseases." God is no longer "sovereign" in such matters because he cannot break his promises. This is the main point that the "sovereignty" crowd misses.

"The heaven, even the heavens, 
are the LORD's: 

but the earth hath 
he given to the children of men." 

Psalm 115:16. 

(That is in the same 
Psalm whose third verse
is part of this objection!) 

Man has authority here. 

This idea bothers people because it's easier not to pray and just think that God will run everything the way he wants. I have even had barrages of Scripture quoted at me that supposedly indicate that God can do, and does do, whatever he wants in the earth. While his ultimate will (the judgments of Revelation, the renewal of the earth, the Millennium, etc.) will be done regardless of men's wishes, many aspects of this present life have been left to man. This is why God does not stop the abortions and other murders, wars, corruption in government, and so on. If God truly does his will in the minutest details on earth, he is sadistic, allowing women to be battered, children to be abandoned, and men to become slaves of lust and chemicals. No, God gives man free will to choose good or evil.

You cannot blame your cold on God's sovereign will.
 Besides, if you think it's God's will, 
quit taking that medicine to get out of his will,
and just suffer your "sovereignly sent" sickness.

Written by 

Kathryn Hanson

"Soar With Gratitude In Your Hearts"...Wednesday

8/6/13

                                            Let Him take you to deeper places with Him!

It says in Psalm 100:4

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."

Having a grateful heart plays a major role in entering into the Lord's presence. The Lord is ecstatic when His people come to Him with open arms and huge hearts of gratitude. Praise, singing and gladness are also an extremely important part of entering into His throne room.

It truly is amazing when we begin to thank our Lord from the depths of our hearts for all that He has given us and the sacrifice He made for us. Our hearts swell and are overcome with God's all-consuming love for us as we enter into His glorious presence.

I encourage you every day that you would soar with gratitude in your heart like never before and let Him take you to deeper places with Him!

In His Outrageous Love,

Sandy Billingham

Being Gracious...Tuesday

8/5/14

Sometimes when I write a devotional, a topic will easily come to mind. The words flow like a mountain stream in the spring time. Before I know it I’ve filled a page and I have to stop myself before I end up writing a novel.  Other times, I struggle with what to write about. I can sit for an hour before a topic even comes to mind. Then there are days when a thought hits me out of the blue and I know in my heart few words need to be said to get a message across. This week I experienced one of those times.

I happened to be playing around with YouTube, checking out different devotional songs, when I came across a young man who I was not familiar with until now. His name is Straalen McCallum. I believe that he is from Australia, but his ethnicity is Dutch. The name Straalen means sunbeam in Dutch, and it sure does fit him. He radiates God’s love. Although Straalen is in his late teens now, the YouTube clips I was watching and listening to showed Straalen when he was between 9-13 years of age. This young man has amazing talent and I pray he always uses it to glorify the Lord.

What I got from viewing the YouTube clips was Straalen’s gentleness. In the interview provided below he talks about the importance of grace and being gracious. He also mentions the importance of having faith, faith in yourself, faith in your family, and faith in others. The only thing I can add to that is the importance of having faith in God.

We need to be more gracious and thankful for what we have, even in the midst of our trials and tribulations. If you ever want to have a better understanding about how blessed you are, check out clips on YouTube about natural disasters, go and visit a cancer center or a homeless shelter. Perhaps you have an understanding of what it is like to lose someone to cancer or maybe you are battling cancer yourself. Maybe you've tasted what it is like to be homeless or you have survived a natural disaster. Well, thank the Lord that He walked you through it. Thank Him that He is holding your hand. Still struggling with the memories, the pain? Cry out to Jesus. As Straalen McCallum sings, “Sometimes a prayer will do”.

1 John 5: 14 says,
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, 

that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

I believe that simply by watching this young man sing, you will receive something that will inspire you, bless you, and speak to you in some way. 

Please, take the time to look at all the links provided.

Written by

Storm Hendrickson

Straalen talks about his album

It's so Hard....Monday

8/4/14

So many things fill our days. Things to get done, work to be finished, emails to be answered, bills to be paid, Solomon had observed the busyness of man when he declared:

I have seen the painful labor and exertion and miserable business 
which God has given to the sons of men with which 
to exercise and busy themselves. 
Ecclesiastes 3:10 AMP

Just when I think that all of the hard work, unending responsibilities, and due diligence will never be completed, I am reminded: 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy]      Ecclesiastes 3: 11a AMP

I don't have a fabulous career. I am not 'living the dream' of my teenage imagination. My family doesn't have it all together. We try to keep it all together but we use a lot of duct tape! Sometimes I feel like I am in a speeding car and even though my hands are on the steering wheel, the road keeps changing, and I am going in a direction I did not anticipate. But in the midst of it all, God's Word says:

I know that there is nothing better for them 
than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live; 
And also that every man  should eat and drink 
and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God. 
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 AMP

Dear Father, thank You for designing us for work and for creating in us a desire to find Your purpose in our lives. Please help us to remember that every good and perfect gift is from You. Every bite that we eat, the clothes we wear, and the company of friends are ultimately from You delivered to us by Your design. Please help us to be grateful for the work You have given us. In Jesus name, amen.

Written by Mary M. Wilkins

FAMILIES... Sunday

Devotional for 8/3/14

We all belong to families.  We have our biological families.  But we also belong to groups of people we can call families but who are not actually related to us.  Sometimes we choose special people in our lives to be included in our families.  Some families are formed by surrogates actively chosen or others who have been adopted.  Support groups can be considered another type of family.  There are church families, both in local churches or groups as well as in larger categories, denominations, etc.  Sometimes families formed through friendships feel even closer than biological families. 

No family is perfect.  Some families just have small spats now and then which blow over quickly.  Other families have major divisions, or sometimes people cut themselves off from the rest of their family, or some families even disown a member of their own.   There may be some with poor personal boundaries, manipulative behaviors, or abusive relationships.  These things can happen in biological families or in the other groups we call families.  As human beings, we are all a part of dysfunctional families.

Our biggest and best family is the family of God.  We have all been chosen by God to be a part of his intimate family.  Adam and Eve were the first family, created by God.  Then sin entered the world with their disobedience to God's commands.  This caused a complete break in the relationship with God - major dysfunction!  But God forgave them and provided a bridge over that divide through the promise to send a Savior.  He does the same every day for all of us.  He forgives our disobedience and restores our family relationship with him through his son, Jesus Christ. 

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.  Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.  Hebrews 2:11 (NIV)

written by Jan Andersen

Cutting off the Split Ends...Friday

August 1, 2014 

I got quite a dramatic haircut change yesterday.  I just decided that I needed to go short, at least for the remainder of the hot weather; being a woman my age the hot flashes have been quite often and unpleasant.  If I can at least make them a little more tolerable I am all for it.  So, I bit the bullet and paid the price to go to a darling young lady near work.  I loved her, and I love my new hair style.  First of all it is off the back of my neck, and the next amazing bonus is that it is so easy and fun!  Yay, all the way around!!

As I was watching my hair that had been cut being swept away with the broom, it sparked an analogy in my head about how we need to cut off the brittle split ends of our lives, how hanging on to the brokenness in our hearts causes us to feel lonely, sad, brittle and broken ourselves.  I know that I hang onto ugly things for way too long.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander 

be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, 

tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:31-32

 (ESV)

So, as my old split end hairs are being swept away, I am thinking that I need to do the same with my internal split ends that have been dragging down my heart.  My hair now feels so much lighter and freer and perky.  Not being flat and sad.  It has a new start to be free of the ends that were pulling it in the wrong direction, lugging me down with it, making me feel like I am really a bummer with no bounce to it.  Well, my beloved readers, I can do the same with my split up heart.  I can’t take scissors and a razor to cut them off, but I can do something much easier and that is that I can give my heart to Jesus.  He has already and will continue to heal all those split ends and brittle chunks of hurt caused from this broken world.  After I give my brittleness to God, I now walk with a sweet little bounce, sure, I have clumsy slips along the way, and may even have a fall or two, but, He will never leave my side, and He will even carry me if necessary.  Thank you for that, my heavenly Father, thank you for giving me a new style that I can be proud of and wear with happiness! 

Written by 

Kelly Dobyns

NEVER DISAPPOINTED..Saturday

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."
 Hebrews 10:23

     It is impossible to make it thorough life without some disappointments.  People disappoint us, circumstances disappoint us, broken promises disappoint us.

     There is One person who will, however, never disappoint us.  That is God.  What we must learn to do is seek God.  He is in control of every situation in the world and in our lives.  He has already been in the future and so can be trusted to walk with us into it.  We must learn to not give up but look to God with the eyes of faith.  

     

In this broken world with broken people, God alone is our hope, our light, and our salvation.  His love for us in His Son, Jesus, has proven this.  He has never broken a promise.  He alone is faithful.

     Want to count on something in this world?  Cling to the cross of Jesus Christ and God's amazing grace.

Written by 

Carol  Steficek