reconsideration of thought

cam-- thanks for making me think.

i do not want anyone to think that i am saying i am 100% right when i write things on here. i understand that i need to sometimes revisit what i've written and make sure that they make sense in their context, and that i have communicated what i wanted to effectively...and that i really am not anything short of a sinner, fallen but rescued by God's grace. i don't have all the answers, but i am trying to seek them out.

in response to Haley's question from her dad about why God doesn't stop bad things from happening...think about it. Why doesn't He? If He doesn't stop them, then He is allowing them. Although everything in this world is under His hands and provision, I don't think God CAUSES sin to happen. I don't believe that God points His finger and makes someone to go kill someone. God does not have any sin within Himself...so that can't be true.

But does God create a person knowing that they will, sometime in their life, murder someone? Is that something God instills within the person from the beginning, or predestines them to do?

Or, do they end up murdering someone because of the influence of this fallen world, and so it's like God knows that person will be influenced in such a way that the person will end up murdering in their life?...

there is a reason why God hardened the heart of Pharoah in ancient Egypt and had His chosen people, the Israelites, suffering in captivity and slavery. It didn't make sense at the time, did it? It doesn't make sense now. Why would God purposely create someone whose heart would be hardened? Was Pharoah doomed from birth? Or was he simply affected by the society and influences around him? I bet the Israelites as well were crying out to God to stop their suffering from happening. But God had a plan, and knew that their suffering in slavery would come to and end soon in His own timing, through Moses's direction. So was Pharoah's purpose in life predestined by God to live, be Pharoah during that time period, oppress the Israelites, be plagued and have his son killed and be washed away in the ocean, and never know or have belief in God, all to show God's wrath and power if you do not believe or coincide with His will and plan? Or did Pharoah ever really have a choice TO believe or coincide with His will and plan?

And how much was God glorified through that event in history?

Ok, so think about this. A man walking down the street kidnaps a girl and rapes her. Where was God in that? we ask. But He, giving us humanity and a free will, is at least a witness to all the bad things that happen that we do as humans. Did He plan that though? Did He ultimately know and predestine that man to rape that girl from birth? HOW IS HE GLORIFIED in that situation? That's where it all lies. God exists to glorify Himself...and we exist to glorify Him...

the classic predestination/free will debate. when i think of our lives on earth as human beings, we have the ability to make choices everyday, and there is a moral right/wrong or good/bad to each choice. "i dont want to do my homework, so i'm not." well, that's a decision i just made, instead of reading i'm typing on the blog. do i think God knew i was going to make that decision at 3:39pm on 9/15/09? yes...i do. did i know or have any idea that i would make that decision today? no. did i know or have any idea that God knew i would make that decision today? no. as humans, we continue to live and make choices and have a free will of sorts to do things, but i believe that God ultimately knows we are going to do everything that we do, knows the words on our lips before we say them, knows our rising and sitting down (psalm 139). but we can't sit around being inactive or not living our lives or making choices because we are waiting around for it to happen...does that make sense?

or do only the decisions affecting our moralistic values really matter in God's plan for us? like, God doesn't really care if I order a vanilla coke or a cherry limeade, does He? i mean, that seems like a simple decision that does not require God's hand. but i think He knew i was going to all along. because He's God and He is all-knowing, all encompassing. But what about a moral decision, like deciding to watch porn online? is that just an outpouring of a human's sinful nature and free will, or did God plan for that to happen?.....so that eventually it would be revealed to that person that it is in fact sinful and repent it to God and ask for forgiveness, and see that GOD is the better way? ...but what if they don't know God and don't care if it's wrong? what if they never stop doing it? how is God glorified in that? will it be at the end of it all when that person who does not know God will never know God and has to endure His wrath at the final judgment? and then God's power and might and rule over all things will be shown?

or is it mainly in the matter of who is going to receive salvation from God and who isn't that is the heat of the predest/free will debate? because i know where i stand on that, i know what i believe regarding salvation. i believe that we have nothing within our broken, fallen selves to even begin to choose Him, because we are sinful beings and we are depraved, nothing within us to even begin to choose the cross voluntarily without God's spirit filling us up and entering into us and His grace shed down on us first. i know people are going to disagree, but there is just too much scriptural evidence to back that up. election/chosen/predestination is mentioned over 200 times in the Bible. Romans 8 and 9, John 1, Ephesians 1:11.....so on and so forth.

ugh. my mind is seriously going going going. i know i have asked a lot of questions and didn't really write a lot of deep answers, breanna and haley and cam. but i am definitely revisting my current posting now and i think there might be a different answer, haley.