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With God all things are possible
Duane:
In re-reading Oatmeals response to the guidelines of marriage and re-marriage, the answer came to me in a quiet moment. The question is: How can God bless a second marriage and bring happiness to a union that He can technically call "adulterous"?
The answer is: That our lives are planned before we are created and any choices we make
aren't really choices at all but merely the carrying out of our destiny. We don't have free will.
So God has a right to condemn His own choices for us--a odd as it sounds--and He can bless any union He has fore-planned in our past and future.
Kat:
Hi Duane,
--- Quote ---That our lives are planned before we are created and any choices we make
aren't really choices at all but merely the carrying out of our destiny. We don't have free will.
--- End quote ---
Your statement is not what Ray has been teaching concerning humans ability to choose. Here are a couple of emails to help you understand and the recent Biblestudy on Free Will (at this link http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,12957.0.html ) would be a big help as well.
http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,2368.0.html ------
We DO make all our own choices, it's just that we do not make them independent of the Sovereignty of God. A child can pay his own way into a movie theather--with his FATHER'S money.
Yes, God has determined our choices and He has determine the outcome of everything. That is how He knows all will be well with all.
You do have choices and you do make your choices. You have a choice between apple pie for dessert or cherry pie for dessert. It is YOUR CHOICE. You can and will choose the one that YOU PREFER. God does not force or make you choose the cherry when you really want the apple. Have you EVER had such a thing happen to you? Of course not. Well, then, you DO make your own choices and you choose what YOU prefer. This is not as hard as we make it. But of course you cannot choose the apple if God has predetermined that you will choose the cherry. But that's okay, because you will not WANT the apple if God has predetermined that you must choose the cherry.
http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,1744.0.html ---------
I understand that these things are "spiritually discerned," and that people frustrate themselves over trying to understand spiritual things with a carnal mind. When a man rapes a little girl, IT ASSUREDLY IS NOT GOD! When one prays to be rich and famous, IT ASSUREDLY IS NOT GOD! ALL IS OF GOD, but not is all of God directly. God created man--man SINS, God if free from sin and never sins or MAKES OR FORCES anyone to sin. Neither does He FORCE people to be rich or famous. God created man and man chooses what he does based on the strongest motivation in his heart.
And most people's heart consists of lust, lies, blasphemy and the like.
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of HIS OWN LUSTS [whether for bad and evil things or for for what we may perceive as good things which may not be good or righteous things], and enticed" (James 1:13-14).
Man has the ability to make choices. He does not have the ability to make choices that are free from any cause. The "cause" of most of our choices is our mind and heart. And of the abundance of our heart, our mind thinks, our tongue speaks, and in our body we take physical action. Only God can give us a "new" and pure heart.
God be with you,
Ray
Duane:
Kat and ALL the moderators...thank you once again for correcting my faulty thinking. Also,
for the studies all ready written on various topics. I like to turn them into "hard copy" so I
can carry them with me to appointments and things and also write in the margins. In fact, having Ray's materials with me at my last appointment is how "I" was able to lead another person to this web-site and explain things he was asking about. (Maybe this idea will help you.) God works in mysterious ways!
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