studying_His_Word

We are not immune to drifting away from the gospel when we are not living our life fully for Christ, when we are holding on to a cherished sin or unable to release an idol in our lives. So many times, we in this great country of ours, are drawn into the seduction of materialism or the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. These things often lead us to drift away from our Lord and Savior. Loads of our time is spent at work, pursuing pleasures, searching for self satisfaction - instead of communing with God in prayer, serving others and seeking His will for our lives by spending time in His word. We can resist this tendency to drift by taking the full responsibility for what we have heard about our Lord and Savior, by fully occupying ourselves with what we've heard, paying attention to or taking heed of these things we've heard. Jesus described drifting in the parable of the sower whereby His word either falls on soil that is too hard (a hardened heart), or rocky, shallow soil where the seed cannot take root (spiritually immature, fleshly minded - pursuit of pleasures & avoidance of pain is most important), or good soil yet full of weeds which choked out the seed (a church goer who loves God but is pre-occupied with earthly things).

What is scary about predestination is that we are NOT in control. What is comforting about predestination is that we are NOT in control!! Truly, to know that God is at the wheel sure gives me a sigh of relief, it takes the pressure off to know that I don't need to spin my wheels trying to make things work out as I think they should - for God has THE plan - the ONLY plan that works for all of us! It may be that Paul is bringing up predestination to provide encouragement to the Ephesian Church as being part of God's plan.

To be "in Christ" is to be reconciled to my heavenly Father with the promise of eternal life. The implications to my life are significant. I am a single mother with 2 teenage girls. My youngest daughter who is 16, was diagnosed with an eating disorder a year ago - anorexia. She has been hospitalized 3 times in the past year and is currently in residential treatment, and will be there for 60 days. Many people ask how I am able to stay so strong, knowing that I am the sole financial provider for my family and that I have no other family close by. I tell them it is by God's grace. You see, being in Christ has kept me sane for He has shown me what is important in this life. Longsuffering is spiritual fruit. Christ's life was far from comfortable, easy, problem free. And his last days were filled with brutal, raw suffering. Why? To save us from the evils of this world, to reconcile us to our Father in heaven. To give us eternal life with Him! He loves us that much. In Christ I see my family's circumstances more than pain and misery; I see my family's circumstances as a prime opportunity to serve God by serving my daughter with unconditional love, kindness, and understanding. Praise God.