Our Bible study group at church is reading through Romans and it has been awesome.  A few weeks ago we hit one of the doozy chapters in Romans 9 and had some great discussion. How does predestination fit into simple religion?  How can I find God and see God in this complicated passage.

If you are new here to Loving Simple Living (Welcome, so glad you are here!) there are several different topics that I write about that fit under Simple Living and Minimalism.  I want to live intentionally, simply, and on purpose in all areas of my life.  I am a Christian and want that to be an intentional part of who I am instead of just a group I am part of.

So, here is the text:

^14 (AC)What shall we say then? ^(AD)There is no injustice with God, is there? ^(AE)May it never be! ¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “^(AF)I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” ¹⁶ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who ^(AG)runs, but on ^(AH)God who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “^(AI)FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED ^[k]THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” ¹⁸ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He ^(AJ)hardens whom He desires. Romans 9:14-18 Source

This is tough stuff.  Does God just save whoever he wants?  Do we not have a choice?  I would love to say that I could know I would be chosen for the right side, but what comes to my mind is – what if I am not chosen to receive mercy?  This makes it sound like God is a just a chess player sitting up in the sky moving people around and doing with them whatever He wants.  Now, I believe that God is big enough and able to do whatever He wants and that he has the right (he made us), but I also believe in free choice and this text seems to go against it.  If there are only some chosen than how do I know if I am?  If I don’t know, does it mean I am not chosen and should just ‘throw in the towel’ on the whole thing?

Because I believe God is bigger than me and, then, the Bible also is bigger than me, I believe that what looks like contradiction is a place for deeper truths.  If I could understand it all at the age of 31 without a religion degree then God wouldn’t be worth following.

But, lets look at this and figure out what we can.

First, Paul has spent a bunch of time talking about how everyone Jews and Greeks are sinful (Rom 1 and 2).  Leading up to the quoted text of Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the  glory of God”  nobody is worthy.  Then continuing on Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”.

Everybody sucks, no one is worthy.  The only chance anyone has is the grace of God.  These are universal statements.  Just like John 3:16 “God so loved the world… that whoever believes…” and 1 Timothy 2:4 “who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth”

So salvation isn’t earned by anybody, but is open to everybody.

So with the text, God is just like it says.  He does chose to show mercy and compassion and, as stated clearly through the Bible, He shows it to everyone.

Second, God wants all men to be saved, but not everyone is saved.  There will be the saved and the un-saved (Matthew 25 all three parables).  If God chooses everyone and not everyone will be saved, than there is also a choice on our side.

So what about the hardening of Pharaohs heart?  Who did that?

It is interesting when you search for Pharaoh’s heart in the concordance (this is the online one I am using) that there is several different ways it is stated.  Pharaoh’s heart was definitely hard, it says that all the time.  However, sometimes it says God hardened, sometimes it just says it was hard as God had said, and sometimes it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart.

The pastor had a really good metaphor that seemed to make all of this make more sense.  If the sun shines on a piece of wax or a piece of clay what happens?  The wax melts and the clay hardens.   Same sun.  With no sun would that have happened.  Nope.  So does the sun harden or soften?  Clearly the sun does both right?  The sun is to blame.

In Romans 2:4 it says “… that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” So God is showing love, kindness, mercy, and grace to everyone/the whole world but it is how we receive it that makes the difference.   For Pharaoh, looking at it this way, it could be said that God hardened, he hardened, or the heart was hard.  All are true.

It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that God is all-knowing but still has patience to offer choices.  He knows who will choose Him in the end.  He knew from the beginning that Judas was going to betray Him.  Why did he pick Judas? Why does he pick anyone if He knows their final decision won’t be for Him.  Doesn’t make sense in my mind at all. .. but I am not all-knowing and I am not all-loving.

In the big picture of the Bible there is God creating people, people screwing up, God making a plan to save people, and a promise of God coming back to make everything right in the end.  These are the big picture in the Bible and the big pictures in Romans.  I believe Paul was using the term chosen a lot in his book because he was writing to a mix of Jews and Gentiles and the Jews strongly believed they were chosen.  Chosen was a big deal to them.  They were chosen, it is the story of most of the Old Testament.  They were chosen to demonstrate Gods love and show it to the world.  The story of the Jewish nation as a messed up child leaving God and coming back over and over and over again is a great demonstration of the love of God.   Chosen for a role to play in salvation isn’t the same as being chosen for salvation.  

So there is still great news in this verse!

God is all powerful and all knowing and still chooses us. Opening our heart up to God makes all the difference no matter who we are or what we have done.  We have the choice to soften to Him and allow Him to work or run and harden to His voice.

Thanks for reading.  I am not a theologian, pastor, or teacher.  Just a student of the word trying to learn and grow.

This is a shot my husband got of me this past weekend.  He has been working on close up photography and editing so I get practiced on a lot

Value sadly is in short supply.  Too often people don’t see their value, or the value in others…..or they have one and not the other.  Self-esteem, self-respect, caring, and compassion come from a healthy understanding of value.  Simple minimalist living has got to start in the soul and value is so important.

In November I read a book called Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for Today’s Families by Michelle Anthony.  It was a great book on helping kids grow in a relationship with God instead of just worrying about their behavior.  What really jumped at me from the book was this quote I wanted to share with you.

She wrote it with her name, I have inserted my name, you can change it to your name…. you get the drill. This is based on Ephesians 1

“My name is Lorilee Lippincott.  I am the chosen and adopted daughter of the Most High King.  I’m the heir to an eternal inheritance waiting for me in heaven.  I have been bought and completely paid for by the perfect sacrifice of Christ’s own blood and am sealed throughout all eternity by God’s Holy Spirit.  Don’t mess with me!” Spiritual Parenting by Michelle Anthony

Isn’t this awesome! It has punch and power to it.  It screams value.  I need to post it on the mirror, repeat it to the kids, and live like I believe it.

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Have a wonderful day today!

I love this quote and wanted to share it.  This fits so well with the theme and idea of the site.

Intentional Living

So many people go through life taking the easy path, not thinking of or seeing options.  Some go through life trying to meet someones expectations of them.  Others go through life trying to impress someone else.  All these paths are ‘living someone else’s life’.  We are all different.  I want for you and I to love and allow those differences to show and grow.  To celebrate those differences and be able to enjoy each other for, and with them.

No one can dictate what your living should be.  (apart from the Bible and some basic societal rules…. if you get my drift )

Simple Spirituality

It struck me as I was reading The Purpose Driven Life (Day 31) this morning how this applies to our spiritual life as well.   God made us all different for a reason.  We have different passions, different talents, different experiences, and different hurts. All these can be used for the benefit of others and the church.  The last thing God wants is for us to try to fit a mold for Him or anyone else.

I like to think of the parable of the 10 talents in Matthew 25:14-30.  The talents are like my life.  It isn’t ‘my’ life, but it is the only ‘one life’ I am being put in charge of.  I am responsible to make the most of it with all I can learn, and all I can figure out.  I refuse to take other people’s paths, or other people’s ideals, or the easy way.  It is just plain irresponsible use of my life.

When the master gave out the talents in this parable it was the end result that mattered much more than the process.  The first two servants doubled their talents, but it doesn’t say they did it in the same way.  They were both smart and worked at making the most of what they were given.

It is hard sometimes to feel that my life is really that spiritual if I am not in full time ministry.  I have thought a bunch about this lately and have been learning that my job and what I do is not near as important to God as who I am.  What I do is much easier for me to focus on because it is tangible and easy, but my character, how I think, and where my focus lies is more important to Him.

Exciting!

This quote and these ideas are exciting to me.  I want to live ‘my life’.  I struggle with what others think, but I am growing to be O.K. with that.  This blog was a huge step for me.  I wanted to be honest with myself about who I am and what I think and really clarify it in type.  Keeping up with it has been a great way to keep me accountable.

Thanks for coming along!

Loving Simple Living posts 6 days a week.  Like this post?  Come back next week to hear about how we are making changes to our parenting.

I have been thinking on this the last few days and am excited to share it.  God doesn’t accept you.  Acceptance has been such a big thing lately.  We are taught to accept different personalities, different likes, different lifestyles and different religions.  All of these things are great and I teach them to my children, but with God, it is different.  He doesn’t accept us.

Acceptance itself is actually kind of a selfish and hands off concept.  Acceptance states that ‘I’ am OK with what you are doing and how it might affect ‘me’.  I might accept my children’s loud play, or my husband coming home late.  Both are annoying to me, but I can ‘accept’ it.  I can accept that the world is full of ideas and that I can’t be universally acknowledged as right all the time.

Acceptance can also be how it affects someone else.  I cannot accept slavery, famine or prejudice and I will do what I can in my power to stop those that cause it.  Still, acceptance is hands off, and centered on the affect of the person, not the person himself.   God is not like this.  God does not accept us.

God loves, and love is much more than acceptance.  Love is centered on the person.  Love says “Because I love you, you cannot go on like this”.  It says “Even though you don’t want to hear this, I love you and you need to know”.  Love says “I believe you are so much more than this”.  Love isn’t easy and sometimes it hurts.

Acceptance is much easier.  We can all ignore each others faults and tell each other what we want to hear.  Love isn’t like that.  Love is much deeper.

If God doesn’t accept does God expect us to be perfect?  Not at all!  Romans 5:8 says that ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’  He loved us when we were at our worst.  He will still love us if we screw up… bad.  His love isn’t based on anything we do or don’t do.  He just loves us, but that love does not overlooking our mistakes, it is hurt by them, affected by them and wanting to help us overcome them.

His love is patient and kind (1 Corinthians 13) and it is also perfect.  He wants us to each become like His Son.  He made us, knows what will make us happy and wants us to grow.  He loves us where we are, but won’t just ignore what we are.

This is the awsome gospel.  Looking at God we see the terrible sinners that we all are.  Why, when realizing the mess we are and the mess we in, would we just want acceptance?  God doesn’t accept us, he cares way to much.

That isn’t all.  It isn’t that hard, because love is a changing experience.  I hope everyone gets to experience love in this life.   Love from a parent, child, spouse, teacher, mentor, or even a dog.  Love is an amazing thing.  It is an incredible gift that changes both the giver and the receiver.  It offers a safe place to grow and be yourself.  If love from an imperfect human (or dog) can have that affect, how much more can the love of God change us.

So, God doesn’t accept you, and that is an amazing thing!  God wants for us, believes we can be, and helps us become more than we would ever think possible like His Son.

I am not well traveled, but I have traveled enough to know that seeing everything doesn’t tame the wandering spirit.

I am not wealthy, but I have had the privilage of extra money to spend and know that money doesn’t satisfy want.

I am not fully educated but I have learned enough to know that learning all there is to learn still doesn’t bring full knowledge…. much less wisdom.

I am not liked by everyone, but I have had the benefit of some great relationships and know that being loved by all doesn’t bring full acceptance.

I am not well respected or famous and probably never will be, but I can imagin that fame doesn’t bring true sucess.

I (like to think I) am still young and have lots to discover and learn, but have learned enough to know that what I want isn’t found through traditional and common methods. 

I yearn for God who is everthing I wish for and more than I can imagin.  Can I prove it?  Have I found Him?  No, but I believe with all my heart that I will be much better off in my search for completness looking at and for Him than following traditional wisdom. 

I believe it, and yet, at the same time, it is so hard to live it.  I search for concrete, visable, and measurable success and God isn’t, and shouldn’t be, any of these things.  He can’t be caught, held, or owned.  If He could, he wouldn’t be God.

I believe humans are able to chase after one thing, and one thing alone.  When trying to chase many things at once, they all get away and we are left with nothing.  For me, I want that one thing to be Christ.  I want it in my head, I want it in my heart, but somehow I still end up lost and confused wandering after other things most of the time. 

Frusterated, I am thankful that while I try, often failing, to chase Him, He is always chasing me.  It is this hope and reasurance that makes it easier to keep trying again.  I am disapointed by how much I know I miss out on when I am distracted, but I feel blessed by how much he loves and forgives, and that I can be caught, held, and owned by Him.