I praise you, Lord Jesus, for your unending presence; you are everywhere at the same time (here on earth, behind the moon, on the other side of the universe and in Heaven). In another way, you are especially near to those who seek you, those whose hearts are open to you. You are near the brokenhearted. You are near the repentant. You are near those righteous in Christ. You are near the obedient. You are deeply at work in the elect, those you know will believe.

I give you glory, Lord God, for how we can trust you with all our hearts because you are faithful with all your heart. Wherever I go, whatever I do, you are always watching, protecting, guiding, keeping, equipping, teaching, revealing, convicting, blocking and loving. You are worthy of praise and glory, of adoration and obedience.

You are the great One, the wise One, the loving One, the holy One, the pure One, the faithful One, the true One, the eternal One.

To you I bow down today, to you I give my heart, my mind, my soul, my body, my time, my possessions, my money, my relationships, my future, my desires, my projects, my health, my strength, my will–my all. I am your son, your steward, your servant, your subject. Praise you for what you will do in me and through me today to bring greater glory to your Name.

Picture from internet; on the other side of the moon?

Psalm 22:24 “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one;

[You, Father, planned Jesus’ suffering, knowing that it was necessary for Him to be the perfect Savior: “Because [Jesus] himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 18).

Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 12:4). You valued His suffering because you knew it was necessary; Jesus was able to reject the shame of his suffering because He looked forward to what it would do in saving many and giving His Father glory.

You are also aware of the suffering of your children, ever giving us the grace needed to move through persecution and problems with power to become more like Christ. Help us to not despise or disdain the suffering you allow into our lives, but to look beyond it in joy to what it will accomplish in our lives and to the honor it will bring to you as we respond in faith.]

“he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”

[You came in at the right time and rescued Jesus, not from the cross, but from the grave. You are the absolutely reliable One, as we see in your repeatedly helping David when he called out to you, “This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles” (Ps. 34:6).

And you do the same in our lives when we flee to you for help: “The angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7).

As David so confidently states in Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.” Help us to consistently run to you, Lord, for refuge in each situation, to fear you, not men, to trust you, not ourselves.]

The last installment from my autbio, finishing the catalogue of how God has set me free

You have set me free from “junk stress”, showing me where I set my heart on tiny, insignificant things and then live in fear about whether I’ll get them or not.

You have set me free from idol worship, showing me where I’ve set my heart on being happy by having this or that, rather than delighting in you.

You have set me free from being enslaved to comfort. You make it possible to praise you in and for all things, pleasant and painful, nice and nasty, good and grating, ecstatic and evil, for you are the Sovereign, good God who will use each thing for your glory and our growth.

You free me from the trap of complaining, grumbling and negative thinking. You make it possible to delight in weakness, hardships, insults, persecutions and difficulty.

You set my heart free so I can run like the wind on paths of suffering, because I know they are paths of growth, glory and goodness.

You have made it possible to set my heart on things above, setting me free from living on a low and limited earthly level only . You have made it possible for me to think on things above.

You are moving me mightily towards living like Asaph, the author of Psalm 73 who said, “Whom have I in heaven but you and earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26).

I give all praise to you, O Lord, for you have truly, powerfully, continually, eternally set my heart free

So, as I come to the end of this book, I encourage you, my reader, to keep on in your journey with Jesus, adopting the discipline of delighting in Him and allowing Him to work the wonder of the gospel in your life every day. The clouds, the sky’s the limit—actually Heaven is the limit!

Another aspect of God’s character: He knows everything that has happened and will happen.

There has been a long debate about the “elect” with some saying that God determines who these are without them having any part in this. However, since we know that God wants all to be saved and that Jesus has died for all and that God works in the life of each person to draw them to Himself, why would he choose to save just a few and send the others to hell without a chance? That does not fit the character of God.

Others say it is entirely man’s doing and choice full independent of God.

But there is a third, biblical view, that God and people are both involved in the process. Here is the biblical evidence.

This revolves around two Greek words

prog’-no-sis  forethought: – foreknowledge. To  know ahead of time

prog-in-oce’-ko; to know beforehand, that is, foresee: – foreknow (ordain), know (before).

Some say that this word means  to ordain, to decree that something will happen. However, the Greek simply means to know ahead of time. For instance, if I serve my son a plate of cooked egg plant, I know for sure he will reject it. And I know that if I offer him ice cream, he will eat it with relish. I do not determine his actions, I simply know what choice he’s going to make because I know him well.

So God knows ahead of time who will choose to accept His offer of salvation and who will reject it. God loves partnership and wants us to join Him in what He is doing, beginning with salvation and then on into every area of life.

Here are some verses that emphasize God’s use of foreknowledge in His work.

2Pe 3:17  You therefore, beloved, KNOWING THIS BEFORE HAND, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

2

1Pe 1:20  “Jesus…was FOREKNOWN before the foundation of the world but  ^R23 was made manifest  ^R24 in the last times for the sake of you

1Pe 1:2  “saints…who have been chosen according to the FOREKNOWLEDGE of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood….”

Rom 8:29  For those God FOREKNEW he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

So the elect are those whom God knows are going to choose Him as their Savior and Lord. Simple, biblical, balanced. Always good  to draw theology from Scripture rather than bringing someone’s idea to Scripture and look for support.

Whom He foreknew…

Lately I’ve been moved to remind myself of the major Truths of salvation, and I will share several of those with you, that is verses that speak to each aspect of the subject.

The first one is that Jesus died for all: What a powerful testimony of God’s love, both for those who believe and those who won’t.
1Ti 4:10 … we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all [Greek: all, every, every one] people, especially of those who believe].
John 1:29 ESV The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Romans 5:18 ESV / Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV / For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

2 Corinthians 5:15 ESV / …and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

1 John 2:2 ESV He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1Ti 2:5,6 For R3 there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man N1 Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is R5 the testimony given R6 at the proper time. ESV

1 Timothy 4:10 ESV / For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. [The Greek word for all, pas, means exactly that, as it says in Strong’s:
Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole: – all (manner of, means) alway (-s), any (one), X daily, + ever, every (one, way), as many as, + no (-thing), X throughly, whatsoever, whole, whosoever.]

Hebrews 2:9 ESV / But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

1 John 4:14 ESV / And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Joh 3:16 “For God so loved the world, [cosmos, all the world] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Thank you, Lord God, Lord Jesus for your great impeccable, immutable love upon which we can trust and rest