Free Will Or Determined?

When it comes to decision making, are you a believer in free-will or determinism? Do you think our choices matter or is our fate already set in stone?

Why am I asking this question? The reason is because we live in a world of irony. We all want God to tell us what to do, but if we lived in this kind of reality, we would all be complaining to God that we never get to choose. So what gives? Take a look at how the Book of Proverbs sheds insight to this subject:

Proverbs 16.1 says, "We can make our own plans, but the LORD gives the right answer."
Proverbs 16.9 says, "A person may plan his own journey, but the LORD directs his steps."

This creates an intellectual dilemma for the human mind. To our thinking, it must be one way or the other, or at least a 50/50 partnership with God...a type of supply and demand relationship, "God I demand this, so you supply it." But Timothy Keller in Your Plans:God's Plans, comments on how The Proverbs teach us that we actually have 100% free will with 100% of the results being under God's Sovereign outcomes.

Despite the intellectual perplexity of such a situation, it actually makes perfect sense. And the reason is that God, in order to know His Will, wants us to know Him...not the other way around. Therefore, He grants us the freedom and the gift of choice, but at the same time, governs the results. Our wisdom to choose is built on The Foundation of our relationship with God. So we now have the solution to the aforementioned question because when all is said and done, would we really want to live in the extremes of an either/or situation. All free will or all determined?

Think of it like this...given the state of the human condition, would we really want 100% free will to shape our outcomes? NO! And at the same time, do we really think 100% of our life is already determined? Of course not...what would be the point of getting out of bed in the morning?

I like how Steven Furtick puts it, "I still believe God gives us enough ink to write our story in His Story."

This is why I love The Holy Scriptures. Even if one denies the existence of God, they have one problem. They live in God's World. Only the writings from God, such as Proverbs 16.1 and 16.9 can give us such insight to our thinking and our actions.

So here is my final point and why I am convicted of it. If Hebrews 11.6 says that it is impossible to please God without faith, then we are living in sin with indecision. Why? Because indecision is a lack of trust and trust is the action form of faith. Don't let indecision force your hand. Forget the fear involved from making a wrong decision from free-will and let go of the depression of believing that everything is already determined. Praise God for our freedom and trust God for His Sovereignty.

Opportunities Of Faith

Hebrews 11.6, which states the following three things, has given me a framework for living...I know that God is always with us, but at times, it will feel like He is not. Why? Because He wants us to trust Him. Note the following three points of Hebrews 11.6:

1. Without faith it is impossible to please God
2. Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists
3. We must believe that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Falling Backwards Leads You Forwards = Knowing and Trusting
You see, even though God is always present and active in our lives, we still must come to embrace the fact that it is impossible to please God without faith...so there is a dynamic juxtaposition of living a life of adventure and opportunity when it comes to following God...a "knowing" and a "trusting."

It's kind of like the "Trust" drill that you play in team building exercises...you fall backwards into your teammates arms...you know they are there to catch you, but it is still scary to fall backwards where you can not see...all you can do is trust they will catch you...sometimes we must fall backwards to move forwards...

God's Control, Our Opportunity
What this means is that while God is in control, He still gives us the opportunity to take responsibility in being major players in His game plan for life. We can't sit around wanting God to do everything...He wants our involvement...I see this as an honor and a blessing.

The drawback is that it can be scary and daunting and fear will creep in...but this is what I love about following God... He is going to lead us to Opportunities of Faith...we will be scared, but at the same time, we will be excited...I like how Mark Batterson puts it:

"Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. The greatest experiences will often double as the scariest experiences. The defining moments will often double as the scariest decisions."

Batterson also says a great thing about how blessings come to be: "The genealogy of blessing always traces back to God-Ordained Risks."

God Creates So That We Will Conquer
You see, when it comes to God-Ordained opportunity, God will create them, but He then wants us to conquer them...God was with David, Joshua and Caleb, and Jesus, but at the same time, David had to sling the stone, Joshua and Caleb had to conquer the land, and Jesus had to embrace The Cross...

Your Stone, Your Land, Your Cross
What is it for you? Where do you need to Trust God...where do you need to offer up a faith that pleases The Lord?...Just like David, Joshua, Caleb, and Jesus, and a host of other Biblical heroes, It's the same for us...God has a plan and a will for our lives. We can achieve our best for His Glory if we simply stay on task...Here is a good statement from Rick Warren about God's Will in your life...

"God gives you enough time to do His Will. If you can't get it all done, you are doing stuff out of His Will or doing it a wrong way."

Do the impossible and you will find God. If you crave comfort you will miss out. If things are not working, then re-evaluate. It's Time to Trust and Conquer! Soli Deo Glori!

Elemental Faith

I want to follow up on Christian's excellent post, Be a pest, and mention that the reason we can come to Jesus on a constant basis and 'bug' Him, is because we have the faith that He is God. If we did not really believe Jesus could do anything, we would not come to Him in the first place.

The great thing about our faith and ability to come to Jesus, is that it is our foundation of Christian belief, our elemental building block of why we believe what we believe.

The word Element has a good number of definitions, one of them, as a noun, says the following:

an essential element of the game component, constituent, part, section, portion, piece, segment, bit; aspect, factor, feature, facet, ingredient, strand, detail, point; member, unit, module, item.

In Chemistry, an element is defined as: each of more than one hundred substances that cannot be chemically interconverted or broken down into simpler substances and are primary constituents of matter.

So basically, an element is the foundation of the whole, but a significant piece if not the most significant piece of the whole. And when it comes to faith, we must be ELEMENTAL. Jesus tells us the importance of this. He says we must have faith like a child...to simply believe...

Here is how Jesus puts it from Matthew 18.2-4

For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.

Constipated Faith
Erwin McManus puts the issue in a funny way. He says that we sometimes think that our faith is bottled up inside us. Its like we have a constipated faith and if we could just grunt and strain hard enough and get it out then we could live by faith through our actions.

Sometimes, we make faith to difficult, almost like there has to be some complicated formula to follow...Maybe I have spent a lot of time in the chemistry and physics lab, because at times I feel like I live in a lab of life where if I run the faith formula correctly then Jesus will answer accordingly...

On another level, I think we can even use faith as a coping mechanism instead of a way to trust. Faith develops from Following Christ, and if our faith starts to become a form of superstition or magic, then we are probably obtaining our faith in something other that Jesus.

The Size Of Our Faith
So what does elemental faith look like? Figuratively speaking, Jesus says in Matthew 17.20, that faith looks like a mustard seed. Jesus wants us to know that we don't have to have some giant sized faith before we can do anything or believe. He simply wants us to trust Him.

Holy Expectation
So why is having an elemental faith, a faith the size of a mustard seed so important? Because it leads to a life of Holy Expectation...we live each day to the fullest, knowing that God is in control and we watch Him work, and we expect Him to work...We take what He has given us and give our all, but at the same time we have a foundational trust, an elemental faith, a mustard seed belief, that God is in control. This allows us to live by faith instead of fear.

To summarize:
A coping mechanism faith is driven by fear. It says that we are in control and that God is our genie...it only leads to stress.

An Elemental Faith says that God is in control and that we are created in advance to do good works which He has already prepared for us to do...it leads to Holy Expectation and True victory! (Ephesians 2.10)

So what about you? Is your faith a way to cope or a way to trust?

Stop It!

In response to Justin's amazing last blog Create Your Future,
and in response to Jesus not condemning the woman caught in adultery (see my blog, point 4), we NEED TO STOP CONDEMNING OURSELVES based off of our PAST sins!

"Therefore, there is NOW NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life SET ME FREE from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1, NIV).

"Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to LIFE---is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Romans 8:34b)

Did you see it? Jesus is at the right hand of God PRAYING FOR US...NOT CONDEMNING US! STOP IT! Stop condemning yourself for past sins! Stop letting others condemn you! Jesus does not condemn you! HE PRAYS FOR YOU!

Overcome Fear of Failure

He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"
Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
~Matthew 8:26~

Thanks to www.litemind.com for today's posting. It is a portion from part one of a two part blog about how to overcome our fear of failure...Enjoy!

Failing is the only way to go far enough

“If you hit every time, the target is too near or too big.” –Tom Hirshfield

The only way to know that you’ve gone far enough is to go too far. And going too far is called failing.

That means that if you don’t go far enough — in other words, if you don’t fail — you’ll never know for sure where your limits really are.

Race car drivers know this to the bone. They even have a saying for it: “The one sure way to find out if you’re going fast enough is to crash”.

So if you decide to live a life of “playing it safe” — of avoiding failures altogether — you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ll most likely accomplish your goal — after all, that’s a dead easy target to take aim at. Just bear in mind, however, that you’ll never be able to get the most out of your life acting that way.

• • •

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

~Isaiah 41:10 (NIV) ~