"Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, 'Yes! As you have said, so we must do.....' Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Johaziah the son of Tkivah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite gave them support."
Ezra 10:12, 15
There will always be those who say "Yes" to God and those who oppose. But there is a larger, perhaps unanswerable, question: Why are there God-followers and God-rejectors, sometimes in the same family? I am reading a book entitled, "Between The Church and A Hard Place." In it the author chronicles his own family. Mom and Dad were atheists and raised their sons to be atheists. But the author's brother became a born-again Evangelical Christian as a teenager in high school, which caused a huge rift in the family. On the other hand, there are many examples of a children rejecting the faith of the families they were raised in. So the answer is not necessarily child-hood training. Some theologies try to reconcile this question by teaching that some people are "elect" or predestined – that God chose some to salvation and others to damnation. A person has no choice whether he will believe or not believe. This seems incompatible with a God who is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9). Perhaps it is a person's personality or psychological makeup. Some call it "God-consciousness." But why are some people God-conscious and others not? I don't know the answer, but I am so glad that I heard God's call to repentance and I said "Yes" to Him.
Today's Thought: Either we say "Yes" to God we reject Him.
Have a "Yes" day. Love you.
No comments:
Post a Comment