I had no choice, (from March 2009)

I wrote the following as part of a post back in March; it made an impression on Eutychus and it just did on me; I thought I would re-post that section just for kicks:

I had no choice in the process, this salvation, this becoming a Christian; this being translated from the darkness into the light is not something that I did or I made, or caused to happen, but it was something that was done to me, initiated by God; I didn't choose God, He chose me; I didn't love God, He first loved me; I didn't seek Him out, He came to seek me, I didn't give myself to God, God the Father gave me to His Son Jesus; I didn't have faith in Him, He gave me the faith to believe in Him, I didn't work for it, He gave me the gift; I didn't come to Him, He drew me in to Him; I didn't start the work in me, He started the work in me; I will not, I cannot, complete the work, He is faithful to complete the work in me; I was in darkness, He translated me into the kingdom of light; I lived a lie, He is the truth; I was lost, He is the way; I was dead in trespasses and sins, He gave me life, He is life. I can't perfect myself or keep me saved, He is able to keep me from stumbling and to present me faultless at His appearing, I am being kept by His power through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.

There is no other way, I am destined to remain in this awesome truth, I cannot come to the Father, unless I come through Jesus, I can't come to Jesus unless the Father draws me, I can't believe in Jesus and His work, unless it has been given to me by the Father. The Father, who has given me to Jesus, is greater than all, and no one can snatch me out of the Father's hand; Jesus and the Father are one, so if I come to Jesus is because I am one of His sheep, and I hear His voice and He knows me, and I follow Him, and He gives me eternal life, and I will never perish, and no one can snatch me out of His hand.

Once He made me a Christian, I can't stop being one, He will not un-make me one: Rom 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

I was predestined, called, saved, sanctified, glorified not because of righteous things I have done, or because I have believed, or because I'm ugly or handsome, or because I'm bilingual or monolingual or even trilingual and speak Spanish, English and Christianeese; neither because I read my bible and go to church and can teach a bible study, or because I do this and don't do that, or because He knew I would believe, (in fact I believe because He chose me, not the other way around), but because of His mercy, because of His grace, because He reigns and has control over all His creation, and He wanted it that way; period.

To the praise of the Glory of His Grace; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be known, by me (and by the church) to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. He will make me and you His trophies, He will parade us as His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus and finished in Christ Jesus, He will make it known to the whole universe and to all creation, in the physical and the spiritual realms; there will be a universal proclamation: Here is my wisdom, no one can do what I can, it is glorious; I AM YAHWEH, the Almighty, there is none beside Me, and all the glory, all the praise and all the honor belongs to Me.

I believe this, not because I think is a good idea, or because is cool but because God says it is true. God did not leave His plan in the hands of men; there is no plan B in His plans; there is no contingency plan, neither plans for redundancy and reliability, everything He has purposed He will do; He is self-sufficient, and perfect in all His ways, His thoughts, His actions. He is faithful to His word, to His promises: Joshua 21:45 Not one of the good promises which the LORD (YHWH) had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.

If the purposes of God can be thwarted by men's decisions, then He is not God, and He is not in control over all things. If He has chosen me based on His foreknowledge of my decision to believe, or based on my response to the Gospel, then the outcome was left in my hands and His salvation is not His, but mine, to initiate and to complete. To dare to think like that is blasphemous, it robs God of His sovereignty and of His glory, and He will not give it up.

Isa 42:6 "I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations,
To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.
"Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."

Do you think that it was up to you to decide to believe? Do you think that your natural, fleshly mind was predisposed to believe? Do you think you had the inclination toward heavenly things? Do you think that man is basically good and has the capacity to come to God on his own? Do you think, or believe, that your heart had a little corner in it that sparkled with divine light and you were seeking God before He saved you? If you do, you have been deceived, you have not been taught the full counsel of God, you have been given half the Gospel and you are in danger of continuing your life in darkness. The heart, says Jeremiah, is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? We don't even know how depraved we really are.