Sold!

The Pastor said, "If any of you have a financial need this morning, feel free to take from the collection plate".  I think I heard everyone in the room cringe, including myself.  This would mean that the first giver would get nothing and the last giver could get it all.  As it was passed around I saw only one person take from the plate.

LD Sowder is gone now, but he probably put on one of the best demonstrations of "pride" done in a church thirty years ago!  It called for the whole Church to trust God with their money.  In Acts 4:34 it says, "There was not a needy person among them, for qas many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and rlaid it at the apostles’ feet, andsit was distributed to each as any had need".

"Whosoever"

Some people will manipulate the Greek language to do their best to explain the word "whosoever" in John 3:16 to fit their beliefs about salvation.  This word is not "Past Tense"!  It is Present Tense!  "Today is the day of salvation" 2 Corinthians 6:2.  Past tense would imply that it means "everyone who has already been chosen who believe".  I had to take a step back and look at where I was spiritually.

I have always believed that the elect exists, but not quite the way this person does.  Theology has brought me down and trying to figure out why God does things the way He does!  I'm going back to my belief that God knew who would be saved before the foundations of the world were laid (Ephesians 1:4).  I do not believe that God would create people to go to hell.  I recognize the truth of needing to be born again in John 3:7.   I do not believe that everyone outside the belief of Calvinism is going to hell.  

I'm tired of those who suggest that you must be a Calvinist or you are damned to hell.  My God is not small enough to put Him in a little box of beliefs such as these and tie the string. Then put a great big stamp on the settled belief that the world be damned all to hell who doesn't help tie the bow!  This is not My God.  Jesus gave His life for the world and "whosoever" believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.  (John 3:16).

Family

Most people think that "family" means our earthly loved ones.  To the child of God, it means being apart of the family of God which means belonging to Christ through redemption of the work that Christ suffered on the Cross for us in His due season.  This "family" is eternal where as our earthly one is not.  We love our earthly family, but the Body of Christ is our everlasting one whom we should esteem more highly.

The Lord blesses us with our loved ones here the way He designed in the beginning of time.  The sweet blessing of loving those in Christ is unspeakable joy.  The precious Body of Christ is a bond that goes beyond earthly bounds.  May we keep our thoughts on eternal things and know that our family waits for us in heaven.