i don't believe you just skip verses like all those i put in the preceding posts. or Romans 9, where Paul explains how God chose one twin over another before they were born, expressly so that His purpose of election would stand.
so how do you understand them? interject human sovereign choice like an unwritten rule? or just wonder?
it's not like i don't wonder -- the future is a haze, and the present all *seems* like i choose a path to take in it, but the past all looks like i've been guided patiently and delicately towards His image. and that's equally amazing, puzzling, frightening and comforting.
can i thank Him for giving me faith? for causing me to believe? for creating in me a heart that could receive the gospel?
or is that the one thing i have that wasn't given to me, but i gave it to myself?