Blain, greetings to you too. I have also experienced what you have, and it is not very pleasant.
How much control over our own lives do we have?
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There's no winning 90% of the debates that happen here. That's why they go on and on for days, weeks and months. When people get tired of one debate, a new one is started and off we go again.
yes and somehow people keep doing it expecting different results which is the definition of insanity or rather some are not making threads or even debating for the sake of truth they enjoy the arguing and others do it for popular threads or whatever it's fine if people want to be in debates like that but at least dont do it under the guise of sincerity or truth because I may be legally blind but I can see motives pretty easily. Honestly I never understood the recurring patterns in this site its so predictable everyone sees it coming.
I am all for debates even heated ones but if it is senseless arguing then its not about God it's about peoples ego
Debating really isn't my thing; but I might not mind an honest debate between people who have actually thought about what they're debating. Usually it's just people hurling talking points at each other between personal insults.
We have little control of the outcomes that lay ahead of us, but we have full control of our actions in relationship to the outcomes and sometimes we cause the outcomes.
It appears GOD controls events in your life to fulfill his purpose.So why have I spent so many years teaching my kids to control their actions and think good thoughts? After all, if He controls them all then there is no point in cultivating and exercising self control right?
Well, glad to clear that up, guess I don't have to be a bad parent anymore and can let my kids run around doing whatever, whenever......
after all, Gods controlling them, right?
GOD can lock you into that attitude, like he did with Eli's sons or the the Pharaoh toward Moses.
They've been lifted from the ash heap, and set among royalty, and have inherited glory.
I expect you've heard of resurrection.......
The verse is self-explanatory. Our hope is not in this life, in these decaying, mortal bodies.
you have to consider the change in a man that accepts the gospel from the people under the law in the ot
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
John 8:31-32, 34-36 KJV
air depends on if we accept that or not one leads to freedom from sins bondage the other leads to no change and continued service to satans Will which is sin and death
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death, (option one )
or of obedience unto righteousness (option two )
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, ( past tense )
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin,( you used to be a slave tonthe sinful nature but because you heard and obeyed the gospel your free and have a choice ye became the servants of righteousness.”
Romans 6:16-18
when you ask how much control we have you have to figure in “ did the person hear and accept the gospel “ or did they reject it “
When we accept the gospel as Jesus presents it not the distortions in the world but the actual gospel preached by Jesus and the apostles we become free
We have freedom and are given choice when we accept Christ
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.( two options )
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”
Galatians 5:13-15 KJV
The most effective lie the devil speaks is not that there is no god , it is telling believers of Jesus you have no choice in what you do Jesus tells us you are free and who you choose to serve whether good or evil is going to lead to your eternity
a if he can get us away from the truth we have no hope and certainly when the devil says we can’t choose to repent and obey the lord it’s a deadly deception
It’s like being in a hot war and convincing the other side they can’t win so why fight the end is already set
With in each they had a choice. Yes God might open close doors yet with in each one must make a choice. No one not God not Satan has a right to control us. We have freedom but its in this time bubble where we gave what was our over to Satan. So bad things happen because of sin and Satan who comes to kill steal and destroy. Not to dive in here but so much of this thoughts emotions on and on are because of the fall things we would never think about if sin was not here. You speak of control but this is not our home. Why did Christ say I come to give you live and give it more abundantly? Everything was just God and us now it seems like its really about us and God is out there to help make life better. There is war going on every day ever min. And everyone has to pick a side.
With Satan he takes control yet with God when you give Him everything He gives it back far better then it ever was.
But exactly how God does that is the real clue.
Mercy and forgiveness are powerful....used at the wrong times in the wrong ways they will destroy a person through their pride.
Me?
I don't stop asking for these things....because I know who and what I am. And there lies the difference. My attitude. I'm OK with being locked into this one.
We have freedom to make choices most of the time, but we don't have the ability to choose outcomes.
What I don’t understand is why would we want to. If God is good, if He is working all things to our good, if the yoke of Jesus is designed to get us to walk in His choices, and if God has promised to direct the steps of those who trust Him and leave the choice with Him, why would anyone desire to make their own choices?
What I don’t understand is why would we want to. If God is good, if He is working all things to our good, if the yoke of Jesus is designed to get us to walk in His choices, and if God has promised to direct the steps of those who trust Him and leave the choice with Him, why would anyone desire to make their own choices?
our actions bring the results he promised when he said “ if you do this , this will result “
an example of how our action which we have control over is going to determine the outcome
1 option action and outcome
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
John 5:24 KJV
And the other option and outcome
“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
John 12:48 KJV
what we choose is forever tied to the outcome
We hear , believe and then follow the choice offering the desired outcome
Do I want eternal Life with Jesus ?
Or would I rather have the world ?
at he chi once is always there every day but having control of our actions is going to determine the eternal
Outcome
temporarily we might not see it , but we’re looking past this temporal for the true results in eternity
This is a difficult and complex question to ask.
At one level, we are born into a life and a universe, far beyond our control. We are given life and we make no clear choices about anything, until say our teenage years.
Ultimately, who we are is a result of genetics and environmental influences. Our choices most of the time are forced choices. For example, I can't choose to be wealthy, if I am born poor. I cannot choose to be a professor, if I have a short attention span.
I cannot be a gold medalist in a sport, if I am uncoordinated and slow.
What choices do we really make in life, that were not the choices, we always would have made anyway?
It is impossible to really know the answer to the question. Basically because, we cannot discern when authentic choices actually occur.
Yeah debates depending the people involved or the topic itself can be good for growth and understanding or it can just end up being children arguing and it requires a level of maturity to understanding the difference between debates and just simply arguing.
Me personally I do enjoy a good debate even a heated on sometimes so long as that debate is one that can bear fruit and if it is one where you dont just pull verses to prove your point a debate is not supposed yo be about who is right or wrong its supposed to be about learning and gaining understanding.
I actually prefer to write things that dont really prove who is right rather I like to make to make people think more deeply about a subject kind of poke at the persons ability to learn and grow and if a person turns out to be a wall you cannot reason with then honestly odds are they are wrong in their understanding of the topic itself because if a person cannot learn from debates this shows a lack of willingness to be proven wrong which in turn shows a lack of ability to learn so if the truth is presented to them if it goes against their truth they reject it
I gave been shown to be wrong and I am not afraid to admit it but I learned and grew not because I was right but because of the fact I was wrong
But not many consider all this and honestly they dont intend to and something that is a real good indicater of the motive of why they make threads is when they pose a question but just wait to see how people respond without giving their own reasoning of the question along with their original post.
This isnt always the case but it's a psychological tactic like you see in documenteries as in many of them particularly ones involving more outlandish things like aliens what they do is ask the question without any evidence to go with it but they do this in a way that makes your mind accept what they saying as if it is more fact rather than a question this way your conditioned to be accepting of all of it even though you dont really realize they gave no evidence to support the claim its all subjective
People play mind games and honestly sometimes they are so used to doing it they dont even realize the mind games they are playing themselves so something as simple as merely posing a question in a thread yet not giving their own perspective is actually very profound and then when they do give their perspective usually in responce to someone who poses an opposite or different view than their own you see many times how they pull verses and give bits of information to support their stance however the fact they waited for someone to take the bait first says everything
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
Ecclesiastes 9:11,