Do you ever wonder why Jesus always answered questions with asking a question? When people do that it seems like they are avoiding the question or do not have the answer to it, but not so in Christ's case. I have been reading a book that is going through the life of Christ and this question came into my head. The graciousness of Jesus is seen so clearly in this if you just take a look, He has all the answers but He was more interested in the people understanding on their own than He was with answering all the mysteries of all time while He was here on earth. I believe it just gives a little more insight on free choice/free will, Jesus gave us the opportunity to answer instead of making us robots to His will.
Just like the questions the unbeliever asks of God " If He is a God of love then why doesn't He solve all of the problems in the world?" There are many ways of dealing with that question and I believe one of them is, because He wants us to choice Him ourselves. If Christ came to save the world, which He did, then why would He force it and at the same time die the death He did? Just as Christ was not interested in the easy ways out that Satan presented to Him in the desert during His temptations, with Peter , when Christ rebuked Him" Get thee behind me Satan..." and when on the Cross with the jeers of the crowd "If you are God then save yourself...". In a world that is interested in " Your life now" and "how can we make the best of this life, now", Christians have to remember that this is but a vapor and life only begins when it ends for us here on earth. We store up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust can't corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal, then why do we cling to all of the things around us. Life would be much more joyful if we understood where our citizenship is.
Well this post really didn't have a theme I guess and it took two different turns in the end, but think about them...

Exhibiting the Fruits of the Spirit

Why is it so hard for us to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. I know that we are works in progress, but it seems, as well, that we can live in a way that it glorifying to God. I don't believe that the fruits are set out there for us to dream about or to wish that we could be like that, but they are a mark to pattern ourselves after. We have the Holy Spirit in us, yet we lack the understanding of what that means I am afraid. I have seen through different times in my life that the more you search after wisdom, for wisdom's sake, the more you are removed from those fruits. I love theology and studying doctrine, but those are to work hand in hand. When we become wise in those two things it seems that our love for people, brethren and the lost, starts to shrink away.

So much more...

One of the many things that I glean in my years at bible college, which was not to long ago, was that of context and its importance in reading the bible. I personally believe the ultimate context of scripture is that of glorifying God. As you can now see I believe in a Doxiologically centered purpose of God. So when I study God's Word that is what comes to my mind foremost. I also am a Dispensationalist and I find it very important to know, when I am reading, Who God is speaking to and When is He speaking. When I read Paul's writings I realize that God is speaking to the Church, the age in which He is focused on the Bride of Christ and its sanctification. So taking the scenic route to the point I was getting at, I believe that it is very possible that Paul was speaking of "us" the Church as being chosen in Him before the foundations of the world in Eph. 1:3 and following that idea to verse 5. It is so strange to me that the Church, not all of, but a large portion are enamored with having the blessings that were given to Israel, when we have so much more to look forward to with the "spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ". Why would we want to take the place of Israel and gain her earthly blessings when we can be the Bride of Christ, and rule with Christ?

Bride Body Church

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging and my main purpose was to present my website as well through this. I believe that I am going to use this blog to post discussions which I can not on my site.(www.bridebodychurch.synthasite.com) Lets see what happens.

Topic #1
Looking at the Epistle of Ephesians. Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, during the dispensation of the Church. Is it possible that in verses 3-5 of chapter 1, in relation to election and predestination is that of the dispensation of the church? Could it be that the election that we talk about, that unto salvation, is actually elections to live in the dispensation of the Church?
Tell me what you think and we will go from there.