Good morning. I have a feeling you were in this deluge. OK
so we are called according to His purpose. Paul then gives the process by which
we came to know God. They are all in the past tense. For those whom He
foreknew, He also pre-destined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so
that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He
predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and
these whom He justified, He also glorified. There are some questions concerning
these verses but no definitive answer. Is he talking about us as individuals,
or the selective group of all Christians? Did God personally know each of us in
the ancient past, or simply know about us; again as an individual or as a
group? Is this predestination in the traditional sense? The predestination here
says to become conformed to the image of His Son, not pre-destined to salvation
– meaning no free will. In other words, those who do exercise their free will
and make Jesus Christ Lord of their lives will be conformed to His image. But
then it says that those whom He predestined, He also called. So the calling did
not come until after the predestination. We will leave it there, hanging in the
air. Father thank You that all of that is true about us. This was not some
last-minute plan to correct a giant mess. You had it all planned out from
before the beginning of time.
Merry Christmas!
Good morning, and Merry Christmas! We are going to digress and look at the first Christmas. This was something that had been foretold centuries before; and yet people still did not understand what was going to happen. They were thinking that the Messiah was going to come as an adult and was going to re-establish the nation of Israel above all other nations. They were not expecting Him to come as a baby, supposedly born to a carpenter and placed in a manger. Many things had to happen at precisely the right time. You had to have the right person to be His mother and the right person to be His supposed father. You had to have a reason for them to be in Bethlehem on the night He was born – the census. It had to be when shepherds would be in the field near Bethlehem watching their flocks. And just at the right time – an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them...
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